The social services and social care system is complex and we face enormous challenges including a lack of resources, squeezed budgets, burnt-out staff and moral distress. The social work profession and identity are being eroded. Social work needs to defend itself; it’s struggling to have its voice heard. We urgently need to reassess social work values in these really difficult times...
Iriss is delighted to publish Leading Chronology Improvement: Reflection and Self-assessment Tool. This new tool is designed to help leaders to improve chronology practice.
I’m a third of the way through the practice hours needed for accreditation with the International Coaching Federation after completing my coaching training. While there are still many hours to go, I was reflecting on what I’ve noticed so far from my coaching practice (whilst not compromising confidentiality and the ICF Code of Ethics!).
Bringing together leaders across children's services
This session (at the new Social Hub, highly recommended!) brought together a group of managers from Care Visions children’s services. This provided a valuable opportunity to bring together leaders from residential and fostering services, something they don’t often have the chance to do. Ahead of the session, we shared some questions to gather views so we could design the session accordingly.
Iriss & North Ayrshire HSCP
Learning summary and report
Between May 2023 and February 2024, Iriss designed and facilitated four sessions for a project with North Ayrshire HSCP as part of our Space to Practice theme. The project aimed to explore what a reimagined social work in North Ayrshire might look like.
Asking new questions, hearing new things
Last Autumn I started a coaching course with the Institute of Coaching Studies. Over six weeks, a small group of us from all over the world spent two half days a week online together. Led by an excellent tutor, we worked through the course and practiced coaching from the very first session. I thought I knew what coaching was but I soon realised the depth of skill involved in what seems like having a natural conversation.
Case studies
A focus on chronologies has been core to our ASP workstream this year. We’ve been working closely with the Chronologies Implementation Subgroup. This is one of four subgroups in support of the ASP National Implementation Group, formed to support both national and local implementation of the revisions of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 Code of Practice.
Benefits, challenges, ideas
Iriss & North Ayrshire HSCP
Iriss and North Ayrshire HSCP colleagues met in Irvine on the 30th August 2023 for a workshop, building on a previous session in May. The workshop was designed to support and network various pieces of improvement work happening across the HSCP and to help define this change story. 50 participants, including practitioners and managers from a range of service areas, attended the workshop.
