Following on from our third Webinar on "Decision Making" in the context of virtual assessment during COVID-19, we're opening the floor to you!

How has COVID-19 affected your decision making? What do we need to be mindful of in the decision making process having undertaken a remote assessment? Do you have any helpful ideas or processes to share with others? What have the challenges been and how have you overcome them?

You'll also have an opportunity to ask our Presenters any questions around information gathering in the virtual world from their perspective.

Building a helping relationship remotely through the assessment process.

Assessment is meant to be the start of journey that practitioners, families and children take together - how we start off is so important.

In this time of Covid-19, we are all embracing technology to work from home and keep connected. But how do we form a strong respectful and helpful connection with people we have not met before? How do we make a fair and ethical assessment about the needs they may have and how we can help via remote technology? Is it even possible? How do we understand the purpose of the assessment and come to an agreement about what the outcome should look like remotely?

Annie from Surviving Safeguarding, Phil Rigotti from Strengthening Practice and Helen Rodwell from Jigsaw Psychology have developed a series of webinars that will explore this topic.

The first webinar was all about Relationships. Looking at ourselves and others and how we manage to function in this remote world. We will explore techniques for establishing rapport and building trust online. How can we learn about each other? How do we establish ground rules for conversations that are fair, ethical and curious?

The second webinar was all about Information Gathering. How do we understand what is important to pay attention to in the remote world? How are we translating what we hear or hear and see? How does the virtual experience differ from a face to face experience and what impact does that have on our assessment and the value of the information we gather? What cues are we attending to and which are we missing?

The third webinar is all about Decision Making. If the purpose of an assessment is to find the best way to intervene in an issue, how do we ensure this is fair, purposeful, and agreed? Have we all been able to understand the issue and explore the influencing factors fairly? Have we understood enough about people’s life experience to help them come to a decision about what change might be required?

These webinars will happen every second week. In between we will hold a live Q & A with Annie, Helen and Phil to hear from you – what are your experiences, how have you managed to make relationships virtually? What works and what is getting in the way?

The series will be uploaded to our website and be free to access.

Our Presenters:

Annie –Strengthening Practice social care trainer – social commentator, expert by experience, founder of Surviving Safeguarding, Annie comes with a wealth of experience in supporting social workers and other professionals to think about how to do their day to day work in a compassionate and ethical way. Annie has challenged professionals to form honest and authentic relationships with people in safeguarding situations. Annie also brings together people who have a desire to make a better and fairer world together, encouraging collaborations and consultations with people from all walks of life.

Annie nicely juggles her work with Strengthening Practice, mixing it with consultations with a broad range of professionals including judges, lawyers, academics, and the media, alongside supporting parents going through safeguarding proceedings.

Dr Helen Rodwell – Jigsaw Psychology - An experienced Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Expert Witness who has worked in the area of child & adult mental health and parenting for over twenty years. Helen has specific skills and experience with looked-after and adopted children. She also provides expert witness reports of children and adults for the Family Court and assessment / interventions with children, parents and families. Helen is a Certified Theraplay Practitioner, Trainer & Supervisor and Certified DDP Practitioner. She is the co-author of Parenting with Theraplay (2017, Jessica Kingsley Publishers), An Introduction to Autism for Adoptive and Foster Families (2019, Jessica Kingsley Publishers) and Supporting the Mental Health of Looked After and Adopted Children (2018, CoramBAAF).

Phil Rigotti – Social worker – Strengthening Practice - leader in developing relational practice across a number of local authorities. Alongside various social work roles Phil has a background working therapeutically with children and families, and leading teams who offer these services to families. He has been the lead trainer with Strengthening Practice for 4 years and spends everyday modelling relational practice in the training room, with his colleagues and people he comes across. His genuine enjoyment of humans always shines through, and his compassionate common-sense approach supports people to think about how to make a good difference in their day to day work.

Phil runs the Socially Connected Coaching service which is supporting practitioners to do their best work remotely under these very trying conditions.