This free two-day gathering provides an opportunity to celebrate front line social work practice in Children and Families Local Authority settings across Scotland. It allows practitioners to hear from each other about a more engaged and relationship-based way of working with children and their families. It is organised by Social Work WITH Families, an initiative by a small group of Scottish Social Work practitioners whose vision is to strengthen pride and confidence in practice, particularly when the workforce is facing national difficulties such as the ongoing cost of living and staffing crisis. We hope to build morale, create supportive networks, and celebrate the workers who hold the hands of others.
There will be presentations from front line social workers drawing on practice that is strengths based, solution focused, trauma informed and/or aligned with aspirations of The Promise. You will hear directly from practitioners about good practice that is grounded in core social work values and how it helped children and families alongside the procedural and statutory demands faced by social work practitioners.
The event will be of interest to social work practitioners, managers, learning and development officers and policy makers. It is planned that alongside the presentations from front line practitioners there will be invited national speakers from academia and other areas of practice interest. Previous conferences included presentations from Professor Brid Featherstone, Sharon Shoesmith, Professor Gillian Ruch, Dr Mark Smith, PAAR, Turn Your Life Around. There will also be lots of opportunities for group discussion and networking with colleagues.