SASW Team Weekly Roundup

Find out what the team in Scotland have been doing on behalf of members this week

This week we held our first ever virtual Mental Health Officers Conference, Gathering Apart, Thriving Together. Almost 150 delegates attended the event, where Iona Colvin, Chief Social Work Advisor to Scottish Government, Laura Dunlop, President of Mental Health Tribunals Scotland, Julie Paterson, Chief Executive of the Mental Welfare Commission and Alex Davidson, Independent Chair of Future Pathways provided keynote addresses. Thanks to Social Work Scotland and the Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor for their sponsorship, without enabled the event to go ahead. 

We attended the Social Work in Disasters Event, organised by BASW England and SPEDI,and hosted by BASW’s Maris Stratulis and Professor Lena Dominelli. Panelists  included practitioners, academics and Chief Social Work Advisors from Scotland, England, India and China, who reported on best practice and their learning from working during Covid 19. 

We took part in a Self-Directed Support Workstream organised by Social Work Scotland on the topic of Risk Enablement and Worker Autonomy.

We had our Scotland Committee Virtual Away Day on Wednesday which looked at the role of committee, the business plan and how we can engage with you, the membership, more effectively.

We were delighted to host a UK wide webinar on ‘Recognition Matters’ on Thursday, exploring what can happen when co-production and reflective practice come together.

Rania Hamad, Professional Justice Social Work Adviser, joined us on Wednesday in our Community of Practice for Justice Social Work, for a discussion about Justice Social Work during the pandemic, ways forward, and what support the Scottish Government is providing to ensure social work services can continue.

We submitted our response to The Promise’s ‘Engagement Response Form’, exploring how SASW can collaborate with the Promise Team to #KeepThePromise.

We attended the SSSC Newly Qualified Social Worker Implementation Group on behalf of SASW. It was agreed a more consistent, robust and systematic response is required to support newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) in Scotland to successfully navigate the competing pressures, demands and expectations of their professional role at this formative stage of their career.  The Scottish Government asked the SSSC to provide recommendations on the design, implementation and delivery of a sustainable and accessible national approach to a supported year for NQSWs. 

Wednesday was International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. We re-shared a link to our Domestic Abuse Practice Guidance, which we hope will help social workers challenge this global issue as well as links to our Safe & Together™ Model CORE Training, due to take place in early 2021, which will provide social workers with a foundation for domestic violence informed practice. You can register and find out more about this event, here.