What should you be prepared for when presenting evidence on neglect in court?

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Joanna Nicolas, a child protection consultant and trainer, who will be speaking on this topic at Community Care Live Birmingham 2016 in our mock court.
How will your session help social workers present evidence about neglect in a court?I will be running a session on presenting evidence of neglect in the court. This will be done through a mixture of role play and audience participation. The role play will involve me playing a barrister and I will be cross-examining a social worker, Rebecca Kay. We will go through what you should and shouldn’t do when presenting evidence. I am looking forward to being on “the other side”!
Why do you think this topic is so important?
A frequent refrain of social workers is that neglect is the hardest category to evidence in the court and I also said that for many years. Now though, seeing it from a different perspective I would challenge that. This session will show social workers how to successfully present evidence of neglect. We hope you will come away feeling much more confident about how you present and more sure of what the evidence must consist of.

Joanna Nicolas

What is your favourite thing about working in social care?
I have to say I love everything about my job and I am proud to have been a social worker for 21 years. If I have said one thing or done one thing that has improved one child’s life, then all the flack, hostility and challenges have been worth it.
Joanna will also be taking part in a panel discussion on ‘The recording of child protection conferences’ and presenting a session on ‘Detecting disguised compliance’.
View the Community Care Live Birmingham 2016 programme