Relating across divides
The complex realities of interagency working
A Group Relations Conference, 24 to 27 March 2026
About this conference
Much of our work takes place in services and organisations where there are ever increasing demands and squeezed resources. There are inevitable frictions and tensions within and between groups which can make the work feel unworkable. There are also rifts within us, times of frustration, confusion and despair. All this can be baffling and diminish our pleasure and satisfaction in work and collective experiences of a job-well-done.
This four-day conference aims to open space to explore our experiences of divides in our work. We will consider the necessity of boundary and separateness, of having followers as well as leaders for effective team work, alongside the essential need to relate across divides of individual, professional and agency identities. What are the forces at play that can hinder or enable us to relate across divides, both conscious/unconscious, to create common ground and a sense of shared aims and interests? We invite you to explore these aspects through the experiences in the conference and opportunities to link thoughts and feelings, psychoanalytic and systemic forces in the individual and the group.
Co Directors: Carolyn Walker and Rajni Sharma
Building Experience Director: Hicham Jabrane
Please direct any queries to the conference administrator: GRC@tavi-port.nhs.uk
Who is this conference for?
This is an applied Group Relations Conference (GRC) that aims to address the learning needs of people whose work involves caring for the emotional and psychological well-being of adults, young people, children and their families within multi-disciplinary and inter-agency settings. They may be working or training as health, education or social care professionals, as therapists or as supervisors and managers or consultants to this work.
For those with experience of attending at least one previous Group Relations Conference, we welcome applications to join the conference’s Building Experience Group. Membership provides additional opportunities to deepen your learning about group processes and how they impact on professional relationships. Separate and additional spaces are offered, alongside the main conference timetable, to work with consultant staff to further understanding.
Why attend this conference?
Group Relations Conferences offer an opportunity for experiential learning. Working together in a co-created ‘temporary organisation’, we will participate in, and reflect on, the various group events that take place each day. Members are invited to work with each other and with the conference staff to explore how issues of authority, task, role and boundaries, difference, diversity and power can impact on the professional use of self. There will be opportunities to explore the conference themes, to experiment with the roles we take in our working lives and to better understand how conscious and unconscious processes influence our behaviour in groups.
In addition, this applied conference will consider the emotional impact of taking responsibility for the social, educational and mental health and well-being of children, young people, adults and families. We will consider the inherent tensions involved in working with clients across multiple agencies and how the dynamics of differing professional practices may impact on authority.
Building Experience Group (BE Group)
The Building Experience Group (BE Group) will be an integral part of the conference. It will offer an opportunity for those who have attended one or more GRCs, and who are keen to learn more about themselves in an organisational context. The BE Group will offer its members a chance to deepen and develop their group relations experience and to focus on what they would like to learn next. As a member of this group, you will have an extended timetable which will be discussed with you following your application.
Conference venue, dates and timings
The conference will take place in person at: The Tavistock Centre, 120 Belsize Lane, London, NW3 5BA.
To maximise the conference learning for you and other attendees, we ask all members to commit to attending the whole of all four days:
- Tuesday 24 March: 9am to 6pm
- Wednesday 25 March: 9am to 6pm
- Thursday 26 March: 9am to 6pm
- Friday 27 March: 9am to 5pm
Please note: the deadline for applications for this conference will be Sunday 8 March 2026, or when all places are filled.
Conference fees
- Internal Trust member: £560
- Building Experience Group member: £560
- External member: £700
Registration
We aim to get back to all registrants within seven days. Please contact us if you have not received an email within that time frame.