Social pedagogy is inherently creative. Social pedagogy thrives not on rulebooks but principles and contingencies. Social pedagogues often respond to a situation by saying ‘it depends’, and draw on theory, experience and team work to help them decide what next. Creativity plays a crucial part in helping decide what next. Today, creative thinking is highly relevant to social work and social workers. Creativity is also invoked by the ‘common third’, a concept that values mutual curiosity and exploring an interest or phenomena jointly, building relationships along the way. Participating in creative arts activities supports wellbeing and recovery from mental health difficulties (Ander et al. 2013).
Creativity can be seen as both integrating creative methods into everyday practice of working with people, and creative ways of teaching and learning.
In 2009, Chambers and Petrie published the Learning Framework for Artist Pedagogues, drawing on insights from Danish social pedagogic approaches to working with the arts. The LFAP gives a theoretical grounding and a tool for reflection to help artists and social care practitioners and educators (of all kinds) think through the purpose and potential of working creatively with specific groups of people.
Providers of social pedagogy courses frequently use creativity as a theme for learning, whether through participatory approaches, games, yoga, music, exploring wild areas, among many other possibilities.
This conference, hosted by the Social Pedagogy Professional Association (SPPA), will be an invigorating, refreshing, and quirky opportunity to hear about all kinds of creative practices, approaches, theories and frameworks. SPPA invites members and non- members to hear from leading creative thinkers and practitioners about the contribution social pedagogy makes to quality of life when working with disadvantaged groups.
The International Journal of Social Pedagogy will be launching its special issue on Creativity at the SPPA conference.
SPPA is the professional home of social pedagogy in the UK. It is a membership based organisation that exists to support continuous professional development in social pedagogy in all areas of the UK. It holds standards for social pedagogy qualifications and endorses social pedagogy learning programmes. New members are always welcome.
Who should attend: all those interested in a social pedagogic approach to delivering care, education and health services, from practitioners to policy makers, and students to academics. You might be working in early childhood education and care, family support, youth work, foster care, social work, in day care services for older people, mental health services or residential child care. There is a place in social pedagogy for all of you. There is a special discounted rate for students and non-wage earners.
Date
04/10/2019
Time
09:00 - 16:30
Location
Friends Meeting House
6 Mount Street
Manchester
M2 5NS
Pricing
Early Bird SPPA member - £68.50
Standard SPPA member - £78.50
Early Bird non-member - £98.50
Standard non-member - £118.50
Early bird Group booking for 5 people - £314.00
Standard Group booking for 5 people - £434.00
SPPA member - students and concessions - £23.50
Non-member - students and concessions - £48.50
Please note that eventbrite charges a booking fee and VAT in addition to the prices above.
Kate McCoy is a participatory performance maker, trainer and facilitator who uses theatre to connect people and create playful safe spaces for exploration. She is the founder and artistic director of 
Chris has recently left Surrey County Council having spent the last 15 years leading on the development of its restorative practice and services to children and families.
Helen Chambers has an MSc in Health Promotion and worked in a variety of roles developing and managing national programmes to promote the health and well-being of looked after children. Latterly much of Helen’s has work focused on arts and culture in the lives of children and young people, especially those in care. Whilst working for National Children’s Bureau, Helen linked extensively with Institute of Education to investigate how arts and creative practice can enrich the lives of children and carers within social pedagogic practice. With Professor Pat Petrie she developed “The artist pedagogue learning framework”, working with artists, care staff and children. Helen’s publications and training materials include “Healthy Care” publications, “People with Passion: embedding creativity in the lives of looked after children”, and co-author of “Richer Lives: creative activities in the education and practice of Danish social pedagogues”. She is passionate about the value of the arts and culture in everyday life, and for the contribution of social pedagogic care practice to enable this through partnership working and training of arts and care staff. 
Having qualified as a social pedagogue and social worker in Germany, Alex has worked in a number of European countries. Her areas of expertise include children in residential care and social pedagogy family support (SPFH). Her experiences of working in child protection, child placement teams, leaving and aftercare, and family group conferencing services have given her a wealth of social pedagogy knowledge coupled with British social services experience, which enables her to creatively adapt courses and activities to the needs of individuals and organisations. Alex joined ThemPra in 2009 and have since led and co-facilitated different social pedagogy courses and implementation programmes with various local authorities, voluntary and charitable organisations throughout the UK. She is a passionate experiential learning facilitator, using creative methods to bring groups together along their social pedagogy journeys. 
Gabriel is the co-founder of ThemPra Social Pedagogy, a social (pedagogical) enterprise supporting the development of social pedagogy in the UK through short courses, capacity-building programmes and strategic development. He studied social pedagogy, social work and sociology of childhood in Germany, Denmark, and the UK. His practice experience is mainly in play work, youth work, children’s participation and advocacy, as well as online learning, organisational development and group facilitation. He has been leading the Erasmus+ project developing a Massive Open Online Course in Social Pedagogy across Europe, which is now available on Coursera. Since its inception in 2009, he has been coordinating the Social Pedagogy Development Network, and he is also jointly editing the International Journal of Social Pedagogy. Gabriel is passionate about helping people discover their innate potential and about working together to make this world a place wherein every person can thrive. 
Lowis is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and joint Course Lead for the MA in Social Pedagogy Leadership. She has run various training sessions around social pedagogy for several Local Authority teams and third sector organisations. She is also the lead for the UK partner team in the Erasmus funded Massive Open On-Line Course (MOOC) project, Social Pedagogy In Europe. Headed by ThemPra, the project has developed a short on-line course looking at the role of social pedagogy across Europe.
Ali recently set up her own organisation Head, Heart and Hands in Practice following 15 years as a University Senior Lecturer. Ali qualified as a social worker in 1993 and has worked predominantly with adults with a learning disability. Over this time she has developed educational resources and published books relating to personalisation and social pedagogy. Ali has been a Director of an Advocacy Project working with children and adults for over 10 years. Ali is currently working closely with a number of local authorities and adult social care providers to develop the understanding and application of Social Pedagogy in working alongside adults. 
Elizabeth is the Professional Lead for Social Work at the University of West London, where she established the current Social Work degree. She has over 30 years as a qualified practitioner. Prior to moving to an academic post, she has worked in a wide variety of social work roles. Her career commenced as a Probation Officer in London, and subsequently, she has worked in adult services, with older people, drugs and alcohol services, learning disabilities and also managing a children with disability service in a local authority. Elizabeth has also held equality posts within local authorities, as a Women’s Officer and Equal Opportunities Officer. 
Nicole has recently completed a PhD in social pedagogy at the University of Derby, which explored the influence of social pedagogy on the practice and values of the children’s services workforce in a local authority. She has been published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy and wrote a chapter titled ‘Where Care and Education Meet?’ which explored social pedagogy of the Children Act (2004) in a postgraduate education text.
Faith is a co-founder of Women Stepping Out, which promotes education and self-confidence within the Welsh African Caribbean community and managed it between 1994 -2014. She has worked to help empower children, young people, families and communities in her many roles including community activist, life coach, mentor and community development consultant. She has 27 years’ experience working with communities and is a qualified youth and community practitioner with a BA (Hon) in Community Education and Master’s in Education. She is also a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales Committee and the managing director of FW Consultancy. She is a presenter on Radio Cardiff. Faith was appointed by the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales to conduct consultation work on his behalf with the Africa/Caribbean community in South Wales. She is also a member of Friends of Cardiff Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia, which provides support to those affected and their families. 
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: 
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 
Mélissa Desvignes graduated as a Social Pedagogue specialised in Experiential Education and Cultural Pedagogy in Germany. She has worked in a variety of roles and has gathered experiences as a social pedagogue managing a nursery, being a supervising social worker in a local authority as well as in other roles.
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. 
Claire Parker has worked as a Creative Mentor for DCC for 5 years. Claire is a Health Care Professional Council (HCPC) registered Art Psychotherapist, and has worked in a Manchester Primary school for ‘Place2Be’ (a national children’s mental health charity), and for East Cheshire Hospice.
Raquel Marta holds a PhD in Social Work from ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute and has lectured widely on social work and related areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in Europe and in the United States. Her research focused on creativity, complex thought and vulnerability with a particular focus on professional transformative abilities. Currently, her primary scholarly agenda unites human development and environmental sustainability and is largely concerned with understanding individual vulnerabilities and their linkages with structural environmental inequalities in informal human settlements.