Developing professional curiosity with children and families
Designed for social care and family help practitioners to build skills and knowledge to enable professional curiosity in practice.
Professionally curious practitioners interrogate and test out information, rather than accepting it at face value. They triangulate information from different sources to gain clarity, identify concerns and enable a fuller understanding of a child, young person or family’s situation.
This workshop will support practitioners to build skills and knowledge that will embed professional curiosity as a central component of their practice.
Participants will examine the importance of professional curiosity in work with children and families and explore different tools and approaches to support professionally curious practice.
Designed for
Family help and social care practitioners working directly with children and families.
Learning outcomes
As a result of attending this workshop participants will be able to:
- Describe professional curiosity and outline what it looks like in practice.
- Explain why professional curiosity is a central component of effective social care practice.
- Understand and apply the knowledge and skills that are needed for working in a curious way.
- Explore learning from situations where professional curiosity has not always been evident.
- Plan how to better integrate professional curiosity into practice.
Booking information
This is a full day interactive session delivered via Microsoft Teams and you are encouraged to contribute with the aid of break-out rooms, the chat function and large group discussions. Participants will benefit from having a quiet space to work without interruption. Slides will be sent out after the session.
Research in Practice Partners can use their membership allocation to book this workshop. Link Officers can use the booking request form to book this workshop. Please only use this form if you are authorised to choose your organisation's membership allocation.
Once your booking is received, our learning team will work with you to confirm a delivery date and provide relevant information.
The deadline for booking this year’s online workshops is 17 October 2025.
Organisations that are not Research in Practice Partners can commission this workshop individually by contacting our learning team.
Critical reflection and analysis: Learning Pathway
This Learning Pathway explores why critical reflection and analysis are foundational to effective practice in social care and provides tools and reflective questions to build on your skills and knowledge.
Working with uncertainty and risk in children's social care: Video learning resources
In this series of seven videos, Professor Eileen Munro discusses how conditions of uncertainty and risk shape effective child protection work. The videos examine factors that can support or hinder good practice and decision making.
Analysis and critical thinking in assessment: Resource Pack (2014)
The handbook includes key research and practice messages around analysis and critical thinking in assessment. It combines research evidence with the practice experience of agencies to explore how identified barriers to good assessment might be overcome. The focus is on ‘thinking in practice’ and, above all, on supporting practitioners to be more analytical in their assessments.