New Training Brochure for 2012

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Here is our new 2012 training brochure.

We’ve introduced a range of new courses this year which are listed on page 2. Further information about the programmes are detailed throughout the brochure and maybe of interest to you.

We’re also very excited about the opportunity of facilitating some team building events in partnership with Boulders Climbing Centre in Cardiff.  The ability to combine some physical activity with some bespoke classroom based learning is very not only unique, but also very exciting.

As always, if there’s training you require, but you can’t find it in our brochure, please don’t hesitate to give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to discuss your specific requirements.

It might be me one day!

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Here is an article that one of our Associates, John Lewindon, who facilitates many dementia training programmes, would like to share his comments on.
Care home wants to remove my mother
So often we locate the challenge with the person with the dementia rather than locating the challenge with the management and care staff in the home. Time after time Registration and Inspection reports identify poor quality training, inadequate supervision and poor challenging behaviour management Planning at the heart of poor practice, poor outcomes and abuse. Despite a considerable amount of money being devoted to training we’re still finding these scenarios being repeated. So we have to begin to ask the question how we change this culture that allows what we recognise to be the need and yet fails to address it.

Not an easy answer to come up with but I would beg to suggest that we begin to view training in a more holistic manner rather than just a tick box exercise. We can so focus on meeting the “Regs” that we lose sight of the adult learning process that is essential for us to turn “lessons learned” to “lessons applied”. With good training followed by good supervision and a comprehensive behaviour management plan in place we are more likely to have good outcomes for people with dementia, less transferring of people from one setting to another and, just as importantly, well-motivated learners as care staff.

I ask the question “How long before such stories are the thing of the past?”
The reason? It could be me one day!

A ‘Flipping’ Success

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We recently delivered a one day ‘Let’s Get Flipping’ workshop for those wishing to explore how Flip video cameras can be used as an accessible tool for person-centred planning and social engagement. The one day workshop allows participants to explore how they might implement the use of video records as a tool for person centred plans, and also gives them the opportunity to gain an understanding of how to practically use a flip camera and the associated editing software. For your information, here are some of the comments that were made by participants:

“I found the step-by-step guide through the movie making process and total involvement in practical exercises really worked for me. A brilliant day, thank you.”

“I’ll certainly use what I’ve learnt to follow-up on the work I’ve already done – making movies for/with the people we support is a priority.”

“I really enjoyed the role play session and using the software to edit our own videos ourselves.”

“What worked for me was just getting on and doing it! I found that the facilitator explained things clearly and had time to focus on us individually. I really enjoyed the day.”

For more information about this course, or any of our training programmes, please contact beth@practicesolutions-ltd.co.uk.

Results Based Accountability (RBA) & Business Planning

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Results Based Accountability (RBA) is a powerful organisational tool which can provide data to monitor progress and evaluate why services, programmes and interventions are succeeding or failing.

RBA provides a basis for answering the questions:
  • What are we trying to achieve, and why?
  • How are we progressing?
  • Have the desired results been achieved?

Evaluation using an RBA approach , in practice, can help to answer different, but equally important questions:

  • What are the results we want to achieve?
  • Why were results achieved or not?
  • What is the connection between intervention and outcome?
  • Do we need to repeat or discard anything we do?
  • Have there been any unintended consequences?
  • How do we need to change?

Val Connors, our associate consultant, recently ran a seminar on how RBA maybe used effectively to enhance business planning and the development of the ACRF within Wales. Here are some reflective notes based on the discussions held.

Perceived benefits of RBA

  • Increases opportunities for engagement of ‘customers’ and other stakeholders in a shared vision and how to achieve it
  • Increases ownership of outcomes and means
  • Supports creativity and ensures interventions are relevant and timely
  • Provides a gateway to move from a reactive to a proactive culture
  • Provides increased opportunity to explore how joint intervention can be integrated to achieve shared outcomes
  • Improves ‘customer’ focus by examining success and failure through collection and analysis of ‘customer’ experiences
  • Supports more accurate commissioning of internal/external services
  • Improved performance management, better use of resources
  • Provides a continuing opportunity to demonstrate results and build public confidence
  • Can cut across departmental , corporate and collaborative joint‐planning processes
  • Supports political scrutiny and organisational governance

Challenges

  • The focus of RBA must be on outcomes and improvement
  • Careful choice of performance measures is critical
  • Data should be chosen to illuminate difficult issues, rather than to show the organisation in the most favorable light
  • If RBA is to become more than a ‘flavour of the month’ concept, personnel must see a direct link between what they do and the data they collect
  • Implementing, organisation wide RBA, needs a longer‐term strategy with a shared language
  • Collaboration and trust will be needed, if RBA is to deliver required results, particularly in
    relation to population accountability
  • Welsh Assembly Government PIs do not fit well with an RBA approach and will need to be
    adjusted
  • In return for measurable results, agencies, with commissioning and contracting
    responsibilities, will need to delegate authority and resources

Implementing & RBA will require additional capacity to:

  • Develop a shared language
  • Engage customers and stakeholders
  • Set clear outcomes
  • Agree shared indicators and measures of success
  • Collect and use data beneficially

The current financial climate is challenging. Sharing costs in a collaborative venture, across
geographical and agency boundaries, offers a possible solution to the issue of capacity.

Gabe Conlon
Practice Solutions
17.1.2011