New Professional Social Work Forum for Trust

Around 120 Social Work staff from across the Southern Health and Social Care Trust have come together to form a Professional Social Work Forum.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Jul 2015, 08:00 BST
Pictured at the Professional Social Work Forum for the Southern Trust are Social Work Leads, Chris Millar, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Marita Magennis, Governance, Nuala Gorman, Older People and Primary Care, Colm McCafferty, Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting, Francesca Leyden, Assistant Director, Social Work Governance, Workforce Development and Training, Patricia Trainor, Vulnerable Adults, Maureen Devlin, Workforce Development and Training and Delia McCartan, Approved Social Work Lead.Pictured at the Professional Social Work Forum for the Southern Trust are Social Work Leads, Chris Millar, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Marita Magennis, Governance, Nuala Gorman, Older People and Primary Care, Colm McCafferty, Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting, Francesca Leyden, Assistant Director, Social Work Governance, Workforce Development and Training, Patricia Trainor, Vulnerable Adults, Maureen Devlin, Workforce Development and Training and Delia McCartan, Approved Social Work Lead.
Pictured at the Professional Social Work Forum for the Southern Trust are Social Work Leads, Chris Millar, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Marita Magennis, Governance, Nuala Gorman, Older People and Primary Care, Colm McCafferty, Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting, Francesca Leyden, Assistant Director, Social Work Governance, Workforce Development and Training, Patricia Trainor, Vulnerable Adults, Maureen Devlin, Workforce Development and Training and Delia McCartan, Approved Social Work Lead.

The Forum aims to promote Social Work as a profession in the Southern area and help to realise the regional Social Work Strategy as Trust Chair Roberta Brownlee explains: “In the Southern are we have around 600 social work staff working with adults, young people and children to help improve their lives, individually, as families and throughout communities.

“This includes protecting vulnerable people from harm or abuse, supporting people to live independently and acting as advocates and directing people to services that they may need.

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“We are committed to promoting excellence in Social Work and hope that this Forum will help staff to share best practice and avail of the very latest training and professional development to ensure the best outcomes for our clients.”

The first Social Work Handbook for the Southern area which will be a training, governance and professional development resource for staff as well as providing updates on the Social Work Strategy - was also launched at a recent Forum meeting.

Roberta added: “We have been greatly encouraged to see so many Trust staff engaging with the Social Work Strategy and helping to shape the action plan which is included in this handbook. This Strategy gives us a great opportunity to motivate, empower and energise Social Work in this Trust - not only for the benefit of the profession but more importantly for the benefit of our patients and clients.