PARTNERSHIP WITH FAMILIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE

LOIS SEDDONNovember 2012

AIM

Consider the meaning of working in partnership in the context of working with

families and young people

What is the point of working in partnership?

Enables strength based approached Helps avoid dependency model To enable clients / young people to see

you as a resource Reciprocity Hegemony – accepted norms co - opted

and become jargon / expectations of society

What do we mean when we speak of partnership?

Collaboration? Cooperation? Coordination? Coalition? Alliance? Helping? Sharing? 50 / 50?

Deconstruct the concept

What assumptions are made about the concept?

What elements do we really understand about the concept?

What elements do we not really understand? Is it a ‘common – sense’ concept? Is it a self-evident concept? Is it a concept that means the same thing or

different thing in different contexts?

SCIE http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/guides/guide23/waysforward/concepts.asp

Partnership is significant in its own right. It is not an add-on to other issues. It therefore warrants greater attention in

relation to theory development

Example…

Information and guidance may be provided for parents or carers in terms of how changes in their behaviour can result in changes in their child’s behaviour. For example in encouraging a secure attachment.

How do you work in partnership in this situation?What do you have to set in place? What skills will you need?How will you know that the partnership was successful?

What is good partnership working?

Good in two senses?: Morally good (underpinned by ethics) –

relating to the on - going therapeutic relationship

Technically good – effective in achieving the outcome – working towards the achievement of a goal

What are the characteristics of an effective partnership?

Working together with active participation / involvement.

Developing and maintaining genuine connectedness

How does the practitioner recognise connectedness?

Sharing power

Sharing decision making power. Can shared power and ‘jointness’ really be

achieved? Should we accept an inevitable power

imbalance? If so we need to be able to compensate /

redress the imbalance? Consider the specific challenges here

associated with safeguarding.

Think about power in the relationship

physical power – for example, a person who bullies others and intimidates other people with their words and/or body language

personal power – for example, someone who has charisma and can ‘win people over’

negative power – for example, someone who

can stop things from happening expert power – for example, someone

who has professional knowledge or the experience of being a parent

(Handy Charles B,Understanding organizations, 1993, OUP

Expert Model Expertise of practitioner being greater than

parent Parent wants practitioner to provide a

solution Although interactions may be undertaken

with care and respect the practitioner leads and the parent / young person complies

Does not take account of the importance of the parent’s or young person’s role knowledge /power / expertise – undermines their power still further

Not considering the implications for enabling parents / young people to cope with complex situations – could encourage dependency.

Does inequality exist?

It is important to recognise, acknowledge and manage inequality between the provider and the service user.

It may be the role of the practitioner to compensate

Recognising expertise and roles.

Accepting that these are complementary.

The client / young person will have experiences in a range of fields, unique to themselves, and so will the practitioner

Accepting responsibility

Service users have rights to take risks

Sharing and agreeing aims and process.

Involving parents / young people in identifying the things that are important to them and enabling them to be part of the solution.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children and young people have a right to say what they think about matters that affect them, and a right to have those views taken

Negotiation of disagreement.

Differences of opinion can be both creative and destructive

Conflict arises when there are differences between people over:

values facts priorities goals (Charles Handy 1993)

Showing mutual trust and respect

Value accorded to individual input. How will race, class, religion, culture

and language affect the development of partnership working?

The practitioner must reflect on discriminatory and oppressive stereotypes and attitudes and their effects.

Developing and maintaining openness and honesty

How much of the practitioner needs to be revealed to the client / young person?

Communicating clearly

Each partner has rights to information Remember 90 per cent of our

communication is non-verbal Encouraging people to say how they feel

is key

What Qualities are needed in the practitioner?

Respect Genuineness Empathy Humility Quiet enthusiasm Personal strength and integrity Intellectual and emotional attunement Resilience of professional to absorb the differential

Partnership refers to negotiated practice in which users are active participants engaged with professionals in deciding on a course of action.

Each partner has something to contribute with power shared and roles respected. Such partnerships are backed by legal and moral rights.

What do service users think about partnership?

Most clients believed that professionals knew best and wanted access to professional expertise.

They also identified the most effective partnerships were those resulting from a negotiation between those with personal experience and those with professional expertise.

Respect is a consistent theme. This includes clients’ views about how they should be perceived, addressed and treated, and that indifference, impersonality, inattentiveness or rudeness all constitute a lack of respect.

ALLY?

Baldwin and Sadd, in their discussion of partnership work between the University of Bath and the Wiltshire and Swindon Users’ Network, (20) describe how they now use the word ‘ally’ rather than ‘partner

The essence of partnership is sharing. It is marked by respect for one another, role

divisions,, accountability, competence, Each partner is seen as having something to

contribute, power is shared, decisions are made jointly and roles are not only respected but are also backed by legal and moral rights.

(SCIE 2008) (citing Jo Tunnard, 1991)

What needs to be in place for effective partnership working with families and

young people? Willingness of both parties to engage

How will you manage the complexities of partnerships with involuntary users?

Characteristics of parents / young people and children that might affect

the partnership:

Nature of parent / child / young person problems

Barriers to engagement Motivation to change Attitudes and beliefs about services Expectations of outcome Socioeconomic circumstances Culture

Getting to know the family / young person will shed light on the pace at which you may need to work – for example the frequency of the meetings needed to develop the relationship.

What might undermine the partnership?

Rushing the planning Failing to identify clearly the reasons for

working in partnership (the purpose and goals of the partnership).The practitioner may need to repeatedly clarify and promote the key purpose.

Lack of time for those in the partnership to get to know one another

Not enough time to gain an understanding of each other’s role and responsibility within the partnership

A lack of trust A failure to look at how a partnership is

doing and to measure its achievements (through monitoring and evaluation)

Assessing readiness for partnership working:

Reflecting on:Before the meeting How were they / you feeling? What were they / you thinking?During the meeting How are they / you feeling? What are they / you thinking? How are they / you behaving?After the meeting What next?

What skills do you need to set this in place?

Concentration/active listeningPrompting, exploration and summarisingEmpathic respondingEnthusing and encouragingEnabling change in feelings, ideas and actionsNegotiatingCommunicating and making use of technical knowledge, expertise and experienceProblem managementinterpersonal communication, including with users and carers with particular communication needs advocacyworking in an empowering waydemonstrating respectusing written agreementscritically reflecting on explicit and/or implicit feedback.resilience

The activities / the process(Early Start 2006)

Establishing and building a relationship Helping the person explore their current

situation Helping them formulate a clearer

understanding of situation Establishing agreed aims and goals Planning strategies Supporting parents / young people while

the plans are implemented Evaluating or reviewing the results

Who is going to support you?

It is generally accepted that, when you are supported yourself, you are in a better position to support others.

Formal Support – line manager / clinical supervision

Informal support – colleagues / networks / websites

Summary

Clear partnership goals do not just happen.

They come about through a process of identifying needs, gathering information

It is essential to maintain a strong sense of the part you play.

As a general guide, it is helpful to think of your role as enabling others (family / parents / young person) to do the work.

Conceptual confusion about the distinctive nature of partnership remains

To explore the tacit knowledge / skills of practice we need to deconstruct the concepts

This entails challenging assumptions, but first those need to be identified.

It means unpicking the elements and systematically exploring the characteristics as we experience them.

It involves considering the challenges to achieving successful practice, but before that we need to be clear about what successful practice is.

Next…

Think of an example in practice of working in partnership.

What are the qualities of that relationship?

Is it a good partnership? Think about your own experience of

partnership working, and the thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears, you have about it.

Consider:

Working in partnership: what do I need to learn?

What practical skills do I need to develop?

Who’s going to support me? Preparing for visits

(ContinYou 2005)

RESOURCES

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/w/working%20with%20parents%20in%20partnership.pdf

http://www.continyou.org.uk/school/study_support/files/working_in_partnership_to_support_families