On Wednesday 15^th November 2017, the London Borough of Brent held a conference to launch its Practice Framework (publication forthcoming) for Children and Young People Services. Social pedagogy, which grows out of a long-standing interest in Brent, plays one of the key roles in the Framework. Over recent years, personnel have attended social pedagogy events in London and elsewhere and have commissioned Jacaranda to play an active part in developing social pedagogy in the service.

This has included Jacaranda’s delivering learning courses and assisting in recruiting Diana Schmidt to a new post: Development Lead for Social Pedagogy. Diana is a qualified social pedagogue and social worker who was employed in the DFE-funded residential care project (2009-10), at TCRU.

The conference was attended, over the day, by more than 400 Brent staff by: practitioners who work directly with children and/or families, their line managers, social workers, personal advisors, staff from early help and others. One of the sessions was a lecture by Pat Petrie. This was attended by about 60 people, mostly new to the subject.  Written feedback after the session was positive, with an average score of 8.5 (out of 10) given to wanting ‘to learn more’ about social pedagogy. Opportunely, Brent is hoping to commission the Crossfield’s Level 3 Diploma in Social Pedagogy soon.