CHCCCS007
Develop and implement service programs
Learner Guide v1.2
CHCCCS007
Develop and implement service programs
Application
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to engage consumers, analyse service needs of particular groups and develop programs and services to meet those needs.
This unit applies to workers coordinating or managing teams and operations in varied service delivery contexts.
The skills in this unit must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and State/Territory legislation, Australian/New Zealand standards and industry codes of practice.
Performance Criteria
Element
Elements describe the essential outcomes.
Performance Criteria
Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element.
1. Engage consumers in the analysis of service needs
2. Develop programs
3. Implement and monitor programs
CHCCCS007 – Learner guide Version 1.2 – November 2018 Southern Cross Education Institute
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4. Evaluate programs |
4.1 Assess capacity of programs to meet objectives 4.2 Seek and evaluate feedback from those using the service and other stakeholders 4.3 Modify programs as needed to meet changing requirements within policy and budgetary frameworks |
Assessment Requirements
Performance Evidence
The candidate must show evidence of the ability to complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit, manage tasks and manage contingencies in the context of the job role. There must be demonstrated evidence that the candidate has:
Knowledge Evidence
The candidate must be able to demonstrate essential knowledge required to effectively complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit, manage tasks and manage contingencies in the context of the work role. This includes knowledge of:
Assessment Conditions
Skills must have been demonstrated in the workplace or in a simulated environment that reflects workplace conditions. The following conditions must be met for this unit:
Assessors must satisfy the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015/AQTF mandatory competency requirements for assessors
Links
Companion volumes from the CS&HISC website – http://www.cshisc.com.au
Housekeeping Items
Your trainer will inform you of the following:
Objectives
Defining your plan
When you want to address service provision for consumers, you need detailed information about the needs of individuals and the organisations that serve them, as well as what resources are available. In order to so this, it's a good idea to develop a plan for identifying consumer needs and resources.
A need can be defined as the space between what a service is and what it could be. A need can be felt by an individual, a group, or an entire community. It can be a solid thing such as food, water or a building or an immaterial concept like friendship or feeling part of a team.
A resource, or assets, can be defined as individuals, institutions and organisations, buildings, areas, equipment – anything which can be used to help provide a service.
➢ Why create a plan?
Who to involve
The planning process benefits the most when there is full participation from consumers.
➢ Among others, consider the following:
How to engage consumers
In order to engage consumers in the analysis of service needs, you should first develop a plan for how to connect with consumers and learn how to engage with them. Having a suitable plan in place allows you to focus on the correct steps in turn to ensure you are working correctly towards consumer participation and engagement.
Before interacting with consumers, a useful strategy is to try and think as to what they would be looking for in terms of consumer participation and engagement. Try to put yourself in their shoes. How would you be engaged through the entirety of a progress that takes a long time? How would you decide what keeps your attention and effort?
There is no one size fits all strategy for consumer participation and engagement, which is why you investigate the needs of individuals, but in order to get the most out of any plan, you should:
➢
➢ Be enthusiastic
The first step to consumer engagement is for you to be excited and engaged about what you do. If you are not, why should they be? If possible, knowing and believing what you are doing is positive and has a good influence over the long term will reflect in your actions and feelings, and encourage customer engagement.
➢ Two way communication
When you are trying to engage consumers in decisions, you may find that you can overwhelm consumers, either through information overload or an eagerness for them to understand what you are trying to communicate. It is important to give people the opportunity to communicate back to you, as what they say may help you, and will help them feel engaged. Remember to respond to any praise or criticism in a genuine, empathetic way, as you would want to be treated.
➢ Be assertive, not aggressive
Assertive communicators take care and listen well to what people are saying, then build off what they’ve heard to proactively understand and be able to solve potential issues that consumers may have. Choose clear, jargon-free language when communicating with people and say what you mean. Being genuine, honest and communicative will help your build a stronger relationship with consumers.
➢ Have a genuine interest
How do you know what information is helpful to your consumers? What better way than asking directly? You should be prepared for any response, and take care to not react inappropriately if you get negative responses. Negativity gives you a great chance to proactively fix and address consumer issues. This can often result in someone who is more engaged in satisfied than if they did not have an issue.
➢ Make a commitment
Whether this be engaging with consumers directly or planning and performing services, be prepared to dedicate time to your goals and regularly follow and check up on progress. Regular contact with consumers makes them feel valued and committing to your task will result in better performance.
➢ Work together
You will not be the only person communicating with consumers, so it is important that your fellow colleagues or team members are on the same wavelength as you. Engaging with your colleagues will help good working methods spread and be able to amplify the effect of engagement to consumers.
➢ Empower the consumer
Empowerment in this context means customers options and personalised, actionable information with the capability to respond and be listened to. Consumers are more satisfied and feel more valued and engaged when we give them options and know there is interactivity, even if they don't select the options.
Things to consider
In order for you to investigate the needs of individuals, you should always take into account individual rights, community requirements and any organisation statutory and legislative requirements. These may differ depending on the type of client, your state and your organisation.
Individual rights
➢ There are five individual rights in Australia’s constitution. These are:
Source: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/how-are-human-rights-protected-australian-law
Individual needs
The needs of individuals are often based or influenced by what community they are from.
The most common definition of community is a group of people living together in one place or, sharing a common characteristic such as religion, race, profession or other factors. The community may have social values or responsibilities that allow them to be seen or thought of collectively that an individual feels a part of.
➢ Examples of communities:
The term 'community' can be ideological in nature – in other words, society has a collective view of what it means to be a community.
Even just by looking at the example communities given above, you can imagine that the requirements for each, others and the people within it would be vastly different. That is why it is important to investigate, connect and engage with individuals in line with your engagement plan.
➢ There are many things that can affect the needs, issues and priorities of an individual– these can include:
Individual values and legislation
➢ When working with different people and cultures, you need to adopt a set of shared values – these include:
There is a whole array of legislation that you may need to apply to your service. This will depend on your role and the needs of the individuals you work with.
➢
➢ Legislation that may have an impact service provision could include:
Identifying a problem
The first step to solving a problem is to identify it, then analyse it. Every process and communication as well as issues can benefit from analysis. The only time this may be different is when there is an immediate crisis that must be addressed. Even then, taking the time to look back later would help for the future.
In over to recognise and overcome barriers to consumer participation, analysis is especially important.
➢ Some barriers are:
Analysing a problem
Our aim is to understand the problem better and to deal with it more effectively, so the method you choose in order to address it should follow that aim.
➢ Let’s consider some methods here and go over a couple of specific ways to examine the problem and its causes:
on in order to improve the situation. This may be either the people the process is targeting, or the people performing that process, or sometimes they are the same. In other cases, your targets may be people whose behaviour or circumstances require change, and you may need to recruit help to work with you in your effort. The point of this step is to understand how to direct your work most effectively and efficiently.
Committing to a solution
Analysing problems can be hard work. It takes real mental effort, time and reflection.
Real problems are likely to be complex. You may have opposition, either from individuals themselves, people resistant to change or those looking after their own interests.
When you go looking for the underlying cause and reasons for issues, you are likely to find more than one. There may be many different reasons influencing the problem at the same time to varying degrees. It may not be an easy task to untangle all the reasons and their relative strengths, but it may be necessary in order to reach a solution.
While a problem may not only have more than one reason; it may have more than one solution too. Problems often call for multi-pronged solutions. This means that difficult problems can be approached from more than one direction. So if you were interested in boosting custom to a shop for example, you might want to (a) beautify the shop; (b) recruit and train new staff; (c) offer sales and deals; (d) run new advertisements and promotion; and (e) improve the experience. These are all different solutions come together to address the original problem.
When analysing the problems that you see, the analysis may identify multiple reasons behind the problem. The analysis may not always be easy. The solution may be more difficult still.
Don’t be disheartened that there are problems and barriers. They persist despite our efforts. They can be real challenges.
With good analysis, some resources, and enough commitment and determination, even the most troublesome problems can be addressed, and ultimately, solved.
Monitoring
Monitoring is an assessment that continues to provide stakeholders with early detailed information on an assessment of the work and how it is performing. It is something that should be done during the implementation stage of work or any alterations or information that may affect it. Its purpose is to determine if the outputs, priorities and aims planned have been achieved so that any action needed to correct the implementations can be done as quickly as possible.
Monitoring is probably something you already do in your day to day work; it’s just that the label isn’t something you think about. Monitoring is the consistent, every day analysis and thought about what is taking place within the community. When you talk with people and find out what they think about the work, or values in the community, or what needs to be done – you are monitoring. When you take notes and make records and discuss the work you are performing – you are monitoring. Monitoring is the regular collection of information. Correct monitoring allows you to make decisions on how your work should be going forward and give you the opportunity to make changes if you wish.
What and how you perform monitoring is dependent on what community you are working in, what their values and priorities are and what you hope to achieve.
➢ Consider:
Client feedback
You should aim to collect client feedback regularly to assess whether you are providing a satisfactory service. Feedback may be positive and negative and can help you improve in the areas you are weakest.
➢ There are a range of tools to help you gain feedback including:
The tools above can be standardised so that the same types of questions can be asked of all clients or tailored to individuals. It is a good idea to have a mixture of methods for example, both informal communication e.g. a chat and formal e.g. survey, so that clients feel they have the opportunity to be heard. All forms of communication should be documented according to organisational guidelines so that they can be referred to.
Record and analyse feedback
You may need to record or analyse feedback to ensure that any problems are resolved and improvements implemented. To record feedback may involve listening to a client and either filling in a form manually or via a computer. In some cases, the feedback will have been written by a client, so you may not need to record, just analyse it.
To analyse the feedback you should assign a coding system to the answers. For example if you have gained feedback through a questionnaire, you could input the questions into heading cells in a spreadsheet to segregate them. Then, using the code (e.g. a scale: 1 is strongly disagree, 2 is disagree, 3 is unsure/don’t know, 4 is agree and 5 is strongly agree), you could group the answers. The information can be put into a graph or chart to show a general correlation.
➢ Active listening
Active listening is a form of communicating that requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker, by way of restating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words. This helps both parties clarify and confirm what is being communicated. This is a good technique to use if talking to a client face to face to retrieve feedback. Knowing when to use closed and open-ended questions is also good practice. In addition, active listening is the most effective form of communication between people in a professional context – it is functional, mechanical and leaves little room for assumptions/interpretation. It is therefore a good method to use when reporting to appropriate personnel.
Reporting to appropriate personnel
You should know who to report feedback to at your organisation and the process for reporting as per organisational guidelines.
➢ Communication methods may include:
➢ Written:
Connecting with other services
In order to achieve the most benefit from working with individuals it is important to identify suitable organisations, services and structures within any groups that would be able to help you. As part of this process, you will also need to clarify their role or potential role and approach in working with the consumer to maximise the potential outcome. The other services and networks you identify will vary in suitability and availability depending on what community, area or program you are working in.
The co-ordination of service delivery initiatives may be different in various ways depending on the specific needs of particular communities. Sometimes, initiatives may simply involve linking two or more service providers together to promote information sharing and/or referrals. In contrast, some highly complicated and aggregated service deliveries require formal procedures to ensure agencies help each other and work together in an organised and well-structured way.
➢ Other relevant services may include:
All of the services and organisations featured in the above list will be affected by the same economic, social, political, environmental and other factors that affect the individuals, client groups and communities they are part of. The issues that the community face will directly affect which services and organisations are available or suitable. For example, in times of economic instability a lack of funding may mean a decline in the amount of charity work.
➢ Organisations and services may address issues in the following ways:
What organisations do and how they do it depend on what the community issues are and how they are being addressed.
The services and organisations you identify will also differ in another important way – their role and approach to addressing community issues will vary.
➢ Questions you may need to ask to evaluate are:
When identifying the role and approach of the different organisations or services, you need to look closely at what they do and how they do it. The above questions, and any others you deem appropriate,
will provide you with an overview of the organisation or service in which to evaluate and identify if they are suitable.
Networking
As part of undertaking community sector work, we have established that you will need to apply appropriate service protocols and models. As part of this, establishing and maintaining networks with relevant organisations and services is vital for providing a greater service for the community. Why is this?
It is the idea that a framework of organisations, people and services working together bring different skills and knowledge to the table. It also opens doors, breaking down
the barriers for access to the various services an individual may need. As a result, the individual should receive the help they need faster and with fewer obstacles. It therefore works closely with the principles of access, equity and consistency of service.
When working in the community, individuals will often require more than one service. For example, let’s say your work involves helping children within the community. On a daily basis, those children may also require services from welfare agencies, education services, the police and many other services. That is because one service cannot address all of the issues and needs. You can therefore see how important it is to maintain networks with these agencies.
➢ Agencies and associated services may include:
➢ How can you establish and maintain networks?
Individual need
While you are assisting and working in the community, there will be individuals who have personal and individual needs that may need specialist or additional help that differentiates from those of the community as a whole. You should be aware of the needs of these individuals and be able to refer them for additional help when required.
➢ Occasions to refer individuals may include:
➢
When referring individuals to organisations or people from your network, you should make sure that they are both aware of the referral and well equipped and able to deal with it. They should also be able to help in a timely and convenient manner. This includes being financially affordable, having the appropriate information to help and the overall process being accessible, simple and stress free.
Other services
When you cannot or are unable to fulfil the needs of an individual within your community work you will need to refer them to other services and individuals. When you refer them and who you refer them to will depend on the type and level of their need.
➢ Referring will depend on:
➢
Referral will depend on your organisation's relationship with other service providers–if there are specific partnerships in place, you should abide by them. Your organisation may have a list of referral organisations that you can use, complete with contact details and referral procedures. However, you may need to network and establish new relationships in order to obtain the support that individuals require.
Another factor that will determine who you refer people to is time that would be spent waiting – for example, if an individual requires a service within a month, it is no good referring them to one with a waiting time of six months.
Evaluating service delivery
The delivery of different services will be governed by protocols which are unique to that service. Protocols vary according to the nature of the service and the community it is working within. However, a protocol for service delivery should cover all aspects of working within the community and providing a good service.
➢ How might you evaluate service delivery?
It is possible that existing services and protocols require alterations to be more effective in achieving the goals of their services. It also may be possible that the delivery of the service is being hindered by existing protocols or issues and conflicts. Issues and conflicts will arise with the delivery of services when that delivery is at odds with issues that affect the community and the people within it.
➢ What potential issues and conflicts might relate to service delivery?
Choosing the right method
This is about promoting and selecting certain services and approaches that fit within the community and have the correct protocols. Whichever you will choose to promote and select will depend on a number of factors. Firstly, it will be governed by the issues within and the needs of your community. This will be governed by which services are appropriate for this particular community, determined by their culture, society, history, economy and environment where appropriate. You may also consider how different services are delivered and whether the protocols for delivery are meeting the need and demand for that service and any issues that would relate to service delivery as above. Finally, you should promote and select services which support individuals and the community to be self-determining and empowered.
➢ What do the terms ‘self-determining’ and ‘empowered’ mean?
The effect of promoting and selecting services that support individuals and the community to be self- determining and empowered will help a community and the people within it to be and feel more self- determined and empowered. In turn, the effect of this will be that the community and the people within it will determine the services that they need and which meet the issues within their community.
Internal and external stakeholders
Engagement with relevant stakeholders and encouraging their input helps the program to be open, accountable and responsive to their needs. Being able to communicate with stakeholders can bring a number of benefits to the delivery of the service program. A stakeholder is an individual or group that has an interest in a program or organisation. Stakeholders are both internal and external. For example, within a program or organisation, internal stakeholders include managers and staff. Outside the program or organisation, external stakeholders may include those served by the program, the local community, standards agencies and anyone affected by the work.
➢ Benefits of communicating with stakeholders include:
It is therefore worth considering who the internal and external stakeholders are for your program and how you plan to receive their input.
➢ Stakeholders will vary according to the nature of the service program, may include the following:
There are no strict rules in engaging stakeholders. It can either be important to be as open and inclusive as you can, or at other times, it may be important to be more specific and to create a cohesive group that builds strong relationships and collaboration. The variety of stakeholders will change depending on the purpose of the engagement and the wider program and what it encompasses.
Achieving engagement
To achieve the highest-quality, consistent and representative service program, you should aim to work collaboratively and create and foster healthy working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Engaging stakeholders with vast experience, knowledge and diversity will help you do more than you can achieve alone.
➢ Consider how you can engage with stakeholders:
➢ Communication
➢ Consultation
➢ Involvement
Involvement in the management process
Following on from the previous section describing stakeholder engagement, we mentioned involvement in the management process. Let’s expand on that.
➢ Involvement:
➢
➢ Encouraging involvement in management processes cannot simply be a token gesture, it is a commitment to effective stakeholder engagement with the belief that involving people in management processes will:
How can you be sure these things are taking place and that people are engaged in management processes? By creating open, transparent formal guidelines for engagement and commitment to the processes involved.
Aims of engagement
As you have committed to engaging people in management processes, you should specify an objective of the management process, be clear on why you are engaging particular stakeholders and share with them what you hope to achieve. The context and the overarching goals for the engagement and
involvement in the management process should reflect the overall aims of the program and service delivery.
e.g. notes, letters, research, a report)
What are a client’s rights?
➢ Social rights may include:
➢ Rights may include:
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➢ Legal rights:
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➢ Individual differences:
Knowing your job role and responsibilities
You should never attempt to carry out or provide professional advice on something that you are not qualified to. You should also know what to do when you are unsure of your job role and work instructions.
➢ In order to ensure that you know you specific job role and responsibilities, you can practice the following:
Duty of care
You have a responsibility to ensure a safe environment for the client. You may want to try and empower the client and have them make decisions for themselves and help to give them some independence.
However you must be careful not be negligent of the risks involved in increased independence. For example if a client enjoys gardening and there is a garden centre nearby, but the client is suffering from dementia, it would not be appropriate for you to suggest the client goes to the garden centre by themselves as you would be neglecting your duty of care.
Duty of care is written legally into the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 – it is a moral duty to anticipate possible hazards and causes of injury and do everything reasonably practicable to prevent/remove/minimise these causes. This means that duty of care cannot be delegated – all adults in the workplace are responsible for health and safety.
➢ Courts will determine breaches of duty of care based on the following criteria:
Consider others
The values, priorities and considerations people have are based on the way we share common experiences that shape the way we understand the world. They can come from groups that we are born into, such as gender, race, nationality, or religion. It can also include groups we join or become part of. For example, our values and priorities may change by moving to a new area, by a change in our employment status, by becoming a parent or by becoming disabled. Our experiences change our values, priorities and considerations, so it is good to keep this in mind when engaging with different people and consider their differences, needs and preferences when we are planning our service delivery.
➢ Steps to help consider individual differences when planning include:
Internal and external services
Just as there are internal and external consumers and stakeholders, there are internal and external services. Internal services are those delivered in the same organisation or program, such as between colleagues or departments. External services are those delivered to external consumers and are what we typically think of as “providing a service”.
The reason for differentiating between internal and external services is to differentiate between services that help support internal workings of the program, and those that actually achieve the program outcomes. The difference between the two may appear to be similar, since the activity to deliver the services often has similar processes. However, it is important to recognise that internal services have to be linked to external services before their input can be recognised.
Promoting a full-range of services
First, you should aim to create a strategy in line with the direction and values of the organisation. This will help to build your reputation allowing for the development of a loyal customer base.
If you want people to understand what range of services you provide, you should try to incorporate as much information as possible without boring a potential client. You should try to tailor your approach to individual needs by targeting existing clients in different ways. Potential clients may not know a lot about the organisation and may need more of an introduction than existing customers. Both want to hear about what you can offer them and the details so that they can get involved. One of the best ways to achieve this is through a website that has all the organisation information available to browse. You may also like to set up links for further information about topics or to different pages within the site.
For existing customers, a newsletter could be a good option – this could be sent via email or post to provide them with the relevant information about upcoming events and services.
Develop marketing strategies
Your marketing strategy helps to achieve your end goals or long-term objectives. It proposes how you can achieve these. For example if your one
of your organisation’s objectives is to introduce a new service in six months’ time your strategy will plan how this can be achieved.
Using new technologies and media for marketing activities is very important. More and more people are using social media to market products and services. You can use it to research customers and competition, advertise services.
Assessing resource requirements
In order to perform delivery of your service or program, you need as much detailed information from the planning process, including the needs of individuals, stakeholders, communities and organisations in order to determine what resources are available for your program and what you need.
To find this information out, you will have to assess the areas that will be involved in the program, and again, engagement with consumers and stakeholders will help you to more accurately and effectively create your program.
Assessment will help you gain better knowledge of the individuals within a community. Each community has its own resources and needs, as well as its own experiences, structure and culture -- a unique history of relationships, experience, strengths, and conflicts that defines it. Whilst you are finding out about needs and resource requirements, it also helps you earn how to best address the community's needs in the delivery of your program
An assessment will encourage people involved in the program to consider how to best use resources for the community's requirements and how to address them.
Knowing resource requirements can make decisions about priorities for program improvement. It would obviously be foolhardy to try to address problems without fully understanding what they are, why they exist and how they came to be. In a similar manner, not using available resources not only represents trying to solve a problem without all the available help, but misses an opportunity to use what is already there – likely connected to the aims of the program and by or for the people you want to engage with.
Determining needs and resources before starting a program means that have a better idea of what to expect and how to deal with it, and be less likely to have any unpleasant surprises.
When you have engaged with the relevant people and found out the resources and requirements, you can construct a resource plan, identifying all the resources you will need to complete the program, e.g: staff, equipment, funding and materials. You should also produce a schedule stating when and how each resource will be used and note any thoughts, restrictions or caveats on how resources should be or will have to be used. Being as thorough and detailed as possible allows for better implementation.
Start by listing each of the resource groups and then list the individual components of each group.
Regular assessment
➢ Assessment of needs and resource requirements should be done regularly throughout the stages of your program:
The importance of support
An important aspect of developing a program is having a structure in place that allows people to receive help, support and advice. This can be for any number of reasons: in order to help address a potential problem, for advice and reassurance or to provide feedback, whether it be positive or negative
A well maintained and respectful support system can help to minimise negative influences and possibilities, ensure a high standard of service delivery as well as make people feel listened to, valued and engaged.
Arguably the most important factor within a support system is the creation of policies that project a supporting, procedural influence across the program so that people know where they stand and what to do.
➢ When creating a policy:
➢ Policies and procedures can be developed:
➢ The programs activities, responsibilities, staff, resources and environment should be considered when creating policy and procedures:
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Complete documentation
A uniform approach to completing documentation ensures that documentation can be easily accessed and read by everyone. Organisational policies and protocols are implemented to ensure that this is the case for as much paperwork as possible and can benefit everyone involved.
➢ It is important to follow organisational standards as this ensures that:
Reviewing client services
You will need to review your client services regularly so that you can offer the best service to clients. You may have organisational or best practice guidelines in place that would be helpful when measuring your standard of service.
➢ Best practice may include the following principles:
You may need to think how you compare to the above best practice ideals and think of areas that you could improve.
You should also offer avenues or pathways for people to provide feedback. This can be in the form of a survey or questionnaire, face to face meetings or contact addresses or numbers (post, phone, e-mail etc.). This should be easy to access to ensure no-one is excluded from giving their opinion.
How to evaluate
➢ Before you evaluate your service, you should ask yourself questions that you want your evaluation to answer:
Formal documentation
Similarly to creating policies and creatures, documenting the priorities of your program and the timelines and responsibilities within it can help direct the program towards its goals. When priorities, timelines and responsibilities are clearly defined, people know what is expected of them and when, helping to maintain focus and provide motivation.
While the specific priorities, timelines and responsibilities vary for your program and the stakeholders involved, there are a number of steps you can take to ensure they are in the best position to perform.
Mission statement
One of the most commonly used ways for publishing or promoting program or organisational priorities and responsibilities are mission statements. Mission statements are statements describing the reasons a program or organisation exists and are used to help guide and inform planning and decisions about priorities, action and responsibilities.
Mission statements are an opportunity to define the programs goals, ethics, responsibilities, culture, and decision making. A well-made mission statement is a great way to understand, develop and communicate priorities, timelines and responsibilities and should be concise and easily understood.
➢ Consider the following:
3. Implement and monitor programs
Identifying and engaging with stakeholders
Actively engaging with relevant stakeholders helps the program to be open, accountable and responsive to their needs. Being able to communicate with stakeholders can bring a number of benefits to the delivery of the service program.
➢ Benefits of communicating with stakeholders include:
It is therefore worth looking at who the stakeholders are for your program and how you engage with them.
➢ Stakeholders will vary according to the nature of the service program, may include the
following:
Methods of engagement
➢ Communication:
➢ Consultation:
➢ Involvement:
Stakeholder roles and responsibilities
In the implementation and monitoring of programs, stakeholders are normally people who typically come from your organisation or work with you, or are people who have identified or planned the program. Stakeholders may also be external clients who will be affected during the program or as a result of it.
Stakeholders have to be identified before the planning stage of the program and by this point should be aware and ready to receive in depth communication about their roles and responsibilities and have taken the necessary steps to be prepared, such as training, communication and support.
The success of your program relies upon the skills and effectiveness of your stakeholders. Communicating their roles and responsibilities is something you can do to ensure a high standard is set.
While the specific roles and responsibilities vary for your program and the stakeholders involved, there are a number of steps you can take to ensure they are in the best position to perform.
➢ Things to include in communication include:
communication as any missteps in implementing the program can be taken care of before there are any adverse effects.
Employee training
The facilitation of employee training is the responsibility of the organisation. The development of the employee is shared between themselves and the organisation. It is the responsibility of management to provide the correct resources and an environment that supports the learning, growth and development needs of individual employees
➢ For employee training to help support implementation be successful, management should:
➢ Individual employees should:
Roles and responsibilities
Similar to your stakeholders, staff must be informed as to their roles and responsibilities in implementing a service program. This is logical as the people trained to deliver and implement the program are representing it and are a massively invested stakeholder. The importance of training is difficult to overstate as the correct implementation of the service program and its delivery depends on the capability of correctly trained staff.
Training tips
Dependant on the service being delivered, the trainee should be able to regularly engage with stakeholders to discuss needs and aims, as well as fostering a sense of community and engagement. These represent opportunities for the trainee to better understand the service they are providing, their mission and goals, the work they will encounter on a regular basis and how they may interact with stakeholders.
➢ The following are guideline questions that can be asked:
Monitoring
Monitoring is an assessment that continues to provide stakeholders with early detailed information on an assessment of the work and how it is performing. It is something that should be done during the implementation stage of work or any new alterations or information that may affect it. Its purpose is to determine if the outputs, priorities and aims planned have been achieved so that any action needed to correct the implementations can be done as quickly as possible.
Monitoring is probably something you already do in your day to day work in the community; it’s just that the label isn’t something you think about. Monitoring is the consistent, every day analysis and thought about what is taking place within the community. When you talk with people and find out what they think about the work, or values in the community, or what needs to be done – you are monitoring. When you take notes and make records and discuss the work you are performing – you are monitoring. Monitoring is the regular collection of information, opposed to the periodic review that is evaluation.
Correct monitoring allows you to make decisions on how your work should be going forward and give you the opportunity to make changes if you wish.
➢ Benefits of monitoring include:
How to monitor
➢ What and how you perform monitoring is dependent on what program you are working in and what service you are providing, what their values and priorities there are and what you hope to achieve:
➢ Remember that a monitoring is regular and systematic and so does not need to be as in depth as an assessment in terms of data collection or extensive analysis, it is to be performed so that adjustments can be made immediately if necessary or if improvements can be made:
User feedback
Monitoring is something we do all the time when we are working to providing services. In fact, we assess the impact of our work all the time when we ask questions, consult partners, make assessments, receive feedback and then use those judgments to improve our work. This type of monitoring is informal, continuous and ongoing. Therefore it makes sense to use this regular, easily available and constant information and interaction as part of our monitoring.
➢ Reasons to use user feedback for include:
Before you start asking for feedback from consumers,
you need to make sure you know why you are seeking feedback and that it is clearly defined.
Carefully consider the method of feedback you are receiving as even good feedback in a way that you cannot make use of (for example, you may discuss working methods with a member of the program but not write it down) is not particularly useful. Do not be afraid of complaints or negative feedback – it is extremely unlikely that a program or service will be perfect first time.
Feedback methods
Matching stakeholder feedback to what we seeing in our assessment allows us to get a much clearer picture of the situation, putting us in a better position to know how to fix problems and achieve our goals.
In order to do this you may need to establish a variety of feedback methods so that you can collect customer feedback day in and day out. This way, you’ll always know what your stakeholders are thinking and how things may be changing.
➢ Consider using the below feedback methods:
➢ Surveys
Surveys are a simple and effective method for gathering feedback. They’re easy to set up, easy to send out, easy to analyse, and scale well. Many people get poor results when they send out surveys. Either nobody finishes the survey or the responses aren’t helpful. You can help lessen this chance by keeping surveys short – down to a few key questions with a few open ended questions to allow them to tell you what they are thinking.
➢ Interviews
Reaching out directly to stakeholders can be invaluable in terms of feedback. Sometimes, just talking to them is all that is needed, as long as you ask the right questions. This can be face to face, on the phone or by e-mail. What is important is what is being asked.
➢ Regular meetings
Scheduling regular meetings helps communication with stakeholders and sponsors about their roles in the project. Stakeholders are also able to hear the thoughts and perspectives of other people, who may not always be in agreement. Rules for meetings should be established such as encouraging participation, discouraging interruptions, maintaining an agenda, ensuring everyone is courteous and having a plan of action. Avoid scheduling meetings just for the sake of meeting but that stakeholders are able to use the meetings productively. Bear in mind the ability for email updates, phone calls or one to one meetings if someone does not want to speak in a group.
3.5 – Identify and address problems in addressing the needs of service users in accordance with organisation procedures
Identifying a problem
Effective coordination of program service delivery can improve the quality of service and help both those benefitted by the service and those delivering it. These improvements can include more efficient use of resources and the fostering and engagement of good working relationships. Conversely, where service delivery is not addressing the needs of service users, resources are wasted, quality of service suffers and working relationships deteriorate, so it is important to address any problems or issues in the needs of service users as soon as possible.
➢ Previous evidence from process evaluations, assessments and documented practice experience suggest that in order for service delivery to be effective it must:
Does your service delivery meet these guidelines? If not, why not? How can it be improved? If it does, perhaps it is missing something or there are other structural barriers involved.
➢ The service delivery may have an issue such as:
Addressing the problem
Only once a problem has been identified can it be addressed. Evaluate whether the issue is with the implementation of the service program or of the overall plan. If it is with the overall plan then it needs to be altered in accordance with organisational procedures, whereas if it is with the implementation of the service program the issue can be isolated and addressed.
Service delivery documentation
Service delivery documents are a set of clear criteria with explicit indicators that define the performance by which the service delivery can be monitored and reviewed.
These documents define the quality of service that the service program provides, and as such are set at a level that can be achieved within the current resources and with clear, targeted and measurable improvement goals.
➢ The purpose of documentation is to:
➢
Complete documentation
A uniform approach to completing documentation across the program ensures that documentation can be easily accessed and read by everyone. Organisational policies and protocols are implemented to ensure that this is the case for as much paperwork as possible and can benefit everyone involved.
➢ It is important to follow organisational standards as this ensures that:
evaluation and assessment purposes and helps your program look and feel more effective. Knowing you have well organised and well written service documentation allows you to take pride in using it and following the steps within it for service delivery.
Filing security and confidentiality
Personal information should be protected and only disclosed professionally. Medical records are an example of confidential information. It is part of duty of care and applies to all clients, regardless of their status. The only situation where this private information can be disclosed is when there is a serious threat or risk of injury to the client or others. The client may choose to disclose their information, but it has to be their choice.
➢ Organisation policy on confidentiality may relate to:
➢ Ways to ensure confidential information is kept safe include:
➢
4. Evaluate programs
Program assessment
Program assessment is an essential practice for all types of programs that work with and for people. It is a way to evaluate the specific activities and projects individuals are involved in, instead of evaluating an entire organisation or entire community initiative.
Stakeholders are people who are invested in the program or effort. These may people that benefit from the service provided (e.g. children and their parents or guardians, people with disabilities, the elderly),
those who have influence or those with a special role (e.g., officials, managers, community workers), and people who would appreciate the benefits of the service. When thinking about stakeholders, ask: Who cares? What is it they care about? Why do they care about it?
The emphasis from an evaluation is on practical, ongoing analysis that involves members of staff, people in the community and relevant community stakeholders, rather than just “experts.” This is because this type of evaluation offers many advantages for the communities and people that work in them.
➢ The benefits of program assessment include:
It's important to remember that evaluation is not a new or special activity for people working in communities or providing services. In fact, we assess the impact of our work all the time when we ask questions, consult partners, make assessments, receive feedback and then use those judgments to improve our work. This type of evaluation is informal, continuous and ongoing. However, it makes additional sense to then use procedures for evaluation that are more formal, visible, and justifiable so that you can be sure your ways of working are proper and effective.
How to assess
➢ Before you assess your work, you should ask yourself questions that you want your assessment to answer:
➢ Use the below as an aid to help you as you work through the following guidelines to assessment:
Stakeholder feedback
It's important to remember that evaluation is not a new or special activity for people working in providing services. In fact, we assess the impact of our work all the time when we ask questions, consult partners, make assessments, receive feedback and then use those judgments to improve our work. This type of evaluation is informal, continuous and ongoing. However, it makes additional sense to then use and make this procedure more formal, visible and justifiable so that you can be sure your ways of working are proper and effective.
➢ Reasons to use stakeholder feedback for include:
the help of stakeholders.
Before you start asking for feedback from consumers, you need to make sure you know why you are seeking feedback and that it is clearly defined.
Outlining the process as well as desired outcomes is essential for gathering customer feedback or you may be blindly asking for feedback that will not help you understand the situation
➢ Before you start, consider:
Feedback methods
Matching stakeholder feedback to what we seeing in our assessment allows us to get a much clearer picture of the situation, putting us in a better position to know how to fix problems and go achieve our goals.
In order to do this you may need to establish a variety of feedback methods so that you can collect customer feedback day in and day out. This way, you’ll always know what your stakeholders are thinking and how things may be changing.
➢ Consider using the below feedback methods:
➢ Surveys
Surveys are a simple and effective method for gathering feedback. They’re easy to set up, easy to send out, easy to analyse, and scale well. Many people get poor results when they send out surveys. Either nobody finishes the survey or the responses aren’t helpful. You can help lessen this chance by keeping surveys short – down to a few key questions with a few open ended questions to allow them to tell you what they are thinking.
➢ Interviews
Reaching out directly to stakeholders can be invaluable in terms of feedback. Sometimes, just talking to them is all that is needed, as long as you ask the right questions. This can be face to face, on the phone or by e-mail. What is important is what is being asked.
➢ Regular meetings
Scheduling regular meetings helps communication with stakeholders and
sponsors about their roles in the project. Stakeholders are also able to hear the thoughts and perspectives of other people, who may not always be in agreement. Rules for meetings should be established such as encouraging participation, discouraging interruptions, maintaining an agenda, ensuring everyone is courteous and having a plan of action. Avoid scheduling meetings just for the sake of meeting but that stakeholders are able to use the meetings productively. Bear in mind the ability for email updates, phone calls or one to one meetings if someone does not want to speak in a group.
4.3 – Modify programs as needed to meet changing requirements within policy and budgetary frameworks
Relating the evaluation
In the previous sections we have discussed evaluation, so you are aware of how important it is to your efforts. It can help you in a number of ways – in improving your methods, in engaging with the program and guiding staff –but the main aim is to understand and improve the effort in relation to the people involved.
Changes or improvements and responsiveness to the community priorities are often overlooked in evaluations. They may analyse the output or processes involved, but they often fail to link and understand the effects, if any, and how much, from the evaluation to the community priorities.
The evaluation and monitoring process are obviously important in order to know whether your methods are successful and to what extent and whether your intervention or workings accomplished their aims. You can then modify programs as needed, in accordance with the findings of your evaluation or any new frameworks. Additionally, however, you can analyse whether your work changed community conditions, and whether it seems to be leading toward changes in the community relative to their priorities.
➢ Assessment reflection questions that you might consider:
The reflection questions you ask will depend on the nature of your program, but the above set of questions is a good starting point. Consider
holding a meeting or create a space where the assessment results can be presented and talked through and key questions can be discussed. Such a meeting might benefit from an experienced facilitator to keep the operation moving toward the aim of recommending modifications to improve the program.
Modifying the program is the process of making your work more effective by using information and feedback collected from your assessment.
➢ Depending on what you have found out from your assessment, you may consider:
Collaborative action
In order to ensure that your assessment is analysing whether any changes in priorities in the community you are working in are actually taking place, what they are and whether and how your work has influenced them, you can use key questions to assess your assessment. If your evaluation fits the framework, you can be confident that the modifications you have made are appropriate to the priorities of the program.
➢ For the logic of collaborative action, Fawcett and Schultz (2008) recommend using the four key evaluation questions below:
changes you observe in the program in fact helping to bring about the realisation of your goals – or related ones – or are they having little or no effect (or even a negative effect)?
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