IASW National Social Work Conference – New Times, New Responses: Social Work in a Changing World

Lara Groves is a Senior Researcher at the Ada Lovelace Institute, the London and Brussels-based research institute with a mission to make data & AI work for people and society. Lara has led research for Ada on AI ethics & accountability in practice, including research exploring impacts of generative AI transcription tools in social work & social care and how they might be meaningfully evaluated. Before joining Ada, she worked as a tech policy consultant, and has experience in research, public affairs and campaigns for think-tanks, political parties and advocacy groups. Lara has an MSc in Democracy from University College London.

Deirdre Hyland is a Health Information Programme Manager at HIQA, leading work on the development of National Guidance for the Responsible and Safe Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health and Social Care and a wider programme of work focused on the development and implementation of health information standards to support the delivery of high quality, safe, integrated, person-centred care.

Caroline McGregor is Professor of Social Work at the University of Galway and Senior Researcher at the UNECSO Child and Family Research Centre. Caroline worked at Queen’s University as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Social Work from 1999-2012, worked and studied at Trinity College and practiced as a child protection and welfare social worker in Dublin, Ireland. Her work has focused on areas including child protection, welfare and family support, safeguarding across the lifecourse, history of the present approaches and socio legal practice. In her current role as Director of the Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS), she is engaged in leading the Institute focused on an integrative approach to research, teaching, policy and practice to enable equity across the lifecourse. Increasingly, her work focuses on participatory research methodologies, public engagement, promotion of knowledge equity approaches and policy and societal impact. https://research.universityofgalway.ie/en/persons/caroline-mc-gregor/publications/

Fergus Ó Cuanacháin is Chief Information Officer of Tusla, Child and Family Agency. He has over 30 years’ experience in digital and data management in both the public service and the tech sector. Prior to joining Tusla in 2017 he held a range of roles including Head of Data Infrastructure for the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Head of ICT for Pobal. Fergus is also a member of peer review groups for large scale public service digitisation projects. In 2019, Fergus authored and led the implementation of the first Data Strategy for child and family services in Ireland. This was followed by Tusla’s current Data Management and Digital Transformation strategy 2024-2026. Tusla’s data and digital journey over this time has seen the agency progress from mostly paper-based systems to now a position where Ireland is unique in the EU with having a national digital system that provides a single view of the child across child protection and welfare, educational support, therapeutic, fostering and residential care services.

Jane Suiter is Professor of Political Communication at Dublin City University School of Communications, her research focus is on the information environment in the public sphere and in particular on scaling up deliberation and tackling disinformation. Jane is director of DCU’s Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society and a Research Ireland Laureate.  She was the joint winner of the Brown Democracy Medal in 2019 and the President’s Award for Research. She was awarded the prestigious title of the Irish Research Council’s Researcher of the Year in 2020.

Dr Sinéad Whiting is a qualified social worker and Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. Prior to joining Trinity, she worked in child protection and welfare, fostering, and adoption services. She teaches undergraduate and master’s level students in the areas of practice education, social work skills, and adoption. Her teaching and research interests include care leaving, youth transitions, adoption, foster care, and innovations in social work practice and practice education. Drawing on both practice and research experience, Sinéad is interested in how social workers can respond to emerging opportunities and challenges while remaining grounded in the profession’s core values.

There is limited paid parking at the rear of the Carmelite Community Centre in Whitefriar Street Carpark.