Events

On Tuesday 16 May 100 colleagues from Cumbria County Council’s Health, Care and Communities directorate got together for a learning event at Rheged in Penrith, to celebrate social work and occupational therapy.

For several years there have been similar events for colleagues in Children’s Services and on the back of their success, the council’s Learning and Development Team and Social Work Teaching Partnership organised a jam packed day of learning and guest speakers. The day was a huge success and really demonstrates the council’s commitment to giving people the right skills they need to do their roles. It was also a brilliant opportunity for people from around the county to come together in one place to catch up and learn and share ideas with likeminded colleagues from other districts that are in similar positions.

Expert speakers from the county council, Lancaster University and the third-sector gave presentations on the day on a range of subjects including the Social Work Teaching Partnership, safeguarding and self-neglect, mental health and the challenges of social work in a rural setting.

All in all, it was a fantastic day and the team received positive feedback from those that attended. Future events are already being organised. 

Colleagues from Cumbria County Council and Lancaster University came together to explore and discuss the social work qualifying programmes delivered by Lancaster University. The focus of the day was enabling convenors of social work modules to share details of their teaching, review some specialist modules together and to consider how practice learning is central to all activity in relation to social work at Lancaster University.

The day was considered to be a great success with colleagues being enlightened as to some of the strengths of the Lancaster University social work programmes and exploring areas to focus on to ensure students apply their knowledge and skills once in practice. There were further interesting developments arising from the day such as the desire to explicitly state what is unique and different about social work at Lancaster University and the recognition of the Teaching Partnership as a vehicle for continuing close working relationships.

The first Social Work Teaching Partnership professional development day for Cumbria Children’s Services took place  in June 2017. This included input from the University of Lancaster, Professor Corinne May-Chahal, about the forthcoming NICE guidelines on Child Abuse and Neglect. The key areas highlighted of what works included relationship based practice, practical support and evidence of impact with some interventions. There was also a session delivered on Signs of Safety and the evidence of the impact of this work on children, young people and families.

The Professional Development Workers, Carolyn Millican and Matthew Devlin, as well as colleagues Joanna Kostka and Ian Paylor, delivered a session on the Teaching Partnership and completed activities with staff to generate discussions around how we attract people into the social work profession.

Staff had the opportunity to attend workshops in the afternoon which provided up to date information and research on Domestic Violence and Engaging Men in our work. The day was well received and staff feedback was that they had valued the opportunity to hear updates on new areas of research and ‘what works’ with children and young people.