Performances with Keynote Speakers for Social Work
Imagine a training day that doesn’t just present ideas – it creates space for dialogue and critical thinking. A day where complex case studies are brought vividly to life, inviting your delegates to question assumptions, explore challenges, and debate what good practice really looks like in the real world.
We’ve partnered with some of the UK’s leading voices in social work to design immersive, full-day events that combine expert keynote presentations with dynamic interactive theatre performances. These sessions provoke thought, spark conversations, and encourage participants to reflect on the complexities of social work practice, not just in theory, but in the nuanced situations practitioners face every day.
The Training Events
Knocking on the Door – the home visit and social work practice: with Professor Harry Ferguson, University of Birmingham.
Growing with Substance – working with parental substance misuse: delivered with Dr Ciaran Murphy, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Edge Hill University.
Getting Connected – attachment-based practice in social care and safeguarding: with Dr Clark Baim, registered psychotherapist, author and Senior Trainer with the British Psychodrama Association or Lydia Guthrie, social worker, systemic psychotherapist and author.
Caught in the Net – working with families where there is an allegation of or conviction for viewing CSAM: with Michael Sheath, formerly of the Lucy Faithful Foundation.
Safety Net – working with families who have experienced domestic abuse: with Kate Iwi, international trainer, supervisor and author with over 32 years’ experience of working with domestic abuse in a child protection context.
Bridging the Gap – the importance of connecting mento child protection work: also with Kate Iwi.
Why Book?
Unforgettable learning – emotive, interactive performances seamlessly combined with expert insight from leading specialists.
Stress-free planning – we design and deliver the entire day (with optional space for your local context.)
Extra support – we supply ready-to-use promotional material and collate feedback for you.
Simple logistics – you provide the venue, refreshments and attendee list – we handle the rest.
Scalable for your audience – depending on your venue, these events can accommodate large groups making them ideal for regional or multi-team training days.
Adaptable to your needs – want the full keynote + performance experience or just the performance? We can tailor the day to suit your objectives. If you are already planning a conference or training event and are looking for something unique and engaging to add to your agenda, you can simply book the performance to slot seamlessly into your existing programme.
Bespoke options available – if you have a specific theme, challenge or issue you’d like us to explore, contact us to discuss how we can create something tailored to your needs.
Why does this work?
Our approach isn’t just creative – it is evidence-based. As reported in Community Care Magazine, theatre-based methods in social work training allow professionals to step into complex scenarios, pause and reflect, and rehearse real-time responses – all in a safe, low-risk environment.
This blend of emotion and insight builds empathy, critical thinking, and confidence to make better decisions on the job.
Should be rolled out as training for all social work professionals
– Audience member – Caught in the Net
Informed by research as well as experience
– Audience member – Caught in the Net
“Excellent day – What I would call a masterclass.”
– Participant
“Absolutely amazing and inspiring.”
– Participant
“It was a well-packaged programme.”
– Participant
“This will support my practice on many levels and I will refer back to today when I am faced with similar situations.”
– Participant
“Fabulous, measured, clear, insightful and delivered at the right pace and level.”
– Participant
“These guys are talented beyond words…their ability to take on roles and engage the audience. It was just perfect!”
– Participant
The performances were excellent, providing valuable learning opportunities to the student group. The timings were also made flexible, according to the students’ needs, and overall a well structured day.
– Organiser – Birmingham City University Social Work
The speaker was absolutely amazing and the experience and knowledge that was shared will definitely influence my social work practice. The performances were amazing and very inspiring.
– Audience member – Growing with Substance
The in-depth knowledge of substance misuse was very informative. It was performed very well, entertaining as well as informative and gave a real understanding of real life situations.
– Audience member – Growing with Substance
I adore the performances and I can’t wait to hopefully see the team again.
– Audience member – Growing with Substance
“Knocking on the Door is a brilliant way of demonstrating how good intimate practice can improve work with our children and families.”
– Audience member
“Amazing! Really highlighted some complex feelings that may arise during home visits. Well done!”
– Audience member
“It should be mandatory for team managers, senior managers and service managers to attend as a vivid reminder of what social work is like – it offered a detailed portrayal of the actual job of doing social work.”
– Audience member
“Geese’s input was brilliant, they clearly understood well the difficulties that social workers experience.”
– Audience member
“Harry’s approach was refreshing and appeared to be drawing on ideas from the therapeutic world in terms of ‘presence’, ‘availability’ and the ‘embodied’ nature of practice. Very interesting research and fascinating to think of in terms of ‘patterns of practice’ echoing ideas about attachment styles.”
– Audience member
Today was an excellent day, it was good to have time to think, have my thinking challenged, and have time to reflect generally about how we best help children and families.
– Audience member – Safety Net
I feel much more equipped to tackle to difficult conversations and situations, this training has given me the tools and approaches to go into these cases with confidence.
– Audience member – Safety Net
Great guest speaker, very knowledgeable and informative.
– Audience member – Safety Net
The speaker was engaging and very skilled in helping the audience think about practice. She demonstrated expert knowledge about domestic abuse and shared useful tools and ideas.
– Audience member – Safety Net
Amazing event!
– Audience member – Safety Net
I really enjoyed this training and found it really informative. The bringing it to life and being able to ask questions a definitely helped to increase my understanding
– Audience member – Safety Net
I thought the performance was excellent, it really helped fetch a difficult subject to life. This really supported conversation and active reflection about practice. I think this is a very insightful way to help practitioners learn and for Local Authorities to consider developing systems to support families exposed to domestic abuse.
– Audience member – Safety Net
Have more questions?
Contact us if you’d like to find out more about commissioning a project with Geese.
