Independent Social Work & Family Mediation Services

Vasili Kapetanakis

Mini CV

Summary of Social Work Experiences in England

2008 - Present:
Director/Independent Social Worker & Family Mediator

Creative Outcomes
Registered: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London
Based: Northolt/Harrow Locality

 

2007 - 2008:
Locum Assistant Team Manager

London Borough of Hounslow
Children Services & Lifelong Learning, Chiswick Locality Team

2005 - 2007:
Locum Practice Manager/ Senior Practitioner

London Borough of Harrow,
People First,
Children in Need Team, Pinner Road

 

2003 - 2005:
Senior Social Worker
in Practice Development

London Borough of Hammermsith & Fulham,
Children Services, Fulham & White City,

 

2001 - 2002:
Locum
Social Worker

London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham,
Children Services, Referral & Assessment, White City

 

2000 - 2001:
Locum
Social Worker

London Borough of Haringey,
Social Sevices, Families & Children Investigation & Assessment, North Tottenham 

 

Click here for a short CV in PDF. A detailed CV can be forwarded on request.   

Reported Case: Allocated social worker in:
B (CARE PROCEEDINGS: DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY) [2002] EWHC 1751 (Fam) [2003] 1 FLR 241.

Details of Social Work Experiences

2008 - Present

Independent Social Worker with Creative Outcomes, London

  • Jointly instructed as an expert to prepare Independent Child Welfare Investigations, Assessments and Reports in contested Residence, Contact and Other Order Applications - private Children Act proceedings - heard in the Royal Courts of Justice, (2008 - present). 
  • Jointly instructed to prepare reports on contested Residence and Leave to Remove Application in the Principal Registry of the Family Division (2010). 
  • Commissioned & instructed to undertake Independent Parenting Assessments in Care Proceedings heard at the Principal Registry of the Family Division and other local Family Proceedings Courts (2008, 2009 & 2011). 
  • Commissioned as Social Work Consultant for WillisPalmer to undertake statutory assessments and provide independent recommendations for Child in Need of Support and Protection Plans.
  • Co-facilitating Safeguarding Children training with Consultant in Training & Development to variety of agencies. 
  • Jointly instructed to promote and supervise contact following an abduction of a 2 year old.

2007 - 2008

Locum Assistant Team Manager at the London Borough of Hounslow, Children Services & Lifelong Learning, Chiswick Locality Team.

  • Quality assurance of statutory social work practice with children looked after, children in need of longer term services and children in need of protection
  • Supervision of 4 social workers: Support, monitoring, probation assessment & performance management.
  • Supporting team development and change management.
  • Social work lead of cases involved in Public Law proceedings: Supervision, preparation & presentation of social work evidence, development, implementation and review of Local Authority Care Plans informed by expert evidence and judicial findings.
  • Preparation of Social Work evidence in instigating proceedings under the new Public Law Outline.
  • Limited direct social work intervention on complex cases: Developed expertise in the field of chronic neglect, emotional harm to children & parental mental ill health.
  • Specialist skills: analysis of historic intervention to inform review of expert evidence, permanency planning & undertaking a detailed Court Directed viability kinship assessment.

2005 - 2007

Locum Practice Manager & Senior Practitioner at the London Borough of Harrow, People First, Pinner Road, Children in Need Team.

  • Quality assurance of statutory social work practice for children looked after, children in need of longer term servcies and children in need of protection.
  • Supervision & mentoring of student social workers and newly qualified social wokers in the team & deputising for the Team Manager in her absence.
  • Duty management tasks.
  • Case responsibility and professional lead for a small but complex caseload. This included cases that were in high profile public and private legal proceedings. Direct work in undertaking assessment and intervention to prepare final evidence and care plans for the Court. Coordinating and implementing plans with partner professionals subsequent to Court outcomes.
  • Developed direct practice expertise in the field of parents with learning disabilities, parents with mental health difficulties and sibling groups with complex emotional and social needs.
  • Specialist skills developed: analysis of complex chronologies, analysis of conflicting expert evidence and integrating this to inform intervention recommended to the Court, critical analysis of intervention & permanency planning.

2003 - 2005

Senior Social Worker in Practice Development at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Childrens Trust, Referral & Assessment Team, Child Protection and Family Support Team and Disabilities Team. 

  • Assisted Service Managers and social work teams in reviewing and developing quality of service provision.
  • Working alongside individual social workers in complex cases and assisting in reflective practice.
  • Co-facilitated multi-agency child protection training sessions as a member of the Children Safeguarding Board’s Training Subgroup
  • Developed the Assessment Framework training course overseen by the Service Manager & Principal Training Officer in Multi-Disciplinary Training
  • Adapted the social work Assessment Record formats for the borough overseen by the Service Manager.
  • Attended and participated in discussions and meeting with the South West London Benchmarking Group (developing best practice).
  • Facilitated a series of reflective practice groups for social workers within and across services to develop critical and evidence based practice.
  • Assisted identified social work teams in improving its quality of assessment recording and care planning.
  • Provided guidance, direction and advice in absence of a team manager
  • Assisted the service manager in reviewing case files and care plans
  • Assisted social workers where there are performance related concerns
  • Advocated for best practice and dissimilating research to encourage best practice
  • Responsibility for a couple of high profile cases
  • Assisted in the induction of new social workers to the borough, including social workers recruited from over-seas

2001 - 2003

Locum Social Worker at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Children's Services, Referral & Assessment Team, Sawley Road (White City)

  • Screened referrals
  • Undertook initial & core assessments
  • Instigated child protection enquiries including Achieving Best Evidence Interviews
  • Presented cases to Child Protection Case Conferences
  • Facilitated the development of child protection plans and chaired core group meetings
  • Provided evidence and care plans for cases in legal proceedings, including a case that was heard by the President of the Family Division. Working with experts to undertake assessments and using these to inform intervention. 

2000 - 2001

Locum Social Worker at the London Borough of Harringey, Children and Families, Investigation & Assessment Team, NorthTottenham

  • Duty social work (screening referrals and undertaking duty tasks)
  • Undertook child protection investigations
  • Instigated emergency protection & initiated court proceedings
  • Presented cases in child protection case conferences
  • Undertook initial & core assessments

1998 

Programme Manager at the Sex Worker Advocacy and Education Taskforce (SWEAT), Salt River, Cape Town, South Africa

  • Advocated for decriminalisation of sex work and for sex worker involvement and participation on the organisation's management and board level.
  • Established and developed a database and preliminary needs assessment for service provision.
  • Developed and provided training sessions and services on safer sex and health promotion to sex workers.
  • Participated in funding strategies that successfully saw Levi Straus funding through its Social Development Programme.
  • Participated in Strategy Planning and Board meetings and provided Monthly reports on activities.
  • Created and established SWEATscene magazine.

1997

Task Team Member facilitated by the Department of Health and Department of Transport of the Guateng Provincial Government, South Africa

  • Assisted in the development of policy guidelines and training material in the peer education of sex workers and truckers.
  • This led to the development of a much wider AIDS Plan in 2000 spearheaded by the Transport Department.

1997

Guateng Task Team member led by the Department of Safety and Security of the Guateng Provincial Government, South Africa

  • Assisted and supported the Task Team's policies of decriminalisation of sex work which were eventually endorsed by the Guateng Cabinet.

Student Social Work Placement Experiences

1996 (min 16 hours/week of supervised practice = 480 hours)

Rand Mutual Hospital, City Deep, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Rand Mutual hospital was owned by a major Southern African mining conglomerate, the Rand Mutual. The hospital provided insured medical rehabilitation to mineworkers injured in accidents.

  • Responsibility for a small caseload to empower patients and strengthen their independency based on the principles of anti-disabilist practice.
  • Facilitated groupwork sessions in presenting the value of social work services provided to patients to Senior Managers and Staff that saw the establishment of a Social Services Department. Previously social work services were based within the Psychiatric Department.  
  • Planned and implemented a community work project of developing an induction programme for new patients admitted into the hospital.  
  • Supervision of a second year social work student placed in the Hospital.   

1995 (min 16 hours/week of supervised practice = 480 hours) 

South African National Council for Alcoholism and Drug Dependency, Johannesburg, South Africa

The clinic aimed to rehabilitate and treat clients with drug and alcohol addictions.

  • Responsibility of a small caseload based on an adaptive model of addiction to implement harm reduction strategies.
  • Co-ordinated staff development workshops on diversity, adapted and facilitated a lifestyle education group for young people in St Stithians College and facilitated patient orientation groups to those admitted to the clinic.

1994 (min 8 hours/week of supervised practice = 380 hours)

National Institute for Crime Prevention & the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO), Johannesburg, South Africa

NICRO is a non-governmental organisation based in central Johannesburg.

  • Completed a community profile and needs assessment of Noordgesig High School (a school in a crime-ridden township in greater Johannesburg) to help inform services.
  • Co-facilitated a trauma debriefing meeting with pupils of Riverlea Primary School after a child was mistakenly shot during a pre-election protest.
  • Contextualising and facilitating an alternative sentencing shoplifter’s group.
  • Responsibility for a small generic medium term caseload based on a radical humanist model.  

1993 (min 8 hours/week of supervised practice = 380 hours)

Saint Mary’s Children’s Home  Rosettenville, South Africa.

This Therapeutic Residential Unit, a Non Governmental Organisation, for children looked after is based in the greater Johannesburg area.

  • Assisted social worker in charge of the Unit and took responsibility for exploratory casework sessions that used art based activities to aid expression for two children with complex needs.
  • Facilitated a series of group sessions with pre-pubescent boys to develop identity, cohesion, boundaries and sharing between them.

1992 (min 280 hours)

Tutela Place of Safety, Pretoria, South Africa

  • Recording of observations of babies and toddler behaviour in State emergency protection.

Other Organisational Involvement for Social Change - mid 90s

Human Rights Police Training Committee: Co-Facilitator Initiated by government and national gay groups in the mid 90s, this first Diversity, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights Workshop was held for the trainers of the new South African Police Service at the Pretoria Training Centre. I co-authored the manual for this workshop. The concept developed into a much wider training programme on human rights that now is policy in the South African Police Service.

Qualifications

BA (Soc Wrk) Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work Honors the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. (1990 - 1997).

Academic Awards

  • Certificate of First Class for Field Instruction in Social Work Practice - 1996
  • Certificate of First Class the Dissertation - 1995

Degree Summary Description

This degree comprised of four years of study and consisted of the following courses:

Sociology I & II

  • Evaluating different theories of society; from Marxism to Post Modern Society.
  • Studying concepts of power, control & oppression. Applying it to Apartheid South Africa. Studying protest and liberation.
  • The negotiation of Hegemony in society, how the ruling class remains in power and how power is negotiated between the "oppressor" and the "oppressed".  
  • Sociology of knowledge: how knowledge can be constructed and deconstucted, the politics of knowlege and how knowledge can empower or oppress.

Psychology I, II & III

  • Child & adolescent development theories.
  • Abnomal psychology - studying types of mental disorders and diagnosis.
  • Therapuetic alliances and relationships as part of treamtment of mental ill health.
  • Social psychology.

Psychometric Research, Design & Analysis I & II

  • Learning to collate, report and analyse qualititative and quantitative data to inform conclusions based on hypothesis.
  • Developing different types of research designs, including statistical analysis to inform dissertation.  
  • Issues of ethics in researching social sciences.

Social Work Theory & Practice I, II, III & IV

  • Social Work ethics, values and principles.
  • Human rights, policy & the law.
  • Ecological framework to assess people in their environments.
  • Casework, group work and community work theory and skills.
  • Advanced counselling theory and skills.
  • Working with children & families, vulnerable adults and the elderly.
  • Compartive study of different forms of intervention: policy and practice.
  • Theoretical paragdims of social work theories, from psychodynamic to radical humanism.
  • Theories of supervision, training, research and professional development in Social Work.
  • Advanced direct social work methods with individuals & families, groups & communities.

Field Instruction in Social Work I, II, III, & IV

  • 4 years placement experience: Casework, Group Work & Community Work (based on student placements).
  • Reflective practice and self reflection.
  • Verbatim, process and summary case recording.
  • Report writing, analysis of information gained to inform further actions. 
  • Supervision of 2nd year students.

Dissertation

  • A Qualitative Study of the National Coalition from an Advocacy Perspective.

Continued Professional Development:


  • Direct Consultation with Children (ADRg) 2010
  • Family Mediation (ADRg) 2009
  • Role of the Expert in Mediation and Arbitration (Expert Witness Institute) 2009
  • Diploma in Qualitative Research Methodology (Stonebridge Associated Colleges) in progress.
  • Preparation for Family Group Conferences (WillisPalmer) 2008
  • Kinship Placements - Policy, Practice & The Law (NAGALRO: Carol Edwards & Leonie Jordan) 2008.
  • Diversity in the Family Courts: NAGALRO Conference (Prof Golombok, Dr Adesida, Malek Wan Daud, Dr McGaw facilitated by Dr Brophy) 2008
  • Public Law Outline (Hazel Best & Manminda Mangat, Principal Solicitor to Hounslow's Care Management Team) 2007
  • The Adoption & Children Act 2002 (Helen White, Principal Solicitor - London Borough of Harrow) 2006
  • Sexualised Behavior and Sexual Abuse (Dr Clair Sturge) 2006
  • Integrated Children Services 2006
  • Personal Education Plans for Looked After Children (Gatsby Project) 2006
  • Reflective Practice (David Campbell & Bernadette Boland) - 2004 - 2005
  • Information Sharing and Data Protection (TIGER programme)- 2004
  • Legal Protocol in Care Proceedings (Penny Cooper) 2004
  • Joint Investigation Training & Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings- (Sam Tarding & Alec Love) 2003
  • Children In Need, Child Protection & Looked After Children- (Multi disciplinary ACPC trainers: Hammersmith & Fulham Induction Programme) 2002

I am currently researching Complexity (Chaos) Theory in its application to social work assessments and interventions at the "edge of chaos".

Hobbies

Improvisation performances.