Having up to date knowledge is important for you as an individual but also for the organization to have an employee who continues to develop in their area of expertise, n my opinion there is not one chosen subject where you will know everything, each one of us continues to learn daily. It is important that as new information comes out staff are made aware of this and continue to improve their knowledge on a regular basis.
It Is important to continually improve knowledge and practice to ensure that you are able to advise and guide staff as and when required, this knowledge can be passed down the chain to new staff or excellent staff when policies or procedures change. Ensuring that you are up to date and improving on practice is as equally important as knowledge, policies and procedures change rapidly within organizations and it is important to follow these and be up to date to ensure safe working and understanding of practice, as well as being able to share this information with colleagues, clients and external partners.
Potential barriers to professional development within organizations could be budget restraints: this Isn’t an Issue within my own organization. The only barriers I can really Identify within my own organization are that the are only 3 management roles therefore for an employee will only progress Into a senior role If a manager leaves, managers are very happy within their roles and staff retention Isn’t an Issue.
Other potential barriers to professional development could be the staff member’s unwillingness to learn, or training providers identified not being particularly good at what they do thus the course not giving the learner the information or guidance that they need to develop in the right way. It is very important to identify providers with a good reputation for delivering good training sessions and having good materials to enable them to do this. Within my organization we use supervision, yearly appraisal and weekly team eating’s to identify personal development.
Personal development is measured more personally during supervision and appraisal’s than It Is during team meetings, team meetings measure development needs of the business as a whole rather than Individuals. Each staff member who has recently undertaken training Is expected to feed back to the team what they have learnt and are also required to complete a staff have gained from this in terms of knowledge and understanding and identify if this provider would be used again.
The different sources and systems used to measure professional development have en outlined above but to refresh we use supervision, appraisal and personal development folders as well as team meetings to feedback and discuss organizational development needs. It is important for all staff to have a professional development plan to work towards and this enables continued learning.
The different sources and systems used to support professional development tend to work well within our team as we are able to measure identified development needs on a regular basis, we also feed back to the team weekly during team meetings on any training attended. Supervisions tend to work well for monitoring and measuring identified training needs for professional development. Appraisals work well for professional development to be discussed at great length, training needs identified are discussed and courses identified, feedback from colleagues is shared with staff and discussions take place around this.
Partner agencies are also invited to provide input on professional development for staff members. Factors to consider when selecting opportunities and activities for keeping knowledge and practice up to date are individual development needs, ever changing policies ND procedures along with staff members chosen area of expertise such as education, training and employment, health, child sexual exploitation, parenting, self care and practical skills, budgeting and benefits and drugs and alcohol.
It is important for staff knowledge to be kept up to date to ensure best practice. For myself I have identified learning opportunities to meet development opportunities by way of identified training courses, I am able to reflect on my learning style and tend to learn better if I am in a practical setting as apposed to a class room eating.
I am able to adapt easily and tend to pick things up very quickly, I prefer to be set tasks to complete to show that I fully understand what is being asked of me and also prefer time scales to be set in which to complete tasks or objectives within. All staff have different learning styles and I believe that this needs to be taken into consideration when looking at professional development needs as this will have an impact if you do not match the learning style to the identified need.
I have produced a plan for my own professional development by way of yearly appraisal, training needs and areas of development have been discussed and identified with myself and my line manager. Appropriate source of support has been used by identifying appropriate training courses and attending, I have also sought support from my line manager if I am unsure if the identified course will be appropriate for the identified professional development need.
I also use my personal development folder to regularly monitor my own progress against my objectives set. The plan is reviewed 6 weekly at supervisions: training needs are reviewed and request basis if required in regard to booking identified training courses Compare models of reflective practice I feel that it is important to reflect on your own practice to continually improve performance, we all learn through making mistakes and it is good to acknowledge when this happens.
I have made mistakes in the past where I haven’t dealt with a situation particularly well, after the event I reflected on my decisions and what I could do differently next time, I think it is important to reflect on practice even if you decide that you made the right decision first time around. Within my organization we use 360 feedback forms for all staff including managers, staff are asked to comment on strengths and skills, area’s for development and performance for each individual that the form is completed for, this is then used at 3,5 and 12 monthly reviews with each staff member.
I am able to evaluate how my practice has improved by looking through the last 2 years of appraisals, objectives set and complete and also supervisions that have taken place at 6 weekly intervals. I have attended a number of training courses over he past 2 years that are relevant to my Job role and the environment for which I work also inline with professional development needs set within the period.
Recently I attended Human Rights Assessment training presented by our local social services department, this training is in line with recent changes to legislation that Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers who are all rights exhausted should undergo a human rights assessment and be returned to their home countries where appropriate, I feed back to the team how this would affect our current and future linen group.
I am able to reflect on failures and mistakes and feel that it is important to reflect on mistakes made as this is where a lot of learning comes from, failures covers a range of things and isn’t really a word that I like to use within the environment that I work. If there were to be failures’ reflecting on these situations and why they occurred would be important to ensure if changes could be made to prevent this from happening in the future that they are made inline with failure and working practice identified. Louise Whip 12/07/2013
