SIG - New Social Workers
Supervision: A good ole chat or a reflective tool? PDF Print E-mail

Conference and AGM from New Social Workers

A Special Interest Group of the IASW

 

Thursday May 31st, 2012

St. Andrews Resource Centre, 114 – 116 Pearse Street, Dublin 2

 

This conference aims to explore the area of supervision for social workers and look at how we can improve supervision individually and as a profession. This conference will look at providing ideas and thoughts on supervision and to help practitioners connect theory and practice around supervision. It will look to give social workers a chance to learn more about supervision and reflect more on their own experience of supervision. 

This conference is designed to be open for all social workers. The AGM, however, is for new social workers only (student social workers and those qualified in the last 3 years). 

Speaker Information

Frank Mulville, social worker, will be facilitating a talk and discussion about the use of Supervision in Social Work, from the point of view of the use of self, self-care and development. Frank teaches on social work and addiction study courses, and also works with groups and individuals in youth and community, social care and social work. 

Peer Consultation and Workshop on Owning Supervision will be facilitated by the committee of the New Social Workers special interest group, namely Conor Boksberger, Kerry Cuskelly, Beth McGettrick, and Niamh O’Rourke, all newly qualified social workers who have experience in child protection, mental health, disability, hospital, homelessness, and voluntary sector social work. 

Agenda

9:00 - 9:15                     Registration

9.15 - 9.30                     Welcome and overview of the conference

9:30 - 10:15                   Use of Self in Supervision

10:15 - 10:45                 Peer Consultation and Supervision

10:45 – 11:00                Break

11:00 – 12:00                Workshop- Owning Supervision: Supervision policy, contracts, and tools

12:00 – 1:00pm              AGM for New Social Workers 

Fees

€5 euros for unwaged, €7.50 euros for waged.

Conference is open to members and non-members. 

Booking

To register for this conference, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Payment can be given upon attendance at the conference.

 

This conference is worth 2 CPD points.
 
Update from New Social Workers SIG November 2011 PDF Print E-mail

The New Social Workers SIG

Our Mission is to provide a forum of support for new Irish social workers to promote the connection between academia and practice and to provide a high quality service to clients. We define new social workers as student social workers in a graduate or undergraduate programme and professionally qualified social workers who have less than three years’ experience. 

Peer Consultation Groups

The New Social Worker SIG committee has been working hard over the past few months to get peer consultation groups up and running, and we are happy to announce that they have started. 

Based on the experience of new social workers, we have been looking into research and ideas on supports for new social workers, and peer support and consultation specifically. We created a working paper on peer consultation, which sets out the theory and initial framework for the groups. The groups look to provide an additional support to managerial supervision. The groups aim to give a forum for new social workers to engage in learning, discuss ideas, share support, work reflectively, and improve practice. 

We sent out emails inviting interested people to attend a planning meeting in October 2011, which went well. From this beginning, new social workers officially signed up to peer consultation. 

Currently we have two groups meeting once monthly for peer consultation sessions in Dublin. The groups will run from November 2011 to May 2012. At this point the committee plans to review the whole process and another round of sessions will hopefully start after the summer of 2012 and will be open to any new members who wish to join. 

Currently, each session is being evaluated and feedback is welcomed from those involved in the groups. Thus the whole process is peer-led and seeks to provide great support to everyone involved. Feedback so far has been very positive and we are excited to have gotten these groups going. 

Group members

We now have over 40 people signed up to the new social worker website. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our current members for their involvement in the SIG so far and to encourage other new social workers to join the special interest group. Check out our website at: www.newsocialworkers.com. The group is open to everyone’s suggestions and is open to new ideas about developing the SIG further. You can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Thank You

The New Social Worker SIG would like to take this opportunity to thank the IASW executive who have agreed to fund the New Social Worker website. The website is a useful way for new social workers from around Ireland to communicate and discuss professional issues and ideas, as well as to receive support from others in an easy and accessible way. The website is there for all the SIG members to use!

Future plans

The peer consultation groups are currently our biggest piece of work. However the New Social Worker SIG would like to aim to build on this work with a seminar looking more at the area of supervision, specifically in relation to new social workers. We will plan to have an AGM where voting of the next committee will take place. 

Kerry, Beth, Niamh and Conor

New Social Worker committee

 

 

 
 
Attention all New Social Workers (3yrs experience or less) PDF Print E-mail

We are currently planning to start a pilot programme of Peer Consultation for new social workers! 

What> A pilot programme of structured peer consultation based on research and experience. We are hoping to run 1 or 2 groups now, depending on interest. We hope to research and to evaluate these groups and possibly run more groups in the future. This will be run through IASW Special Interest Group 'New Social Workers'- www.newsocialworkers.com 

Why> The basic idea is that peer consultation will be an additional support to the managerial supervision that social workers receive in work. We hope it will support new social workers in linking theory to practice, continuous professional development, etc 

When> We are planning the first group to have 7 sessions, meeting once a month from November 2011-May 2012. These sessions would probably be about 1- 1.5 hours long on a weekday evening after work. Maybe around 6 or 7pm? 

Where> We expect the first groups would meet in city centre Dublin as that currently works for our group leaders. However we are very open to groups in other areas if more convenient for members, especially in the future. 

Who> All new social workers (3 years experience or less). We hope that each peer consultation group will have about 6-8 members of social workers from different areas of work or with different experience to help the learning.

 

So if you are interested, we would like to invite you to come to a Preparation for Peer Consultation Night. This night will be from 7-8pm on Wednesday October 26th in the IASW headquarters, St Andrew's Resource Centre, 114-116 Pearse St. Dublin 2. On this night, we hope to share some information and research on peer consultation, discuss what might work best in setting up the peer consultation process, do group contracts, and get the process started. 

If you would like to be involved and can come on October 26, please RSVP to this email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

If you would like to be involved and cannot come on October 26, please let us know and we will see about still getting you involved.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The New Social Worker Special Interest Group.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.newsocialworkers.com
 
Annual Report 2010-2011 PDF Print E-mail

New Social Workers

Chairperson:                     Kerry Cuskelly

Secretary:                           Beth McGettrick

University Liaison:         Lorraine Phillips

Committee Members:   Niamh O’ Rourke, Conor Boksberger 

Introduction:

Our Mission is to provide a forum of support for new social workers in Ireland to provide a high quality service to clients and to promote the connection between academia and practice through reflective practice. We define new social workers as student social workers in a graduate or undergraduate programme and professionally qualified social workers who have less than three years experience.”

Origins of the New Social Workers SIG:

The process of setting up the group began after the 2010 IASW conference. The group was officially recognised by the association in 2011. One reason for setting up of the group was that student social workers felt a strong disconnect between their experiences on placement and in the classroom. One Masters class voiced the opinion that their first placement challenged the values and ideas they were taught. The IASW conference on the 23rd of April 2010 “Reclaiming Social Work” brought up the issue of the need to strengthen the relationship between the academic setting of social work and the practice setting. This conference also brought up many current issues for social work, including a lack of professional cohesion, empowerment, and support. The core members felt that it was important that these macro issues, which are common to all social workers, as opposed to issues occurring in specialised areas in social work, should be addressed and acknowledged more. It is also important that new social workers have a platform from which to illustrate the positive contribution they can make to the profession of social work both in terms of educating the general public and other more experienced social workers.

 Why should people join?

To be a responsible social worker, engaged in activism at the macro level, to get support in their time as a new social worker, to be able to have a voice on issues that directly pertain to them, to help bring about awareness and change to improve the experiences of new social workers and of clients, to promote pride in social work, to gain valuable experience in being a professional, to connect theory and practice in their studies and work, to promote reflexive and reflective practice and the development of professional social work. 

Initial Objectives of the New Social Workers SIG:

  1. To provide support for new social workers in their learning and transition from being a student social worker to a professionally qualified social worker.
  2. To empower new social workers to help their voices be heard and help them share their valuable opinions and knowledge.
  3. To bring about awareness and change for issues that affects new social workers.
  4. To help strengthen the relationship between social work in academic settings and in practice settings.
  5. Look at supervision for new social workers (both on placement and when working). Who gives supervision? What is examined in supervision sessions? How much supervision is received?
  6. Provide an online forum for sharing and learning for new social workers.
  7. Examine how universities could improve in preparing students for social work practice.
  8. Look into options for support groups, lectures, and other ways of helping new social workers provide a quality service.

Current Situation:

The group has launched a website for NSW members. It can be found at www.newsocialworkers.com. A link can also be found on the NSW SIG page in the IASW website. It is intended to be a way for members to communicate with each other in relation to social work practice, discussions on linking theory to practice, examining social work values and ethics and how these transcend into actual practice, issues affecting students on placement and issues affecting social workers new to social work practice. The website is still in its initial stages and will change in accordance with the needs and suggestions of the NSW members. The group is currently actively recruiting members for general membership. 

Representation at council:

Representation at council is being rotated among Kerry Cuskelly, Beth McGettrick and Lorraine Phillips. 

Plans for 2011:

  • The recruitment of members to the group.
  • Making contact with social work students through social work departments in universities around Ireland in order to educate them about the IASW and the NSW SIG in order to mobilise social work students to becoming active members of the profession.
  • Having peer support/peer supervision meetings where student social workers and newly qualified social workers can have a safe, informal forum in which to discuss issues pertinent to their practice.
  • Organising a seminar on an issue pertinent to members e.g. supervision, the role of social justice in social work, critical consciousness of social workers. 
  • Holding regular committee meetings.
  • Developing the NSW website to meet the needs of its members.
 
New Social Worker SIG PDF Print E-mail

Mission Statement: Our Mission is to provide a forum of support for new Irish social workers to promote the connection between academia and practice and to provide a high quality service to clients.

Definition: We define new social workers as student social workers in a graduate or undergraduate programme and professionally qualified social workers who have less than three years experience.”

Aims and Objectives:

-         To provide support for new social workers in their learning and transition from being a student social worker to a professionally qualified social worker

-         To empower new social workers to help their voices be heard and help them share their valuable opinions and knowledge

-         To bring about awareness and change for issues that affect new social workers

-         To help strengthen the relationship between social work in academic settings and in practice settings

Initial Ideas

-         Look at supervision for new social workers (both on placement and when working). Who gives supervision? What is examined in supervision sessions? How much supervision is received?

-         Provide an online forum for sharing and learning for new social workers

-         See how universities could improve in preparing students for social work practice

-         Look into options for support groups, lectures, and other ways of helping new social workers provide a quality service

Why should people join?

-         To be a responsible social worker, engaged in activism at the macro level

-         To get support in their time as a new social worker

-         To be able to have a voice on issues that directly pertain to them

-         To help bring about awareness and change to improve the experiences of new social workers and of clients

-         To promote pride in social work

-         To gain valuable experience in being a professional; useful in getting a job and being advanced in work

-         To connect theory and practice in their studies and work

-         To promote reflexive practice and the development of professional social work

What encouraged the formation of group?

-         Student social workers feeling a strong disconnect between their experiences on placement and in the classroom. One Masters class voiced their opinion that their first placements challenged the values and ideas they were taught.

-         The IASW conference on the 23rd of April 2010 “Reclaiming Social Work” brought up the issue of the need to strengthen the relationship between the academic setting of social work and the practice setting. This conference also brought up many current issues for social work, including a lack of professional cohesion, empowerment, and support.

 

Link to our website: www.newsocialworkers.com