Intentional Social Work Conference
Getting back to practising social work: the time is NOW
Date: 9th March 2012, 9:15am -– 4:30pm
Venue: Derby Conference Centre, London Road, Derby, DE24 8UX — 0845 8808100
Confirmed Speakers so far include:
- Prof. Angus Skinner — Social Worker and Consultant — New Prosperity Consultancy
- Prof. Patricia Higham — Social Worker, Consultant, Trainer and Lecturer in Social Work
- Joe Z Mairura — Social Worker, Trainer and Consultant — Director, Imara Development Programmes
- Tes Smith — Social Care Lead — National End of Life Care Programme
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The Social Work profession is experiencing a period of unprecedented turmoil and challenge. The challenge centres on credibility, status, authority and professional confidence. It is a period of professional ‘soul searching’ and ‘reflection’. However, this is also a time of real opportunity, hope and promise for the profession’s future.
The Social Work Task Force report – ‘Building a safe, confident future’, the subsequent Social Work Reform Board’s detailed proposals ‘Building a safe, confident future: One Year On’’, The ‘Munro Review of Child Protection’ and establishment of The College of Social Work, all present the profession with great opportunities for Social Work to re-assert its professional authority on an equal footing alongside all the other professions operating within health and social care.
There still exists a general public misunderstanding of Social Work, negative portrayals of the profession by the media, and sometimes ‘misguided perceptions’ and ‘misconceptions’ by the other professions. It is therefore imperative that the social work profession grasps this once in a lifetime opportunity to re-assert who we are, reclaim pride of place and map out the profession’s future direction.
This conference is a step in the process of re-establishing control of the future of the social work profession. Delegates will be invited, amongst other things to:
- Explore, reflect and understand how we have got to this juncture
- Consider what we need to do to re-assert our professional credibility, status and authority
- Rethink and challenge the established wisdom about current social work practice
- Reflect on inherent cross-organisational bias, expectations and assumptions about the role and functions of Social Work
- The practical steps and actions we need to take individually and collectively to reclaim pride of place as a credible, authoritative and confident profession.
We envisage that by the end of the conference, delegates would have been able to:
- Appreciate the practical challenges involved in mapping out a new direction for the
Social Work profession in the 21st century - Appreciate the critical and central role and function of an independent College of Social Work in setting, guarding and maintaining the professional standards
- Critique current limitations in social work practice and commit to taking personal and professional responsibility in adopting an Evidence Based Approach to practice as the basis for exercising professional judgement, authoritative and confident practice decision making
- Identify, harness and advocate for ways of working to enable a return to a value and ethics based social work practice intended and focused on facilitating attainment of outcomes for individuals, carers, families and recipient communities.
- Conceptualise outcome based social work practice; contrary to the current predominant focus on process and often ‘non-value adding’ and ‘limiting’ organisational functions and outputs
- Appreciate and envision the value of adopting an ‘Improvement’ driven social work practice
The conference will be of particular interest to:
- Social Workers in practice
- Social Workers in non statutory settings
- Social Work Educators
- Social Work Practice Managers
- The College of Social Work
- Elected Members
- Newly Qualified Social Workers
- Independent Social workers
- Social Work Students
- Senior Managers in Social Work
- Academic Institutions (Social Work)
- Cross sector Social Work employers
Registration
To register for the workshop please complete the online booking form or email the registration form [MS Word] to joe.mairura@imaradp.co.uk before 8th March 2012.
Conference Administration
Please contact: Joe Z Mairura on 07967 186870 or email info@imaradp.co.uk
