Siobhan Maclean

Siobhan has been a social worker for 33 years and became a practice educator in 1995. Siobhan has worked independently for a number of years. As an independent her work is varied but includes training, devising practice learning resources and consultancy work. Siobhan still very much enjoys working as a practice educator and currently works with a few students a year in an off site capacity.

In 2004 Siobhan was appointed to the position of Secretary of the International Federation of Social Workers, holding this position for eight years. She still maintains close international links and enjoys working to support practice educators in countries where social work education is in the early stages of development. She recently Co-Directed an IFSW project on ‘new social workers’ which explored the experiences of those in the final year of study and through the first five years in practice.

Siobhan has written widely, mostly around social work theory and critical reflection. She is committed to making the knowledge base accessible to busy practitioners and set up Kirwin Maclean Associates as an independent publishing organisation based on the values and ethics of social work.

Siobhan recently moved to Northern Ireland where she has enjoyed taking on the practice teacher role. Moving contexts and getting used to a different set of standards and paperwork has reminded Siobhan just what it feels like to be new to the practice teaching role!

Siobhan is a fellow of the RSA and a Visiting Professor at the University of Chester.