Inter-agency Training: A Practical Handbook

This handbook brings together guidance and tools to assist both the self-development and the work of training professionals involved in any inter-agency context. These may include: adult safeguarding, children in need, early years, child protection, young minds, youth offending, adult mental health, adult offending and others. Whether helping training professionals who are stepping into inter-agency work with some of its basics or supporting more experienced colleagues when they feel stuck, it aims to empower and develop resilience. Some of the tools can also be used by supervisors and managers in their inter-agency work, or by anyone considering employing an inter-agency trainer. Using the example of Local Safeguarding Children Boards, it will help ensure that inter-agency training happens, is of good quality and enhances inter-agency communication and cooperation. Practical in focus, with underlying theory offered where useful, the tools can be adapted for different circumstances and disciplines. Extensively tried and tested, it offers: * Practical tools, exercises and checklists for use at each stage of the training cycle - from planning to evaluation * Strategies for when you encounter obstacles * An opportunity to appraise, affirm and develop trainers' own skills and knowledge * Inspiration to try something new and different Carefully focused on the specific complexities of inter-agency work that influence how training can be run and managed, it is designed for use where there are: * Diverse and multiple agencies, stakeholders, structures and contexts * A wide range of perspectives and cultures * An endemic presence of stereotypes and prejudices * Divergent professional and organisational priorities * Various traditions and structures of power * Diversity of language and understandings * Diversity of working traditions * A wide range of roles and responsibilities. Much of the material has been used to work with the additional complexities of using front line practitioners as volunteers to deliver training, and of involving vulnerable service users to help bring the training to life.

Table of Contents:
Foreword. Introduction. Stakeholders. Introduction. The service users (vulnerable children, adults and their families). Inter-agency partnerships. Relationships with other inter-agency partnerships. Training sub-group. Chair of the training sub group. Training coordinator. Training pool. Host organisation. Other inter-agency partnership sub-groups. Member agencies. Other inter-agency bodies. Central Government. The media. Learning points. The role of the training coordinator. The importance of the role. Know yourself. Workloads and systems. Attitudes and values. Knowledge and skills. Finding help for ourselves. Learning points. Management and planning. Introduction. Training needs analysis. Inter-agency training strategy. Annual plans. Training pathways. Learning points. Managing training pools. Introduction. Recruitment and induction. Managing the pool and the individuals within. Learning points. Delivering training. Introduction. Combined learning approaches. Commissioning inter-agency training. Training coordinator style. Management issues and systems. Writing inter-agency training programmes. Involving service users in training. Learning points. Evaluation and quality control. Introduction. Tools. Learning points. References. Recommended reading and helpful websites. Glossary. Application form for PDF supply.

About the Author :
Jo Edwards has been the Safeguarding Board Training Coordinator in Salford since 2001, and helped write the Training For Trainers course for the North West Inter-Agency Trainers group. She has worked previously as a nurse, midwife, health visitor, and as a member of the Salford Children and Families scheme. Ane Freed-Kernis has been an inter-agency training coordinator since 1995. Prior to that, she worked in the social care field as a social worker, volunteer and trainer for over 30 years. She currently works as inter-agency training coordinator for an LSCB, a social worker for a local authority and a volunteer mentor and trustee for Albert Kennedy Trust, a voluntary organisation.