Social Care News and Features

Community Care Live 2024 is open for registration!

Our annual event provides social workers and other social care practitioners with free learning, the chance to connect with fellow professionals and a wealth of opportunities to explore with employers, learning organisations and providers.

And by booking early, you can take advantage of our launch offer for our eight paid-for legal learning seminars, enabling you to receive top-quality guidance on social care law from leading experts at less than half our standard price.

Why come to Community Care?

Learning from lived experience

This year’s free programme will provide practitioners with critical learning on key topics across children’s and adults’ services, including supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, young people at risk of involvement with violence, adults with learning disabilities and people with dementia, and understanding the benefits system.

While several of these will be delivered by leading practitioners and academics, there is also a strong focus on learning from the voices of lived experience.

Bestselling author and care experienced trainer Jenny Molloy will be returning to the event for a session on day two (9 October) on how social workers can work better with women who have recovered from addiction and domestic abuse.

Jenny will draw on her work as patron of women’s recovery charity Trevi and will be speaking alongside two other experts by experience, Helen and Vicki.

Also on day two, Luke Rodgers will tell his compelling story of going from being a care leaver to founding charity the Care Leaders, which provides children’s services practitioners with training on supporting young people from a lived experience perspective.

Highlighting the ‘inclusion emergency’ 

And on day one (8 October), expert by experience and academic Rebecca Regler will deliver a session on why involving people with lived experience in social work’s design and delivery is so important, and how it can be increased at individual and strategic level.

Alongside these sessions, we are welcoming back the ever-popular Chickenshed Theatre Company, whose members will be sharing their own experiences of social exclusion in their production, ‘Inclusion Emergency’.

The show, on day one, is designed to help practitioners understand young people’s lived experiences and the barriers to inclusion that many face.

Practitioners will also be drawing on their lived experience at this year’s event. This includes a session on how employers can make workplaces more inclusive for staff with neurodivergent conditions, such as ADHD, autism and dyslexia, delivered by social workers Florence Smith and Jenni Guthrie, from training firm Neuro Inclusive Solutions.

Top-quality legal learning for less than half the price

Our paid-for legal stream will provide you with learning on social care law from leading barristers and legal trainers.

These include Community Care Inform legal editor Tim Spencer-Lane, who will be delivering sessions on the Mental Capacity Act and care and support decisions, the legal framework around safeguarding adults and section 117 aftercare under the Mental Health Act on day two.

Our other legal sessions cover hoarding, covert medication and capacity law, supporting asylum seekers with additional needs, understanding capacity, competence and parental responsibility in relation to young people, protecting young people from exploitation and private family law proceedings.

You can book any one of these sessions for £15 + VAT – compared to our standard rate of £35 + VAT – until 28 June or the first 250 tickets are sold, whichever comes first.

So get in quick to take advantage of this offer!

Network with fellow practitioners and explore opportunities

Alongside the learning, you will have the chance to network with fellow practitioners and explore new opportunities – with employers, learning organisations, providers and recruiters – in our exhibition.

And to help you relax and to provide a break from the learning, you can take part in our seated yoga and medication sessions, delivered by Essex County Council practitioners.

It is thanks to Essex County Council, our event partner, Hampshire County Council, our learning sponsor, and Wiltshire Council, our event sponsor, along with our exhibitors, that it is possible for us to put on this event and deliver so much high-quality content.

We look forward to seeing you in London in October!