European Social Services Conference
Shereen Hussein is a Professor of Health and Social Care Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. She is also the Co-Director of a Policy Research Unit focused on health and social care systems and commissioning (PRUComm). Her work focuses on ageing demographics, long term care outcomes, care and health workforce and migration.
Aleksandra Posarac is World Bank Lead Economist and Program Leader for Human Development, based in Pretoria. She oversees the World Bank program in Health, Education, and Social Protection and Labor in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. Prior to this she had held various positions at the World Bank, including: Lead Economist in Europe and Central Asia Social Protection Unit; Program Leader for Human Development, Poverty and Social Development in the Philippines Country Management Unit; World Bank Advisor for Disability and Development and Country Sector Coordinator for Human Development in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. During her tenure as the World Bank advisor for Disability and Development, she was a co-executive editor of the World Report on Disability published in 2011 by the WHO and the World Bank. She has provided high level policy and strategic advice and led lending projects and analytical studies in more than 20 countries across the world, including Russia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Fiji, Ecuador, Argentina, Seychelles, Mozambique, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Her areas of specialization include poverty, human development, social security, social assistance, social protection, and public expenditures.
Iris Kohlfürst, Ph.D. in Social Economy, studied social worker and social economist, is a Professor for Ethics in Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria since 2015. For more than ten years, she worked as a social worker in different fields of social work in Austria, before completing her dissertation on ethical questions in professional life at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. From 2009 onwards, she regularly teaches students of social work and since 2017 holds seminars on ethical aspects for professional social workers.
At the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria her teaching and research includes theories, methods and especially ethics in social work, where she focuses on the empirical implementation of professional ethics. Currently, she is a member of the Ethics Commission of the German Professional Association of Social Work (DBSH) and serves on the board of the Austrian Society for Social Work (ogsa), which promotes the academic discipline and the profession Social Work.
Francesc Torralba has 3 PhD: in Philosophy, in Theology and in Pedagogy.
He is professor at the Universitat Ramon Llull of Barcelona and distributes courses and seminaries in many other universities of Spain and South America.
Throughout his professional trajectory he has received different essay prizes and has published more than ninety books of philosophy on very diverse subjects, and publishes in several specialized magazines.
Essentially he is worried about to articulate a philosophy opened to the great public that can alternate depth and clarity simultaneously.
David Brindle is the former public services editor of The Guardian. He specialises in social policy issues and has won awards for his coverage of health and social care and the voluntary sector. He is a regular conference chair and speaker. He has been a board member of a number of charities and social enterprises and is currently chair of Ambient Support, which provides services for older people and those with learning disabilities and mental health issues. He is a member of various advisory committees, including those of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the School for Social Care Research.
Christian Fillet was elected as Chair of the European Social Network (ESN) in 2015. Prior to that he was ESN Treasurer for six years and Vice-Chair for the previous four years. He is the Director of social and health services for the City of Bruges in Belgium and also member of the board of the Flemish Directors Association (VVOS). Christian specializes in non-profit management, accounting, and social law.
Alfonso Lara Montero is the Chief Executive Officer of the European Social Network (ESN), from social services organisations in national, regional and local authorities responsible for the design and delivery of public social services in 33 countries. Working closely with them, ESN promotes social inclusion and better life chances through the delivery of quality social services.
Alfonso has been leading ESN’s policy, practice, and research programme for the past five years, leading its thematic work on mental health, children’s services, integrated services and evidence-based social services. He has authored and co-authored several publications on social services, such as “Investing in children’s services’, “Integrated social services in Europe’, “Investing in the social services workforce’, and the “Toolkit for planning and evaluating social services”. Alfonso is a regular contributor to academic journals, newspapers, and specialist social services magazines. Alfonso holds a BA in modern languages from the University of Granada, an MA in European governance from the College of Europe, an MSc in public policy from University College London, and an MSc in executive management of international associations from Brussels Solvay Business School.
Phelim was appointed Chief Executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) on 26 November 2014.
He joined HIQA as Director of Regulation and Chief Inspector of Social Services on 1 November 2012. He has 40 years’ experience working in health and social care services in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Phelim comes from a nursing background, with qualifications and experience in mental health, emergency department and community, public health nursing. Prior to joining HIQA, he held a number of senior management positions in Northern Ireland’s health and social care system. They included commissioning of health and social care services as Chief Nurse in one of the former commissioning boards and as Director of Regulation in the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA).
As HIQA CEO, Phelim has overseen on the strategic development and execution of regulation and quality improvement programmes across health and social care services as well as the expansion of HIQA’s functions in the areas of HTA, Health Information and the National Care Experience Programme. More recently, Phelim has worked within HIQA and in conjunction with other agencies to develop best practice in adult safeguarding, and in the promotion of human rights based care in regulated services.