Iriss is embarking on a new project to find out all about professional curiosity across the public protection agenda - and we’re looking for interested folk to help us out. We’re holding three sessions for anyone who wants to chat through the issues around professional curiosity in their work today. Please do register your interest below if you want to talk about the positives or challenges (or a bit of both) on this topic.
As the person leading the project, I’ve obviously been doing a lot of thinking about it myself. Although we often talk about professional curiosity as a defined thing, I don’t think it is a standalone skill. Instead, if feels like something that infuses all work across public protection and can slot in beautifully with other professional expertise. For instance, skills in reflective practice – how would we ever do that if we weren’t curious? I also think curiosity is also the logical next step when intuition is working overtime. We ask, why aren’t these pieces sitting together as they should? What am I missing, and how do I get to it?
But what about when it feels impossible (or at least very hard) to be curious? I’m thinking of times when the workload is great, and to be curious could feel just like inviting more work to be piled on our shoulders. Or how about the times when we meet resistance, our curiosity is rebuffed, or we’re afraid of offending people? Social workers, in particular, are misrepresented by the media and subject to negative fictional portrayals on television. In our determination to break the ‘busybody’ stereotype, do we hold back from appearing too curious?
I also feel quite strongly that we shouldn’t only see professional curiosity in the light of preventing harm. That’s obviously vital, but I really believe that to just see curiosity in those terms is limiting. Curiosity is also about the good things. How does someone want to live their life? What makes a child happy? If we weren’t curious about these things too, the job would only be half-done.
I’m only at the very start of this project, and it already feels like there’s so much to learn, so much to explore. Already, I’ve benefited from the generosity of the sector’s hive mind. I was very thankful that NHS Grampian extended an invite to me to attend their professional curiosity training. I’ve also been enjoying chatting with Kay and Gwyneth from Scottish Borders about their professional curiosity work (which they kindly blogged about for the ASPire Hub a couple of months ago). I know there will be lots more professional curiosity initiatives across Scotland, and I’m very keen to hear about them.
As someone who has led collaborative Iriss projects around Large Scale Investigations and Child Protection Planning Meetings, I really love this stage: sharing our learning, making connections. I really encourage you to sign up to one of the three sessions below if you’re at all interested in the topic. Doesn’t matter whether you work in the children’s or adults’ sector, or whether you’re frontline or strategic. Come explore, and share!
Finally, you might well be curious as to what will happen after these discussion sessions are held. Good question. We at Iriss don’t quite know. The boundaries of this project haven’t been set yet; they’ll be informed by your input at the sessions.
I’m already curious about where this work will lead.
Dates for discussion sessions:
August 28 2025, 1-2pm
September 3 2025, 10-11am
September 8 2025, 2-3pm.
