Tag Archives: events

THE BRITISH BETRAYAL OF CHILDHOOD – WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT IT?

THE BRITISH BETRAYAL OF CHILDHOOD – WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT IT? AN ACTION-CENTRED CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR SIR AL AYNSLEY GREEN

Wednesday 17 October 2018, 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Conference Room, ICOSS, The University of Sheffield, 219 Portobello, Sheffield, S1 4DP

You are invited to attend the first of our annual social work lectures, a series of lectures focused on current issues of direct relevance to social work policy and practice. Our first lecture will be delivered by Professor Sir Al Aynsley Green, the first Children’s Commissioner for England and now a leading commentator on children’s rights and experiences.

Sir Al Aynsley-Green has over 40 years of experience working with governments and organisations worldwide on children and childhood today. He was the first National Clinical Director for Children in government, the first Children’s Commissioner for England and President of the British Medical Association. He is now Professor Emeritus of Child Health, University College London and Visiting Professor of Advocacy for Children and Childhood at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He will base his challenging lecture on his new book ‘The British Betrayal of Childhood’ that distils his experiences of working with and for children. He celebrates what’s good about their lives today, but pulls no punches on what isn’t whilst offering positive solutions that could give children the childhood they need and deserve. The lecture will be interactive and ‘action-centred’ to identify steps that can be taken locally and nationally to make real the fact that children are our future as well as being citizens today.

The lecture will be chaired by Professor Sue White, Professor of Social Work in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield.

The lecture will begin at 4pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

For further information or to book a place visit  eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-first-annual-social-work-lecture-with-professor-sir-al-aynsley-green-tickets-49933482390

 

Free conference: ‘Tackling the Care Crisis – Families Driving Reform’

A free one day conference from Your Family Your Voice Alliance

29th October 2018, St Mary’s Church and Conference Centre, Bramall Lane, Sheffield

The number of children in the care system is at the highest level since 1985. There is a common agreement across the social care and family justice sector that the system is in crisis. This conference will explore ways that families can be central to safely addressing this and achieving a fairer, more just child welfare system.

For further details and to book your place, please see http://www.frg.org.uk/training-and-events/events/a-your-family-your-voice-alliance-conference-tackling-the-care-crisis-families-driving-reform

Experiencing the Social Work World Exhibition

Location: Sheffield
Date: 30 October 2017 – 16 November 2017
Time: 11:00 – 15:00

Media stories of failures in social care have meant that social workers are often vilified in the press and portrayed as ‘fools’ or ‘folk-devils’. As the job they do caring for vulnerable children and adults is confidential, social workers are unable to defend themselves and provide their side of the story. As a result, their voices are missing from any kind of public debate. The reputation and standing of the social work profession has, in turn, deteriorated in recent years and, in a number of different ways, this has affected social workers’ practice and their identity.

The artwork and audio stories that form this exhibition have been created with the hope of providing the public with a different perspective; a more sensitive insight into what social work means to those who do it on a daily basis.

This exhibition is taking place as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. For more information about the Festival, please see http://www.esrc.ac.uk/public-engagement/festival-of-social-science/ 

Lincolnshire Inclusion Festival

Tuesday 27th June, Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham, NG32 2LN

THIS FESTIVAL IS A CELEBRATION OF THE WORK, PHILOSOPHIES AND STRATEGIES OF PRACTITIONERS WHO BELIEVE FULLY IN THE CONCEPT OF INCLUSION. DELEGATES WILL BE TREATED TO A DIVERSE RANGE OF SPEAKERS AND WORKSHOPS TO INSPIRE AND INFORM THEIR PRACTICE.

More than ever before, there is a need in education to recognise the unique and diverse needs of our learners to enable them to be included in the education system.

With a high stakes accountability culture, this agenda could be relegated to the side-lines. Speakers such as Dave Whitaker, Executive Principal of Springwell Learning Community in Barnsley (@davewhitaker246) will bring both moral purpose and authentic experience to share with attendees.

And… because we believe that working in education is the best job in the world, we have laid on lovely food, stalls at break time and great people to talk to. This is a festival of celebration.

 

 

For more information, and to book tickets, please see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lincolnshire-inclusion-festival-tickets-34353612580

 

Masterclass: Failing and Marginal Students

Wednesday 10th May 2017, 9.30 – 12.30, Sheffield Town Hall

This Master class is aimed at current Practice Educators and those working towards being a Practice Educator, and is being delivered by Gurnam Singh, Principal Lecturer in Social Work at Coventry University and Berni Murphy, Placement Manager at the University of Sheffield.

Aims:

In relation to ‘failing ‘and ‘marginal’ students the workshop therefore aims to offer a space for practice educators and tutors to reflect on their own experiences and to share/develop best practice

Objectives:

By the end of the workshop participants will have:

  • Reflected on some of the difficulties and challenges in assessing and supporting students who are perceived to be weak or failing
  • Reflected on their role and responsibility regarding supporting and assessing failing or marginal students, particularly in relation to the PCF framework
  • Reflected on their commitments to anti-oppressive practice, specifically in relation to failing and marginal students
  • Contributed to develop and inform best practice to ensure fair and rigorous assessment of students on placement.

 

Places are free and aimed at current Practice Educators and those working towards being a Practice Educator. The seminar will be interactive and will provide opportunities to consider your own practice and learning needs. Please ask your manager for permission to attend.

To book a place, please go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/social-work-master-class-failing-and-marginal-students-tickets-32151324477

Social Policy & Society Annual Lecture

The first Annual Lecture of the Journal Social Policy & Society, sponsored by Cambridge University Press in association with the University of Sheffield Social Policy Research Cluster, will be held in the Diamond LT8 at the University of Sheffield on the 22nd of March from 5-6 pm. Everyone is welcome but registration is essential.

The lecture focuses on ‘troubled families’, the subject of a themed section in the January 2016 issue of Social Policy & Society, and will be delivered by Dr Steven Crossley and  Dr Michael Lambert, the themed section editors. The lecture will be followed by a wine reception in the exhibition space at the same venue from 6 – 7 pm to celebrate the first year of Social Policy & Society under the editorship of Liam Foster and Majella Kilkey at the University of Sheffield.

Information about the lecture, consisting of two presentations, can be found below:

Dr Steven Crossley – Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Northumbria University

‘Double, double, toil and trouble’: myths, magic and statecraft in the Troubled Families Programme

Given the mysterious, almost perfect, fairy-tale like success of the ‘troubled families’ story, it is appropriate to critically examine the development of the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) by drawing on writing around alchemy, myth, magic and statecraft. This paper draws on Clarke & Newman’s work on ‘the alchemy of austerity’, Cassirer’s writing on ‘political myths’, Bourdieu’s theory of the ‘social magic’ effect of the state and Wacquant’s more recent work on ‘neoliberal statecraft’. The role of the state in the creation of ‘troubled families’ is examined before the attention turns to the performance of ‘troubled families’ via the government’s TFP. The scarcely believable, yet widely acclaimed success, of the TFP is then scrutinized, drawing on the recent publication of the evaluation of the programme. The paper concludes with a discussion of the continuing widespread belief in ‘troubled families’, even amongst practitioners and researchers.

and

Dr Michael Lambert – Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow in Early Childhood Studies at Liverpool Hope University

‘“The dragons’ harvest”? Managing “problem families” in post-war Sheffield, 1945-74.’

Louise Casey (2012, p. 1) in Listening to Troubled Families declared that the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) ‘is an opportunity to not repeat the failed attempts of the past’.  Despite being a history graduate, both her comments and the substance of the TFP represented an uncertain grasp on what ‘the failed attempts of the past’ were.  This paper reconstructs what ‘the failed attempts of the past’ actually were by exploring the management of so-called ‘problem families’ in the post-war period.  The city of Sheffield is used as a case study to explore how ‘problem families’ were defined and managed by a host of social, welfare, health and other services during the ‘golden age’ of the welfare state from 1945 to 1974.  What becomes evident is that neither Casey nor the TFP have heeded or learned from the past, and the persistent underlying ‘problem’ or ‘trouble’ of families is poverty, marginalisation and subjection.

If you are interested in attending the event please register early at https://goo.gl/forms/2N2HHnhYI17YE3A72 to avoid disappointment.

Event for HCPC registrants

Event for HCPC registrants: The State of Regulation: Professional, ethical and personal dilemmas

Wednesday 8 March 2017
12pm – 4pm
Room EG03, School of Law, Bartolome House, University of Sheffield

This symposium will share the findings from a recent study of HCPC regulation and hear the experiences of two registrants who have been through the Fitness to Practise (FtP) Process. The session will consider the professional, ethical and personal dilemmas that emerge when registrants are subject to the current FtP model and also explore a new way of approaching conduct issues in social work practice. This event will be of particular benefit to social workers who have been referred to the HCPC for practice concerns, as well as those who are interested in contributing to the debate on the future of social work regulation.

Speakers will include two ex-registrants who had differing experiences of the HCPC Fitness to Practise process. Dr Jadwiga Leigh will share the findings from a study which was carried out with Dr Ken McLaughlin and Professor Aidan Worsley and explored the experiences of registrants who had been through the Fitness to Practise Process. Dr Richard Kirkham will be the fourth speaker. Richard, a legal ombudsman expert and Senior Lecturer in Law, will discuss a potential new way of working with referrals relating to practice issues and would like to seek feedback from the audience on this idea. The Chair for this event with be Professor Kate Morris.

This symposium is free and lunch is included however, as this is a small event there are limited spaces available (40 in total).

Register your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-state-of-regulation-professional-ethical-and-personal-dilemmas-tickets-30887334850?utm_campaign=new_event_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb_email&utm_term=viewmyevent_button