I have worked for Stoke on Trent City Council within the Learning Disability and Enhanced Transition Team since qualifying as a social worker in 2007. Learning disability social work is something I am very passionate about; addressing inequalities and upholding the rights of the individuals we work with.

I have always had a keen interest in practice development, which has led me to train as a Practice Educator and to become a senior social worker. Within my role as a senior social worker I provide supervision to wellbeing assessors and support workers, as well as providing practice guidance and support for the social workers. I also have experience of providing guest teaching at both Staffordshire and Keele University.

I am driven by service improvement and strive to achieve the best possible social work practice. I enjoy supporting others with CPD and critical reflection and my aim is to achieve best practice within contemporary social work which is evidenced based, utilising professional knowledge such as theory, reflection and research to inform decision making. Within my role I enable social workers to utilise their skills and knowledge to achieve relationship-based practice and a strengths based approach with the people we work with, moving adult social work away from a ‘care management’ approach.

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Laura Carter, Consultant Social Worker, West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership

The recent public execution of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in the US, coupled with the global COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact it is having on black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and indigenous people across the world, has given new impetus to ongoing demands for eradicating institutional racism and a rebirthing of anti-racist movements in the UK and across the world.

For example, in Bristol, a city with deep connections with slavery and colonialism, the trashing of the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston and supplanting of a statue of Jen Reid, a local Black Lives Matters activist, has reenergised the debate around decolonisation. Symbolic moments like these are important as they motivate people to act, but we need to begin to dismantle the racist dehumanising myths we harbour in our minds and everyday practices.

Though the demand for anti-racist action is not new, the present moment, where social media is so prominent in our lives, in both good and bad ways, feels very different. Time will tell if this is yet another false dawn, but for the first time, across the spectrum of public, private and third sector organisations, we appear to be seeing a dramatic shift in the attitudes of senior white (and mostly male) managers and a much greater willingness to face up to some uncomfortable truths about structural racism.

Continue reading. 

Dr Gurnam Singh, Associate Professor of Equity, Coventry University, Visiting Professor of Social Work, University of Chester and Hon Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick.

The West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership are working in conjunction with Prospera Tedam to deliver training on Culturally Sensitive Social Work Assessments & Intervention.

This 1-day training will focus on social work assessments and encourage practitioners to use new and contemporary frameworks in their assessments and interventions with service users and their families. It is aimed at enhancing participants understanding of cultural competence, anti- racist and anti-oppressive practice.

The session will also introduce participants to the MANDELA model and the 4D2P Framework. The MANDELA model developed in 2012, is a relationship building tool which supports anti-racist practice in social work.

Training dates

• Thursday 12 November 2020
• Thursday 21 January 2021

Book your CPD.

The West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership in conjunction with Siobhan Maclean are holding webinars for Practice Educators.

Supervision in a virtual world (14 October 10am - 11:30am via Zoom)

Building on the first webinar, this session will consider what a good reflexive supervision looks like in contemporary practice. How do you provide emotionally supportive supervision in a virtual space? Once again, the session will draw on feedback from students. Some short clips of reflective supervision will be shared with some interactive elements. Practical hints and tips will provided to enable practice educators to add to their current supervision toolkit.

Assessment in practice education in a virtual world (3 November 10am - 11:30am via Zoom)

This webinar will explore triangulation of assessment in the virtual world. This will involve considering questions like - How do you undertake a direct observation of virtual practice? What should this look (and feel) like? How does contemporary practice link with the assessment requirements in social work practice? What are some of the barriers and enablers in terms assessment for practice educators? The specific issue about how to have a ‘courageous conversation’ and provide feedback to students in virtual spaces will be explored.

More information about the webinars for Practice Educators and how to book on.

Anna Gilinksi and Anna Hutchings from the centre of expertise and child sexual abuse will be busy delivering sexual abuse training to all final year social work students within HEIs within the West Midlands Region between October 2020 and February 2021.

This is being co-ordinated by Sukhvir Kaur Dhillon, Consultant Social Worker for the central region.

The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA Centre) brings about change by:

• Collating and analysing existing research, policy, practice and the real experiences of those affected, and filling the gaps we identify with new research, insights and analysis.
• Using that evidence and insight to develop new approaches and apply learning in practice.
• This training is part of a pilot being completed by the centre in order to further evaluate the effectiveness of the training on the knowledge, skills and confidence of social work students. In their first pilot with 1st year social work students, seventy-seven participants who completed the training provided feedback; 95% rated the course was ‘very good’, and 5% ‘good.

Find out more about the Child Sexual Abuse Training.