Jo Fox BA, BSW
Director
Phone:
+44 (0)1900 822 458 (Office)
+44 (0)7881 524 068 (Direct)
Address:
12 Market Place, Cockermouth,
Cumberland, CA13 9NQ, UK
Key areas of expertise:
Social Work leadership, strategy and governance.
Change leadership.
Developing policy and practice guidance for Children’s Social Care.
Providing continuous professional development training to social workers and colleagues in Children’s Social Care
Use of digital technology in Children’s Services
Certifications & Memberships:
SWE registered, BASW
A Bit About Me
Jo leads Fox & Associates Consulting Limited's Social Care practice, which trades under the Stregnthening Practice brand. Jo's goal is to encourage and enable honest, authentic relational practice with people through life long learning.
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Jo specialises in promoting evidence-informed practice among people who work with children, young people and adults in social care and education. She helps practitioners build their approach to social work and healthcare on helpful relationships with those they serve, empowering them to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
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With her co-Director Peter, she leads a team of brilliant, innovative and passionate professionals dedicated to helping children and young people by creating really helpful training programmes. Our team works across the UK to support workforces who want to deliver evidence-informed, relational practice guided by critical thinking and emotional wisdom.
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In the context of digital services, Jo is interested in how digital tools can be delpoyed to support Social Workers and other professionals work effectively with children and familie. Jo has been an advocate of digital innovation in social care for more than two decades, having been commissioned to lead the implementation of one of the first deployments of the integrated childrens system (ICS) in the UK back in 2005. Since then, Jo has developed digital tools to aid practice improvement, and most recently, developed online learning resources and digital workbooks to aid CPD in children's social care context.
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The largest and most recent digital project in which Jo was involved was the development by Fox & Associates of a national online peer support service for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) in response to the Covid epidemic in 2020. What had been intended as a temporary service has since beomce a permanent offering the BASW's national membership.
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Jo has a Bachelor’s degree in social work from Australia, in addiiton to a Bachelor of Arts/Law, also from Australia. Her work in the field of reflective supervision is captured in a co-authored book titled Reflective Supervision: A handbook (Research in Practice, Dartington, 2016). Her podcast with Gerry Nosowska, Helpful Social Work, is one of the most popular podcasts for social work professionals in the UK.
Recent Assignments
July 2009 - Present
June 2020 - September 2023
Director, Strengthening Practice, UK.
Jo has spent 33 years working with children, young people and adults in social care in Australia and the UK. As a founding Director of Strengthening Practice since 2009, she brings relational-based CPD to the Social Care Sector. Jo has particular experience working with children, firstly as a practitioner, team manager then senior manager, social work educator and motivational speaker. Jo is especially well known for her skills as a dynamic communicator, and over the past two decades has supported many thousands of social workers across a large number of organisations expand and improve their social work practice.
Project Director and Domain Expert, Social Work Professional Support Service (SWPSS), UK. In response to the Covid Pandemic in early 2020, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) commissioned Fox & Associates to jointly design, develop and deliver a nation-wide online peer coaching and support service for the UK’s 120,000 Social Workers. Jo represented Fox & Associates in the client-facing aspects of the project, and provided specialist domain input in the design and operation of the service. This project was co-funded by BASW, various health agencies and the national governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Originally intended to be a temporary provision, the SWPSS has become an essential wellbeing service for social workers across the UK, provided by BASW as a permanent offering to its members.
Jan 2006 - December 2007
Project Manager, Integrated Children’s System (ICS), Cumbria Social Services, Cumbria County Council, UK. The development of the Integrated Children's System (ICS) in England began in 2000 in response to the "Lost in Care" inquiry into child abuse in children's homes. In 2003 the Every Child Matters" green paper outlined a whole-system approach to improving outcomes for children and young people, followed by The Children Act 2004, which provided the legal framework for promoting integrated working. The government proposed that the ICS be delivered via digital tools to support practice. As Project Manager, Jo managed the successful development and implementation of a practice-driven, IT-enabled system for case management within social care in Cumbria county Council.
Testimonial
"A wonderful programme and resource that we can continue to layer on and use within the CIC care teams and beyond. Always a pleasure working with you."
Shelley Gill, Permanency Programme,
Durham County Council, July 2024
