This report is based on the staff team at 17 Wootton Road Children's Home. It is looking at the function and purpose of the Childrens home and the individual and team development needs of the home.
Stuart Carlton
Certificate In Management Studies
Module 3: Human Resource Management and Development
Word count: 2,972
Contents
Page
Summery 3
Introduction 4
Body 5
The Team 5
Table 1: Woodcock Analysis 7
Regular review 8
Sound Intergroup Relations 8
Future changes in objectives 9
Individual skills 10
Table 2: Belbin Analysis 11
Methods for development 13
Conclusion 15
Recommendations 16
Team Development Plan 17
Individual Development Plan 17
Bibliography 18
Appendix 1: Woodcock Analysis 19 - 20
Appendix 2: Belbin Inventory 21 -23
appendix 3: Belbin Team Roles 24
Summary
This report is based on the staff team at 17 Wootton Road Children's Home. It is looking at the function and purpose of the home and the individual and team development needs of the home, in order to enhance further the quality of placement for children and young people looked after by North east Lincolnshire Council.
The report highlights the need of the team for a regular review process, an individual training plan requiring NVQ's and the need to address intergroup relations.
the report recommends not only the introduction of NVQ's but the introduction of a structured and planned regular review process within which team needs and processes can be addressed.
Introduction
I am currently a Senior Care Officer at a Children's Home known as 17 Wootton Road. This is a Local Authority run home based in North East Lincolnshire.
17 wootton Road is a needs based (usually long term, occasionally short term) home for Children and Young People, who for varying reasons cannot return to their family.
Our philosophy centres around providing a stable, caring, safe and nurturing environment which enables us to address the differing needs of service users. This is to enable children and young people to work towards a care plan agreed to by themselves and others. These plans are wide ranging and could entail anything from preparation to return to the family home to preparation to enter independent living.
Although the team at Wootton Road do not aim to replace the real parents of children and young people within the home, we do aim to act as good parents.
We are devoted to providing the kind of situation and environment within the home which facilitates the child/young person in their growth (physically, emotionally and mentally), self esteem and self respect, motivation and responsibility and in developing skills and behaviour which is appropriate to their age.
As good parents, we ensure that children and young people receive good health care, education and work experiences.
The children and young people at Wootton Road are actively encouraged, as service users, to be involved in their own care plans and in the running/planning of the home. They are given the opportunity to air views, ideas, grievances etc. as a collective or individually to the staff team.
Body
The Team
According to Adair(1986,p107);
A team is essentially a group with a common aim in which the technical skills and personal abilities of the members are complimentary. A high achieving team has all the properties of a more ordinary team but in an enhanced degree.
For the objectives and philosophies of Wootton Road to be achieved, the group of individuals who work there must work together as a team.
The team at Wootton Road consists of;
I believe that the team at Wootton Road do most tasks to a very high standard. However, there are several central tasks to successful residential Childcare that the team do extremely well.
The first and possibly most importantly, is that of the proactive and dynamic engagement of children and young people. The staff team share a common belief that children and young people who are engaged in enjoyable activity are less likely to become disruptive and the benefits in the development of positive relationships and the children's self esteem make any other way of working seem inappropriate. The diversity of skills and strengths in this area is great, but individually and as a team everyone contributes to the overall aim and underlying philosophy.
The team is also very consistent in the way that is works. The roles that individuals are expected to fulfil in the team are made clear through their job descriptions, but also as importantly through practice, supervision, induction and other team mechanics. The way that individuals work with the children and young people is also very consistent within the team. Rules and expectations are clear and interactive with the service users themselves. All team members give full consideration to the effects that decisions made by them can have on the team as a whole.
The team are ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
The team is also very consistent in the way that is works. The roles that individuals are expected to fulfil in the team are made clear through their job descriptions, but also as importantly through practice, supervision, induction and other team mechanics. The way that individuals work with the children and young people is also very consistent within the team. Rules and expectations are clear and interactive with the service users themselves. All team members give full consideration to the effects that decisions made by them can have on the team as a whole.
The team are also very skilled in putting ideas into practice. Good ideas can often be found, but the team skill is translating the individual idea into a working practice that all the team have ownership off, because only then will it work. The team have done this in many areas and are continually either developing new ideas or looking for future development potential.
Another team strength is that it is very child centred. Anything that the team does is focused very clearly into the question of how this could benefit the children and young people that we care for. This is the area that probably leads the team into most conflict with other agencies/ departments. As already mentioned in the introduction, a central belief of the team is "acting like good parents" and the team strongly believe that the children that we care for should have the same opportunities as any other child may have.
To question what areas the teams strengths and weaknesses are in, I asked as many members of the team as possible to complete two analysis's;
* Team building blocks Questionnaire by Woodcock (Appendix 1)
*Belbin Self Perception Inventory (Appendix 2)
Table 1
With the woodcock analysis, the higher the score in each section (Table 1), the weaker the team is in that area and the lower the score the stronger the team is in that area.
As can be seen in the previous table, the team at Wootton Road clearly have stronger developmental needs in two of the areas covered. By looking at the average scores, it can clearly be seen that the team are very strong in many areas.
The areas in which the team are weaker are in having a regular review and having sound intergroup relations.
Regular Review
According to Adair (1986, p135);
A highly effective team is characterised by its tendency towards regular and searching self-evaluation of performance. Reviewing is an essential part of the process of being a high performance team.
From the Woodcock analysis, the team felt that they did not have the time or opportunity to sit back, question and evaluate aspects of the job, i.e. questioning the content and usefulness of meetings, learning from mistakes, receiving group feedback, questioning the way the team operate, to much time doing and not thinking.
The problem for a busy residential team is creating this space in a normal working week. It is surprising that given that so much of the residential childcare task is 'team centred' that so little regard is given to these team functions.
Sound Intergroup Relations
This is the area of greatest weakness for the team and is probably one of the hardest to influence. This is maybe why the team feels this to be one of the greatest weaknesses as it has not had the time or ability to influence this area. Some of the statements asked in this section were;
We are frequently at loggerheads with other departments.
Relationships with other groups are cool
Help is not forthcoming from other parts of the organisation
The rest of the organisation do not understand us
We put a lot of energy into defending our boundaries
We have to little influence on the rest of the organisation
(Woodcock TeamBuilding Block, Appendix 1)
In discussion with members of the team, it is felt that part of their success has been the ability to develop as a rather insular unit, in that the development of Wootton Road hasn't been dependant upon other staff teams and they haven't waited for direction from senior management. The development has derived from the team who work there. It appears though that the team therefore feel that they are separated in some ways from the rest of the department and that they have to defend the way in which the team work. Some of the team still feel that other departments view Residential Childcare as an unskilled baby-sitting service which doesn't get much respect.
Future changes in objectives
The biggest change that lies ahead for residential childcare comes from a Government white paper, 'Modernising Social Services'. This paper outlined a special programme called Quality protects, which will;
...make sure children are properly protected against abuse, raise standards in children's homes, give children in care better opportunities for a decent education and help them set up for a successful adult life. (Modernising Social Services White Paper, 1998)
In the same document, the government outline that they will introduce tough new inspection arrangements, set up eight regional Commissions for Care Standards who will be responsible ensuring that Children's homes are working towards set national standards.
This will result in targets being set in homes and the introduction of systems that allows for results to be measured and monitored.
Staff in the children's homes may well require training in order to see how Quality Protects may effect the service delivery and to address the necessary skills and knowledge which may be needed in order to achieve targets.
Individual skills
The team also completed a Belbin Self Perception Inventory in order to see where peoples individual skills are but to also look at these skills in the context of what roles people have within the team. The results of this can be seen at Table 2.
There are five areas that the roles people can undertake within a team fall into.
Table 2
The first is the controlling category in which both the manager and a care officer are 'Shapers'. This is characterised by being challenging, dynamic, thriving on pressure and having the drive to overcome obstacles.
Two care officers fall into the supporting category of being 'Teamworkers'. This is characterised by being co-operative and mild, perceptive and diplomatic. These people listen, build, avert friction and calm the waters.
A senior Care Officer and a Care officer fall into the Exploring category. The SCO is a 'Resource Investigator' who is characterised by being extrovert, enthusiastic and communicative. They explore opportunities and develop contacts. The Care officer is a 'Plant' who is characterised as creative, imaginative and unorthodox who can solve difficult problems.
Two other Care Officers fall into the organising category and are classed as 'Company Workers' who are characterised as disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient who turn ideas into practical actions.
The last two team members to complete the inventory fall into the monitoring category. A Senior Care officer is classed as a 'Monitor Evaluator' and is characterised by being sober, strategic and discerning. They see all options and judge accurately. the Care officer is classed as a completer finisher. They are characterised as being painstaking, conscientious and anxious. They search out errors and omissions and deliver on time.
Through using the Belbin Inventory, the team appear to be well balanced in the roles that people take on within it. This balance also lends itself to a shared team belief of working to peoples strengths, accepting weaknesses and supporting each other.
Each of the team roles mentioned have 'allowable weaknesses' (Appendix 3) which go with them. In discussion with team members, there is a belief that this is one of the things that make a team more effective. All teams have individuals with strengths, weaknesses and roles. In an effective team, the weaknesses are accepted, not criticised, with an understanding that this is part of what makes the team function.
On an individual basis, from discussion with team members, development needs are two-fold. Firstly they want training that is relevant and appropriate to Residential childcare and can make a difference to the quality of service that they provide. Secondly, they want a training programme that provides a recognised qualification. These issues have been addressed by the Training Section of NE Lincolnshire Social services Department, and NVQ level 3 - 4 qualifications should be in place and started by all the team at Wootton Road by the end of 1999.
Methods for development
Two issues shown by this report are the need of the team to look at reviewing itself and the need for intergroup relations to be addressed . The question is how can be done in the most effective way.
The team are clearly saying that in a normal working week, there is not the space, time or possibility for the whole team to come together to look at these issues. If there was, then they would probably have already been addressed. Time needs to be set aside for the whole team outside Wootton Road to begin the process of review. What is also necessary is that this time 'out' needs to be on a regular basis and not just a one off occurrence. According to Adair (1986);
The reviewing phase in the teambuilding activity is not temporary. A highly effective team is characterised by its tendency towards regular and searching self-evaluation of performance. Reviewing is an essential part of the process of being a high performance team.
The review process needs to be structured with set standards which must be maintained. Reviewing should establish certain facts first. according to Adair (1986, p135), these include "what was the objective? Did we in fact achieve it? if we did not, in what ways did we fail?"
Review would allow time for all the issues important to the team to be given full consideration. It is also felt that this reviewing process should be facilitated externally to the group. This would be to provide checks and balances to directions the team wishes to pursue. This is also important so as to avoid "groupthink". Janis (Janis & Mann 1977) used the phrase to argue that sometimes highly cohesive groups often make bad decisions because of a syndrome he called groupthink. According to Eunson (1987, p351), groupthink is;
...basically about decision making that is too narrowly focused, so broadening of the focus can be brought about by wider examination of alternatives, generation of contingency plans, and setting up of devils advocates who can throw up likely criticisms without being stigmatised as being disloyal to the group.
The third issue shown by this report is that of informing staff of how the issues raised by Quality Protects may influence the delivery of Residential Childcare. This could be achieved by the use of normal training delivery in conjunction with other residential homes.
Conclusion
The staff group at Wootton Road are clearly a very effective team who are committed to improving the quality of care for children and young people looked after by North East Lincolnshire council. They perform many key tasks extremely well, are child centred, dynamic and inventive in accessing new opportunities.
Through the use of analysis and discussion with team members, I have highlighted in the report four areas for future development;
1. That the staff teams individual development would be well met by NVQ's, which are due to be introduced. The team did not feel that there individual development was not being attended to.
2. That the team are not at ease with regard to their position within the Social Services Department. There is a need to explore how to access/involve/influence other parts of the organisation. This may involve actively seeking to inform others of the practice and philosophy at Wootton Road.
3. That the team as a whole need space away from the 'shop floor' on a regular basis, to not only tackle the issues raised above, but to be able to Review the content and process of the teams tasks.
4. That Quality protects will undoubtedly effect and influence the delivery of residential childcare in the next 12 months.
Recommendations
1. That NVQ's for all team members be introduced at the earliest opportunity, which is already due to happen by the end of 1999, with funding already agreed.
2. That a programme for regular review be introduced with the use of an appropriately experienced external facilitator. I would recommend that this is for 5 days initially (externally facilitated) and then one day per month thereafter (facilitation negotiable dependent on team needs).
4. That when it is known how Quality Protects will effect service delivery in Residential childcare, that adequate and appropriate training is provided.
Team Development Plan
Staff group
involved
Likely development need
Development method
Cost and resources needed
Target date for completion and review
All the team at Wootton Rd
All the team at Wootton Rd
.Development of sound intergroup relations.
2. Regular review process
(i) Review process to identify area for development
(ii) Any training needs arising from this identification
(i) Initial review of five working days
(ii) Ongoing process to monitor and evaluate, 1day per month.
5 day block cover for residential unit,
£1,640
5day facilitation
£2,000
day x 11 months, staff cover
£3,168
1/2 facilitation
(5 -6 days)
£2,200
Total cost
£9,008
month from onset of training
2 months from onset of training, monthly thereafter.
Individual development plan
Staff member involved
Agreed development need
Development method
Cost and resources needed
Target date for completion and review
3 x Senior Care Officers
5 xCare Officers
NVQ assessment award
NVQ level 4
NVQ level 3
Training course
Training programme
Training programme
Already agreed
Already agreed
Already agreed
?
?
?
Bibliography
Adair, J (1986) Effective Teambuilding Macmillan, London
Eunson, B (1987) Behaving Managing Yourself and Others McGraw-Hill, Sydney
DoH (1998) Modernising Social Services White Paper
