Home > Events > Leading to Change Digital Community Event: The things you didn’t know you didn’t know – what people really want you to know about social work and social care
Leading to Change Digital Community Event: The things you didn’t know you didn’t know – what people really want you to know about social work and social care
“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
Join us for our fourth event of this series where we focus on social work and social care and the things you didn’t know you didn’t know. This is part of our leadership theme of Collaborating & Influencing.
Why don’t people collaborate? Often it is because we think we don’t know enough about their world or that they won’t know enough about ours. This mindset gets in the way of our ability to be in conversation – and collaboration – and minimises our ability to positively influence how work can be shared and done differently.
We’ve noticed a strong interest in our Friday email resources that focus on social work and social care, and we are pleased to build on this by offering a ‘from the floor’ insight from people living and working in these care services.
We have invited them to share what they would like everyone to know about social care and social work and to help us understand the things that we didn’t know we didn’t know.
This event is open to all, and we would welcome those from social work, social care, third, voluntary sectors and health to come, hear and share your thoughts and experience together in this event where we will use chat interaction, Q&A, and small groups to bring our community together in conversation.
We welcome into the conversation:
Jenny Thain
Role:
Director of Acre Care Homes
I am the owner and operator of care homes for older adults with 18 years’ experience and currently have two services populated by Local Authority funded and privately funded residents. I have previously held positions in organisational management and service improvement in NHS trusts across Nottinghamshire.
I am engaged in locality groups across South Lanarkshire and Fife, part of the emerging Fife Care Home Collaborative and an active member of Scottish Care.
I unashamedly take every opportunity to shine a light on the work done in Scottish Care Homes, to encourage people to engage with us, specifically around collaborating on meaningful issues from a platform of mutual professional respect.
Cara Gillespie
Role:
Independent Sector Lead
Cara Gillespie is an Independent Sector Lead for Dumfries & Galloway, employed by Scottish Care within its national Partners for Integration team, and funded locally by DGHSCP. In partnership, with ten Homecare provider partners and DGHSCP, Cara facilitated a ground breaking collaborative Test of Change to tackle delayed discharge in the region’s hospitals, which is transforming the way the partners think about and approach care. Having previously held senior roles in the third sector, Cara has managed change in many settings. She will share the D&G story so far, and her reflections on the ingredients for good collaboration in social care.
Susan Nevill
Role:
Principal Lead, Leading to Change
Fundamentally I’m a people person – I like people and will often stand closer to those people who others step away from. I’ve been a social worker for over 20 years and hold tight to Social Work values. I’ve worked in statutory sector, 3rd sector, health and been a volunteer in various settings. I believe in being open, honest, creative, flexible and humorous.
With a focus on storytelling and reflections, our contributors will share their experiences in care and collectively we’ll explore what this means for us, in our own workplaces and in our day-to-day roles using breakout groups.
Questions for us to consider:
How well do you understand social care and social work? How has this helped your approach to collaboration? How have preconceived ideas possibly limited previous opportunities to collaborate?
What opportunities for collaboration or positive influence have been open to you across different parts of our care system?
How can staying curious about the work of others help us provide better care?
Resources to consider:
If you would like to consider this topic in advance of the event, we recommend any one of these external, resources to read, watch or listen to. They are quite different and are offered as optional thought-provokers for those who like to get into the topic in advance. Click on the title below to find out more.
