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.

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!

“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.

Training report 2010

• 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

The hosted technology we now use gives us email, diary and contact management for everyone within the business, making a real difference from from using individual email accounts and diaries that aren’t connected. It works with Microsoft Outlook, via a web browser and our smart phones. This is vital as it means our staff and associates can connect from any device, anywhere at any time. We continue to operate whatever the weather!

The SharePoint solution, which gives us access via a web browser to the latest versions of working documents has also really improved our time management processes, because we can always find what we need. There’s a lot less time spent emailing others trying to find documents.

Everything is hosted in secure data centres which can be accessed over the Internet. We are billed on a monthly basis and are charged per user. M2i manages our account so we can easily add new users as we develop and grow however, we only pay for what we use. Besides saving money, using hosted services also reduces a lot of risk for us, as the M2i solutions provides back up, continuity of service, hardware and software maintenance, upgrades and disaster recovery. All Practice Solutions staff and our associates need to work effectively is a laptop, or smart phone, with a connection to the Internet.

It was agreed that the projects’ transition coordinators and a group of young people they were engaged with, would be the main focus for the DVD. Thus, to ensure that everyone involved could benefit as much as possible from the experience it was decided to kick start the process by inviting a number of young people to attend a five day film making course. The aim was to introduce participants to the experience of creating digital films and more importantly, to get to know us and warm to the idea of appearing in front of a video camera.

The approach was incredibly successful and really helped to develop the skills, confidence and trust of the participants who now form a key part of the final DVD. As Mike Logan, the Your life, Your Choices project manger commented, ‘We had nine young people who had never met each other before from three different local authority areas…we found them working together as a team much quicker than we had expected. And also, because they were then listening to each others voices as they recorded each other and as they planned some of the film clips, we found that they started to think for themselves about their own experiences. By the end of it they were comparing quite deep experiences, quite emotional experiences of things they had in common, like being bullied at school and some of the things they’d done about it…(we)found the whole experience extremely powerful, but it was also clearly powerful for the young people who were involved.’

The second phase of the process involved the actual production of a series of digital stories that documented the transition experiences of four young people, their families and transition coordinators. Three of the four stories were based on the experiences of young people who had accessed the initial training programme and at least two individuals volunteered to assist with the production work.

We worked very closely with the transition coordinators and the individuals whose experiences we were planning to film to ensure they understood why we wanted them to be involved. It was also important for them to understand that their contribution would be made public to other young people, their parents, carers and professionals who were interested in finding out more about transition planning.

The second phase of the project took approximately two months to complete and the first draft of the DVD is currently being reviewed by all the key stakeholders prior to it’s final completion. The project was immensely rewarding and it was gave both John and I a great buzz to see how much the young people grew in confidence and self esteem, simply by getting involved. It was clear from the comments made by Mike Logan, the project manager, that he also valued our approach to engaging with the young people, ‘From those very first training days, John and Sarah engaged with the young people really well. They recognised their skills and potential and brought them along. Their work was incredibly empowering’.

The Your Life, Your Choices project now has an extremely useful resource that can be used by any young person and their families who are thinking about their transitions into adulthood. It’s also being used a as a training tool for practitioners working directly with young children with disabilities. ‘John and Sarah really helped us clarify what we wanted the DVD project, and from our point of view they’ve helped us produce a really effective product’ Mike Logan, Your Future, Your Choices Project Manager. If you’d like to find out more about the project, see the digital stories, or explore how Practice Solutions can assist you in the production of a digital media project, then please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01443 742384.