Social Service Workforce Week 19-23 October 2026
The theme of Social Service Workforce Week 2026 is the role of supervision in supporting the workforce
We would like to explore your experience of what makes supervision effective, in practice.
In 2020, with the input of our members and partners worldwide, we developed our Guidance Manual on Strengthening Supervision. Many countries have since developed policies or SOPs for implementing supervision along the lines set out in the manual, which defines supervision in the social services as ‘a supportive relationship… carried out in regular meetings, which focus on accountability, well-being and skill development (and) … encourages the supervisee to critically reflect on their practice.’ It emphasizes that ‘the ultimate aim of supervision is to improve the service to clients’.
What we would like to hear from you is how effective have these policies and frameworks been? How fully have they been implemented? What have been the main achievements and challenges faced? How have these challenges been overcome? In particular we are interested to hear examples of:
- Managing and resourcing supervision, including training supervisors, and how supervision is planned and recorded
- Different types of supervision and their uses, how different types can be optimally combined
- Use of supervision to enable reflective practice, and reflection on how the practitioner’s lived experience impacts their practice
- Using supervision to protect workforce wellbeing, help them manage stress and workload, and reduce burnout and high turnover.
On Wednesday 21st October we will hold an online round table discussion to explore these questions. It is an open event, at which all of you are invited and welcome to speak or ask questions. Rather than keynotes speakers and slides, various colleagues will share what, in their experience, works best in their country.
To attend, please enrol in advance via this event page on Changemakers.
Finally, during the whole week, 19 – 23 October, to celebrate Social Service Workforce Week on the theme of supporting the workforce through supervision, we will encourage members of GSSWA and our community on Changemakers for Children to post their news and experiences on this theme, and discuss what works best for them, in supporting the vital work of social service workers, whether through supervision or in other innovative ways.
As a reminder, we are now using Changemakers for Children as our main platform for exchange of news, views and learning among our members. All of you are invited to join our Community of Practice on Changemakers, and all new members are automatically directed to our Community on joining via our website.
Social Service Workforce Week Archive
Social Service Workforce Week 2025
In 2025, Social Service Workforce Week took place 27-31 October 2025 under the theme: Learning from Lived Experience. The main event was a webinar sharing the learning from consulting care-experienced young people and their families through our project, Strengthening the Social Service Workforce for Family-Based Care, alongside two Open Members’ Forums. The webinar recording is now available.
Social Service Workforce Week 2024
In 2024, Social Service Workforce Week took place 21-25 October 2024 under the theme: Transforming Children’s Care through an Empowered Social Service Workforce. Throughout the week we showcased the vital role of the social service workforce in reshaping care systems for children towards family-based care. All blogs, worker profiles and resources featured throughout the week are now available.
Social Service Workforce Week 2023
In 2022, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Alliance, the theme for Social Service Workforce Week in 2023 was a Decade of Progress, A Future of Promise. Throughout the week, we celebrated global-, regional- and country-level progress in strengthening the social service workforce over the past decade. We also explored remaining and emerging challenges in relation to strengthening the workforce and put forth a vision of what the next decade of social service workforce strengthening may look like.
Social Service Workforce Week 2022
In 2022, the theme for Social Service Workforce Week was Making the Case for Investing in Strengthening the Social Service Workforce Across Sectors. Throughout the week, we examined the diverse roles of social service workers when located across various sectors, such as health and education, and within humanitarian contexts. We also recommended strategies for planning and resourcing the social service workforce required for this range of roles.
Social Service Workforce Week 2021
The 2021, the theme for Social Service Workforce Week was The Changing Role of the Social Service Workforce in Emergency Preparedness and Response. Throughout the week, we drew attention to the essential roles social service workers play in helping people and communities prepare, adapt and respond to emergency and disaster situations. We also explored how social service workers have adapted with the increasing frequency and complexity of emergencies.
Social Service Workforce Week 2020
In 2020, Social Service Workforce Week highlighted the many essential roles of the social service workforce in the lives of individuals, families and communities. Throughout the week, daily blogs, worker profiles and new resources reviewed how the workforce is essential during COVID-19 and for transforming children’s care, protection of children, and delivering mental health and psychosocial support.
Social Service Workforce Week 2019
In 2019, Social Service Workforce Week called attention to the many ways the social service workforce collaborates with other sectors for promotive, preventative and responsive services to improve health and well-being for all groups.
Social Service Workforce Week 2018
In 2018, Social Service Workforce Week showcased the Alliance’s Call to Action: Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs. Throughout the week, we shared examples of how it is being implemented and outlined steps individuals and groups can take to achieve the recommended actions outlined in the advocacy document.
Social Service Workforce Week 2017
In 2017, Social Service Workforce Week highlighted why we need to advocate for a stronger workforce to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including the goals related to violence, migration and health.
Social Service Workforce Week 2016
In 2016, Social Service Workforce Week focused on building the case for a stronger social service workforce.” Daily blogs reviewed the reasons a stronger workforce is needed to best care for vulnerable populations, and how this can be achieved.
Social Service Workforce Week 2015
The 2015 Social Service Workforce Week focused on the role of community level workers.
Social Service Workforce Week 2014
The first Social Service Workforce week was held in April 2014 as a means to raise awareness for the Alliance and garner support from members, organizations and the public around the issue and importance of social service workforce strengthening.
The theme of Social Service Workforce Week this year is Learning from Lived Experience. The main event will be our webinar, on Wednesday 29th October, 13:00 – 14:30 UTC (GMT), in which we will share the learning from consulting people with lived experience of social work support, from our project, Strengthening the Social Service Workforce (SSW) for Family-Based Care. This initiative was funded by the Martin James Foundation, with technical support from Child Frontiers, and implemented with Associação Brasileira Terra dos Homens (Brazil), Miracle Foundation (India) and Child’s i Foundation with the Association of Care Leavers (Uganda). The aim was to learn from the knowledge and insights of care-experienced young people and their families, to inform the development of training and advocacy tools to strengthen the social service workforce in support of family-based care.
A speaker from each of these partners will share their main learning points and recommendations arising from this project, and we would love to hear from you about other work you may have done in this crucial area.
We are hosting this webinar with support from our partner Family for Every Child, who have generously allowed us to use their Changemakers for Children platform. If you are not already signed up to Changemakers for Children, you will be asked to do so in the webinar registration link below. We believe that joining Changemakers will be a great benefit to all our members – you will not only receive email reminders and the zoom link for this webinar, you will be able to hear about and join future online events, communities of practice and learning exchanges that we will host on this platform.
Register here for the SSW Week Webinar ‘Learning from Lived Experience to Strengthen the SSW’
During Social Service Workforce Week, will will also hold Open Members’ Forums. The first was held on Monday 27th October, but owing to the high level of demand, and as many of you interested could not attend on Monday, we are holding another forum on Friday 31st October, the last day of SSW week – 13:00 – 14:30 UTC (GMT).
The open forum is intended for both new and longstanding GSSWA members. It takes the form of a simple Zoom meeting, with no pre-determined agenda or speakers. You can share in advance any experience or issue you would like to discuss, via this online form, or you can go straight to this Zoom registration page, from which you will receive the link and calendar invitation to join.
If you join the forum, we hope you will feel free to keep your video and microphone open for a free-flowing exchange – you don’t need to stay for the full two hours, and we can keep the meeting open for longer if there is more to discuss than the time allows. We hope this will help you get to know each other better, help us plan future activities and events in line with your needs and interests, and enable you to share and include others in your ideas and plans for SSW strengthening.
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