Outcome 1 Understand the features of effective team performance within health and social care setting. 1. 1 Explain the features of effective team performance I work closely with my team ensuring that all staff are treated with respect and encouraging them to develop their own skills and knowledge whilst sharing their experiences with colleagues. I believe that I lead by example and that this sets a standard of positive leadership resulting in the staff feeling that that they can trust me as a manager, therefore creating a good working atmosphere that brings our team together resulting in high performance standards.
As a senior care coordinator I carry out staff supervision and appraisal along with observations and this allows me to get to know and understand my staff and recognise their strengths and weaknesses, not only does this allow me to use their skills to the advantage of the team but also to work with the staff to identify and agree on areas of improvement be it through training or further experience.
This improves staff confidence and gives them a sense of pride in their work. I have always been a very open manager and am honest with my staff within my own limitations as to the development of the service or if there have been any areas of concern. Good communication within a team is essential to its success, this allows us to discuss any issues and concerns in an open and honest manner and hopefully find an agreeable solution.
As a manager I have found it to be effective to reflect and review performance regularly, be it through staff appraisal, team meetings or in my everyday work to ensure that our practise is as possible discussing any changes and agreeing a course of action. 1. 2 Identify the challenges experienced by developing teams. One theory around the challenges that a team face as they develop is the theory developed by Brian Tuckman, this describes the pathway taken as ‘Forming ,
Storming Norming and Performing’ The initial stage of Forming is the stage at which the team is new and everyone is on their best behaviour unclear as to who other people are and how they work therefore being polite and avoiding and disagreement or conflict. The next phase of storming is the phase where people begin to tussle for their place within the group, people may become more confident to voice opinions openly and less concerned about causing conflict & challenging each other.
The norming stage is the third stage in this theory where the group have established their ranking and position within a team, everyone has a clear understanding of their role within the team and have now gained a respect for their colleagues and knowledge of others skills and abilities The final stage of this theory is the performing stage during which the team has gelled and has a high level of understanding of each other and are working towards the same goals and objectives and are able to communicate well openly and effectively achieving a high level of performance.
As teams develop they do not stay in the same phase for any set amount of time and they may not travel through these phases in the order as set out above. Often when teams are first established theory will follow this order until each of them has established an order of hierarchy and identified each individual’s role within the team.
In my own experience I have noticed how my own team can revert back to the forming and storming phases when a new member of staff is introduced the team dynamics. Some staff may bring in new ideas of how they believe the team should work or they may have worked in another department and have a completely different idea as to how they feel a team works well together this can sometimes cause the whole team even a well established team back to the forming phase.
Recently when a new member of staff was introduced to my team it became very apparent very quickly that although she was keen to look at new ways of working and to improve performance she did not have good communication skills and this caused a great deal of conflict within the team As a manager I had to find ways of working with all staff to look at the suggestions made and to discuss what impact introducing any changes would have on our performance whilst also ensuring that the new member of the team had to recognise the experience and skills of the existing staff. 1.
3 Identify the challenges experienced by established teams I find that the challenges of working together in an established team can be that everyone can become quite self absorbed in their own workload and this can result in conflict when the team sent work together as a whole or lose sight of their shared objectives and goals. It can be difficult to maintain motivation and enthusiasm and not everyone may be on the same page at the same time. I genuinely believe that I am lucky as I work in a team where we are open and honest enough to thrash out any issues quickly and as they arise.
We also recognise each other’s own skills and abilities and use each other’s strengths to ensure that our team performs to a high standard. I previously worked in setting a new part of the mental health team within the community, we were expected to work alongside the community metal health team that were a well established multi disciplinary team that I believe had deep rooted issues around the different back grounds that people came from and various disciplines.
There were also serious issues around people using different IT systems to record case notes, this led to some serious lack of communication and failures in my opinion that could have easily been avoided. The team were de-commissioned prior to the fit for the future restructure, lessons were learnt from this as it was clear the from the beginning the aims and objectives of the health staff were very focused on the medical assessment of the patient and not their whole package of care.
It was also of concern that both sets of staff were managed by different people and at times given conflicting information about the expected outcome for the individual service user. At times the conflict was so bad I experienced this over flowing in a service user review that led to an inappropriate outburst by a member of the health staff that caused great upset to my service user and myself. 1. 4 Explain how challenges to effective team performance can be overcome
Challenges to effective team performance can be overcome by building a team that has mutual respect and recognises each other’s skills and abilities whilst also being able to openly discuss and resolve conflict in a timely manner. Within my own team I recognise the importance of holding regular team meetings and ensuring that staff are given a chance to reflect on their performance and review accordingly.
I am an open and honest manager but feel that by setting agreed outcomes and ensuring that all staff are working toward the same outcome this creates a culture of mutual respect and breeds a team where success is something that we all strive to achieve. I encourage people to air any concerns that they may have and facilitate discussions to look at issues constructively so that people feel happy to bring other issues forward as they arise. 1. 5 Analyse how different management styles may influence outcomes of team performance Management styles can be divided in to three categories as follows:
Autocratic: Manage in a very controlling style, they like to make all of the decisions and monitor staff closely often staff will run every small decision past this style of manager. This style of management relates to the Taylor scientific management theory that claims that people can be treated in a standardised fashion. The autocratic style of manager will expect workers to follow their directions to the letter and communication will be dominated by them alone. The advantage to this style of management is that decisions are instant……..
although not always right Democratic: This style of manager will listen encourage and discuss with their staff giving them a sense of ownership and autonomy. This kind of manager creates a much more relaxed working environment which gives the worker the confidence to participate and make decisions and the team will often work well together in looking at ways that improvements can be made. This style of management is linked to the Herzberg theory that claims that the workforce that experience job satisfaction can be more motivated.
Paternalistic: This style of manager is very much the parent, they feel duty bound to ensure that their staff are happy and take an interest in their lives as well as their position within the company and team. Although this style may make the worker feel included and valued often decisions are still made by the manager. This style off manager relates to the Elton Mayo theory that states that workers whose social needs are met are better motivated within the work place 1. 6 Analyse methods of developing and maintaining Trust
I am a great believer in all aspects of my life that you treat people as you wish to be treated yourself. Trust is no exception, I have found through personal experience that by trusting staff this is then reciprocated. Staff will feel included and a valued member of the team and are happy to go that extra mile to meet the needs of the service therefore improving all round performance. I like to lead by example and feel that I am a very open manager, this leads to a culture of trust and respect within my team. Accountability
As a manager it is essential that I ensure that all staff including myself are aware that we are accountable for our actions. Policies and procedures are in place to protect both staff and service users and these should be adhered to at all times. Staff are given copies of job description and specification which sets out clear roles and responsibilities, these are referred to at regular intervals through supervision and staff meetings to ensure that staff have a good understanding of their guidelines and boundaries.
Staff are subject to a thorough induction process during which they all sign to say that they have received specific policies and their code of conduct. This ensures that all staff are given a consistent message and the standard that we work to is very clear. All of these things ensure that staff work within their roles and responsibilities and are accountable for their actions on a daily basis. 1. 7 Compare methods of addressing conflict within a team As a manager I often find myself in a position where I have to deal with conflict either amongst my team or with other professionals, families and service users.
There are various models of how to deal with conflict: Accomodating: This method of dealing with conflict is where one of the people involved is willing to back down as they would rather resolve the issue and have things return to some sort of normality. This is more important to them than winning. Competitive: This method is where one of the conflicting parties will be insistent on them winning or appearing that they have won to gain ground and advantage over the other person.
I prefer to try and find some common ground when conflict arises so as both parties feel satisfied with the outcome and with a little give and take can walk away from the situation at least acknowledging the other persons point of view. It is essential that my role as mediator during times of conflict that an accurate record is kept of any discussions are held and that both parties read and sign to say that the record is a true reflection of what was said at the time.
Some of the policies and procedures that could apply during times of conflict are Dignity at work, and diversity. One conflict resolution theory is that of Fisher and Fry theory and practise that states that all conflict can be resolved by implementing their four stage process. •Separate the people from the problem •Focus on interests rather than positions •Offer a selection of resolution options •Insist that the agreement is based on objective criteria Outcome 2 Be able to support a positive culture within the team within a health and social care setting 2.
1 Identify the components of a positive culture The components of a positive culture in my opinion and experience are good leadership, as previously stated I am a firm believer in leading by example and that staff will perform at a much higher level if they feel valued and respected within the workforce and that their own opinions are listened too and any ideas are taken seriously if they could add value to the service. We have very clear standards within our service and have a shared goal that we all work to achieve.
As well as leading by example I have the pleasure of having a very pro-active manager that has an open door policy and is very transparent always upfront and honest within her role as to any changes and developments that take place within our ever changing service. I have worked as a community support coordinator now for around eight years and am very proud of my team and how we all have an understanding and awareness of each others strengths and weaknesses and are able to support each other.
We also recognise each others achievements which then breeds a positive work place atmosphere and a high level of commitment to our service with a very low turnover of staff. 2. 2 Demonstrate how my own practise supports a positive culture in the team As well as the values above I also like to encourage my staff to continue to develop their skills and knowledge be it through training and development or to encourage them to progress their career by supporting them to complete apply for other roles within the authority.
I also find that giving staff positive feedback boosts morale creating a positive workforce. 2. 3 Use systems and processes to support a positive culture in the team Some of the systems that I use to support a positive culture within my team are: Good communication: I encourage good communication with my staff be it on an informal level verbally through our day to day interactions, via email , and telephone calls. Staff are regularly updated with regards to policies and procedures and council news via a weekly update email and the intralinc.
I encourage open and honest communication and try to promote a listening and learning culture where staff opinions are listened too and feel respected and listened too. Supervision & appraisal Staff attend supervision 3 monthly to discuss their job roles and to look at what is working well for them and to look at whether or not there are any areas of their performance that they can improve upon. We look at previous supervisions and review and any actions taken to establish how effective changes have been.
Supervision also gives us an opportunity to discuss the councils vision of 7 outcomes for all so we can identify how they strive to meet these outcomes. Training & development All staff are expected to attend training and development. A training plan is devised for them to work towards completing throughout the year. The training is kept live so that any additional training can be added at a later date. Training is essential to ensure that staffs skills and knowledge are kept up to date and all mandatory training is completed to ensure there are meeting the care standards as set out by the Care Quality commission.
Training also makes staff feel valued and invested in Recruitment & selection As a coordinator I have been involved for many years in the successful recruitment and selection of staff. I firmly believe that if the recruitment and selection process is robust we are able to recruit the right staff for the job. It is essential that all new members of staff are inducted to a high level and are given a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and the councils vision of how out service will encourage people to achieve their previous levels of independence.
Good recruitment and selection along with the induction ensures that staff understand the structure of our team and service and how they fit in to it and gives them a clear understanding of what is expected them from the beginning and also giving them guidelines as to what they can expect from us.. It also gives us an opportunity to show them how other teams we work alongside function such as the Single point of access team and the safeguarding adults team. This allows our staff to meet their new colleagues. 2.
4 Encourage creative and innovative ways of working within a team As a manager I encourage my staff to work creatively, we regularly meet up to discuss how effective our service is and to identify any areas in which we could improve performance. Staff are encouraged to bring their ideas forward and are recognised for good work if their suggestions are implemented. We also hold staff consultation where staff from each area are represented and asked to put forward ideas as to how we can improve the service, what changes could be made to improve staff morale and to identify better ways of working.
These meetings have been a great success and have over the years contributed to some great improvements to our service. When working out in the community staff are given the freedom within reason to use their own autonomy and make decisions at the time in the best interest of the service user. Staff are made to feel supported and that they work in a no blame culture which creates trust and respect amongst the team again creating a positive working atmosphere and this leads to a high performance Outcome 3 3. 1 Identify the factors that influence the vision and strategic direction of the team.
The introduction of and implementation of nerw legislation brought to us by government influences the vision and strategic direction of our service and the way in which we work. Our team went through numerous changes influenced by the government white paper “Our health our care our say” This paper sets out the future of adult social care with a vision of the introduction of the personalisation agenda and a vision of joint partnership working between health and social care ensuring that services are accessible to all giving service users more choice and control over the service they receive.
Here in North Lincs once the new white paper was published we underwent a period of consultation from which a corporate strategy was developed called “The way forward”. This look at the journey a service user will experience when using our short tem services, From the assessment process and referral through to support within their own home or within the rehab & reablement units.
We work with them to assist them to achieve their goals of reaching the previous levels if ability and independence. Although each service user is different one example of a service users journey may be that they were previously completely independent has been discharged from hospital after a period of illness which has left them with reduced mobility and feeling vulnerable and unable to manage normal daily living tasks which they previously had no issues completing. Our service
would identify areas that we could work with the individual and try to promote confidence setting clear goals and targets each week to look at the progress that has been made and top set out reasonable targets for them to try and achieve the following week. My role is to work with the staff to ensure that they have the skills and confidence to be assertive enough to be able to encourage people to partake in our service whilst continuing to have the right amount of empathy to work successfully with service users.
3. 2 Communicate the vision and strategic direction to team members. When the changes took place after the restructure ready to implement the strategic vision we felt that it was important for the staff to recognise this was a new beginning for our service and went about arranging an induction to their new roles and the way of working and also a 4 day training session that covered topics such as what is rehab & reablment.
We arranged for staff to attend in small groups as we felt that it was important to communicate these changes in a timely manner and to ensure that all staff were given a consistent message. We worked with staff to ensure that they also had an understanding of the impact that change can have upon teams and how these changes can cause conflict and for a team to feel unsettled at times. This ensures that the staff were more aware that this may happen to them and put them in a better position to deal with the changes.
We also spent time looking at the pathway through our service so that staff understood how they fit in to this structure and why these changes had taken place and how this helped us to work towards the vision set out in both the our health our care our say white paper and the local strategy. We looked at how we could monitor and record the progress of the service users and how we could relay this information effectively to the care practitioners to ensure that services were reviewed and adjusted accordingly and in a timely manner.
My role dealing with quality and performance allows me to work with staff to ensure that they all had a good understanding of the new vision following the training through observations and quality performance reviews. 3. 3 work with others to promote a shared vision within the team Our service is part of a larger multi disciplinary organisation within adult social care that consists of Care practitioners, social workers residential care
workers, Day centres , community staff, tenancy support workers, roving nights. We work closely with our health colleagues that consist of out of hours GP, District nurses, Occupational therapists, Physiotherapists and other professionals from the hospital. Our work with service users and their families also means that we have to come in to contact with their family and carers perhaps even neighbours or other professionals that are involved with their care such as external home care providers.
Bu working within a multi disciplinary approach this ensures that we are all working towards the same goal and outcome for the service user and can share information which ensures that the service user is getting the best possible service in order to meet their needs. Out of hours we communicate with other professionals such as the police and the fire service as well as our colleagues in the mental health team to ensure that situations are contained over the weekend and people are made safe. 3. 4 evaluate how the vision and strategic direction of the team influences team practise.
Our team practise is influenced by the white paper our health our care our say which then influences local strategy, policies and procedures, the way in which services are assessed and provided. The vision of our service is to ensure that people have access to services that offer them choice as how best to meet their needs, free from discrimination keeping them free from risk of harm and abuse. Care standards set out by the care quality commission ensure that as a service in the community we are all working to an expected level of care and that all staff are trained to an appropriate level.
Our staff receive mandatory training to ensure that they are all safe to practise and also are given supplementary training that then gives us the opportunity to provide service users with care that is of good quality. Outcome 4 Be able to develop a plan with team members to meet agreed objectives for a health and social care setting 4. 1 Identify team objectives Our teams objectives are clear: “To support and encourage service users to regain their optimum level of independence within a short time frame with the view of them going on to complete independence. ” 4.
2 Analyse how the skills, interests, knowledge and expertise within the team can meet agreed objectives. Within the community support team we have a very diverse workforce with a multitude of skills interests and abilities. Each team member has their own strengths and weaknesses and after working together for so long we are able to identify these and use them to the teams advantage. We share ideas and often get together to brain storm about any problems that we need to find a solution for, this helps us achieve a better outcome and meet objectives by utilising each individuals skills.
Within my own staff group we discuss who would be best placed to carry out any tasks that have been identified so that the team can agree who would best be able to complete this. It also gives the team a sense of ownership. As a manager I recognise that individuals all have different learning styles and although one member of my team may benefit from working together as a group some prefer to work on a one to one basis. There are many theories around individuals learning styles here are a two: Kolb
This is a holistic approach to learning and identifies four learning styles shown in a cycle much of Kilbs theory is based on the learners cognitive processes. This theory was then developed further by Honey and Mumford, they developed a learning styles questionnaire to identify your preferred style of learning. 4. 3 Facilitate team members to actively participate in the planning process. Once the corporate strategy and been put together there was then a period of consultation at local level amongst my team as to how we could best meet the objectives set out within our service.
It is better to involve the staff that are expected to meet these objectives in the planning process so as they can feel a sense of ownership and can take on some responsibility to aim to meet the aims and objectives of the service. By consulting with the front line staff this ensured that they had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities from day one and were able to cascade this information back to their own team members. It was evident that the staff involved in this process were highly motivated to ensure that the changes implemented were a success.
Staff are constantly consulted about changes that take place within our team and are expected to contribute and bring forward ideas be this through the staff consultation group, listening and learning group and through the weekly progress meetings that are held to look at the progress made by each individual service user so we can identify any changes and adjustments that need to be made to their services to best meet their needs. 4. 4 Encourage sharing of skills and knowledge between team members.
Training attended is a standard item on my team meeting agenda which gives the staff an opportunity to discuss any training that they may have attended and share with their colleagues the skills and knowledge that they learnt and to also discuss what inpact they believe the training had on their daily practise after completion. As part of the staffs ongoing development I often arrange for them to spend a period of time working with other professionals so that they can gain a good understanding of how other departments function.
This period of shadowing is good as it helps us to build a rapport with other teams that we can sometimes have limited contact with due to work pressures. 4. 5 Agree roles and responsibilities with team members. Inidivual supervision takes place quarterly and we always discuss roles and responsibilities as at the beginning of the supervision. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on any changes that have been implemented and how the staffs roles and responsibilities help to meet these changes.
Staff can sometimes become caught up in conflict or dispute and by referring back to the job description and roles and responsibilities of the team and its structure this can give the staff member clarity of what is and is not expected of them. Staff are given a copy of the code of conduct at the point of induction but it is sometimes necessary to refer back to this and also to refer back to policies and procedures at regular intervals. Staff have full access to all policies and procedures in hard copy in the office and electronically via the intralinc which they all now have access too.
Outcome 5 Be able to support individual team members to work towards agreed objectives in a health and social care setting 5. 1 Set personal work objectives with team members based on agreed objectives Appraisals are held annually and are used to set out objectives to staff for them to achieve. These may be training objectives, personal or to improve their own performance. We work together to reflect on the previous years performance and identify any areas for improvement and look at how these can be best met.
Any targets set out in the annual appraisal need to be identified and use the SMART targets goal setting theory. S= Specific staff must have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. M=Measurable Goals must be able to be able to reviewed to ensure that they are on track to be achieved A=Achievable The goals set should be possible to achieve. R=Relevant the goals need to be well defined T=Time bound goals should have a date to which they need to be achieved by. 5. 2 Work with team members to identify opportunities for development and growth & 5.
3 Provide advice and support to team members to make the most of identified development opportunities. As a manager one of my passions is to ensure that my team recognise their strengths and have the confidence to utilise their skills, this leads the team on to be highly motivated and to work effectively and effieciently. Here in the community support team we have a good record for staff retention and often staff only leave when they are retiring or going on to further develop their career.
I have a positive attitude towards our staffs career development and have spent time with individuals working on their interview skills and building self confidence and assertiveness skills. During a period of shadowing that was identified in her annual appraisal on e of my staff gained a real interest in the commissioning of services in another department. We worked together with this team to ensure that she was allowed the time to work alongside the team to gain a real understanding of how they work and the processes in place.
Within a short period of time a post became available and although the competion for the post was fierce she secured the position and now works within that team full time. 5. 4 Use a solution focused approach to support team members to address identified challenges A solution based approach to dealing with issues is a very effective way of dealing with problems and challenges. This theory focuses on what needs to be achieved rather than historical events and what has already happened.
It looks at what is already working well and how they can use the positives to explore ways of setting goals to achieve solutions to problems. We send out service user questionnaires when a service ends and the information that we collate from these can be both negative and positive and it has proved to be a great way of working with staff to identify areas of improvement and also acknowledging areas of success that service users themselves have been very satisfied with. This positive feedback is also displayed in the corridor within our building and helps to motivate staff and recognise our achievements.
Outcome 6 Be able to manage team performance in a health and social care setting. 6. 1 Monitor and evaluate progress towards agreed objectives In my role as Community support coordinator I take the lead on quality and performance monitoring team objectives and how we are managing to achieve these identifying issues where we can improve and recognising areas that we are performing well in and looking at why certain processes are working well to establish if the strategies used can be implemented in other areas to improve performance.
This is an ongoing process regularly auditing statistics against objectives set out and gathering information. As a rehab and reablement service it is essential that we capture statistics that identify the outcome of each service user. These look at whether or not a service user has managed to go on to complete independence after a short period of time with our service or whether or not it has been necessary for them to be referred to another care agency to receive long term services to meet their needs in order for them to remain within their home. Monitoring and evalu
