CEF has focused on the vital importance of NI’s public bodies working in partnership to deliver for citizens. We’ve heard lots of detail on the theory, and practice from elsewhere. We’ve also heard about the challenges and obstacles to effective collaborative working.
At this webinar, we will hear how the Northern Ireland Social Care Council drew on its deeply embedded culture of collaboration and co-production to move at pace to transform working practices to meet needs created by the pandemic, and how it produced a bespoke suite of digital resources to support the social work and social care workforce through the pandemic, an initiative which later earned a European award.
As the regulator for approximately 50,000 social workers and social care workers in Northern Ireland, the Social Care Council works with a wide range of stakeholders, and maintaining effective relationships is at the core of its operations.
Interim CEO Patricia Higgins and her senior management team will outline some of the challenges the pandemic created. They will demonstrate how, by redefining the concept of ‘the team’ and extending the boundaries of partnerships, they were able to harness expertise from within, and vitally, from partner agencies across the public and third sectors, academia and in the private sector to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Patricia describes Social Care Council’s approach as follows:
“In partnerships there are times that you take small steps and at other times you take a big leap. In order to take the big leaps, you have to have first taken the small steps, building relationships, developing trust, and being seen as an honest broker.”
We will also hear from Northern Ireland’s Chief Social Worker, Sean Holland, who will reflect on what it takes to achieve a strong collaborative relationship, particularly between departments and their arm’s length bodies.
Michael Dunlop, who has worked extensively with CEF members on individual and team development initiatives will anchor this session, drawing out the learning from Social Care Council’s experiences during the pandemic, and exploring how other organisations can benefit from these reflections.