The SSSC at the annual European Social Services Conference

Friday, 12 August 2011 14:38

Recently two of our Education and Workforce Development Advisors, Mike Docherty and Neil Macleod returned from presenting at the annual European Social Services Conference in Warsaw, Poland.  This year's event was around the topic "Building an Active and Caring Society", questioning how to get the balance right between caring for vulnerable people and helping them to be 'active' in the current economic climate. 

The conference attracted approximately 300 delegates from over 32 different countries which included politicians, regulators, employers, frontline workers, service users and carers. 

Mike and Neil facilitated a workshop on 'Raising standards in the socia services workforce'.  The workshop focused on the approach that Scotland has taken to developing a better understanding of the workforce, including the size of the sector and key skills challenges. 

Neil Macleod said:

"The opportunity to share the work we're involved in around improving our knowledge of the Scottish social services sector was fascinating.  The definition of social services varies across Europe but there is an emphasis on common challenges and workforce issues throughout the continent.  The discussion in our workshop focused extensively on the challenges of providing support to an ageing population and the implications for developing the workforce.  Delegates identified similar skills needs to the ones we reported in our Sector Skills Assessment, such as the need for many workers to develop the skills required to support people who have dementia.  The need for some workers to develop the skills required to support children and young people was also identified as a key challenge."

The Conference included presentations from Chris Grayling (Minister of Employment in the British Government) Andrew Lowe (President of the Association of Directors of Social Work) and politicians from Poland, Greece, Sweden, Czech Republic and Slovenia.  One of the most thought-provoking presentations was from Piotr Pawlowski (a representative from a service users' group in Poland) who spoke candidly about the need for society to reconsider the ways that it supports disabled people to go about their lives.  Piotr also used a series of short videos to illustrate the misconceptions that some people have about individuals with disabilities.

Further information about the ESN Conference and a link to the SSSC's presentation is available from: http://www.esn-conference.org/programme-warsaw