REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE NORTH/SOUTH PRACTICE TEACHING CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE NORTH/SOUTH PRACTICE TEACHING CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY, 11 NOVEMBER, 1999
It is certainly no hardship to come to this conference in such a beautiful, unspoilt and still relatively undiscovered part of Ireland. I owe thanks to the Chairperson and members of the Voluntary Organisations Forum and the National Association of Practice Teachers for inviting me to open this important conference.
You have important business to discuss, networks to establish, ideas to share but I hope you will take a bit of time to explore this lovely area of County Cavan close to the recently restored Shannon, Erne Waterway. Not only is there the sedate pleasure of cruising on the waterway but there is a wealth of history to be explored and a fine golf course to try with some of the new acquaintances you will undoubtedly meet here. So often it is in those simple human contacts, the cup of tea, the shared meal, the walk, the bus journey, that a stranger turns into a friend and a friendship into a network of mutual support. That is precisely why every so often we need to disengage from the everyday world of work with its routine, its tiredness and come to conferences like this to think afresh about things, listen to new ideas, meet people with insights we have not yet heard and share those which are special to us.
Social Workers, by the very nature of the role they fulfil, have an input into almost every health and social service related area in both the North and South of Ireland. Yes, your work takes place within different statutory and practice regimes, different political and social climates, but this conference, a joint North/South initiative, acknowledges that we have much to learn from and to teach each other across a spectrum of common issues. By discussion and debate, by open listening and sharing, we hope to be able to find pathways to common answers.
Social Workers, in both the North and South of Ireland, deal with fallout. The lives they deal with are complex, affected by a litany of critical or chronic issues; family breakdown, suicide, child abuse, homelessness, alcoholism, drug abuse, respite care, disability, to name just a few. They work inside structures which generate other issues, intervention powers, funding, resource allocation, manpower planning, waiting lists, prioritisation, designing services which match the needs of the future.
The world of the social worker, your world does not stay static. It does not get easier just different and more demanding. In the last few years the pace of change, heavily influenced by the hegemony of the ‘information age’ in which we live, has become more rapid in both the North and South of Ireland. The level of expectation as to entitlements in such areas as income, housing, health care and social services has risen considerably in response to buoyant economic conditions and the rising level of employment.
However these same economic conditions have helped to widen the gap between the haves and the have nots in society and, reinforced by information technology, run the risk of creating a new societal group of people who as a consequence of being on low incomes and ‘information poor’ may never realise their full potential.
In common with most first world countries, we on this island will face demographic problems, now or in the near future, arising from the growth of an ageing and dependent population, from increasing multiculturalism and these are just some examples of the significant changes you have to plan for and be ready to deal with confidently and effectively. There are many more.
Solving these and other social problems requires team work between people and agencies. Social workers are therefore often required to work on an inter-agency, multi- disciplinary basis where typically they are the key person responsible for ensuring effective communications and co-operation between services. Education, theoretical and practical, is the key to ensuring that social workers can carry out their various roles efficiently and effectively.
Each jurisdiction has to struggle to find its own way through but that journey will hopefully be shortened and easier if it is shared, if resources, wisdom, insight, skill are managed efficiently and there is no better way to manage those precious resources efficiently than by the kind of closer co-operation with each other that this conference aims to develop.
The mood of the conference mirrors the public mood subsumed into and given voice in the Good Friday Agreement. The script we hope to write for the future is of healthy North and South relationships where the inescapable logic of cross–border endeavour will be supported by special agencies and by the commitment of the two governments, one in Dublin and the other we hope soon in Northern Ireland. Cross-border co-operation will not be a new phenomenon, just better co-ordinated and its potential better exploited.
In the past there has been considerable movement in personnel terms between the North and South of Ireland. However it is ironic that, as identified in the recent report a Comparative Analysis of Social Work Qualifications, cross border placements are declining and there is now a danger that the different approach taken to Social Work education by the authorities in the two jurisdictions, may mean North/South mobility is severely restricted. This issue is being addressed now by the National Social Work Qualifications Board and the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work.
This conference will consider this and the many other common denominators which relate to practice teaching and the practice of Social Work generally in the North and South of Ireland
Today the holistic model, placing the client in their social context and treating the person as a whole, forms the ideal for social work practice. The education and training of social workers, therefore, demands a broad range of skills, knowledge, intuition insight and judgement. A sound academic education is essential but it cannot do the job on its own. Lived life, working on the job, inside a culture of willingness to engage in continuous education and a culture of support for continuous education is the key to an effective and credible social work profession. That is where practice teaching and practice teachers come into their own. Knowing how crucial that work is you are putting that ethic of continuing education into practice here. Attendance at this conference says we all have similar questions but no-one has a monopoly on the right or the best answer. It says that as a profession you have the humility to admit there is much to be learnt and the generosity to share the things already learnt or unlearnt. It says that you want a profession which is able to steer convincingly through the storms ahead and not one which is rudderless. I hope you leave this conference with a renewed and refreshened commitment to your vocation and a clear-sighted vision for the road ahead.
It only remains for me to declare this conference officially open, to wish you all every success and I hope that the various sessions over the next two days will prove to be both fruitful and rewarding for everyone present.
Thank You