8.45
Registration and Poster Viewing
Tea and coffee
9.15 Introduction
Anne McGlade
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
9.20 Welcome & Opening Remarks
Catherine Cassidy
Deputy Director of Social Care
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
9.30
Keynote Presentation:
Workforce Well-being and coping during COVID-19 and
beyond: Interpretations on the Voice of Social Work and
Social Care from Service User Perspectives
CHAIR: Marian O'Rourke
Northern Ireland Social Care Council
Dr Paula McFadden Ulster University
Sonia Patton Patient Advocate
Lisa Morrison Training Consultant
10.10 A few words from Office of Social Services Department of Health
10.20 10 Years Celebration
Anne McGlade
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
10.25
Networking opportunity, stands and poster viewing
Tea, Coffee and Celebratory Cake
Information Stands:
HealthCare Library
Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)
Centre for Effective Services (CES)
Child Care in Practice (CCIP Journal)
British Association of Social Workers (BASWNI)
Community Development and Health Network (CDHN)
CELEBRATION
Musical input Lisburn Ukes Supporting Diabetes NI
11.00
Parallel Oral Presentations
Breakout sessions
12.00
Keynote Presentation:
The power of research to shine vital new light on policy
challenges: the case of how to strengthen kinship care
CHAIR: Dr Una Lernihan
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
Professor Emeritus Robbie Gilligan
Trinity College Dublin
12.40
Lunch and Networking
Poster viewing and voting
13.30
Creative Interlude
"Everyone Counts"
Nabeela Yasin Lannelli
Bronagh Diamond
ArtsEkta
13.45
Parallel Oral Presentations
Breakout sessions
14.45 Tea and coffee and poster voting
15.05 Virtual Online Voting for Poster
15.10 How to save a life?
CHAIR: Dr Ciara McKillop
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
Sheila Simons
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust
15.45
Research and Development Division updates local and
national initiatives
Dr Janice Bailie
Research & Development, Public Health Agency
16.00
Research Methods Programme Ulster
University Award Ceremony
Dr Campbell Killick
Dr Paula McFadden
Ulster University
Awardees
16.15 Poster Winners
16.20 Close & Evaluation
Anne McGlade
Strategic Planning & Performance Group
Workforce Wellbeing and Coping during COVID-19 and beyond: Interpretations on the voice of social
work and social care from service user perspectives
Dr Paula McFadden - Ms Sonia Patton - Ms Lisa Morrison
This presentation will triangulate three perspectives on the value of research in health and social care. The first
presentation by Dr Paula McFadden, Ulster University, will provide overview analysis on the evidence base, using
key findings from the Health and Social Care Research Study (2020-2023) to demonstrate the importance of getting
close to the reality and lived experience of this workforce, from the onset of COVID-19 onwards. However, the
analysis does not just focus on the immediate COVID-19 era, but drills into wellbeing levels, measured using the
same tool (Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale) across the last three years, right up to January 2023.
The main results are shared with a view to raising critical questions. How does an individual worker's mental
wellbeing impact on them? How does it impact their work, service user experiences and the organisation?
The second part of the presentation is by Ms Sonia Patton. Sonia has a wealth of experience and knowledge from
a service user perspective and as an advocate for Patient and Public Involvement & Engagement (PPIE) within the
evaluation and decision-making processes of health and social care services research. Sonia works in an advisory
capacity with leading regional and national organisations that rely on health data and recognises PPIE's significance
in research to improve outcomes for patients and public. Sonia will speak on the service user's voice. How does
research ensure that service users are not only heard but listened to? What part do service users play in informing
research, policy and practice?
The final part of the presentation is by Ms Lisa Morrison. Lisa is a trainer and consultant with extensive experience
working both locally and regionally to educate on, and ensure co-production is more than a tick box exercise. She
will reflect on the importance of staff wellbeing from her professional experience, and with insight as someone who
has struggled with poor mental health. Lisa will invite us to consider how seeing beyond our roles and labels,
connecting at a very human level, has the potential to break down divides and improve the experiences of those
working in and using services. Lisa is strongly committed to translating research, policy and theory into practical,
tangible actions, which support and value every person.
The power of research to shine vital new light on practice and policy challenges: the case of kinship care
Professor Emeritus Robbie Gilligan, Trinity College Dublin
Formal kinship care is a growing part of alternative care provision for children in many countries. Difficulties recruiting
'stranger' foster carers are widely reported across jurisdictions and residential care faces big challenges across the
world in consistently matching provision with the standards and expectations of today's systems. With such trends,
how are children requiring alternative care to be provided for? It seems that formal and informal kinship care are
likely to play an ever bigger part in the future. But how well prepared are social work practice and policy to respond to
the special challenges involved in providing support to children living in kinship care and their carers?
In his presentation, Professor Robbie Gilligan will review the recent body of international research on the inner
relational world of kinship care. He will explore how this evidence can assist in better aligning social work practice
and policy with the needs of children in all forms of kinship care and their carers. His presentation will demonstrate
how research can help us adapt to a rapidly changing policy and practice environment - by enabling us to ask the
right questions and find the right responses.
Robbie Gilligan is Professor Emeritus at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, and
author of an invited chapter on recent kinship care research in the forthcoming book Routledge
Handbook of Child and Family Social Work Research: Knowledge-Building,
Domestic Abuse and Learning from Research, Personal Testimonies, Evidence based practice to shape
legislation, policies and procedures and professional & community response: How to save a life?
Shelia Simons, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust
The emotive yet powerful content in the presentation will allow those in attendance to gain an increased knowledge
base as well as a reflective space to understand the urgent need to better tackle domestic abuse in NI.
Themes contained therein will include:
- Importance of listening for understanding
- Prevalence of Domestic Abuse in NI
- Explaining Coercive Control
- Behavioural Patterns/ Data collection
- Assessment Tools - Dash/ Homicide Timeline
- Impactful Responses
- Learning from DHR's
P R O G R A M M E