This 3-hour workshop will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the most recent developments in neuroscience related to the developing adolescent brain and how this knowledge can equip professionals to work more effectively with young people facing a range of risks and harm.

DATE: Tuesday 20 April 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Social Workers and helping professionals working with young people

Speaker: Dr Liat Levita, Reader in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience, and Prof Kristine Langhoff, Professor of Social Work

This 3-hour workshop will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the most recent developments in neuroscience related to the developing adolescent brain and how this knowledge can equip professionals to work more effectively with young people facing a range of risks and harm.The session will be structured as a question and answer forum, where Kristine and Liat will bring together key contemporary issues in adolescent safeguarding, trauma-informed practice, and neuroscience. Professionals will have the opportunity to interact, ask questions, and apply learning whilst reflecting on their own practice throughout the session.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

Drawing on research into autistic cognition, this three-hour interactive workshop will explore memory, attention and learning and what these can mean in everyday social work and social care practice. We will consider, for example, why recalling and communicating experiences can sometimes be difficult, how attention and switching can affect interactions and transitions, and how different ways of learning may influence engagement with support.

DATE: Tuesday 9 February 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free for £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Social workers, social care practitioners and other professionals working with autistic adults or young people.

Speaker: Dr Sophie Anns, Associate Professor of Psychology

Autism training often focuses on familiar inclusive practices: using clear communication, providing predictability, making sensory adjustments and allowing additional processing time. These approaches can be valuable, but understanding why they may help can enable practitioners to move beyond a checklist and make more thoughtful, individualised decisions about what an autistic person might need in a particular situation.

Drawing on research into autistic cognition, this three-hour interactive workshop will explore memory, attention and learning and what these can mean in everyday social work and social care practice. We will consider, for example, why recalling and communicating experiences can sometimes be difficult, how attention and switching can affect interactions and transitions, and how different ways of learning may influence engagement with support.

Participants will take part in practical activities to explore some of these processes themselves and will try structured and visual techniques for supporting recall of complex or difficult events. We will also use scenarios and discussion to identify where everyday professional practices may inadvertently create additional cognitive demands and consider how these could be adapted.

The aim is to give participants not simply a set of autism-friendly strategies, but a better understanding of the psychology behind inclusive practice, enabling them to apply these principles flexibly in their own work.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

DATE: Monday 15 March 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: 3^rd sector professionals (social workers, teachers, etc): £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets), Private sector professionals: £120 per person

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals across businesses, education, social work, charities, public services and other organisations who want to build more inclusive and supportive workplaces and communities. It may be particularly relevant to those working in HR, EDI, learning and development, and people management.

SPEAKER: Dr Özden Melis Uluğ, Associate Professor in Psychology

What do we do when we witness a harmful comment, microaggression, discriminatory behaviour, or another uncomfortable interaction? Many of us want to intervene but hesitate because we are unsure what to say, worry about making the situation worse, or assume that someone else will step in.

This interactive workshop explores the psychology of bystander behaviour and provides participants with practical tools for moving from being a bystander to becoming an active upstander. Drawing on research from social psychology, participants will examine why people sometimes fail to intervene, identify the personal and situational barriers that can make intervention difficult, and consider how these barriers can be overcome.

Through short presentations, group discussions, reflection exercises, and realistic case studies, participants will learn and practise the 5 Ds of bystander intervention: (1) Distract, (2) Delegate, (3) Direct, (4) Document, and (5) Delay. Rather than assuming that intervention requires confrontation, the workshop demonstrates a range of strategies that can be adapted to different situations, levels of risk, and professional contexts.

In this interactive session, participants will:

•             understand the psychological processes that influence whether people intervene when witnessing harmful behaviour

•             identify common barriers to intervention and consider strategies for overcoming them

•             recognise the difference between being a passive bystander and an active upstander

•             learn the 5 Ds of bystander intervention and when different strategies may be appropriate

•             apply these strategies to realistic scenarios involving microaggressions, discrimination, exclusion, and other forms of everyday harm

•             reflect on how they can intervene safely and effectively within their own professional context.

Participants will leave the workshop with a practical toolkit of intervention strategies and greater confidence in recognising and responding to harmful behaviour when they encounter it.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

DATE: Tuesday 27 April 2027

TIME: 10am-12pm

PRICE: £50 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £250 (6 tickets)

Online via Teams

TARGETED AT: Desk-based workers, HR professionals, Team managers, C-suite leaders and business owners, Non-profit leaders, Local authority managers

SPEAKER: Dr Charlotte Rae, Associate Professor of Psychology and founder of Sussex 4 Day Week

This interactive workshop will share the latest psychology and neuroscience research on productivity and wellbeing at work. Then, using insights from studies of the 4 day working week, we will share practical strategies to help you get tasks done in less time. These can be used whether you have a 4 day week, or just want to manage your workload more effectively and with less stress. Through a series of reflective activities, you will identify take-away actions to support both productivity and wellbeing, relevant for you and for your wider team.

In this 2-hour interactive session, you will learn:

·         How work stress affects the mind, the brain, and the body

·         Why this impacts negatively on performance at work

·         Psychological strategies for managing heavy workloads, to get tasks done in less time, and with more ease

·         Practical take-away actions to try in your own working life and in your own teams, customised to your own sector and cognitive style

We will not cover AI techniques. This session is focused on understanding how the human mind operates at work, and behavioural approaches to managing workload and wellbeing.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This sequence of three x 1.5 hour online workshops are designed to help leaders in social work, social care and related third sector organisations start to plan the design and delivery of innovative new interventions or system features.

DATES: Tuesday 19 January2027, Tuesday 2^nd February 2027 and Tuesday 23^rd February 2027

TIME: 9:30am-11am

PRICE: £90 per ticket, or Buy 5 get one free £450 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Leaders, managers and supervisors working in social care, social work and other helping professions

Speaker: Prof Michelle Lefevre, Professor of Social Work

Are you a social care leader who is keen to introduce more beneficial and effective practice approaches for your setting? Do you need some help in translating social innovation theory into practice realities?

This sequence of three x 1.5 hour online workshops are designed to help leaders in social work, social care and related third sector organisations start to plan the design and delivery of innovative new interventions or system features. Drawing on key findings and practice tools from a four-year study of innovation the workshops will cover the following issues:

·         Clarifying your service gap or inefficiency and why innovation might address it

·         Selecting the change process most suitable for your aims and resources

·         Ethical and practical principles to guide each stage of the innovation process

·         Building a data-informed case for change and getting buy-in

·         Determining your service’s local conditions and capacity for innovation

·         Uncovering wider system influences on innovation

·         Culture, leadership, trust and collaboration

·         Design, implementation and testing

·         Planning priority areas of action

Attendees would be expected to attend all three workshops as the learning builds from one session to the next. Attendees will be provided with preparatory and follow-up reading for each session. This would be beneficial should they wish to progress their innovation ideas, but not mandatory. Attendees will be offered planning tasks to complete in relation to their innovation ideas, should they wish to do so.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

DATE: Monday 14^th and Monday 28^th June 2027

TIME: 5:30pm-7:30pm

PRICE: £75 per person

Online via MS Teams

SPEAKER: Prof Robin Banerjee, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global and Civic Engagement

This interactive, evidence-based workshop introduces participants to psychological research on kindness, wellbeing and positive relationships at work, and explores how these insights can be applied in everyday professional life. Drawing on research into happiness, psychological wellbeing, emotions and relationships, participants will explore what supports positive workplace relationships, why our connections with others matter for our health and wellbeing, and what can encourage or inhibit kindness at work. Through practical activities, reflection and discussion, participants will draw on their own workplace experiences and explore evidence-based approaches designed to increase kindness and wellbeing. We will consider how these approaches work and how they can be adapted to different teams, organisations and professional settings. Participants will leave with practical insights and strategies they can apply immediately to strengthen relationships, support wellbeing and contribute to positive organisational change. 

Professor Robin Banerjee is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global and Civic Engagement at the University of Sussex. His research focuses on social and emotional development, wellbeing and kindness. He founded the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness and led The Kindness Test, a partnership with the BBC that became the world’s largest public science project on kindness. 

Follow our work through the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness website and LinkedIn page for more information about the work kindness.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

How do we move beyond monitoring activity to understanding what difference services make for children, families and communities? This interactive workshop will provide social care leaders, managers and practitioners with practical tools and approaches to design, commission and use evaluation effectively. 

DATE: Monday 26 April 2027

TIME: 2pm-5pm

PRICE: £60 per person, or Buy Five Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals working in leadership roles in the public sector

Speaker: Lisa Holmes, Professor in Applied Social Science, and Robyn Long, Head of APP Research and Evaluation

How do we move beyond monitoring activity to understanding what difference services make for children, families and communities? This interactive workshop will provide social care leaders, managers and practitioners with practical tools and approaches to design, commission and use evaluation effectively. Drawing on extensive experience of evaluating a range of policy initiatives and service innovations, participants will explore how to develop meaningful evaluation questions, select appropriate methods, use data intelligently, and ensure findings inform decision-making and service improvement. The workshop will combine practical examples, real-world case studies and hands-on exercises to support participants to strengthen evaluation capacity within their own organisations.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

In this workshop, we will explore where our societal ideas about mental health have come from and examine contemporary cultural influences shaping children and teenagers’ experiences. 

DATE: Tuesday 6 April 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals working with children and young people

Speaker: Dr Rachel Burr, Associate Professor in Education

Children and teenagers do not need to be experiencing a mental health crisis. In this workshop we will explore where our societal ideas about mental health have come from and examine contemporary cultural influences shaping children and teenagers’ experiences. Informed by Rachel Burr’s extensive study, this workshop presents a case for practitioners to work in group settings, both to support those already presenting with mental health issues and to offer preventative care to those who might otherwise do so. By the end of the session, it will be possible for members of the workshop to independently replicate and apply the approaches to their practice. The workshop will draw upon case examples from the study to illuminate the transformative nature of the group work process.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This webinar series is designed to equip professionals working in the human services (e.g. child protection and family services, adult social care, disability, mental health, domestic abuse, health and clinical care, and criminal justice), with the skills to recognise the interconnections between human and animal welfare, incorporate these insights into their routine practice, and strengthen collaboration within the veterinary and animal welfare sector.

DATE: Tuesday 13 April, Tuesday 11 May, Tuesday 15 June and Tuesday 13 July 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm for each session

PRICE: £240 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £1200 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals working with children and young people

Speaker: Rebecca Stephens, Associate Professor of Social Work

This webinar series is designed to equip professionals working in the human services (e.g. child protection and family services, adult social care, disability, mental health, domestic abuse, health and clinical care, and criminal justice), with the skills to recognise the interconnections between human and animal welfare, incorporate these insights into their routine practice, and strengthen collaboration within the veterinary and animal welfare sector.

We will explore:

Seminar 1, Tuesday 13 April 2027 10am-1pm:

The relationship between human and animal welfare across the life course, drawing on historical, intersectional, sociocultural, and theoretical perspectives on the role of companion animals.

Seminar 2, Tuesday 11 May 2027 10am-1pm:

The typology of pet loss, grief and caregiver burden and its impact on humans and best practices in assessing and supporting the impact of animal-related grief.

Seminar 3, Tuesday 15 June 2027 10am-1pm:

The link between the abuse of animals and people, sociocultural perspectives on animal abuse and its impact on children, young people and adults and best practices in safety planning.

Seminar 4, Tuesday 13 July 2027 10am-1pm:

Animal welfare frameworks and legislation to support ethical decision-making and professional responsibility, promoting interdisciplinary working across human services, veterinary, and animal welfare.

Case studies will support learning, and you will be provided with useful links to articles, resources, and relevant local and national organisations.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website

Led by a researcher in applied mental health, the workshop will explore the theoretical foundations of positive psychology and how key techniques can be packaged in engaging formats for use with vulnerable young people.

DATE : Tuesday 15 December 2026

TIME: 2pm-5pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Practitioners and those in helping professions working with young people or children

Speaker: Dr Clio Berry, Reader in Applied Mental Health Science

Led by a researcher in applied mental health, the workshop will explore the theoretical foundations of positive psychology and how key techniques can be packaged in engaging formats for use with vulnerable young people. The workshop will be grounded in insights gained from innovative trials and participatory research studies involving vulnerable young people and children conducted in clinical and community settings. Participants will be presented with key positive psychology techniques that can be integrated into everyday practice, helping practitioners to support young people to identify and build strengths, foster positive relationships, and develop a more hopeful and meaningful vision for their future.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

What if young people’s resistance was seen as a source of strength rather than something to be challenged? This workshop shares insights from a five-year research project and explores how re-imagining resistance can open new possibilities for supporting young people experiencing harm.

DATE: Tuesday 23 March 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person, or Buy Five Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: People working with young people across all sectors

Speaker: Prof Kristine Langhoff, Professor of Social Work

Resistance is a powerful and loaded word, open to interpretation and re-invention across time. It can be liberatory or destructive- sometimes both. However, when the term is used to describe young people (particularly outside of the context of political upheaval or a fight against injustice), it is often signals frustration- by adults who do not want young people to resist the things they’ve told young people to say, be, or do.  Here, resistance is a problem to be overcome and in the face of significant or serious harm, the pressure to convince young people to stop resisting builds.

What if young people’s resistance could be re-imagined entirely, as a force of vitality, health, and hope? For the last five years, a multi-disciplinary research team used a used a range of arts-based methods (photography, film, movement, poetry, and textiles) to study resistance, as both a theoretical concept and a meaningful, tangible lived and felt experience among young people affected by sexual and interpersonal violence. Led by Prof. Kristi Langhoff, they engaged an initial cohort of 20 young people and then worked with an additional 18 young people and 50 youth work and creative arts practitioners to turn their collective project into a practical resource, for use with young people experiencing multiple forms of harm.

This workshop will share what the team has learned and provide space to consider how re-imagining resistance can help bring new language, avenues for participation, and collective advocacy to work with young people experiencing (or at risk of) harm.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing. Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

DATE: Wednesday 16 December 2026

TIME: 11am-2pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free for £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Change-makers working in public services, charity and social enterprises with a vision to improve the quality of life for everyone who are interested in new thinking about leadership

Speaker: Dr Gaurish Chawla, Associate Professor (Healthcare Leadership and Commissioning) at Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Metaphors shape how we understand organisations and leadership. As Gareth Morgan famously argued, organisations have been viewed as machines, organisms, cultures, and political systems, each revealing some possibilities while concealing others. This workshop introduces a fresh metaphor: rewilding.

As the world grapples with climate breakdown, burnout, and growing social alienation, rewilding has emerged as a powerful approach to restoring ecological balance. Yet its relevance extends far beyond environmental practice. Drawing on Félix Guattari's concept of The Three Ecologies, this session explores how ecological degradation, psychological distress, and social fragmentation are deeply interconnected challenges.

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing.

Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

Drawing on Dr Gaurish Chawla's work on rewilding education, recently presented as a special event at the British Sociological Association[1] and previously at the British Psychological Society[2], this interactive workshop invites leaders to imagine more human, ecological, and sustainable ways of organising and leading.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This three-hour interactive workshop creates a space to slow down, sit with this uncertainty and think and reflect together on some of the ethical tensions and power dynamics embedded in everyday practice. It invite us to pause, question and remain open to complexity as we explore and unpack what shapes how we understand situations and how we choose to respond.

DATE: Tuesday 8 June 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get One Free (6 tickets) for £300

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals working in social work, social care and other helping professions

SPEAKER: Dr May Nasrawy, Assistant Professor in Social Work

We all encounter moments in practice that stay with us, where the way forward feels uncertain and different perspectives and responsibilities pull us towards different understandings. These moments sit at the heart of everyday social work, inviting us to think more deeply about how power, ethics and responsibility shape our practice.

This three-hour interactive workshop creates a space to slow down, sit with this uncertainty and think and reflect together on some of the ethical tensions and power dynamics embedded in everyday practice. It invite us to pause, question and remain open to complexity as we explore and unpack what shapes how we understand situations and how we choose to respond.

Through practice dilemmas, power mapping, shared reflection and group discussions, participants will be invited to notice how their own values, professional position, organisational contexts and wider structural inequalities shape how situations are understood. Together, we will explore whose voices are heard, whose knowledge is privileged or overlooked, how power is experienced within relationships, and what our own discomfort and uncertainty might be asking us to notice. Rather than moving quickly towards resolution, the workshop invites us to remain curious, question what we may take for granted, and consider what it means to practise ethically, relationally and critically in the spaces where certainty is not always possible.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

The webinar will draw on emerging findings from ‘Flourish: Family Help in the Early Years’, a programme of research and practice development. Moving beyond a focus on individual programmes, the team will explore the common elements of effective, inclusive and accessible support for families with diverse needs.

DATE: Tuesday 9 March 2027

TIME: 10am-11:30am

PRICE: £30 per ticket, or Buy 5 get one free for £150 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Practitioners, managers, commissioners, policymakers, researchers, and others with an interest in improving outcomes for young children and their families.

Speakers: Prof Michelle Lefevre, Professor of Social Work, Dr Jeri L. Damman, Associate Professor ofSocial Work and Social Care and Dr Ali Lacey, Research Fellow in Education

The first five years of a child's life are critical for development, wellbeing and long-term outcomes. Yet families' experiences of parenting support and early years services vary considerably, particularly where parents are facing multiple and interacting challenges such as poverty, poor mental health, domestic abuse, social isolation, or the effects of trauma.

The webinar will draw on emerging findings from ‘Flourish: Family Help in the Early Years’, a programme of research and practice development, funded by the NIHR through the ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Moving beyond a focus on individual programmes, the team will explore the common elements of effective, inclusive and accessible support for families with diverse needs. The webinar will consider the underlying features of support and intervention that help parents engage with services, sustain participation, and achieve positive outcomes for themselves and their young children.

The webinar will consider how different approaches to family support are intended to work, including parenting programmes, relationship-based practice, trauma-informed approaches, strengths-based support, and community-based provision. The team will discuss the importance of context, relationships, trust, and responsiveness to family circumstances, and explore what parents themselves identify as helpful when seeking support.

Participants will gain insights into current evidence on supporting families during the early years, alongside practical considerations for service design, commissioning and delivery. The session will highlight opportunities to create more inclusive systems of support that recognise the complexity of family lives and promote equitable access to help during a child's crucial first five years.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This interactive workshop will examine what contemporary neuroscience can tell us about how adolescents experience and respond to stress. Participants will explore how the developing brain adapts to challenge differently from children and adults, and why some young people are more vulnerable to the negative effects of stress than others, and how supportive relationships and environments can help foster resilience.

DATE: Tuesday 1 December 2026

TIME: 12pm-2pm

PRICE: Third sector professionals: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free (6 tickers for £300); private sector professionals: £100 per person

Online via Teams

TARGETED AT: This workshop is designed for anyone who supports adolescents and young adults, whether in a professional, educational, healthcare, community, or parenting/caregiving capacity. It will be particularly relevant to teachers, pastoral and safeguarding staff, youth workers, social workers, educational psychologists, NHS and mental health practitioners, family support workers, parents and carers, and those working within voluntary and community organisations. The workshop will also be of interest to students and trainees in psychology, education, social work, nursing, and related disciplines.

Speaker: Dr Liat Levita, Reader in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience

Adolescence is a period of substantial biological, psychological and social change. While many young people navigate this transition successfully, others experience challenges that can affect their wellbeing and mental health. Stress is often assumed to be an inevitable and negative part of adolescence, yet contemporary research suggests a more complex picture. Adaptive levels of stress are a necessary part of a healthy life and development and can promote learning, growth, and resilience. In contrast, chronic, severe, or overwhelming stress can have significant adverse effects on wellbeing, mental health and development. This interactive workshop will examine what contemporary neuroscience can tell us about how adolescents experience and respond to stress. Participants will explore how the developing brain adapts to challenge differently from children and adults, and why some young people are more vulnerable to the negative effects of stress than others, and how supportive relationships and environments can help foster resilience. Through case examples, discussion, and breakout activities, participants will be encouraged to reflect on common assumptions about adolescent stress and consider how insights from neuroscience can inform the ways in which professionals, parents, and carers support young people.

No prior knowledge of biology/neuroscience is required.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe how stress affects the developing adolescent brain.
• Distinguish between adaptive and harmful forms of stress.
• Identify factors that increase vulnerability to stress-related difficulties.
• Understand the role of relationships, social environments and belonging in promoting resilience.
• Apply neuroscience-informed principles to their professional and caring practice with young people.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This workshop will focus on developing awareness of the important components of reading comprehension and how to teach them: deep vocabulary knowledge, inference making, comprehension monitoring, and text structure understanding. 

DATE: Tuesday 16 March 2027

TIME: 2pm-5pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free (6 tickets for £300)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Primary school teachers, heads, literacy leads, school improvement advisors and teacher educators. 

Speaker: Professor Jane Oakhill

This workshop will focus on developing awareness of the important components of reading comprehension and how to teach them: deep vocabulary knowledge, inference making, comprehension monitoring, and text structure understanding.

The workshop will start with a short introduction to each of the components, with illustrations of background research that supports their relevance to reading comprehension.

This introduction will be followed by activities to provide participants with first-hand insights into the strategies for reading comprehension, by engaging them in thinking about their own comprehension processes. The focus will be on how these components interact and how they need to be taught and modelled in the context of reading comprehension in the classroom. This will be followed by discussion and feedback, and participants will then work to create more activities to inspire and support their own teaching practices.

The workshop will be led and facilitated by Professor Jane Oakhill (University of Sussex, UK), who is a leading researcher in her field, and has extensive experience both with research into, and teaching of, reading comprehension. She has published widely in this area, and her book (co-authored with Kate Cain and Carsten Elbro) "Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension" has been translated into several languages.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.