Annual General Meeting 2017, Social Pedagogy Professional Association, London

 

The Social Pedagogy Professional Association’s inaugural Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday 5th October 2017 at the Wesley Hotel in London. It was attended by 25 members and was an opportunity to reflect on the year previous, vote on motions for the year ahead, and to nominate a new SPPA Trustee board.

Helen Jones (Chairperson) and Claire Cameron (CEO) provided the members an update on how far SPPA has developed since the launch in February 2017. We launched the Founding Membership and Group Memberships in February 2017, and in September we welcomed over a hundred members to the organisation. Along with membership, we have produced a range of activities from Focused Learning Days in Scotland and Northern Ireland, live and archived Webinars and piloting the Level 3 and Level 5 Diploma in Social Pedagogy with Jacaranda and ThemPra.

We have set our vision and aims of SPPA, what we want to achieve going forward. We outlined to our members that our vision and aim is to:

  • To be the professional home for Social Pedagogy in the UK
  • To increase interest in and demand for social pedagogy in the UK to provide better care to children, young people, adults, and older people
  • To provide a membership based organisation
  • To provide a regulatory function in terms of approving centres and membership to as part of a quality assurance function
  • Aim to be centre of excellence and promote best practice for the theory and practice of social pedagogy
  • Through social pedagogy we will improve the support of children, young people and adults, many of who live in disadvantaged circumstances or are vulnerable
  • work towards professionalising social pedagogy and equipping workers with training and resources
  • offer continuous professional development opportunities
  • to enable social pedagogues, social pedagogy practitioners and those who have a professional interest in social pedagogy to share knowledge and experience, connect with and support each other

 

 

In order to progress with our new and upcoming developments, our members were able to take part on voting for a number of Trustees to add to the Board and help us achieve this.

We are pleased to announce that, in addition to our existing board, we have appointed:

Robert Koglek (Head of Corporate Parenting at the London Borough of Hackney) is SPPA’s Shadow Secretary
Tanya Alder (Accountant) is the Treasurer
Robyn Kemp (Director of Centre for Social Work Practice) is  the Marketing Communications and Public Relations Trustee
Mélissa Desvignes (Social Pedagogue at Surrey County Council) is appointed a Trustee of SPPA
Simon Johr (Social Pedagogue at Staffordshire County Council) is appointed a Trustee of SPPA
Patricia Walls (Social Pedagogy Manger at Kibble Education & Care Centre) is also appointed a Trustee of SPPA

You can read more about our Board of Trustees here.

SPPA is about supporting the development of social pedagogy in thE UK. We are very grateful to the social pedagogues who have joined us from many parts of Europe and beyond. We want to develop an understanding of social pedagogy that works here in the UK context we want them to continue to come to support our journey.

We need to grow our own pedagogues and develop our own understandings and meanings within our own practice cultures and legislative frameworks – that may not even look the same across the four countries of the UK.