Innovation in Social Care

New methodologies are continually being developed by educators, researchers and practitioners. Social Care Ireland strives to bring you the latest developments on these pages.

Guide to the Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers

These five ebooks are a professional response to the standards of proficiency, written entirely by social care workers for students, workers and educators. Here the voice of social care workers is at the centre of each standard of proficiency, providing a valid, meaningful and practice-rich discussion.

The social care workers involved have given their time and expertise to help strengthen the profession and their contributions are a testament to their competence, generosity, passion and pride in social care work.

Learn more about the guide and download the ebooks

Social Care Framework

This tool was developed to support students to learn more about the interconnected nature of social care work. On the dedicated website you will find a description of each area and how it relates to working in social care, as well as some useful resources.

Behind the tool are Jenny McGarr and Margaret Fingleton. Both are social care workers now lecturing in social care education. Jenny lectures on the Applied Social Care programme in TU Dublin Tallaght Campus and Margaret lectures with the Department of Languages, Law and Social Sciences in TU Dublin City Campus. Both have extensive experience working across a broad range of social care settings and use their knowledge and experience to support students to prepare for practice.

Creativity and Innovation in Social Care (CISC)

The Creativity and Innovation in Social Care (CISC) network is currently working on a professional development project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. This project focuses on the use of ePortfolios in supporting the development of social care educators’ creative teaching practice and sharing best practice in creative learning with others as well as identifying opportunities for further professional development.

We have produced professional video about the work of the network and other short films that focus on teaching challenges during Covid that required a creative approach to practice. Other outputs from this initiative include a graphic recording of a framework for creativity, practice and learning in social care developed by Professor Norman Jackson, a recording of a seminar on creativity and creative pedagogy in social care, and several ePortfolios from members of the network.

You can find out more about the CISC network and reach them at https://dmacgiollari.wixsite.com/creativesocialcare

Below are links to the portfolios of some of those involved.