Social Work in a Changing World

A one-day workshop to inform social work research

Opening Address: Professor Alan Walker, University of Sheffield

Keynote: Professor Peter Beresford, Brunel University
UK Discussants: Professor Nick Frost, Leeds Metropolitan University;
Professor Alan Roulstone, University of Leeds
International Discussant: Dr Sam Yu, Hong Kong Baptist University

Tuesday 17
th
June 2014, 10.00am 4.00pm
INOX DINE, Level 5, Student's Union Building, University of Sheffield, S10 2TG
PARKING IS DIFFICULT BUT VENUE IS CLOSE TO TRAM AND BUS ROUTES

Are you a service user, social worker, community worker, service manager,
researcher or policymaker with an interest in social work research?

Do you have ideas about the sorts of issues that social work research should be
engaging with and exploring? Would you like to share your views and ideas?

The Social Work in a Changing World workshop will provide opportunities for
service users, social work practitioners/managers, people from allied
professions and the voluntary sector, policymakers and researchers
to discuss ideas for social work research.

Further information
The 2012 International Federation of Social Workers definition of social work viewed social work
as intervening at the points where people interact with their environments (IFSW/IASSW 2012), but
recent years have seen huge changes in the social, economic and political environments in which
social work is practised for example: the economic and financial crisis and implications for
employment, pensions and welfare state support; increasing international migration and mobility,
tighter immigration controls and the expression of anti-immigration sentiments; welfare reform
and divisive discourses of deserving/undeserving benefit recipients and service users; and
mobilisation of service users organisations to conduct their own research into issues which affect
their lives. More recently, a (proposed) global definition offers a broader understanding of social
work as a profession which engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance
wellbeing (IFSW/IASSW 2014). Social Work and Social Policy researchers in the Department of
Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield have come together to organise the Social Work
in a Changing World workshop which seeks similarly to broaden understandings of social work
research. It will do this by discussing possibilities for research which take account of the wider
social, economic and political contexts in which service users live and in which social work is
practised.

The workshop will have four broad streams each of which will explore ideas for future research
from the perspectives of service users, social workers/managers, allied professions, voluntary
sector organisations and policymakers:

STREAM 1: Migration and superdiversity
Dr Majella Kilkey, University of Sheffield and Professor Jenny Phillimore, University of
Birmingham

STREAM 2: Pensions, poverty and social work
Dr Liam Foster, University of Sheffield and Professor Jay Ginn, Kings College London

STREAM 3: Social work and family support challenges and tensions
Dr Harriet Churchill, University of Sheffield and Professor Kate Morris, University of Nottingham

STREAM 4: Social Inclusion/Exclusion and people with learning disabilities
Dr Kathy Boxall, University of Sheffield; Catherine Carter and Emma Collingwood, CHANGE
(www.changepeople.org), Leeds
This is a FREE event.
We can also reimburse travel expenses for service users and carers from South Yorkshire.
PLACES ARE LIMITED PLEASE REGISTER EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT

To register for the workshop, please email (z.spink@sheffield.ac.uk)
or telephone (0114 222 6402) Zo Spink, providing the following information:


Name.. Organisation (if any).

Role (eg Service User, Social Worker etc.) ....

Will a Personal Assistant or Carer be accompanying you? If so, what is their name? (so we can book a place)

....

LUNCH please let us know if you have any special dietary requirements

......

ACCESS the workshop will involve listening to presentations and participating in discussions. The venue
is wheelchair accessible is there anything else you need to participate fully?

...

PLEASE NOTE: The workshop will be audio recorded.
Discussions will be transcribed and anonymised and used to inform future
teaching and research. Participants will be asked to sign a form
consenting to this on the day of the workshop.