The European Social Services Conference is the largest annual forum for public social services
professionals in Europe. This year's conference took place in Hamburg, from 8-10 June 2022.
This 30th anniversary conference was an opportunity to discuss latest innovations in social care
policy and practice and share experiences of delivering support to vulnerable communities. The
theme of this year's conference was 'Rethinking Recovery: Reshaping Social Services with
New Tools'.
In 2020 the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and partners won the 'Outstanding Team'
award at the European Social Services Awards in recognition of the work to develop digital
learning resources to support the social work and social care workforce during the COVID
pandemic https://learningzone.niscc.info/
Catherine Maguire and Mairead Harkin from the Social
Care Council were delighted to attend the conference
as part of their Outstanding team award and to present
on, "Good learning Design; Supporting the
Wellbeing of social care workers and service
users" - using a collaborative approach end users,
employers and key stakeholders are involved in
the design process ensuring digital learning
resources are efficient, effective and enjoyable to
use"
The conference was a great opportunity to share
learning with more than 600 social work and social
care practitioners, leaders, academics and regulators.
Mairead Harkin, Social Care Council,
presenting at the European Social Services Conference
in Hamburg
The 2022 European Social Services Awards are now open for nominations ESSA (essa-eu.org)
with a theme of 'Innovation for Social Change'. This year's Awards will give visibility to social
services at the forefront of social innovation developing new, creative and inspiring solutions to a
structural challenge, a deep-rooted problem or an emerging need.
"Research must continue to be the
centre-piece of intellectual life, and our
commitment to research must grow,
because our problems are growing"
Ernest L. Boyer