Held in June at Crieff Hydro, the Social Services Awards 2017 celebrated the breadth of inspiring and life-changing work carried out by the sector. From the 155 organisations, teams and individuals who entered, to the final ten winners, everyone has made a valuable contribution.

The awards were jointly compered by the Minister for Childcare and Early Years and Scottish Broadcaster, Sally Magnusson.

Some video footage from the ceremony and a slideshow of pictures from the event has been made available. 

We were delighted to work with the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) to produce Journey through Justice, an online resource that will help children and young people understand the journey through the youth justice system, following being charged with an offence by the police.

The name of the resource, as well as its look and content, was devised by young people from a number of settings, working closely with CYCJ and Iriss. Claire Lightowler, Director of CYCJ, said:

Do you want to be able to find work-related information quickly and easily?

If so, you’ll be interested in our latest development. In partnership with Care Inspectorate and SSSC, we’re testing out a new national search service. It’s simply a search engine that enables you to search resources published by Iriss, SSSC and Care Inspectorate.

We hope it’ll make your life a little easier.

Test it out and let us know what you think.

July 1 marks Canada Day and this year the country is celebrating its 150 anniversary; which means a big party, parade, fireworks and lots of other festive activities.

Iriss was delighted to play a part in the Social Services Awards 2017. We want to congratulate all the winners and everyone who was nominated for an award. The breadth of inspiring work taking place across the country was fantastic to witness.

Care Home Week, led by Scottish Care, takes place in Scotland this week (12-18 June).

Throughout the week, there will be celebrations of Scotland's care homes, the individuals who live and work in them, their role in local communities and the opportunities care homes offer to enhance lives and wellbeing for a wide range of people.

On Friday 9 June, Scottish Government launched the new National Health and Social Care Standards: My support, my life. 

Whatever your form of communication in social services - reports, project proposals, online content, strategy documents, presentations - this two-hour, 'Iriss how' workshop will give you simple techniques to help you get your message across.

It will be fast-paced and participatory, with lots of fun, creative exercises.

What it will cover:

What is the value of a social services podcast?

Iriss.fm has been broadcasting for over 5 years and we've produced over 180 episodes to date. Iriss.fm is a social services podcast - audio recordings of presentations, interviews, roundtable discussions and events that are sector relevant.

Other than hits and downloads, we don't know a lot about how valuable Iriss.fm (or other audio content) is to your work. So, we're keen to get your views.