The Social Work Difference: Identity and Mental Health Practice across changing models || BASW England & DHSC webinar

This is a joint webinar with BASW England & DHSC

As mental health services continue to evolve, social workers are working across an increasingly diverse range of delivery models spanning NHS, local authority, Independent and VCSE settings. This webinar will explore how social work values, skills and professional identity remain central to delivering person-centred, rights-based mental health support, regardless of organisational structure or service model.

Bringing together experienced practitioners and leaders from across the sector, the session will examine the impact of changing partnership arrangements and integrated models of care, highlighting examples of effective collaboration and innovation in practice. Participants will hear firsthand reflections from social workers who have worked across different settings and service models, providing valuable insight into the opportunities and challenges these changes create. Through presentations and panel discussions, speakers will explore what makes the social work contribution distinctive in mental health services, how professional identity can be maintained and strengthened in integrated environments, and the role of social workers in championing rights, inclusion and social justice.

The session will conclude with a call to action, encouraging attendees to consider their role as advocates and activists and signposting practical resources.

Who should attend? Social workers, managers, practice educators, mental health professionals, students, and anyone interested in understanding and strengthening the social work contribution within mental health services.

This event will be chaired by Mary Brazier. Mary is a Mental Health Social Worker, the Director of Social Work for East London NHS FT. She has worked within NHS and Local Authority integrated services for 28 years and is passionate about the added value for communities of close working relationships between the NHS and Social Care. Mary practised as an ASW and AMHP for over 20 years until 2022 and is the Chair of the BASW England Mental Health Thematic Group.

Guest speakers and panellists: Robert Lewis is the Mental Health Social Work Lead in the Office of the Chief Social Worker for Adults, DHSC. He has over 30 years of frontline experience across many social and health care settings, including in statutory mental health services, as well as in further and higher education, and the VCSE and independent sectors.

Before taking up his current role, Robert was an AMHP Service Manager and Co-Chair of the National AMHP Leads Network, working across the health and social care sector to develop the best practice and promote system change. He was the lead author of the National AMHP Service Standards and involved throughout the MHA Review, and now into the MHA implementation phase. He is keen to promote anti-racist practice and the section 13 agenda, aimed at reducing the use of compulsion through person-centred practice and system change.

Sam Hornby: Sam is a Principal Social Worker for Mental Health, and AMHP Lead Officer at Midlands Partnership Foundation NHS Trust under a long staffing s75 partnership agreement. She has extensive experience in mental health social work, safeguarding, and statutory practice. She is passionate about promoting the social work profession, social work identity in the NHS, supporting workforce development, and championing person-centred, rights-based approaches within integrated health and social care services.

Christina Cheney is a qualified social worker, AMHP and BIA. She has a wealth of operational practice and strategic leadership experience having worked in and lead a range of mental health and social care services. She has provided strategic leadership regionally and nationally in relation to social work and AMHPs within NHS and Local Authority environments and as social care advisor to NICE and chair of the National AMHP Leads Network. Christina’s varied career provides a unique perspective that is able to connect the strategic aims of policy makers and the evidence from academic research with the realities and pressures of front line practice. Christina has been active in the academic community and co-ordinated a number of regional and national conferences as well as speaking, either independently or on behalf of organisations and networks. Christina works as in independent trainer, offering regular training for Social Workers, AMHPs, s12 and Approved Clinicians. She also delivers services as a supervisor, coach and mentor and service development consultant.

Paula Swift Paula Swift has more than 30 years experience in social work practice and leadership across mental health services and currently leads social work within an NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust.

Rob Manchester Rob Manchester is a Mental Health Social Care service manager, AMHP, author and independent trainer based in Devon. His core interests are in social and relational models of mental health care, and in strategic leadership and management. Rob has undertaken the foundation course in Peer-supported Open Dialogue, Social Network and Relationship Skills (POD) and is excited by the potential of dialogic practice to transform mental health services in the UK. He has recently co-authored a paper in The British Journal of Psychiatry’s ‘Advances’ on the dialogical approach to the Mental Health Act assessment, and is chair of the Dialogical and Relational MHA Practice Network, which meets quarterly online. He is also co-founder and chair of The Critical AMHP.

Mirella Marenghi is the Forensic Social Work Lead for North London NHS Foundation Trust and the London Borough of Enfield. A qualified social worker with 16 years' experience, she is passionate about promoting recovery-focused, person-centred care, safeguarding and social justice for people with complex needs. Mirella is a strong advocate for the benefits of close partnership working between Local Authorities and the NHS, recognising the value this brings to patient outcomes and effective community reintegration. She is also Chair of the National Group of Social Work Managers in Secure Services, where she works with colleagues nationally and internationally to promote best practice and strengthen the contribution of social work within secure care.

Soyeb Aswat is a registered Independent/Consultant Social Worker and works as a Professional Social Work Lead within the NHS. He is also an AMHP and BIA and has worked predominantly with South Asian Muslim communities. He has supported communities, individuals and organisations in considering culture, religion and spirituality within their day to day interventions, care planning and risk assessments.