Search for Learning and Development Services and Pathways

This course is for first line and middle managers only.

It sets out the foundations of knowledge and skills needed for development within a management role, and enables managers to identify further training and development needs. The programme consists of 5.5 days over a seven month period with ten hours of self-directed learning. It will be delivered through a blended solution including face to face and online training, psychometric assessment, 360 review, action learning sets, individual coaching, individual reflection, skills practice and e-learning. The topics included are personal development as a manager, leadership and communication, developing individuals and teams, managing employee performance, decision making and managing change, resources and stakeholder relationships. This seven month First Line Management Programme provides participants the opportunity to go through the following topics with a cohort of council peers, rather than as standalone training days. The benefit of this can be enhanced networks and greater learning as reflection and improvement is an integrated part of the programme. Participants also benefit from a 360-degree feedback to inform their development and a MBTI psychometric profile.

Please note there is a charge to attend this course for external delegates of £725.
South Gloucestershire Council employees will be recharged £190 to cover costs.

This inspiring and engaging three day programme is for existing female managers who wish to progress in their careers and aspiring managers and leaders. We have created the content so women at all stages of their careers can benefit from it.

The programme seeks to address the under representation of women in management roles and is designed to build confidence, informal networks and develop our collective understanding of women as future leaders in their lives, team and workplace.

This three day programme will provide participants with an opportunity to focus on personal and professional goals and give ongoing support to achieve them. The workshops are designed to be engaging, fun and interactive, as well as impactful and thought provoking.

Participants will consider themes such as self-awareness, self – leadership, personal impact and influence, and how the actions the take can help them flourish in careers and gain greater job and life satisfaction. It will contain a mixture of discussions, self reflection and self-stud. There will be essential pre-course work, networking and homework tasks in between sessions.

Please note: This is a women only programme,

This course is free to South Gloucestershire Council staff. For all external delegates there is a charge of £368.

You will embark on 100 days of change and at the end of the programme create a 12 month plan.

Day 1: The FREEDOM Method – This day is about self-leadership and personal development. The stages are - find out about yourself, review where you are now, experience and learn, explore possibilities, decide, overcome obstacles and make it happen, you will also begin 100 days of change.

Day 2: Personal impact and influence – leadership, generating presence, influence and persuasion, assertiveness and negotiation, personal networks and goal review

Day 3: Inspirational women and leadership – review of progress and achievement – inspirational women – leadership styles - mentoring – career advancement - goal setting for 12 months.


Please bring your laptop to each session.

VENUE: Kingswood Civic Centre

Butterflies and Bees is changing its name to Therapeutic Parenting Pick 'n' Mix

In order to do this course you must first have done Why and How? Attachment and Emotional Health For Young People Looked After; or another kind of training on attachment; or have had some partnership/carer consultation through Thinking Aloud.

This is a psychoeducational group for adults who care for children who have experienced trauma and loss.

Why do the course?
Entering the world of children who have experienced trauma and loss can present many challenges. They may act in ways that bring up intense emotions in the people who are caring for them and often get trapped in cycles of placement breakdowns, low self worth and long term mental health issues. There is no easy solution to this, but by gaining a better understanding of the worlds these children are living in, we open up space for repairing the negative impacts. This ultimately will lead to a reduction in distress and better social and emotional wellbeing.

What will we be doing on the course?
This course presents offers:
1. A guide to the world of these children
2. Tools needed to navigate and survive in them.
The course is not designed to provide a “magic wand” to fix these children but act as a foundation or refresher for carers to continue to build their reflective capacity, knowledge, and skill set.

Do I need to do this?
You will get the most out of the course if you come with an open mind and the understanding that even the most experienced carers benefit from an opportunity to refresh and reflect on these skills. The course facilitators aim to role model this with the philosophy that no one is the expert and everyone has something to bring to the group from their lives.

Primary aims - Carers will gain…
1. Carers personal tools e.g. self care, self reflection
2. Child specific tools
3. A workbook: information and theories

Key learning methods:
1. Discussion
2. Reflection
3. Practice (role play and tasks to do at home each week)
4. Direct teaching from facilitators
5. Peer learning*

Please feel free to share your knowledge and tips with other carers when things are raised in the group. There are things to be learned from everyone


Please note: By booking onto this course, you are consenting to your contact details being passed onto the trainer. This is so they can send the Zoom invitation to you.

At certain times, most people find it difficult to communicate honestly, directly and openly with other people. This course will help you to understand different ways of relating to other people, how to identify assertive, passive and aggressive communication and how you can communicate more positively with others. Assertiveness involves being clear about what you feel, what you need and how it can be achieved. It allows you to engage respectfully with other people, whilst also respecting your own needs and ensures that you don't feel taken advantage of through setting appropriate professional and personal boundaries.

In this course we will look at rights and responsibilities in communication, communications styles, motivation and intent in communication and the impact of assertive and non-assertive behaviour. It will give you an opportunity to think about how you relate to others and changes you can make to communicate clearly and assertively.


Please ensure that you have completed the Assertiveness Skills e-module before attending this course.

• If you are SGC staff please log onto the Enable website and visit Learning > Available Learning. The assertiveness e-learning is within the Personal Effectiveness section.

• For non SGC staff, please email hrlearninganddevelopment@southglos.gov.uk to request access to the course

This course is specifically for social work practitioners responsible for assessing the needs of autistic adults.  

It is delivered by colleagues from Avon & Wiltshire Partnership, with high level of expertise in supporting adults with autism. 

It will include a focus on:

Issues in assessment:
Opportunity to reflect on previous assessments with autistic adults
Consider how someone with autism might be eligible (unmet) needs in each outcome area of Care Act 2014
Why some ‘able’ adults get overlooked for support
Why a good assessment is essential for autistic adults – mental health co-morbidities- anxiety/low mood/suicidal risks
Reasons why assessment may be difficult eg apparent lack of engagement, communication of needs
Impact on families and carers,
How to work with parents 

Autism and other social care law. Autism Act, Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act and Equality Act 

Assessment:
Preparing for assessment, gathering information, time requirement
Using principles of safety, clarity, precision, empathy, and low arousal
How to structure visits, assessments and reviews for autistic adults
How to build rapport and develop trust
How to alter the way you communicate
Assessing sensory needs within context of the Care Act 

Service provision:
Working with care providers and setting up placements for autistic adults
What does a good service look like?
Critically evaluating providers including specialist provision
Low level long term support methods

Please note that by booking this course you are giving permission for you email address to be sent to the trainer.


Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 363 533 721 110
Passcode: 2y96wt

It is recommended that you attend the "Raising Safeguarding Concerns" course before you attend this training

Safeguarding Adults is an important part of effective practice within social and healthcare.
The role of a manager/practitioner in ensuring that staff respond appropriately to a safeguarding concern is vital. Staff need to be well informed and confident about their own responsibilities in safeguarding adults so that they respond appropriately when concerns are identified.

This 1-day course will support managers/supervisors, Social Workers/OTs and other practitioners including in healthcare to be clear about their role, how Making Safeguarding Personal impacts on it, and how to make decisions about what to do next.

The standard charge for this course is £103.50 per day. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

We all know that Care Experienced people have a greater likelihood of experiencing inequalities. We also know that when ‘care experience’ is coupled with factors such as ‘Sex’, ‘Race’, ‘Disability’ etc. young people talk to us about experiencing ‘double discrimination’.  In this session, let’s be clear about the inequalities faced by Care Experienced people and talk together about the actions we could all take to reduce and eliminate them.

This session will be held in Kingswood Civic Centre - Room F17

Any questions call Chris Hill on 07749003099 or email chris.hill@southglos.gov.uk prior to the event

Please Note: By booking onto this course, you are consenting to your contact details being passed onto the trainer. 

The Purpose for the support groups



We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

There will be biscuits and/or cake, coffee, tea, and an opportunity for an informal chat at all of the meetings.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

Sometimes there will be speakers and topics as requested by the group, this will hopefully make it as relevant to your fostering as you like.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP).


Contact Details: jane.brommage@southglos.gov.uk and Janice.long@southglos.gov.uk, fosteringbusinesssupport@southglos.gov.uk

• The South Glos. Practice fundamentals have been developed to reflect the changes that we need to build on as part of our Improvement plan.
• They support our practice by encouraging consistency and making organisational expectations clear.
• The delivery method is new, each module is only 90 minutes long and is content light and practice heavy- with a space to reflect built into the session. It’s about learning from one another.
• This isn’t about templates- it’s about the principles of good quality practice and how we can evidence and show our thinking, understanding and impact of our professional intervention effectively.
• There will be a rolling programme of modules on offer throughout the autumn delivered via Teams.
• They are open to all practitioners, including social workers, team managers, personal advisors, and social work assistants.
• This module explores Child SMART planning. This is because we understand ourselves well enough to know we need to make further improvement in our planning alongside families. This learning compliments other resources recently created too, so you will be able to add this to your knowledge portfolio and practice toolkit.
• After attendance and completion of the feedback form, you will receive a certificate. This can support your CPD.

Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 314 632 223 872
Passcode: DPyPMs

The multi-agency South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board oversees the Joint Policy and Procedures for Safeguarding Adults in this area. It is essential that a wide range of staff working in local authority, health and social care agencies are fully aware of the key issues in safeguarding vulnerable adults and of how the policy affects them in their front-line roles. The half-day Raising Safeguarding Concerns course is essential training for all front-line staff and managers who are involved in providing services to adults at risk and who work directly with service users. The course content is mapped to the learning outcomes in the local Safeguarding Adults Training Standards (published Dec 2017) as well as to relevant national occupational standards including the Care Certificate (Standard 10). Course attendance is monitored by the Safeguarding Adults Board. The standard charge for this course is £49. Please refer to our Course Charges on the Home page for information on discounts and exemptions.

We are restricting numbers from each organisation to 4 individuals per course.

If you organisation require a large number of individuals to complete this course, then it maybe possible for in house training to be organised.
Please contact HRlearninganddevelopment@southglos.gov.uk with your requirements.