This year’s Autumn Social Care Managers’ Forums took place recently in Armagh and Antrim.
The ever-popular events were attended by 140 social care managers and those who supervise social care practitioners across Northern Ireland. This year’s theme for both days was “Expanding Perspectives: Shaping the Next Era in Social Care”.
The headline at the Forums was the introduction of the Department of Health’s “Guidance for social care employers – Responding to Racism and Promoting Inclusion”.
Presented by Catherine Maguire, Co-Director of Regulations and Standards, Social Care Council’s, Jane McMillan, Professional Social Work Officer, Department of Health, alongside Jemma Henning and John Patrick Clayton of Unison, the Guidance is a framework to help identify, prevent and respond to racism in all its forms.
The Guidance includes terminology, how to recognise racism, legal responsibilities for employer and protocols for responding to racist incidents.
To provide context on the day, Jonah Atos, International Nurse Coordinator for the Western Health and Social Care Trust gave an inspiring account of her own personal journey in getting to grip with culture in NI when she moved from the Philippines and her work in helping new staff settle in Northern Ireland.
Dr Shirley Boyle, Open University also presented and shared preliminary findings from the recent Survey of Social Care Practitioners in Children’s Services. The survey sought the views of social care practitioners working in children’s services to find out more about their learning development and qualifications requirements – an essential step as part of phase two of the rollout of the Care in Practice Framework.
Coaching and Mentoring Specialist Suzanne McStravick took attendees through “Tips for Coaching and Mentoring”, and how social care practitioners and employers can access training funding available from the Social Care Council.
Finally, the Forum concluded with an update on a new Digital Learning Strategy being developed by the Social Care Council. The vision of the new strategy is to support the development of digitally confident and capable social work and social care workforce that has access to high-quality digital learning solutions that meet their needs and drives excellence in service delivery across Northern Ireland. The forum ended with an opportunity for attendees to participate in an interactive exercise to discuss digital skills, challenges and opportunities.
At this year’s Forums, social care practitioners from residential care and nursing homes, alongside those working in domiciliary care, were offered the winter flu vaccination.
All of the presentations from these forums are now available to view on our website here.
The next Social Care Council Managers’ Forums are due to take place in May 2026 – for these and all other events keep an eye on our events page here.