We are delighted to announce the second annual SPPA conference. We will have speakers and workshops on a variety of topics, exploring our conference theme ‘Growing up, growing old. Staying well: a social pedagogical approach’.
Current public policy reform in all four countries of the UK envisages new ways of practicing in care, education and health services for individuals, families and communities. But delivery often falls short of being transformational. Social pedagogy has a life course perspective and foregrounds everyday living contexts. Social pedagogy is a relational and ethical practice that gives practitioners a values framework, alongside theories and tools with concrete applicability to everyday practice. Social pedagogy holds the possibility to support current policy direction and to enhance the quality of service provided.
This conference, hosted by the Social Pedagogy Professional Association (SPPA), will be an invigorating, refreshing, creative, and quirky reframing of public policy and the way we practice. There will be an opportunity to hear from leading voices in public policy and to participate in workshops about changing practice on the ground to enhance the quality of life and outcomes in the many settings where social pedagogy is active.
Our keynote will be delivered by Professor James Mitchell from the School of Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Prof. Mitchell will be talking about the ambitions of public policy that resonate with social pedagogy, such as community engagement and collaborative learning, and why these are hard to translate into practice on the ground.
There will be workshops hosted on a variety of themes, from building trusting, sustainable relationships with young people, adopting a social pedagogic approach to working with adults with learning disabilities and more from across the life course. Workshop titles and speakers will be confirmed ASAP.
*Not yet a member? Joining as a SPPA member only costs £70 and you can then avail of the SPPA member early-bird fee of £60 until 6 July 2018 (and if you are a student/non-wage earner you can join for £25 and avail of the £25 conference fee). The total cost of SPPA membership and the early-bird fee is the same as attending the conference as a non-member, plus you get one year access to SPPA membership benefits.
To book:
Date
28/09/2018
Time
09:30 - 16:30
Location
Surgeons’ Hall,
Nicolson Street,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9DW
Pricing
SPPA member standard fee – £80
Non-member standard fee – £150
SPPA member concessions fee – £25
Non-SPPA member concessions fee - £50
Not yet a member? Join here: www.sppa-uk.org/membership/
Cecile is a social pedagogue working with young people in care, and as such she is always interested in the interaction between learning processes and social change. She expands on this in a blog: 
Cyndy has over 30 years of experience teaching across all key stages. She has worked in a number of settings including mainstream and special schools. Latterly as Deputy Head of TMBSS Cyndy has worked closely with Senior managers in mainstream sec schools. Her focus had been on devising programmes of early intervention models to enable troubled children to remain in schools. Her particular skills lie in negotiating and networking with colleagues in other agencies including Virtual heads in some London boroughs when considering education for LAC children residing in Shropshire. Her background is in English Drama and Special Needs. 
Kay has been managing in schools for 20 years of her 30 year career. She has a focus on school improvement and has led to major structural changes in individual schools and most recently across a whole service. She is most proud of the difference that the service made to the most disadvantaged pupils in the county. Her background is in secondary History and English teaching in Inner London and she has maintained contact with the subjects throughout her career. Since 1999 she has focused on Special Educational Needs provisions, in particular, Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. She currently tutors adults in courses on SEN. 
Pat Petrie is Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Understanding Social Pedagogy (CUSP), Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London. She established CUSP in 2009. Her professional background was in teaching, and working through drama, including in residential settings. Her research areas include early childcare and education, play and care services for school-age children and provision for disabled children. She cofounded and coordinated the European Network for School-age child care (1987-2003) and conducted the first survey of school-age childcare in the EU (1996), leading to her interest in social pedagogy and acceptance (1999) of Department of Health’s invitation to explore it further. A programme of government-funded European work culminated (2008) with piloting social pedagogy in children’s residential care in England, followed by contributing to Fostering Network’s introduction of social pedagogy into foster care. She has an ongoing involvement in social pedagogy and the creative arts and is one of the group now developing SPPA and social pedagogy qualifications. She is interested in social pedagogy for work with older people because she thinks they fit together, practically and theoretically.
Thure qualified as a Pedagogue in Denmark specialising in music within social education. He has lived and worked in the UK since 2007 and is particularly keen on promoting the