projects & case studies

We provided social pedagogy training for the entire staff team at Windmill Therapeutics, creating a shared language and framework for relationship-centred practice across the organisation, which supports adults with intellectual disabilities in Wexford, Ireland. Engaging whole teams rather than individual practitioners is one of the most effective ways to embed social pedagogical values and build a coherent relational culture throughout an organisation.

We worked with Fife Voluntary Action to provide co-production training and capacity building in support of their Whole Families Well-Being Project. The work focused on developing the team’s understanding and practice of co-production, including how FVA’s lived experience facilitators could co-design services with families who have direct experience of accessing support. This approach placed authentic co-production and power-sharing at the heart of how the project was designed and delivered.

We delivered both social pedagogy training and relational leadership training with the team opening Juno’s first children’s home. Working at the very start, before the home opened, gave the whole team a shared relational framework and helped establish a strong, coherent culture from day one. It also equipped Juno with internal capability to grow social pedagogy in their other homes. This reflects our belief that the conditions for social pedagogical practice are best built together, right from the outset and with self-sustainability at the heart.

We provided social pedagogy training for practitioners at Kibble Education and Care in Scotland, followed by a facilitator training strand to build internal capacity. By developing Kibble’s own facilitators alongside the initial training, the project enabled the organisation to continue embedding social pedagogy independently, creating lasting change that reflects their unique organisation.

We delivered social pedagogy training at St Christopher’s Fellowship in partnership with an in-house co-facilitator. By developing an internal facilitator alongside the programme, we built lasting capacity within the organisation and ensured that learning continued to be developed and embedded in everyday practice long after the formal training was complete.

We worked with two Camphill communities as part of a Camphill Scotland pilot project exploring social pedagogy in adult care. This was one of our earlier projects and an important step in demonstrating that social pedagogy has relevance across all areas of social care, not only children’s services. The project laid early groundwork for what has since become a much wider interest in social pedagogy within adult care settings.

We were a delivery partner for Head, Heart, Hands, an innovative demonstration programme led by The Fostering Network that introduced social pedagogy to foster care in England and Scotland. The programme explored how social pedagogical principles could inform the relationship between foster carers, children, families and social workers, thus creating a valuable framework for fostering that placed relationships and the whole child at its centre.

Head, Heart, Hands represented an important milestone in demonstrating the relevance of social pedagogy beyond residential care, and in building a wider movement of practitioners committed to relational approaches in foster care. The programme was independently evaluated by Dr Lisa Holmes and Dr Sam McDermitt.

We ran a pilot social pedagogy training course for a multi-disciplinary group of professionals in Orkney, introducing practitioners across children’s services to the principles, philosophy and key theories of social pedagogy and exploring their practical application in their particular practice context. The programme provided a shared language and ethos, creating space for participants to reflect on their own Haltung and relational practice.

The programme was independently evaluated by Dr Graham McPheat and Dr Evelyn Vrouwenfelder, contributing to the growing body of evidence on social pedagogy training in the UK.

We delivered social pedagogy training for all staff across Aberlour Child Care Trust’s Sycamore Services. The programme introduced practitioners to social pedagogical thinking and explored how its principles could strengthen the quality of care and the relationships at the heart of residential child care and foster care.

The programme was independently evaluated by Professor Ian Milligan (CELCIS), contributing to the wider evidence base for social pedagogy in the UK.

We co-designed and delivered a sustained programme of social pedagogy training and development across all 12 children’s homes in Essex, working with frontline staff and managers to embed social pedagogical thinking into everyday practice. The programme included both initial training, ongoing team development and strategic longer-term support to help teams across the service develop a shared language and culture rooted in relational practice.

A report on the project’s approach, learning, and outcomes was published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy (IJSP), making this work part of the wider evidence base for social pedagogy in the UK.