Social worker blog highlights powerful impact of workshops in Fife and Edinburgh
"......what these sessions achieved quite simply and effectively was bringing together a whole host of workers from different backgrounds, experience levels and personalities under a clear and common goal: making lives better for children. The simplicity of the interactions between professionals and the trust and respect that was shown highlighted for me an ultimate truth: with service users and professionals alike, the importance of being listened to and acknowledged cannot be overstated and it is through such interactions that the real work can be done."
http://blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk/revisitingchildprotection/blog
The above quote is taken from a blog written by Alex Gunn, social worker, reflecting on his recent experience as a participant in the 'Communicating with Children' workshops. Alex reports feeling "lighter, happier and even enriched" as a result of taking part.
The workshops have been taking place over the last few months in Edinburgh and Fife, facilitated jointly by the University of Edinburgh and SASW. They consist of four sessions which are based on research carried out by the 'Talking and Listening to Children' project. This is a four nation UK research project that explores how social workers communicate with children in their everyday practice and how social workers and children involved in these encounters experience and understand them. The sessions are based around online modules developed by the project, which explore different aspects of our communication with children.
The workshops highlighted challenges and successes prevalent in this crucial aspect of practice, and have been an opportunity for social workers to share their experiences and learning about what works.
SASW now hope to use these as a springboard to develop Communities of Practice for children and families social workers across Scotland. These will be forums for workers to come together outside of their regular workplace to share, reflect and develop their practice. Alex's words below capture the powerful effect that such opportunities can bring:
"...the opportunity to share positive practice and outcomes provided a real sense of worth in the work that we have done and will continue to do with children moving forward, outside of the hustle and bustle of a busy and sometimes stifling office environment."
As the professional organisation for social workers in Scotland, we are also in a position to be able to gather information from these forums about what is helping and what is hindering practice. We can feed this in to groups on which we represent our members, such as the Scottish Social Service Strategic Forum and the Child Protetction Improvement Programme, with the ultimate aim of improving outcomes for children and families.
If any members would like to become involved in developing these communities of practice please contact Sarah McMillan, Professional Officer:
For more information on the Talking and Listening to Children project, and to access the online modules please visit: