Workshops at the annual conference provide a valuable opportunity for those facing common challenges in different regions to share their experience, learning and examples of best practice.

There are 4 workshop sessions which last for 60 minutes.  Each session has a choice of 6 simultaneous workshops covering a range of different topics.Click on the relevant tab below to view each workshop session:

Session 1        Session 2        Session 3        Session 4

Here are the 24 workshops that will be held in Copenhagen:

Home-care technology to efficiently manage home care services for the elderly
Edenred
In an ageing Europe, public authorities face the dual challenge of the provision of qualitative home care services and the efficient use of public funds. In this workshop, Edenred presents existing practices, such as Domiphone,  within different European local authorities.  Domiphone enables the financing authority, the service provider and the family to monitor home care visits. In this way, it supports an efficient use of human resources and helps prevent abuse. This system handles 15 million calls per year with 30 000 service providers in France. Seven major financing authorities are currently using Domiphone to improve the wellbeing of 80 000 people. Edenred is currently investigating  further enhancements through computer literacy. Easy, simple and efficient, Domiphone is an innovative tool of close follow-up and infinite adaptation to the authorities’ needs.
Areas of Interest: IT/Older people /Home care

“Know each other, act together”: promoting cooperation between social services
Regional Network for Social Work in Munich, Germany
Social services are not only organised in many different ways, but their source of funding also varies greatly. This means that interaction between the different support structures can become difficult. The REGSAM project in Munich was created as a networking platform for local social and health professionals in and around the city to better coordinate workflow and ensure optimum utilisation of resources. The workshop will allow participants to discuss their positive and negative experiences of professional networks. It will aim to identify what a professional network should look like, in order for social and health professionals and managers to want to join it and make the most of it.
Areas of Interest: Workforce / Partnerships

A family-based approach to alcohol treatment
Centre for Alcohol Treatment, City of Aarhus, Denmark
How should social and health care services face up to the challenge of alcoholism and its impact on family life? Involving the family in treatment for alcoholism has been shown to enhance the social and psychological functioning of family members, but also compliance and motivation for change in the person who has an alcohol problem. Therefore, the City of Aarhus has developed a Family-Based Alcohol Treatment strategy to help families with alcohol problems and their children to approach their issues in a systematic way. The workshop will also discuss the issues caused by alcohol problems and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of social and health care support for alcoholism.
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / Addiction

Combating child poverty through promoting their socio-cultural participation: a role of local public authorities
Federal Public Planning Service – Social integration, Belgium
In the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy a target was set to lift at least 20 million Europeans out of poverty and social exclusion. One in five children in the European Union lives in a household with a risk of poverty and there are signs that this is on the rise. For this reason the Belgian federal government awards subsidies to the amount of 4.2 million euros to the Public Centers for Social Action / Welfare to be used for specific measures to promote the social-cultural participation of children and young people, thus affording them a real chance to break free from this poverty cycle. Coordination between social and education policies and services locally is key and the presentation will feature a local practice example from Antwerp.
Areas of interest: Children & Families / Culture

Think child, think parent, think family: whole-family approaches to parents with mental health problems and their children
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), United Kingdom
Services tend to focus either on the adult with the mental health problem or on their child(ren), rather than the family as a whole. Case studies will highlight barriers to accessing services for families affected by the parents’ mental ill health. The workshop will then present experiences from England and Northern Ireland of ‘joining up’ adults’ and children’s services through innovative training approaches, new cross-agency jobs and shared policies and procedures. Participants will be invited to identify barriers to effective joint working and develop solutions to promote better services for parents with mental health problems and their children.
Areas of Interest: Mental Health / Children & Families

How can social services promote sustainable local development?
Conseil Général de la Gironde, France
How can the social services sector become aware of and reduce its environmental impact? The Gironde (the area around Bordeaux) sees labour market integration as a part of its ‘Agenda 21’ Strategy for sustainable local development. Every project undergoes an impact assessment in terms of economy, society and the environment. This covers service users’ personal development but also the environmental impact on climate change and biodiversity.
Areas of Interest: Employment / Environment

Improving skills for personal care: developing a regional register for care givers including migrant workers
Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta, Italy
What key skills are required for a personal assistant or care-giver, especially migrant care workers? The Valle d'Aosta has recently implemented a single regional register for personal assistants, including both care-givers for the elderly and disabled as well as assistants helping adults with physical and/or sensory deficits. The professional register aims to improve the minimum skill and competency levels of personal carers through an upgraded training process as well as by ensuring access to a service for service users and their families.
Areas of Interest: Workforce / Older People / Disability

Improving work-life balance through family audit: a key role for business
Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy
How can social services encourage businesses to be good employers for people with family and caring duties? In the Province of Trento businesses can acquire a ‘Family Audit’ certificate, attesting that they promote staff well-being and family life. Over fifty companies already have the certificate, following an assessment process. This not only improves a company’s public image but also gives it an advantage in the province’s public procurement and subsidy procedures. With this example as a starting point, the workshop will explore how public authorities can promote family-friendly employment practices and what potential this has to reduce demand for social services.
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / Employment

 “Changing lives”: building community resilience and cross-sector partnerships in an ageing society
Cornwall Council, United Kingdom
Cornwall has one of the highest proportion of older people in the UK. This has led to socio-economic difficulties for local communities, including health inequalities and a higher prevalence of certain long-term conditions. In partnership with the NHS and the voluntary sector, Cornwall Council is helping to build sustainable and resilient communities supported by reciprocal relationships across the social, health and voluntary sectors. In this workshop participants will discuss how people can be assets and natural community leaders and how professionals can blur professional boundaries to develop valued reciprocal working relations with each other.
Areas of Interest: Governance & Partnerships / Older People

How social services can tackle household over-indebtedness: interactions between public, private and voluntary sectors
Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
In the current economic crisis more and more households are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Increasingly, this has been the result or the consequence of over-indebtedness. How can social services provide a response to these debt problems and so alleviate poverty? A research project, led by Eurofound, examined the extent of over-indebtedness and looked into the role of debt advisory services. In this workshop, some evidence from country case studies (Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden) will demonstrate how access to relevant services can be improved, and how these services can help empower households to manage and overcome their debt problems. A debate with delegates will follow on the interaction between public and private services with potential lessons for other services as well.
Areas of Interest: Financial crisis / Debt

Building local capacity in a disadvantaged district
Bysekretariatet, Randers Kommune, Denmark
Most towns and cities in Europe know districts that have a high concentration of social deprivation. How can local authorities go about making them a better place to live? A development body ‘Bysekretariatet’ has received funding for four years, to make Nordbyen, a district of Randers, a better place to live. In close partnership with Randers local authority, this organisation works with local families, businesses and NGOs to support young people in particular towards employment, volunteering and social contacts. What successes and what lessons can be learnt about improving lives in deprived city districts? How can short term projects lead to long term change?
Areas of Interest: Employment / Regeneration / Young People

Educating professionals to prevent violence against vulnerable groups of women
National Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden
Women with disabilities are exposed to at least as much violence as other women, but so far this has been an invisible social problem – the women are seldom acknowledged. When women with substance abuse problems are exposed to violence, they often experience a “culture of blame” from society. This workshop will present two reports by the National Board based on research, literature, study visits and interviews with various specialist services. The reports were commissioned in order to raise awareness among professionals and improve their competences in offering women adequate support and assistance. This workshop also aims to increase the visibility of vulnerable women, asking delegates to reflect on how support services might be made more accessible and how violence might be prevented in the first place.
Areas of Interest: Workforce / Disability / Addiction

Long-term rehabilitation and social services: the managerial challenges of developing person-centred social services
City of Copenhagen, Denmark
Citizens with special needs need to be given the opportunity to realise their full potential. In order to do this, changes need to be made that empower them to regain control to live self-reliant and fulfilling lives. The City of Copenhagen is promoting long-term rehabilitation in order to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of people with disabilities or mental illnesses in the city and to maximise the cost-effectiveness of the service. The workshop will present two projects that show how this has been put into practice and what the results have been. Looking at case study videos, participants will be asked when the rehabilitation approach is appropriate and what it takes to make it work.
Areas of Interest: Older People / Disability / Mental Health

Early intervention with young people using cannabis
Municipality of Kristiansand, Norway
Nordic Health and Welfare Forum
What do we know about the use of cannabis among young people? What is the impact of early intervention, e.g. does it prevent early school drop-outs? This workshop presents a joint project by the Municipality of Kristiansand, Vest-Agder County Council and the Department of Substance Abuse Treatment at Sørlandet hospital. Through interviews with the participants in the programme, presenters throw light on the impact of the use of cannabis among young people and aim to initiate a debate on public and political attitudes to cannabis and the practice of early intervention.
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / Addiction

Scotland’s Continuous Learning Framework - unlocking potential and transforming services
Scottish Social Service Council, United Kingdom
Delegates will be introduced to the Continuous Learning Framework which is for all those working in social services in Scotland, including the daycare of children. The framework aims to improve outcomes for people using services by providing a shared language for critical reflection and promoting emotionally intelligent behaviours. The framework offers creative opportunities for learning in the workplace and challenges risk averse organisational cultures to support staff to work autonomously and in partnership with people who use services. The workshop will use videos and interviews with service users and staff to provide practical examples of the ways the Continuous Learning Framework is currently being used in Scotland. These include supporting leadership development and using communication mats to involve people who use services in providing feedback about the strengths of staff.  Delegates will have the opportunity to try out the framework through exercises which will help them to share ideas and solutions about promoting critical reflection in the workplace, creating organisational cultures which empower staff and meaningfully involving people who use services in staff and organisational development.
Areas of Interest: Workforce

How to integrate welfare technology in municipal health care services through changes in work processes, roles and organisations
Tieto
Municipality of Fredrikstad, Norway
In the future there will be more people who need social services and less people working in social services.  Can IT digital (self-)services help us to ensure face to face services to those who need them most?. This workshop will provide examples of new mobile and touch screen based technologies and will demonstrate their application through the participation of representatives from the City of Ferdrikstad together with Gothenburg, Oslo and Sarpsborg who have together been involved in an innovative IT project.
Areas of Interest: IT/ Workforce

Person-centred planning in support of deinstitutionalisation
Department of Welfare, City of Reykjavik, Iceland
Until 2006 most people with severe disabilities or mental health problems in Iceland lived in large institutions. The introduction of person-centred planning and individual needs assessment changed the focus from structures to individuals and created a space for development of local empowering services. Today, users are supported to make their own decisions and to increase their independence. Starting from case-studies, participants in this workshop will explore good practice in person-centred planning and how user empowerment can lead to improved quality of life in their independence. Starting from case-studies, participants in this workshop will explore good practice in person-centred planning and how user empowerment can lead to improved quality of life in their own flat in the community, rather than in an institution.
Areas of Interest: Mental Health / Community Care

Improving workforce retention and quality in child protection services
Stockholm University, Sweden
Municipality of Knivsta, Sweden
The eight municipalities of Uppsala County (Sweden) introduced a new programme in 2009 to reduce high staff turn-over rates in child protection through better working conditions and competence support (e.g. mentoring). Lower levels of competence and continuity arising from high staff turn-over were adversely affecting quality. The workshop will look at reasons behind the phenomenon and assess the measures introduced in Uppsala county to address them.
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / Workforce

Networking social services for quality and data management
Province of Castellón, Spain
How can different levels of local government and smaller, dispersed municipalities support each other in times of crisis? In Castellón, the provincial government set up the ‘network for social quality and innovation’ in 2009 with the support of the European Social Fund. It has developed three tools for use by all services in the network: a Quality system, an IT platform for the Integral management of Social Services and a Platform 2.0 for all the professionals of Social services involved.  The workshop will allow delegates to share their experiences of network-building and brainstorm how this can help services to remain sustainable.
Areas of interest: Governance & Partnerships / IT

Outcome management for a 21st century social services organisation
Cúram Software
City of Hamburg, Germany
Traditional service delivery can be good at getting people enrolled in programmes but that may not always sufficiently help them to become self sufficient. A new software approach addresses the barriers that maintains disadvantage and connects a wide range of stakeholders with an outcome framework to achieve progress for individuals. Using a large business transformation project at the City of Hamburg (child protection/child welfare) supported by examples from North America and Oceania, this workshop examines how ICT can enable case management to achieve better outcomes.
Areas of Interest: IT / Workforce

Developing well-targeted tools for the active inclusion of vulnerable people
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Employment, Norway
How can we contribute to improved labour market participation among people who have substantial and complex problems? What is the importance of a holistic family approach?  This workshop will demonstrate how a new national qualification programme can be a successful tool for active inclusion of vulnerable people. The workshop will also discuss different key success factors, among them strategies for securing user involvement and the provision and availability of suitable schemes for the target group.
Areas of Interest: Employment / Active Inclusion

Innovation  and efficiency: Next generation Child-at-Risk and Social Welfare Benefit Administration.
Kombit/DUBU, Denmark  
Försäkringskassan, Sweden
Oracle
Many Public Sector organizations are battling with getting the right information to the right case-worker, in order to make the right decisions. Besides “rule of law” issues, there is also impact on Public Sectors way of working, how to empower the citizen and how to lower complexity for everybody in the ecosystem.  Based on two cases – the cross-municipality shared-service Child-at-Risk system in Denmark (DUBU) and the national Social Security system of Sweden (Försäkringskassan) – the workshop is discussing with the audience how to make future Social Welfare ICT interaction feasible and sustainable as well as how to embrace innovative approaches to ICT to assist the transformation of Social Services to the benefit of the citizens and the public sector.  
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / IT

Developing new community services for children and families in the Republic of Georgia
LEPL Social Service Agency, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Georgia
Deputy Minister Labour, Health and Social Affairs Irakli Nadareishvili and the Head of Guardianship/care and social programmes, Ekaterine Saneblidze, describe how the numbers of children in institutions have been significantly reduced (from over 5,000 to 250) by establishing returns to family, a wide ranging foster care and adoption programme and taking action to prevent child abandonment and poverty especially for single mothers. The workshop outlines the challenges still faced and invites discussion on future plans.
Areas of Interest: Children & Families / Community Care

Reorienting community mental health services towards a recovery approach
National Resource Centre on Disability and Social Psychiatry, Denmark
Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark
The Bridge Cross Project aims to extend the recovery approach beyond those young people traditionally seen as vulnerable, e.g. those with ADHD and autism. The project analyses assessment, examination, referral, visits, and inter-service coordination in case-work from various Danish municipalities with aim of identifying good practice. The workshop will present some project results and a new tool for measuring the degree of recovery-orientation in organisations. The delegates will be engaged in discussions on how to move to a recovery approach and favour social inclusion.
Areas of Interest: Mental Health / Young People