West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership 2025 Practice Educators Conference: A Day of Reflection, Learning, and Connection.

Join Joanna Holmes, Consultant Social Worker with the WMSWTP programme team, as she shares her experience of the 2025 Practice Educators Conference.

This year's Practice Educators Conference on the 6th of May took us to Conference Aston at Aston University for a day, focusing on our professional identity as Practice Educators as well as how we support students to develop their own professional identities as social work students. We had a real focus on anti-racist practice and wellbeing; how to support your wellbeing and that of your student. We are all too aware that in today’s ever-evolving world of social work, looking after your wellbeing is crucial.  

We were thrilled to have Wayne Reid, Professional Officer and Social Worker at BASW, and Kath Morris, Social Work academic, as our morning keynote speakers. Wayne’s presentation considered ‘what is professionalism?’, and what impacts our professional identity? And what has shaped social work’s professional identity over the last fifty years? The session explored the importance of anti-racist practice, considering feedback from Black practice educators, students, and NQSWs and their experiences of racism. Wayne has a wealth of resources in relation to anti-racist practice, and you can access some of them through our website here.

Kath Morris further explored the concept of well-being in the context of professionalism, an issue also addressed in Wayne’s presentation. The session allowed Practice Educators the time to reflect on what wellbeing is, what erodes it, and how to address challenges we may face as Practice Educators with professionalism. Kath provided our Practice Educators with a range of resources, so they left feeling well supported to look after their own wellbeing in practice and that of their students.  

Before lunch, we were pleased to welcome back Rebecca Mulvaney and Katie Grayson-Purdy from Social Work England. They provided valuable updates on Social Work England’s work in Practice Education over the past 12 months since our last conference, as well as their ongoing priorities in this area. 

We heard about some important upcoming changes to the Education and Training Standards, which shape how social work students and apprentices are supported throughout their learning journey. There’s a renewed focus on ensuring students receive proper induction, supervision, and support while on placement. 

The standards are currently under review, with a public consultation planned for this autumn. We also learned about a new piece of curriculum guidance ‘Readiness for Professional Practice’ which will outline the knowledge, skills, and behaviours students and apprentices are expected to demonstrate by the time they qualify. 

We were then all treated to a fantastic lunch, and we would like to thank Conference Aston for their amazing hospitality and support on the day.   

In the afternoon, attendee feedback made it clear they were spoilt for choice by the range of workshops on offer. Practice Educators, academics, practitioners and managers, and people with lived experience from across the partnership delivered workshops on a range of topics from bringing the person with lived experience into supervision, supporting struggling students, and, building on the morning presentations, practical ways to support in talking to students about their wellbeing.  

You can access the day's resources through our website here and catch up on previous PE conferences too! 

The feedback from the day has blown us away, and we wish to thank all our speakers and workshop leaders for their hard work, which created a truly uplifting day. We hope all attendees left as inspired as we were and left with a real feeling that when asking the question Kath posed, ‘Who has got you?’ They know that the teaching partnership has got them.