6th Congress of Social Work - Moravske Toplice 2016

introduction themes comitees programme location information links archive

How can social policy that is target-oriented towards efficiency and transparency, respond to current needs of people at micro, mezzo and macro levels? What is the Slovenian social policy in relation to the European one? Who defines the efficiency of social policy measures and how? How does social work respond to the assumptions and requirements of performance-oriented society, and what are the risks of modern trends towards neoliberalism in social policy not being reflected upon and responded to? When and to what extent is social work an agent of solution, and when and to what extent is it the co-creator of the problem? What works in modern social work? What evaluation criteria are used in modern performance- and market-oriented society for the assessment of the efficiency of social care and other services in the fields, in which social workers get employed? How do we come from counting the amount of services to valuing their quality? How do we guarantee for the respect of the user voice, when evaluating the quality of these services? Which new ethical dilemmas are generated by the constructionist paradigm in social work?

How is the basic mission of social work being realised globally and locally? How are we bridging the gap between abstract concepts, such as human (children's) rights, multiculturalism and multiculturality, participation, citizenship, social justice and inclusion, and others, and their concrete implementation in direct interaction with the users (individuals, families, groups, communities, companies), experts, different foundations and other participants in social work projects (for example in the case of deinstitutionalisation)? How do social workers cope with their double role of confidential counsellors on one hand and the executors of administrative procedures on the other? How do we cope with other multiple roles, which are unavoidable if working in smaller environments? How do we implement the concepts of contemporary – partnership-based, participatory, collaborative, co-creative – social work in different sectors (the state, non-governmental organisations, private sector) and their intersections, what resources do we have at our disposal and where are the limitations?
 

Which are the most sensitive points in the employment of social workers in Slovenia and internationally today? How do we respond to state pressures towards an even greater bureaucratisation of work of experts in social work, those employed in social protection and other areas of employment of social workers? How do we regenerate and strengthen our powers in order to persist in our endeavours to provide the basic conditions for quality social work – for the sufficient time and necessary safe place for work, the balanced ratio between responsibility for and influence on our decisions and the related expert actions? What can the planned re-organisation of the social work centres contribute? What is going on with the employment and position of social workers in health care and education systems? How can we contribute to social workers' more successful and recognisable inclusion in the work in these employment fields? What are the role and position of social workers in multidisciplinary teams? What is today's role of social work in different sectors – the state, non-governmental organisations, private sector – and what role of social work will be needed for tomorrow?

How resilient are Slovenia's residents to stress created by the pressure of the current situation in society? How do social workers explore people's resiliency resources at the level of individuals, families and communities? How qualified are we and how do we implement our role of advocates of people and their rights? How successful are we in creating the conditions promoting user participation in all decision-making processes that concern users as individuals, family members and members of community? How do experts employed in the field of social work regenerate our own resources to cope with work-related stress, how do we explore and take care of the strengthening of our resilience, protect ourselves against burn-out? How do we meet the need and system requirement for regular supervision of direct work with the users in the circumstances, in which there is lack of resources that would provide the basic conditions for the work of services in social protection, health care, education, justice administration? What is today's public image of social work or social workers in Slovenia? How are different actors in education and social work practice qualified to promote our profession in the public eye, how do we co-operate with the media? What was our expert response, how do we respond to the most exposed social problems, to those topical social situations that are most problematic in the public eye (the Family Code, the refugee crisis, the still high unemployment rate, poverties, the entrenched stigmatisation of certain ethnic, sexual and other minorities)?

What is the condition of scientific research in social work – what are the stimulations, opportunities, achievements, evaluation? To what extent do research institutions connect and collaborate with environments that are of vital importance for a quality life of people? How successful are we in advocating social work in front of the widest research, expert and lay publics, as the science of doing, active, processual science that leans on participatory, interpretative paradigm? Where are we in the education for social work in Slovenia today? What are we distinguished by compared to other (not only the related) educational programmes in Slovenia? What are the characteristics of innovative approaches to under- and post-graduate study and life-long learning of social work? How do we estimate the first results of the Bologna reformed study of social work? What are its advantages and disadvantages? How do we assess competences that students acquire in the process and upon the completion of the study of social work? What is the role of the teachers of practical work at practicum placement sites in the process of examination and grading of practical competences of our social work students? What is our future vision of their role? How will this vision be realised? How do we create an open space to include students' voice in all key processes within higher education and life-long learning and training?