The partnership has developed a range of continuous post-qualifying professional development courses to support and develop our Social Workers which are delivered by Leeds Beckett University, or in partnership with Leeds Beckett University and University of Leeds. These courses are in addition to the local offer from Leeds and Wakefield Council.
Courses in specialist areas have been developed in consultation with practitioners and enable busy professionals to take time out of the workplace to reflect upon and develop their professional confidence and capability.
Our courses have been mapped against the relevant Knowledge and Skills Statements to enable participants to demonstrate their professional development against these standards.
Our CPD courses include the following:
Anti-Racist practice for PE’s, ASYE Assessors and Mentors: A one day course which allows delegates to critically reflect upon personal and professional understandings of anti-racist practice, gain knowledge of the experiences and barriers that affect BGM students and NQSW’s within social work education and practice and to develop anti-racist approaches to the support, development, and assessment of students and NQSW’s.
ASYE Assessor Training: A one-day course which aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the assessor’s role as an assessor/supervisor/mentor when supporting a NQSW who is undertaking the ASYE programme. It also provides an opportunity to meet peers in an assessment or mentoring role who support NQSW’s undertaking the ASYE Programme.
Leadership & Resilience (for Managers / PE’s, ASYE Assessors): This one-day course is available to managers and those who supervise Social Workers or students. The purpose of this training is to gain an understanding of resilience and the importance of effective supervision and team support to enable professional development and the enhancement of staff wellbeing.
Promoting and Sustaining Emotional Resilience for NQSW’s and Social Work Practitioners: This two-day course provides an opportunity for practitioners to identify their thoughts and feelings about coping and resilience and to explore their current needs in relation to coping, different states of resilience and to understand the key research messages on this. They will also explore how to maintain general personal effectiveness and resilience to save time and energy, how to improve work/life balance and how to sustain emotional resilience in social work by understanding the impact of trauma at work and what we can do about it.
Using Evidence from Social Work Research to Enhance Practice: This one-day course supports social work practitioners to understand the difference between evidence based and informed based, when, and how to use it and the move away from care management to case management. It also explains the importance of ensuring decision making is defensible and helps practitioners to be more creative, innovative, confident, and empowered etc. Practitioners are supported to assess risk, assess, support plan, critically analyse, present and test different interventions and theories, and to weigh up and manage risk.
Trauma Informed Practice and Vicarious Trauma: This one-day course explains how to define, apply, and differentiate different trauma models to practice. Practitioners will be able to recognise types of trauma, for example, acute, chronic, and complex, and its impact. It will recognise the importance of attachment to trauma and how childhood trauma can impact in adulthood, as well as the impact of inequality and poverty. Further work on intergenerational trauma can impact on people’s wellbeing and on the brain (neuroscience) functions. The session will apply social approaches to working with trauma as good practice as adapting practice as required. Vicarious trauma will be defined, and models examined to help Social Workers apply the importance of using strategies to reduce the risk of vicarious trauma.
