Systemic Leadership Consultation Programme 2026-7

Since 2022 AFSP has hosted a series of online development programmes for systemically trained therapists in leadership positions, which have been both popular (over-subscribed) and well-received. Many have commented upon how helpful it has been both to be reminded of the way systemic ideas, ethics and methods can be a resource for them in undertaking leadership roles, and to have the opportunity to meet and form links with other practitioners in similar positions.

We are now offering a further 8-session online programme running from October 2026 to May 2027.  Participants will in the large group discuss key systemic leadership and organisational ideas, linked to practice, and in smaller groups have the opportunity to consult with colleagues about the issues facing them in their leadership roles.

Dates for the online programme will be as follows:

Friday 23 October 2026, 9.30-12.30

Friday 13 November 2026,  9.30-12.00

Friday 11 December 2026,  9.30-12.00

Friday 8 January 2027,  9.30-12.30

Friday 12 February 2027,  9.30-12.00

Friday 12 March 2027, 9.30-12.00

Friday 9 April 2027,  9.30-12.00

Friday 14 May 2027, 9.30-12.00

This programme is aimed at systemic therapists who are AFSP members and in leadership positions, so we ask in your applications that you detail your roles and agencies.  One of the strengths of previous cohorts has been the range of agencies and locations represented, including participants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Éire and from education, social care and voluntary care sectors, so we welcome applicants however far-flung!  There will be a maximum of 32 programme participants.

The training team will be Tayo Aderemi, Carol Halliwell, Philip Messent and Rozen Rauf.

About the trainers:

Tayo Aderemi

With a diverse experience of leadership roles in both children’s social care and CAMHS in the past 10 years, I have always been interested in the different positions we are invited into in leadership, how we construct the kind of systemic leader we want to become, and the cultural ideas that we give value and meaning to, which helps people tell their stories of leadership in ways that make them feel stronger. I am delighted to be a part of this programme.

Carol Halliwell

Being from a strong northern tradition of public service I’ve been working on NHS and social care for 40 plus years and in systemic leadership positions since 1996. I wish this course had been available to me when I first started in a leadership position! Hence my interest in offering future and current leaders some space. I’ve found leadership so much easier when reminding myself about the treasures of systemic ideas offer us, ideas from feminist leadership and ideas from indigenous cultural leadership practices also inform my practice.

Philip Messent

I spent 30 years of my working life in East London, first as a social worker, then as a social work manager, then as family therapy lead in CAMHS. Since retiring in 2017 I have sought to revisit and challenge ways of doing things that seemed to me inadequate, such as a reliance on ‘strong’ top-down leadership in which leaders were supposed to have the answers and others were marginalised.  My contribution to this programme since its inception in 2022 is a response to this, intended to support and encourage systemic leaders to take a different, more transparent and collaborative stance.

Rozen Rauf

I am interested in the experiences of intersectional leadership both locally lived and professionally performed. I draw on current personal understandings as a daughter of migrants from the British Colonies, mother of two young adults and carer for elderly parents. I combine these identity stories with knowledge gathered from a 30-year clinical career within public, charitable and private sectors. My participation in an early iteration of this training allowed me, with others, to generatively explore connections between my systemic ethics and my various leadership locations.