SSKS blog

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) have developed an e-learning programme which aims to help front line social workers gain a basic understanding of knowledge management, as well as organise and manage their knowledge and information as effectively as possible.   Why not take a look?

IRISS is pleased to announce the launch of IRISS Insights, a new series of reports providing the social services workforce with brief, accessible and practice-oriented summaries of published evidence on key topics. Developed through a process of rapid appraisal, Insights seek to highlight the practice implications of research evidence and answer the ‘So what does this mean in practice?’ question for each topic reviewed. The summaries are intended to support decision-making and to be of benefit to practitioners and policy makers alike.

The first three IRISS Insights, entitled, ‘Assisting those with mental health problems into employment’, ‘Effectively engaging and involving seldom-heard groups’ and ‘Effectiveness of reablement services’, are now available on the Evidence-Informed Practice Portal, which can also be found on our website: http://eip.iriss.org.uk/.

For further information on the Insights series, please contact Emma Collins (emma.collins@iriss.org.uk). To order print copies, please contact Sharon Dennett (sharon.dennett@iriss.org.uk).

Did you know that the SSKS website is changing in October?

There are going to be lots of exciting new features to help you find and share key

social services information quickly and efficiently. Read more about them in our

Newsflash here.

More updates on the new SSKS coming soon. . .

The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) is running a series of workshops on information literacy, social networking, and strategies for managing innovation projects, as well as a new series of What Works seminars, focusing on how research evidence can inform practice.

For more details and booking information, please go to: http://iriss.eventbrite.com/

As part of the Social Work Changes Lives campaign the Association of Directors of Social Work and the Scottish Social Services Council have launched the Social Work Challenge, a game designed to help people understand the difficult decisions that social workers must make when assessing individual cases.

The game, which should take only a couple minutes, asks you to make a series of decisions in a child protection case based on real life incidents. You have to use your judgement to make choices that you think are most likely to lead to a positive outcome for the child.

See how others have fared and leave your own comments on the campaign’s Twitter feed or on Facebook.

We are delighted to invite the SSKS user group to discuss the progress with the website redesign. This is a fantastic opportunity for the group to gain insights into the new site and provide feedback. As there are a few places remaining, we’d like to extend this invitation more widely. If you’d like to join us, please complete the online booking form.

Places are still available on the 5th National SWAN Conference to be held at Glasgow Caledonian University on the 3rd and 4th September 2010.

The conference theme is Building a Social Work Resistance and it aims to bring together activists in the social services sector to discuss and debate the issues facing social work.

Further information: http://www.socialworkfuture.org

or email swanscotland@yahoo.co.uk.

IRISS will hold the first of what it plans to be an annual event series – IRISS Forum – on Tuesday, 2nd November 2010.

The title of this year’s event, Challenging times, creative solutions, reflects the organisation’s desire to look positively at what can be achieved despite financial constraint.

IRISS Forum 2010 will take place at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. A full programme and booking information will be available shortly. For more information, please visit the IRISS Forum website.

The Scottish Government has published the application form, equality monitoring form and guidance notes for the 2010 Voluntary Sector Development Fund (VSDF). The forms are available on the Workforce Unit’s website.

The purpose of the VSDF is to contribute to the costs associated with meeting the qualification criteria set by the SSSC for registration and to assist employers in achieving a qualified workforce.

Further information is available on the SSSC website.

A group of carers and people who use services has set up LEARN (Glasgow Service User and Carer Local Learning Network).

The purpose of LEARN is to help shape the learning and development of staff and students involved in all aspects of social services in the Glasgow area.

Members will do this by contributing to the education, training and development of staff and students. LEARN is committed to improving services that better meets the needs of service users and carers.

For more information about LEARN contact Julie Thomson on 0141 848 1500 or by email: julie.thomson@westlearn.org.uk