Continuous professional learning and development is crucial in social work and social care to ensure practitioners maintain competency, adapt to evolving knowledge and best practices, progress in their careers and deliver effective services and better outcomes for individuals, families, and communities.
This podcast focusses on the Northern Ireland Social Care Council’s Learning Zone, which is one of the biggest things it provides to those who register with them as the regulator for social workers and social care practitioners. The Learning Zone is free to access anytime and is dedicated to supporting social workers and social care practitioners on their professional learning journey.
A panel of experts discuss the Learning Zone as host Dr Wendy Austin MBE sits down with, Laura Moffett, Manager, Mental Health and Learning Disability, Northern Health and Social Trust, Suzanne Cunningham, Assistant Director, Children’s Services, RQIA and Mairead Harkin, Workforce Development Officer who leads digital Learning for the Social Care Council.
The Learning Zone works to develop the capability of the social work and social care workforce. In order to do this, it provides access to quality-assured and evidence-based digital learning resources providing consistent messaging about standards, values and best practice. A number of these have been discussed as part of the Care to chat podcast series over the last few years.
Hearing from Mairead who manages the Learning Zone, Suzanne who has been involved in using and developing resources for it and Laura who encourages her staff to access and use in to improve them practice, this discussion is an opportunity to bring depth to the conversation around why he Learning Zone as an innovative learning experience for the social work and social care workforce.
Suzanne Cunningham explains the Social Care Council’s Learning Zone is so important.
“It’s something that everybody can identify with, it’s not just about this is the educational aspect of what you’re learning about. When you think about the resources that are in there, there is such a wide expanse of different subjects that you can get into. My favourites would be adverse childhood experiences, human rights, the child development apps are excellent, really good for anybody. Some of these are directed at social work or social care but they are accessible for anybody.”
The Learning Zone is packed full of tools, inspiration, stories, advice and resources for the social work and social care workforce – check it out now and continue your own learning journey: learningzone.niscc.info.
The Social Care Council releases a new episode every fortnight, discussing current topics about social care and social work regulation in Northern Ireland. Download, subscribe and listen to the latest Social Care Council ‘Care to chat?’ podcast episode today here, or by searching ‘Care to chat’ in your podcast player.
Episode 8: Learning and development – Getting to know your Learning Zone – (31 minutes)
For more information:
As the Care to chat podcasts are designed with the social care and social work workforce in mind, we would like to invite suggestions of topics that our listeners would be interested to hear covered. If you have questions, suggestions or feedback about the podcast, email: comms@niscc.hscni.net.