Author
MUKHERJEE Suzanne, et al.
Title
A resource pack: developing a key worker service for families with a disabled child.
Publisher
Care Co-ordination Network UK, 2006
Summary
This resource pack offers research-based advice on how to develop and implement a key worker services for families with a disabled child, taking the reader through each phase of the process, with examples of activities and exercises which can assist in planning and decision making for each phase. Issues addressed include: what the services should look like; managing change; how to support the service; and facilitating multi-agency steering groups. The pack is aimed at managers and development workers within education services, health services, social services and voluntary organisations.
Contents
An introduction explains that the pack offers practical advice on how to go about developing and implementing a key worker service for families with a disabled child. It defines key working/care co-ordination and explains the importance of the key worker. It explains that it is aimed at managers or development workers who are responsible for the implementation of a key worker service for families with a disabled child, assuming a commitment among senior managers to the implementation of such services, and that there is already some multi-agency working within children's services. The approach advocated and resources needed (the facilitator, and a neutral venue) are given. The reader is told that of the remaining five chapters, Chapter 1 is essential background reading, Chapter 2 is essential but could be referred to later, Chapters 3 and 4 are optional, and Chapters 5 and 6 make up the core elements of the pack.
Section 1, 'Background knowledge', contains four chapters. Chapter 1 gives the research evidence on key working: why a service is important, what it should look like (core elements, who should be a key worker, and who should receive the service), and how such a service should be supported (contexts and resources, planning, and support for the key worker). Chapter 2 looks at operational realities: information sharing (accessing information about local services, inter-agency documentation, family-held records, the database, and multi-agency care planning review), management of the service and the advantages and disadvantages of different models, and the long-term maintenance of the service (ownership of the system, and monitoring and review). Chapter 3 discusses facilitating multi-agency groups: the value of the facilitator, issues to pay attention to (helping the group to form, relationships between members, language and communication, hierarchy and power, and parallels between experiences inside and outside the group), ending with three exercises promoting multi-disciplinary working: making groups work, reinforcing ground rules, and reflecting on group dynamics. Chapter 4 covers the management of change, discussing the literature on key questions before embarking on change, identifying stakeholders, reaction to change, and producing action plans, also ending with three exercises, on identifying successful strategies for change, reflecting on change in a multi-agency group, and the cycle of competence.
Section 2, 'Implementing a key worker service', has two chapters. Chapter 5 gives the phases to implementation: preliminary work (information gathering, establishing a multi-agency steering group, and involving service users in the development and implementation process), and the process of innovation (the workshop timetable, support between workshops, the importance of a communication strategy, planning the service, and the importance of monitoring and evaluation). Chapter 6 describes workshop plans and exercises. It consists of three workshops. Workshop one, the initiation and planning phase, consists of day one, devoted to designing the service, with exercises on mapping out the local context, developing the service model, developing the key worker job description, developing the job description for the service manager, deciding on the scope of the implementation, and day two, with exercises on stakeholders' reactions to change, developing a communication strategy, and developing an action plan for implementing the service, and producing individual action plans. Workshop two, on implementing the service, has a single exercise on addressing areas of concern, and workshop three, on reviewing progress and adjusting the service, has two, on personal reflection on the implementation and implications for the future.
A checklist of key tasks is followed by appendices giving a workshop plan, quotes from parents, examples of map of existing services to family, an example of an action plan template, and example of an individual action plan, a pre-workshop questionnaire, CCNUK standards and matrix, and family-centred support: lessons from a key worker service. Information is given in tables and figures.
64 references
ISBN 1 87171 323 4