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. The workshops covered a range of areas including Community Social Work, ideas and innovation, Large Scale Change and practitioner research for Newly Qualified Social Workers.
Learning from across the workshops demonstrated appetite, motivation, hope and optimism for reimagining social work in North Ayrshire. The main learning points were that participants:
- Connected strongly with the ethos of Community Social Work including prevention, early intervention, social inclusion, relationships and trust
- Welcomed the opportunity for new thinking and learning, challenging existing mindsets and updating their knowledge
- Valued the opportunity and permission to think differently and to imagine
- Imagined themselves as change-makers and shared what they needed to support them
- Gained greater understanding, clarity and shared learning about current challenges and complexity
- Enjoyed being engaged in creative approaches to look at old problems from new angles, finding the workshops enjoyable and inspirational
- Highly valued time to think and make connections with other colleagues
- Could connect their experience of the project to progress and changes in practice
However, discussions also demonstrated that hope, optimism and motivation exist in a complex system which can challenge the conditions needed to realise change, including time for reflection and learning, leadership and relationship-based practice.
Want to know more? Read the report for an in-depth look at the project activity and learning.
