Training & events programme

FREE FOR MEMBERS
Our social work practice must be guided by the values and principles of anti-racist practice and cultural humility. This means embedding them into all aspects of our work with families, bringing self-awareness of our own biases, assumptions and privileges, and centering families’ lived experience. 

This course is an opportunity to understand key concepts and consider why anti-racist practice and cultural humility matter. You will be supported to explore how you can build relationships with families that honour diverse perspectives and recognise unique needs, and explore tools to enable you to better understand the identities of children and their families. You will then consider how this understanding can be applied to your practice to develop culturally appropriate assessments and interventions that reflect the lived realities of children and families and take account of their intersecting identities.

Some kinship carers are approved as kinship foster carers and therefore their situation and circumstances are often very different to mainstream foster carers. This course provides an opportunity to reflect on the statutory framework of approval, support, supervision and review of kinship foster carers and how this unique context differs from that of mainstream fostering. This course does not cover kinship assessment practice, but rather focuses on approval, support and review beyond the assessment process.  

Panel advisers have a complex role in managing the relationship between the agency and the panel, quality assuring and feeding back to all involved in panel work. This open course will enable panel advisors to examine this role in detail and build on effective practice as they carry out their role and responsibilities including: quality assurance; inducting new panel members; contributing to the appraisals of panel members; feeding back issues to the agency and working with the agency decision maker. Case scenarios, group work and practice application will provide opportunities for panel advisors to address shared dilemmas and good practice.

Let's acknowledge and celebrate difference. Understand neurodiversity as a natural variation to ‘the norm’ rather than as something that is disordered, dysfunctional or deficient. This session is an introduction to aspects of neurodiversity including autism, dyslexia and ADHD. It will give an overview to increase participants' knowledge and develop confidence in the subject.

This course is designed to support those who have previously attended “The role of the supervising social worker in supervising and supporting foster carers” and now looking to develop their practice further.
On this course you will explore how good quality, challenging supervision can contribute to a high quality of care provided by foster and kinship carers and to establishing and maintaining effective working relationships. We will explore the balancing the potentially conflicting role of the supervising social worker, who needs to balance providing support with the need to sometimes have difficult conversations too.

Assessing social workers need to meet the statutory requirements as well as those of adoption panels. Applicants want to know that their "story" is represented fairly and accurately, and at the same time there is a duty to safeguard vulnerable children. This two-day course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to conduct and manage the adoption assessment process so that the best outcomes are achieved for all.

The responsibilities of a Chair can be considerable. Whereas some duties may be clearly outlined in related practice guidance along with the qualities that ensure effective chairing, not all Chair responsibilities are so helpfully detailed or provided. This workshop will explore general planning for and facilitation of panels and complex meetings in the children’s sector. It will explore time management and group facilitation whilst holding the child at the centre of thinking, recommendations and decision making. It will enable Chairs of meetings to consider good practice and approaches to effectively managing the flow of information, summarising and the formation of key action plans.

Sibling assessments are complex and emotive for many. This course will offer a comprehensive approach to undertaking these important assessments. It will explore how assessing social workers can plan the assessment, identify the key contributors and ensure you can engage these contributors in the process. Most importantly it will explore how to gain the views of the children, observe sibling interactions, draw conclusions on the quality of sibling relationships as well as focusing on the individual needs of each child and of the sibling group.

This two hour training is aimed at local authority professionals – both social workers and lawyers - who are involved in the placement of children currently living in England to kinship carers overseas on a Special Guardianship Order. It will provide an overview of the legal and practice issues regarding special guardianship for children being placed abroad. There will then be ample time to discuss issues in overseas cases during the case study and group discussion.

Formulating questions is an important aspect of a panel member’s role. This course gives panel members the opportunity to deepen their understanding around this underestimated skill. Panel members will be able to practice what to ask and how to ask it, while reflecting on their own values and beliefs and how these influence thinking.