These masterclasses are online events from the partner agencies in the Greater Manchester Social Work Academy, supporting the professional development of our Practice Educator community in Greater Manchester. In this masterclass we will cover: To revisit principles of holistic assessment To explore report writing including preparing to write the report To share good practice To undertake CPD which can be used as evidence for SWE registration To Register click here Practice Educator Masterclass – Holistic Assessment and Report Writing Tickets, Fri 16 May 2025 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Sarah is a social worker, lecturer and PhD researcher with over 16 years’ experience working in the family court as a social worker and children’s guardian. During this session, Sarah will present on some emerging findings from her research, which is exploring how the culture and processes of the family court could be improved, for the benefit of families who have to attend in child protection (care proceedings) cases. Movements towards a more therapeutic and transparent approach will be discussed. There will also be time for questions and a conversation about how practitioners might best support families and advocate for their needs in this unusually formal environment. To register for this event please follow this link Improving Family Court culture Tickets, Fri, Mar 28, 2025 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite
Moving Social Work is a co-produced and strength-based training programme designed to empower social workers in promoting physical activity – moving more often for social justice, wellbeing, and good health. This training has been called for by service users who want more richer conversations about moving a little more often. The training has been co-produced with and by social workers and service users, including over 100 disabled people. To register for this event please follow this link Moving Social Work Training Tickets, Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
An opportunity to hear from Richard and Hannah and their work on the “making it real Board at Stockport Council and Colleagues from Gaddum (www.Gaddum.org.uk) sharing their insights on a commissioning projecct “You are helping me by listening” All are eager to answer your questions on what they look for from a their social worker and what makes ‘you’ the right person to support them.During the panel Q&A session: Each panel member will provide a brief introduction and share their lived experience Answer questions from those in attendance Answer questions submitted ahead of the event Panel members: Lived experience colleagues from Gaddum (Gaddum – Gaddum) Sofija Zindule and Kenzye Roberts, sharing insights of their work with commissioners and project – “You are helping me by Listening”. HannahCummins is the co-chair of the Stockport Making-it-Real Board and also the co-trainer of Stockport Gloriously Ordinary Lives training program specifically aimed at Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council social care team. Prior to her current roles, she has many years experience in the health and social care sector. She has a range of long-term health conditions and invisible disabilities. Away from co-chairing, and co-training duties, she enjoys horse-riding in particular as well as reading and gaming. She was recently awarded the title of Stockport Gloriously Ordinary Lives ambassador for 2024 Richard Currie has over 40 years lived experience of living with a physical impairment and social and emotional distress. He has over 20 years experience of using Direct Payment to support him to live inter-dependently. Prior ot his current role, he worked as a lived experience researcher for the Mcpin Foundation. He has published numerous book chapters and articles in the field of mental health and disability studies. He is a lifetime member of the Great Manchester Coalition of Disabled People and a trustee of Breakthrough UK, a disabled people organisation that help support those with a long term health condition and/or disability into employment. To register for this event please follow this link Using Lived Experience to help make positive change in Adult Social Care. Tickets, Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
This online panel event gives you the opportunity to find out from people with lived experience of social work what makes a positive social work experience. This co-produced event welcomes representatives from Focus On Involvement (www.focusoninvolvement.co.uk), who are available and eager to answer your questions on what they look for from a their social worker and what makes ‘you’ the right person to support them. During the panel Q&A session: Each panel member will provide a brief introduction and share their lived experience Answer questions from those in attendance Answer questions submitted ahead of the event ABOUT THE PANEL Sally Kellet – As a carer for nearly forty years, I have experience of interacting with health and social services. I am a carer for my daughter who has a rare medical condition, and I previously cared for both my mother with Alzheimer’s and my husband with MND until they died, I have a vast experience of the role of a carer and the support/ help required. I have suffered from depression from the weight of my caring role, along with living with my own health condition of epilepsy. David Wilson – Lived experience: Carer for late wife. Personal experience of chronic fatigue syndrome, anorexia and depression. Supported by various professionals over the years Esther Grace – Care system experiences (aged 1-18). Young carer of mum and brothers. Child & adult mental health services (including in-patient experiences). Alcohol misuse, and recovery. Esther has accessed many services, with a mixture of good and challenging experiences. She now talks about these experiences, to help inform, inspire and impact others/services. Roy Havery – Lived experience: Surviving several suicide attempts and living with chronic depression and anxiety. Experience in several specialist mental units and lived through the different and intricate stages of recovery. Surviving this and learning to live independently with support from mental health services, social workers and community psychiatric nurses. Manoj Mistry – Lived experience: 30 years’ experience as a family carer and working with/ receiving support from NHS health professionals. Mother was both mentally ill for more than 20 years whilst physically disabled in the last 6 years of her life. Sister remains both mentally and physically disabled. Accesses support and services to support carer’s role. Lynsey Harmon – Lived experience: Bipolar, EUPD. ADHD and neurodivergent. I have 25 years’ experience dealing with mental health services including as a inpatient. Primary care and secondary care. Including being sectioned under mental health act. Experience of different therapies including CBT, DBT and the use of medication. Support from lots of professional’s psychiatrists, psychologists, support workers, occupational therapists and community psychiatric nurses. To register for this event, please follow this link Public Involvement Q&A Panel – What an effective practitioner looks like Tickets, Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite
The 2025 IFSW theme calls for Strengthening Intergenerational Solidarity for Enduring Wellbeing, but how can we achieve this when systemic barriers continue to undermine real change? Child Practice Reviews (CPRs) repeatedly expose the same failures—poor case recording, missed escalations, and a lack of professional curiosity—yet the state’s structures remain unchanged. This session will critically examine how CPRs can be used as tools for systemic challenge rather than procedural exercises, pushing back against austerity, managerialism, and risk-driven practice. Join us to explore how intergenerational solidarity must become more than rhetoric to truly empower children, families, and the values underpinning social work practice. To register for this event please follow this link Learning from Child Practice Reviews to Challenge Systemic Harm Tickets, Tue, Mar 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite
This session will focus on the concept moral injury in social work settings, focusing on what we know so far and what still needs to be explored. Moral injury is the deep and long-lasting impact of experiencing events that violate your moral code and values. We will consider the definition of moral injury and what this means for social workers. Amelia will present recent findings from her interview research and her plan for future research, encouraging attendees to share their ideas and thoughts around the topic and what research they would like to see going forward. If you want to learn more about the topic of moral injury, already have an interest in it, or want to shape research going forward, please join this session! To register for this session please follow this link Understanding Moral Injury in social work. Tickets, Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite
During the panel Q&A session: Each panel member will provide a brief introduction and share their lived experience Answer questions from those in attendance Answer questions submitted ahead of the event Panel members: HannahCummins is the co-chair of the Stockport Making-it-Real Board and also the co-trainer of Stockport Gloriously Ordinary Lives training program specifically aimed at Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council social care team. Prior to her current roles, she has many years experience in the health and social care sector. She has a range of long-term health conditions and invisible disabilities. Away from co-chairing, and co-training duties, she enjoys horse-riding in particular as well as reading and gaming. She was recently awarded the title of Stockport Gloriously Ordinary Lives ambassador for 2024 Richard Currie has over 40 years lived experience of living with a physical impairment and social and emotional distress. He has over 20 years experience of using Direct Payment to support him to live inter-dependently. Prior ot his current role, he worked as a lived experience researcher for the Mcpin Foundation. He has published numerous book chapters and articles in the field of mental health and disability studies. He is a lifetime member of the Great Manchester Coalition of Disabled People and a trustee of Breakthrough UK, a disabled people organisation that help support those with a long term health condition and/or disability into employment. To register for this event please follow this link Using Lived Experience to help make positive change in Adult Social Care. Tickets, Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
How is racism understood in literature about the experiences of black and minority ethnic social work students in Britain? A Conceptual review.
Dr Dharman Jeyasingham and Dr Julie Morton (Social Work Education, 38 (5), pp 563-575)
Abstract
This article presents findings from a study which explored the everyday ways race works on social work programmes in England. The study focused on how race was spoken about and conceptualised, how people were categorised and ordered according to race and the social interactions where race was understood by participants to be significant. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight social work lecturers and nineteen black social work students at two universities in England, to explore the following topics: classroom-based and practice learning, assessment and feedback, interactions between students and between students and educators, and university and practice agency cultures. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and the following themes identified: the routine interpellation of black students and communities in terms of absolute cultural differences, black students’ everyday experiences of marginalisation, hostility and othering, and the racialisation of black students in judgements made about their academic and practice performance. The article concludes that social work education must engage more deeply with contemporary theorisations of race and culture, and that social work educators need a reflexive understanding of how notions such as diversity, equality and universal academic standards are put into practice in ways that marginalise and devalue black students.
Children’s social workers agile working practice and experiences beyond the office
Dr Dharman Jeyasingham, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 49, Issue 3, April 2019, Pages 559-576, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy077
Abstract
Agile working (flexibility around practitioners’ roles and the location and time of work) is increasingly common across local authority social work in the UK but there is little evidence about the practices it entails, with the small amount of existing research concerned largely with its impact on office environments. This article presents findings from a qualitative exploratory study of eleven social workers’ practices and experiences when engaged in agile working away from office spaces. Data were generated through practitioner diaries, photographs elicited from practitioners and semi-structured interviews, and were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The study found practitioners engaged in agile working in a wide range of domestic, leisure and formal work environments across the public–private continuum. This gave them superficial control over how they worked, in particular the freedom to work in solitude and establish distance between themselves and perceived demands from service users and other practitioners. However, agile working also involved a wider range of material practices and affective experiences for practitioners. These changes provoke questions about data security, increased visibility and unanticipated encounters in public spaces, and the shifting relationship between information-management work and elements of practice involving face-to-face interaction with others.
Dr Dharman Jeyasingham of University of Manchester was the lead the ESRC funded project “Becoming agile in local authority children’s safeguarding social work services: examining organisational and individual change in public sector social work”. Details on this project can be found here: GtR (ukri.org)
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Domestic Abuse
Demo Description
Not Ageing Out of Violence? Older Mens Biographical Narratives of Their Abuse and Violence in Intimate Relationships With Female Partners
Bellamy, C. Struthers, M and Green, L (2023) Cited in Bows, H. (ed) Not Your Usual Suspect: Older Offenders of Violence (Feminist Developments in Violence and Abuse), Emerald Publishing limited, Bingley, pp. 105-119 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-887-620231008 Abstract Drawing on empirical research which incorporated biographical interviews with two older male perpetrators, this chapter develops theoretical conceptualisations of the histories, experiences and motives of these men. Four key areas are highlighted, which will be subject to closer scrutiny in relation to extant literature: (i) gender, particularly notions of masculinity, power and entitlement; (ii) attitudes relating to the use of violence both within intimate relationships and generally (iii) critical junctures in the life course which triggered attempts to desist; and (iv) an exploration of maturation and completion of treatment programmes in relation to their use of violence, future risks and efforts towards desistance.
Exploring health and social care professional initial perceptions of caring for trans patients.
Kirlew MI, Lord H, Weber J (2020) Exploring health and social care professionals’ initial perceptions of caring for trans patients. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2020.e11383
