On Friday 9 June, Scottish Government launched the new National Health and Social Care Standards: My support, my life.
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.
The Festival of Residential Child Care is a week-long programme of events, celebrating and supporting the work of residential child care across the whole of the UK.
We were delighted to support Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) produce two discussions as part of the week's activities. The discussions involved residential childcare workers and secure care staff discussing research undertaken by CYCJ and the implications for practice.
It's Learning Disability Week 2017! We're looking forward to attending the Learning Disability Awards tonight at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow, to celebrate, on a national level, the rarely heard stories and achievements of people with learning disabilities and the people who support them.
Booking is now open for the Scottish Social Services Expo 2017 which will provide an exciting opportunity to learn about current innovation and best practice in Scotland’s social services.
Taking place at Crieff Hydro hotel, the Expo will allow attendees to participate in a wide range of workshops throughout the day and network with colleagues from across the sector. It will provide an opportunity to hear and input into current policy development and to share expertise and best practice from frontline service delivery.
The Scottish Social Services Awards shortlist is now available, announcing the 31 successful entrants making it to the final out of 155 entries nationwide.
It includes a mix of individuals, teams and organisations working in social services for a range of third sector and independent organisations, local authorities and the NHS, who have made a positive difference to people's lives.
We've published a short summary of The View from Here project 2016/17.
The project involved promoting a deeper understanding of the impact of care and support and the contribution of the frontline workforce, and sharing frontline experiences of providing support, specifically focusing on the emotional impact of caring.
The work resulted in:
Friday 24 March saw the launch of Iriss Insight 35 - Gypsy Travellers: Human rights and social work's role - at an event to start conversations to bring about lasting change. The event was a partnership of members of the Gypsy Traveller community, Iriss and Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW), and was chaired by Lesley Riddoch. Held at Glasgow Caledonian University, it formed part of World Social Day celebrations and had 70 people attend.
Pilotlight was a five year programme funded by the Scottish Government as part of the implementation of self-directed support.
Pilotlight co-designed seven pathways to self-directed support focusing on mental health, risk, self-employment, young people in transition, older people in transition, people with younger onset dementia and people in recovery from substance misuse.
We're delighted to welcome Karen Reid, Chief Executive at the Care Inspectorate; and Elaine Torrance, President of Social Work Scotland onto the Iriss Board.
Karen is one of Scotland’s foremost leaders in public sector scrutiny. She has extensive experience in devising and leading scrutiny and improvement interventions across the fields of social work, social care, health, education, and community justice. She led the development of new multi-agency scrutiny models for children’s services in Scotland, and played a key role in setting up Iriss back in 2008.