“A Social Enterprise Approach to Reinvigorating the Provision of Community Social Work Services
in the UK” is presented by Professor Peter Marsh, Chair in Child and Family Welfare at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Tuesday 2 March at 12.30pm
RW 501, Railway West Wing, Bunny Street, Wellington

To register click here or reply to ips@vuw.ac.nz. There is no cost for registration.
Please feel free to bring your lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided.

Despite widespread investment, and major reforms, social services in the UK continue to be inefficient, limited in innovation, and relatively ineffective. A recent solution to these problems has been seen in the development of ’social enterprise’ (businesses with a social purpose, which run at a profit which is reinvested in the services themselves). New ’social work practices’, where social workers create their own professional partnership, as a social enterprise, will deliver comprehensive services to around 100 children looked after by the state. This project is designed to reinvigorate professional social work in children’s services, and to provide more innovative, effective and efficient social services. The first pilot practice began in December 2009. The seminar describes the rationale and development of this model.

Professor Marsh holds a chair in Child and Family Welfare at the University of Sheffield, and is Academic Director of Enterprise. He was Deputy Chair of the Government Working Group which proposed social work practices, and is currently a member of the Department of Children, Schools and Families Expert Group which is advising about the development and evaluation of the project. His research, over the past 30 years, has primarily been on partnership based approaches to social work, including major studies of Family Group Conferences.

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Guest editorial »

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The INNOVATING THROUGH RECESSION event series held on 6 & 7 April 2009 brings Geoff Mulgan, one of the world’s leading social innovation practitioners and thinkers, to New Zealand for a series of public and private events.

The series comprises a number of events, including:

• A briefing with the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon Bill English
• A briefing to public sector chief executives
• A private dinner with the Hon Bill English and Geoff Mulgan for Centre foundation partners and public sector chief executives
• A reception in Wellington for public, private and community sector leaders, hosted by the British High Commission
• A Social Innovation Breakfast for public, private and community innovation practitioners, hosted by the Australia New Zealand School of Government in Wellington
• A Social Innovation Workshop for corporate, central and local government and community sector leaders, hosted by Cisco in Auckland
• A reception in Auckland for corporate, central and local government and community sector leaders, hosted by Cisco in Auckland