OPEN Symposium brings together international expertise and local knowledge

At the end of the month, the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare will host the OPEN Symposium 2021, bringing together sector experts along with international keynotes to share insights on child and family services.

OPEN is the Outcomes, Practice and Evidence Network, which is developed and overseen by the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare. This year’s theme is ‘Working on what matters, sharing what works’ and will largely focus on lessons from the pandemic.

The symposium will deliver the latest development and innovations from programs working to improve the lives of children and families around the world. There will be 23 separate sessions, and four keynote presentations from esteemed sector experts: Dr Norman Swan, health journalist, commentator and broadcaster; Professor Sharon Goldfeld from the Centre for Community Child Health; Jonathan Breckon, Children’s Senior Policy Advisor at the Open Innovation Team (UK); and Liz Weaver, Co-CEO of the Tamarack Learning Centre in Canada.

Keynote speaker Norman Swan said: “The sector has undoubtedly faced unprecedented challenges this year that have upset the status quo, forcing us to question best practice and evaluate our successes and failures in the context of the pandemic. The OPEN Symposium presents a welcome opportunity to share learnings from the pandemic with the sector, ultimately assisting to improve collective service delivery in the future”.

The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare CEO, Deb Tsorbaris said: “The symposium is a fantastic opportunity for those working in the sector to extract valuable learnings from different perspectives on child and family services from around the world. We are honoured to be welcoming such a diverse range of speakers, and hope that the event will contribute significantly towards our shared goal of improving child and family outcomes.”

The event will take place on 26th-28th October and will be virtual. The program can be accessed here.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the website.