Seminar Programme

Seminar Room 2

In this presentation, Saskia Lightburn-Ritchie, Chief Executive of MyCWA, will explore the challenges that can occur when working those who show harmful behaviours specifically in relation to sustained levels of engagement and participant dropout rates. Drawing from both the lessons learned from our own practice and developments in research, the Engage project has been designed to provide a route to engagement with individuals who have convictions or are suspected of domestic abuse-related incidents towards an intimate partner.

Saskia will explore how the Engage project provides a solution to overcoming these key challenges through a suite of early interventions such as engaging those who harm in custody suites, offering support to those on bail as well as Engage awareness raising activities to encourage a sustained move from pre-contemplation to contemplation on the cycle of change. Engage supports the effective application of an understanding and management approach to domestic abuse support services and ultimately highlights the essential nature of engaging those who harm as a key part of domestic abuse work with families.

Saskia Lightburn-Ritchie, Chief Executive
MyCWA

Seminar Room 1

Peer Support is a transformative and highly nuanced skillset, with rich roots in the survivor movement, grassroots communities and social justice. It is based on the principles of shared lived experience, mutuality, reciprocity and equality, modelling hope in difficult situations. It is increasingly recognised as an invaluable and sustainable approach within workforces across health and justice, housing and social care, community and social enterprises, and private providers of specialist services. In this presentation, Anita Kumari from With-you Consultancy will explain how Peer Support transformed her life and her career, and how it can transform yours.

Anita Kumari, Trainer

Anita Kumari is an Associate at With-you Consultancy, where she facilitates training in peer-based approaches.  Here, she founded and co-facilitates the Black and Asian Peer Support Network.  

Anita has a rich history of implementing policies designed to tackle inequalities throughout the third and statutory sectors.   She is a qualified Open University trainer, designing and delivering bespoke training in equality and diversity, including challenging mental health stigma and discrimination, recovery-focused Peer Support training, and the ‘Moving from Raging to Healing’ programme, for those recovering from racial trauma and/or violence against women.  She is an Expert by Experience on the NHS Adult Mental Health Advisory Group.

As a suicide survivor, Anita has lived experience of mental distress. As a storyteller, she shares her own journey to encourage openness and honesty about mental distress. Her passion is to model hope in hopeless situations,  help people regain control, and create new opportunities for personal growth.

Seminar Room 6

This talk will describe the Mulberry Bush School and its application of psychodynamic principles to the care, treatment and education of children who have experienced trauma.  It will broadly outline the integrated approach that the school takes in working with these children in order to ensure that every aspect of the child is understood.  Additionally, it will further focus on the impact that this trauma can have within families and professional networks and will explore how they work with them to try to build thoughtful, non-judgmental and collaborative relationships.  

Jennifer Browner, Head of Therapies and Networks Team, Consultant Child Psychotherapist

Seminar Room 4

In this interactive session, social workers will explore strategies for choosing their ideal employer and job opportunities aligned with their professional aspirations.

We'll look at asking the right questions to help your decision making for job applications, and share ideas for what to focus on before you apply. 

By the end of this session you’ll feel confident about choosing the job that is right for you, and ready to network with all the incredible employers waiting to meet you at the The Social Work Show.

Vicki Shevlin, Social Work Trainer

Seminar Room 3

We know that reflective supervision can work well to develop best social work practice but what we have found as part of our research is that the quality, quantity and purpose of supervision can differ extensively.  

Supervision is essential to schedule dedicated time for this purpose. It was in the context of the recognition of supervision, and the need to deal with the lack of reflective supervision and what it can  bring to practice, that we decided to see what could be done to address the situation.

Consequently, a partnership was set up involving a proactive research team guided by the renowned researcher, Prof. Jermaine Ravalier. This partnership initiated a deep dive into existing literature, significant 1-1 interviews with practitioners from a range of backgrounds, group interviews and focus groups involving the social work community.

Available in the session is a downloadable co-constructed guidebook on best reflective supervision for social workers.

Jermaine Ravalier, Professor and Head of School of Health and Social Care Professions at Buckinghamshire New University, & John McGowan, General Secretary, Social Workers Union

Seminar Room 5

Ruth are professionals with ‘lived experience’ and have worked together in different partnerships over the last 20 years. Most recently they have contributed to The Global People’s Summit and contributed to the People’s Charter with UNRISD & IFSW for balanced, harmonious, sustainable shared futures. The People’s Charter for an Eco-Social World – Co-Building a New Eco-Social World .

Ruth Stark, Independent Social Worker and former Global President, IFSW

Seminar Room 1

Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach developed in part by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. It is a directive, person-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence.

Find out how practitioners in Rochdale are using Motivational Interviewing and the Family Safeguarding Model to create lasting change with children and families.

Seminar Room 6

Join Paul Hunter, Technical Director at Forensic Testing Services, to explore best practices in hair strand testing (HST) for the Family Court, specifically tailored for social workers.

Discover why traditional methods of instructing and reporting evidence from HST fail to meet High Court requirements and why isolated results can be more misleading than helpful. Participants will gain insights into the critical questions that should be asked to ensure that the interpretations and opinions in HST reports are both reliable and aligned with the Courts' standards.

The session will cover essential context, such as the impact of natural hair colour, dyed hair, and other factors on test results. Additionally, attendees will learn how employing best practices in HST can reduce costs and alleviate the burden on the public purse in child protection cases.

Paul will also address the crucial issue of determining when it is appropriate to test children.

Paul Hunter, Technical Director

Seminar Room 2

Social work values are crucial in keeping children safe. By building relationships that connect rather than correct, and by understanding and promoting community assets, we can bring systems together around schools. Our research shows that a community social work approach in education settings alleviates pressure and reduces harm to children. This method is applicable in every role and at every threshold level, as it connects to our shared values as social workers. We entered social work to help children and stay because we love it. Social workers, united by our commitment, can make a significant difference in children's lives through embedding preventative practice in our work. This session will share Together for Childhood’s approach in Grimsby and will highlight lessons learnt through partnership working with frontline practitioners. We will bring this to life with specific examples from education and early years settings.

Together for Childhood Grimsby Practitioner and Researcher teams, NSPCC

Seminar Room 4

There are challenges in social work with increasing caseloads, which means that good supervision does not always deliver and/or is squeezed out. Therefore we have to think differently in relation to supervision.

‘One size does not fit all’ for the development of supervision plans. What works is collaboration with social workers and staff. Discover how autonomy, inclusion and engagement supports staff wellbeing and staff retention. The collective responsibility is the other key emphasis.

Find out about the innovative approach to supervision in Northern Ireland.

Social Work Cinema

Learn how historically, fatigue has not been identified as an organisational risk in the same way as other risks, even though it has a significant impact on patient and staff safety. Find out how this is being turned around and how organisations can identify the right people, the right data and the right way to recognise and address this risk.

Seminar Room 3

When there are questions about the learning capacity of a parent, how should social workers adapt to support, assess and enable them to learn?

Taking in the law, policy and guidance, we’ll be exploring some of the ways in which we can recognise additional learning needs in parents and adapt how we work with them.  We’ll think about the need for Children’s and Adults’ services to work together and how addressing these parents’ needs can improve services for EVERY parent.   

Cathy Sharman is an experienced ISW with 25 years’ experience in social care.  She has a background in child protection, leaving care and parenting assessment.  She is a senior trainer for ParentAssess and provides supervision for social workers.  

Jo James is an experienced social worker with over 20 years’ experience in front line child protection. Jo completed her ParentAssess training in 2020 and is a senior trainer for ParentAssess, travelling across the country delivering the training to Local Authorities and Independent social workers.

Cathy Sharman & Jo James, Independent Social Workers

Seminar Room 1

Statutory social workers often meet and work with families who are going through challenging life circumstances. Families may feel scared, worried, defensive, welcoming of support or any other emotional response. How can we as social workers do better in these circumstances? How can we work in a relational way and consider what we are bringing to ourselves to improve our plans and interventions?

Helen Lea, Principal Social Worker

Seminar Room 5

During this session, you will learn about the potential risks and dangers of online communication. The team at OurFamilyWizard will show you how easily you can falsify communication records of everyday programmes and how these programmes can facilitate harmful behaviour. We will then give a demonstration of the OurFamilyWizard platform and explain how it safeguards users online and promotes better, child focused co-parenting.

Alicia Farran, Legal Associate

Seminar Room 6

At the Mulberry Bush we support staff through the provision of individual reflective supervision, group reflective spaces (experiential groups), and group supervision. But even then, there is scope to hide ourselves. We still are the key holders in our community. This seminar will talk through our experiences of being a member of the Learning from Action (LFA) event in Italy and the Living Learning Experience (LLE) in the UK. We would like to explore the experiences and make some comparisons between the two models and link with what it is like to have to live in a TC. We will look at what we took and left behind, as well as what we took away with us. The session will take the form of an observed conversation between two colleagues who have attended and co-led, both an LLE and an LFA, with an opportunity for the audience to quiz the experiential attendees afterwards.

Colin Lutman and Emma Knipe, Therapeutic Trainer & Outreach Practitioners

Seminar room 2

Practitioners across social services and managers in all sectors are constantly faced with problems of various kinds. Each of these is unique, however there will be general patterns that we can learn from. This seminar will draw upon Dr Neil Thompson’s extensive experience in teaching and training problem-solving, providing students, practitioners and managers with a powerful repertoire of tools that can make a real difference in a wide range of situations.

Dr Neil Thompson, Independent Writer, Educator and Adviser & Visiting Professor, The Open University

Seminar Room 4

This session is for Social Workers and Team Leaders who are supporting children and families who are subject to immigration control. Suzanne and Maria will look at the responsibilities of local authorities in identifying and supporting children with insecure immigration status; embedding immigration support into practice including the importance of immigration advice and action plans for all children without secure status; and look at British Citizenship as an avenue for some children.

Suzanne Mahoney, Solicitor; and Maria Houlihan, Service Manager

Semimar Room 5, 1.00 1.40

We are living and working through extremely turbulent times within stretched resources, and social workers are positioned right on the frontline. Your role demands that you routinely engage in complex work and heavy emotional labour, regulating your own feelings throughout the day to provide timely and responsive support. But at what cost? Whether you are new to your role or have a wealth of experience, good supervision is critical. But what does it look, sound and feel like? In this presentation, Sonia Thompson from With-you Consultancy will explain how the right supervision can provide both individuals and organisations with the emotional resilience tools needed to thrive in such demanding roles and environments.

Sonia Thompson, Trainer, With-you

Seminar Room 1

The prevention of child sexual abuse is the responsibility of everyone. When we prevent harm we reduce pressures on statutory services and can focus on compassionate and family led practice over crisis management. In this session we will share examples from Together for Childhood’s work in Stoke to engage young people, adults and the community in prevention activity relevant to frontline social work practitioners. In our work we partner with young people and the youth workforce through a community social work model. This has successfully improved quality, increased confidence and empowered young people to seek help. With the community, and adults, we have built strong relationships over time. This has resulted in adults reaching out to share concerns and secured an understanding of their responsibility, and priority, to safeguard children. We will share tools, methods and examples that can help make this possible across the system.

Together for Childhood Stoke-on Trent Practitioner and Researcher teams
NSPCC

Social Work Cinema

Watch experienced legal professionals from Garden Court Chambers discuss the rapid rises in the number of applications to deprive a person of their liberty with so few successfully completed within the 21-day timeframe. 

Amanda Weston KC and co discuss how concepts of capacity, objection, treatment do not appear to be universally well understood or consistently applied which leaves people in ‘legal limbo’ and without access to legal protection.

Seminar Room 3

There are often greater complexities existing within families than meets the eye. Through the benefits of systemic practice, social workers are enabled to better understand relationships within the family, and its wider network to grasp why a family functions in the way that it does (to offer meaningful interventions).

Oldham Council has been practising this model with a firm belief that it supports us to build better, meaningful, and trusting relationships with families alongside finding the most appropriate solutions to support family needs.

Ofsted support this belief, having highlighted Oldham’s way of working during a recent ‘Good’ inspection. Regional inspectors said, ‘most children’s outcomes improve as a result of family-focused, child-centred practice, which is increasingly aligned to a new model of practice.’

Learn more about Oldham’s systemic approach and how it has helped the council to achieve a ‘Good’ rating for Children’s Services.

Stephanie Dixon, Principal Social Worker & Halima Sadia, Head of Service

Seminar Room 6

Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this session will cover everything you need to know to shine in your next interview.

Learn practical tips for managing nerves and anxiety, effective responses to interview questions, and showcasing your unique personality. 

Discover how your social work skills are transferable to interview scenarios and gain confidence in your ability to communicate your qualifications. You'll leave feeling calm, confident and ready for your social work interview.

Join Vicki for an engaging session focused on your social work interview.

Vicki Shevlin, Social Work Trainer

Seminar room 4

This seminar will provide an overview of working in Wales as a social worker and the different
cultural landscape this entails, touching on the different legislation and language; national Initiatives; and the differences in continued professional development, including support provided for the first three years in practice and further qualification opportunities.

Join Mel to find out more about your journey as a Newly Qualified Social Worker in Wales.

Melanie Brindle, Practice Development Manager, Powys County Council

Seminar Room 2

The session will look to highlight and celebrate the different roles undertaken by social workers across NHS Trusts, social enterprises, charities, and private health organisations. The session will cover:

- An exploration of the representation and experience of social workers at leadership level in these organisations

- Updates on the work of the BASW England Social Work in Health Thematic group

- An interactive discussion allowing attendees to explore their own experiences, focusing on key areas people are proud of and what needs to change

Denise Monks is a Professional Officer at BASW England and a registered qualified social worker with over 20 years experience.

Seminar Room 1

Stress is a major problem in today’s pressurised workplaces, but what causes it and who is responsible for dealing with it? These are key questions. Well-known social work author Professor Neil Thompson has been writing and teaching about stress for decades. In this presentation he warns against the oversimplified approaches to stress that are very common. He argues that tackling stress in an ill-informed way has the potential to make a bad situation worse.

Join Professor Neil Thompson’s seminar examining stress and who has responsibility for it. 

Dr Neil Thompson, Independent Writer, Educator and Adviser & Visiting Professor, The Open University

Seminar Room 5

Social workers often have many questions about what conclusions can be drawn from a paternity or hair toxicology report and how this impacts the case. Join Romana and Lucy - from a leading provider of court-approved DNA relationship analysis and hair drug and alcohol testing services - for an insightful talk where they will discuss the benefits of DNA, drug and alcohol testing, answer your questions about our expert scientific reports and explain what this will mean for you and your case.

Romana Ahmed & Lucy Nesbitt, Account Managers

Seminar Room 3

Lauren provides expert court reports for parents with a learning disability or who are neuro divergent, assessing with insight from her lived experience, as Lauren is neurodivergent herself. 

Lauren will explore the emergence of neurodiversity over recent years and the key issues for both social workers who are neurodivergent, and the families that we support within social work. This workshop examines what neurodivergence is, the challenges, strengths and key issues within society that impact on ND communities, in particular, social care staff and families. Lauren provides a unique insight into neurodiversity as a social worker, the challenges and superpowers and how ND staff can be supported within their organisations. Lauren has worked intensively with ND families and Local Authorities will know that learning disabilities or neurodiversity is being raised more frequently within care proceedings. Lauren uses case studies, good practice guidance and the law to demonstrate how, with acceptance, understanding and thinking outside the box, parents can be supported to safely care for their children.

Join this session to find out more about neurodiversity and how you can apply learning to your own practice. 

Lauren Crickmar, Independent Social Worker

Seminar Room 6

The social work profession, market, and industry has evolved and is set to continue to evolve, especially in the post Covid-19 era.

Join Joe as he explains why Independent Social Work is real social work and a viable and valid alternative approach to practising social work within statutory or other organisational settings.

As an Independent Social Worker, you have a tangible, visible and quantifiable impact on the lives of those you choose to serve with a unique influence, impact and income.

This workshop will: 

- Reveal how to start, grow and scale a thriving Independent
- Social Work practice
- Demystify one of the most marginalised and misunderstood approaches to social work practice.

Explore why Independent Social Work is a necessary catalyst for liberating social work, and social work practice.  

Joe Z Mairura, Independent Social Worker and Trainer

Social Work Cinema

For Co-production Week this year, Kathryn Smith, SCIE CEO, and Patrick Wood, Chair of SCIE's Co-production Steering Group, came together to discuss the theme of 'what's missing' - four key areas that need greater focus if we're going to make co-production as inclusive and as effective as possible.

They talk about the need to increase equity and diversity, demonstrate the impact of co-production, access better training and development and have clearer definitions and language around co-production and social care.

Co-production Week is SCIE's annual celebration of the benefits of co-production where we share good practice and hope to spark discussions to improve people’s experience of co-production in social care.

Seminar Room 5

Are you a social worker struggling to meet the CPD standards set by Social Work England? Join us for this masterclass to equip you with essential knowledge, practical tips, and effective tools to help you confidently meet your CPD requirements.

Whether you're new to the profes s ion or an experienced s ocial worker, this mas terclas s will give you the tools you need to s tay on top of your CPD requirements and make the proces s more s traightforward and rewarding.

Dr Carol Stewart, DipS W, Dip HE, As s oc CIPD, Director  Chinara Enterpris es Ltd

Language and communication barriers faced by d/Deaf children and young people can manifest in a way that increases safeguarding risk. It's important that there are professionals who can understand and communicate with a child or young person if they need to report or disclose any issues they are experiencing.

In this podcast episode, a panel of experts from the Social Workers with Deaf Children and Professionals Working Group explore how the differing language and communication needs of d/Deaf children can affect their safety and the child protection support they receive.

Seminar Room 4

This session is relevant for: Senior Practitioners and Social Workers aspiring to become leaders of teams, as well as current Heads of Service, Service Managers, and Team Managers.

Conscious leadership in social work practice is an essential vehicle for confident, capable, and impactful teams and good practice and will contribute to transforming the lives of clients.

Join Joe to learn about the transformative impact of ‘conscious leadership’ on individual practitioners, teams and service users.

Joe Z Mairura, Independent Social Worker and Trainer

Seminar Room 2

Seminar Room 1

Award-winning author, Patrice Lawrence, will bring to life how the magic of books can have lifelong impact on the lives of children from vulnerable family backgrounds. Hear about Patrice’s own experiences with reading and the stories she has written.

Lawrence’s writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. Her first book for young adults, Orangeboy, was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award and won the Bookseller YA Prize and Waterstone’s Prize for Older Children's Fiction. Indigo Donut, her second book for teenagers, won the Crimefest YA Prize. Both books have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. She has also worked for more than 20 years for charities supporting equality and social justice.

BookTrust is the UK’s largest reading charity. They are dedicated to getting every child reading from the youngest age. They know the benefits of shared reading can be transformational, but reading isn’t just about supporting academic attainment. Hear about how shared reading can strengthen attachments and support emotional wellbeing.

Patrice Lawrence, Writer in Residence, Author
BookTrust

Seminar Room 3

Join Vicki as she looks at what happens after the application and interview process. She will explore how to choose the right opportunity when it's offered, recognising when it's time for you to move on from a job, and how to cope when you don’t get the job offer you wanted.

You’ll leave with the tools and confidence to make informed decisions about the next stage of your social work journey.

Vicki Shevlin, Social Work Trainer

Social Work Cinema

In this episode my guest Aga M. Buckley, shares her experience and motivations for her research regarding the wellbeing of Newly Qualified Social Workers exposed to compassion fatigue.

Aga M. Buckley is a social work academic, registered social worker, social pedagogue, and doctoral researcher. She works in the Department of Social Work and Social Care at Kingston University London, where she is leading Master of Social Work programme.

Join us at 4pm for a free wine reception and celebration of social work to meet colleagues and exhibitors from The Social Work Show and discuss the day's learning and opportunities.