Pleasure and a privilege
Over the last year 18 months, I have had the privilege of chairing the Health Education England (HEE) new roles mental health programme group for social work. The programme supports the delivery and expansion of innovative roles most likely to have the greatest positive impact on mental health service delivery. A partnership of arm’s length bodies and regulators identified eight such roles:
The programme has been overseen and funded by HEE and the social work group enjoyed a strong partnership approach from the beginning. The group included representatives from across social work, local authorities, NHS mental health services and professional organisations. We also involved academics, research colleagues and service users along the way.
The aim of the group was to identify and record the essential skills and valued experiences of social work in mental health and to develop products, or commission reports and events that would enhance and support the social work and approved mental health professional (AMHP) role.
Join the webinar: today at 10.30.
The development phase is complete. Today, we hold our second webinar to launch and demonstrate the work we have done.
You can watch our previous webinar here and review the information and products we shared on the HEE new role.
We are particularly proud to be launching our guidance on supporting and developing mental health social workers in integrated and multidisciplinary teams and services. This is an interactive document linking across to a range of multi media and online resources. The report is designed to be used by any agency wanting to strengthen and focus the role of mental health social work.
We are very grateful to Stephen Chandler, vice chair of ADASS and Director of Adult Social Care in Oxfordshire, for helping us with the launch. We also welcome Suzanne Hudson from the LGA to discuss the new employer guidance and health check for social work and how these link to each other. Our colleague Paul Peros, mental health lead at Social Work England, will be talking about his role with AMHPs and mental health social workers.
One of the other areas we will be exploring will be a new framework for developing trauma informed social work via training, guidance and CPD. Understanding how traumatic life events have affected people's lived experiences is a core skill for social workers.
Packed agenda
We have identified a need to put some structure and support around this way of working. In doing this, we have also been able to look again at how the Open Dialogue programme developed in Finland can be linked to this approach and is something that social workers can work with if they undertaken the appropriate training.
Yasmin Ishaq from Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership and Alison Faulkner a survivor researcher and trainer in mental health will be joining Karen Linde from social work for better mental health to discuss these developments.
Finally, we will be exploring some opportunities open to social workers in mental health - a new approved clinician training programme and an advanced professional development programme – both developed by HEE.
Sarah Adams, Professional Head of Social Work in Devon mental health services will be joining us to talk about their approach to developing the AC opportunity, while Emma Wilton, mental health lead at HEE will explain how social work can access the advanced practice opportunities.
330 people viewed the last webinar, so we are hoping to beat that record. If you are a mental health social worker or you manage, lead, recruit, train or just really like mental health social work, then please have a listen.
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