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Few more comments from delegates during the conference:
"Well done all - very informative presentation on the research programme for
service users and carers - great to have Artemis and Brendan speak about their
experience of using services".
See page 5 for more details on this course.
"Excellent presentations from colleagues in Tusla so much food for thought for us
in Northern Ireland. Ensuring that the mentors address the real felt needs of
frontline practitioners is very impressive especially as we emerged from the
pandemic".
Delegates' Perspectives
Conference delegates were invited, throughout the day, to engage in a
series of short polls to gauge where they were coming from and their
interest and their organisations interest in research and evidence.
Feedback from the Polls
A number of people attending were regular attenders but we were delighted that delegates
were made up with people attending for the first time. Both groups are needed as we progress
our research agenda and as Dr Lisa Bunting in her presentation advised if someone would like
to join the Building a Research Community do contact us on swresearchsistrategy@hscni.net.
Whilst most delegates were based in Northern Ireland but many also joined from the Republic
of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland and across Europe.
The majority of delegates indicated that they worked in Social Work or Social Care. Only 12 of
the delegates who took this poll answered no to this question some of whom were students
and a few from other professions.
As in previous years we attracted a diversity of delegates including students, practitioners,
manager, academics, researchers and service users and carers.
For those who responded a number of delegates were actively involved in research others
were casually engaged and very importantly a number had no experience of research but were
keen to find out more.
For these delegates we trust that we have whetted your appetites.
Whilst a very positive response was recorded by delegates in relation to the question -Do you
consider that practitioners within your organisation are encouraged to participate in research
learning opportunities? There were a number who said no. It is with these organisations that
we would like to engage to see how the issue could be addressed.
Very positively where research is accommodated delegates in the main suggested that the
successes were also celebrated within organisations.
Delegates were supportive of the approach to engage and provide equal opportunities to
service users and carers in research and a number were already proactively doing this.
The European Family Support networking,
the all-Ireland involvement, and the varied
stakeholder contributions (researchers,
practitioners, managers, policy makers,
service users, carers, teachers & training
officers) made this a memorable event.
I am a student SW and I
found it really helpful
understanding the
different methods that
research can be collected