Reflecting together on CPD: A conversation with Social Work England

Amanda Richards and Hannah Scott, Research and Development Officers at Research in Practice, talk to Ahmina Akhtar, Regional Engagement lead for Social Work England, Yorkshire and the Humber. They reflect on the importance and benefits of continuing professional development (CPD) for registered social workers, the aims of Social Work England and provide some top tips. 

Talking points

This podcast looks at:

• The aims of Social Work England as an organisation; how the organisation is different from The Health and Care Professionals Council; what the main challenges have been since taking over and Social Work England’s objectives for the next three years.
• The benefits to social workers of having their own framework of regulations and standards and what this means for accountability, practice, personal development and better outcomes for people they support.
• Top tips of how social workers have integrated CPD into their work and how this has helped them develop good habits; ideas of how social workers can bring feedback in from those who access services and how CPD be used to help social workers as a tool to help support their own self-care and manage wellbeing.

Resources mentioned in this podcast

• Social Work Organisational Resilience Diagnostic (SWORD)
• Recording and maintaining CPD to support practice

Related resources

• Social Work Organisational Resilience Tool
• Emotional resilience in practice: Recorded webinar
• A model for exploring resilience: Views 
• Practice supervisors: Resilience in Covid-19: Recorded webinar
• Building emotional resilience in social work: Online learning package
• Understanding resilience in social work students: Views
• Emotional resilience in times of crisis: how organisations can support practitioners: Views
• Resilience: our shared values, our shared armour: Views
• A model for supervision
• Supervisor Development Programme - resources to support supervision, resilience, social work in a crisis and working with grief and loss - blog and link to the Supervisor Development website
• Supervisor Development Programme - tools and learning resources to support the implementation of post-qualifying standards
• Critically reflective practice: Views
• Compassionate Leadership: Views
• Research Summary July 2020 - Supporting NQSWs to develop their knowledge, skills, confidence

Reflective questions

Having listened to the podcast we have provided some reflective questions to stimulate conversation and support practice. 

1. Think about how you can embed CPD into your daily social work practice.
2. Think about creative ways to gain feedback from those who access services to contribute to your CPD.
3. Think about how using CPD can bring reflection and learning points about your own wellbeing and resilience.