On this page you’ll find a compilation of training available to enable you to continue to develop in terms of your work, your personal skills and your mental health and wellbeing. Training and development is a great way to keep your brain active and your spirits up. The CPD focus will stand you in good stead when it comes time to develop in your current role/job or look for new challenges and roles. Added to this, most of these options are free so won’t hurt your bank and the others are discounted for you as UNISON members.
This list of courses is not exhaustive and many more interesting learning opportunities can be found with each of these providers on their individual platforms. However, these courses will give you a good starting point.
You can find out more about how UNISON supports social workers on the national website.
Training for social workers (PDF downloads)
Training for social workers – face to face or virtual
Training for social workers – online
Or read on for more details.
UNISON e-learning
Mental health and wellbeing
Staying Strong: Stress Awareness
Register for a My.UNISON account
Mermaids
Social work/CPD
Virtual and face-to-face Gender Awareness and Diversity training is organised nationally and regionally.
Digital Unite
Digital
Free materials and user guides
Wranx
- Raising awareness: menopause in the workplace
- Raising awareness: mental health
Skills Academy
Skills Academy gives members access to over 600 free online courses, from time and priority management to how to manage virtual teams to remote workers’ security.
All the courses are CPD certified, allowing members to show proof of their learning to their employers.
Social work/CPD
- Child Neglect awareness
- Child protection
- Child sexual exploitation awareness
- Deprivation of liberty safeguards
- Drug and alcohol addiction awareness
- Modern slavery awareness
- Privacy and Dignity
- Safeguarding adults
- Safeguarding children
- Safeguarding vulnerable adults
- Trauma awareness
Management
- Essential skills for first-time managers
- Finance for non-finance managers
- Key tools and knowledge for team leading
- Managing people
- Practical leadership skills
- Tackling sensitive workplace conversations
Mental health and stress
- How to improve your mental health
- How to improve your physical health
- Mental health first aid
- Mental wellbeing in children and young people
- Reducing stress (techniques to relax)
- Reducing stress with meditation and visualisation
- Stress management (employees)
- Suicide prevention
- The power of the mind
- Self-care
Workplace
- Alcohol at work
- Communication barrier in the workplace
- Dangers of working at night
- Dealing with difficult people and situations
- Dealing with stress, anxiety, depression and violence in the workplace
- Dealing with workplace violence
- Disability awareness
- Drug and alcohol addiction awareness
- Duty of care
- Equality, diversity and discrimination awareness
- Health and wellbeing
- LGBTQ Awareness
- Lone working
- Managing emotions at work
- Mindful Listening
- People handling
- Preventing workplace discrimination
- Promoting positive behaviour
- Self-harm awareness
- Tackling sensitive workplace conversations
- Working in teams
Personal
- Assertiveness skills
- Benefits of Tai Chi
- Body language
- Building your confidence and self-esteem
- British sign language
- Communication skills
- Decoding direct/indirect messages
- Emotional intelligence
- Handing conflict in high-value relationships
- How to build resilience
- How to improve your sleep
- How to stop smoking
- How to write better emails
- Identifying causes of conflict
- Improve your assertiveness
- Mindful listening
- Unconscious bias
- Personal safety
- The art of persuasion
- Travel safety for women
English and maths
- Advanced English spelling
- English grammar – improve your English
- Punctuation mastery
- Writing skills
FutureLearn (The Open University)
Mental health and wellbeing
Youth mental health: helping young people with anxiety
Emotional intelligence at work
Understanding depression and low mood in young people
Mindfulness and wellbeing for peak performance
Leadership and management
Personal skills and development
Work/life balance and the impact of working remotely
OpenLearn (The Open University)
Social work/CPD
Introducing social work: a starter kit
An introduction to social work
Partnerships and networks in work with young people
Perspectives on social work: individual stories
Supporting and developing resilience in social work
Leadership and management
Mental health and stress
Challenging ideas in mental health
Making sense of mental health problems
Understanding depression and anxiety
Workplace
Effective communication in the workplace
Personal
Diversity and difference in communication
Difference and challenge in teams