Harnessing personal judgement for effective impact as a Panel Chair
Any PhD researcher can tell you they’re passionate about their subject, but you rarely get to share it with a crowd of engaged, like-minded individuals who can implement your insights. I was fortunate to do just this at the CoramBAAF Panel Advisors and Panel Chairs Conference. It was a privilege to get to speak about my framework Effective Personal and Professional Judgement, the outcome of my PhD research.
I’m going to give you a brief overview of my PhD research into the role of the Chair as a facilitator of panel curiosity, as well as my reflections on speaking at the 2025 CoramBAAF conference.
My research
As a Black woman of working-class origins – I tick all the boxes of what Kimberlie Crenshaw (1989) calls intersectionality - I am also neurodivergent. Whilst I am a seasoned social work manager and academic, knowing I was going to be presenting to a predominately white audience had the potential to be daunting, given the experience of inherent bias that the audience was likely to have.
On this occasion, however, I received a warm reception. I was in a room full of industry professionals seeking to gain insights to implement into their own working behaviour.
My research focuses on the concept that the more we understand the internal and external influences that shape our decisions, the better we can confidently navigate them. Easy, right? You’d think so, but self-awareness isn’t a widespread trait.
That’s where the ‘Effective use of Personal and Professional Judgement’ (EPPJ) framework comes in. It helps us recognise how our biases and backgrounds can subtly guide our choices.
Most of us would say we’re not biased and that we always look at situations fairly and without prejudice, but it’s this misguided bias that adversely impacts decisionmaking. My research proves that utilising the EPPJ framework to increase personal awareness has a positive impact on professional effectiveness, particularly for panel chairs.
Self-awareness isn’t just another buzzword – it’s the secret sauce to professional effectiveness in social work.
Reflections
I applied my research to focus on the pivotal role of the Chair in facilitating effective panel discussions by harnessing their personal judgement to encourage curiosity and professional impact. As social work seeks to address bias, this felt like a timely opportunity to discuss my research.
Managing diverse perspectives and biases as a panel Chair isn’t easy, but it’s important to distinguish between bias, prejudice, and conscious judgement. In my view, social work practitioners and others in the social care space claims of being non-judgemental is an absolute fallacy. Everything we do involves making judgements. Instead we need to seek to be non-discriminatory.
I hope the attendees at my presentation, who welcomed me with such enthusiasm and genuine interest, implement these findings into their future panels, whether they’re recruiting for the panel, acting as panel members, or chairing the panel themselves.
The importance of providing a platform for research sharing
I want to leave you with this reminder – as someone fortunate to have their research published for the first time by CoramBAAF’s Adoption and Fostering journal, it felt like a full circle moment to be invited by them to present my research.
Research should never sit on a shelf gathering dust. It should be used as a vehicle to spark productive conversations, encourage curiosity, and change practice.
With this in mind, I’d like to thank my peers for their workshops and presentations during this CoramBAAF conference, showcasing their insights and what we can do as a collective to improve our practice.
See you – and your research - at next year’s CoramBAAF conference!
Dr Arlene Weekes, Author, Anti-Black Racism Activist, Social Work Management Consultant and Trainer, PGCHE SFHEA.