Developing Relationships and Reflective Practice : Dundee pilots a new training method for residential child care staff

This item was first posted on the http://www.goodenoughcaring.com home page on March 10th 2009



Visitors to our site will be aware of the significance we place on training residential child care workers and other professionals to become able to build relationships with the children and young people they look after. We believe this can only be done through experience and study underpinned by considered reflection and insightful supervision and so it is exciting to learn of the start of new pilot training course which has been initiated by the City of Dundee Social Work Department (Children's Services). The course, “The Art of Effective Communications – Developing Relationships with Young People” which is lead by Calum Strathie and Sandra Deuchars, uses an approach which is called Video Interactive Guidance (VIG) to help residential child care staff enhance their day-to-day interactions with the young people in their care. The aim is to activate the thinking of practitioners by using a method called Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP) to help them learn from their own and their colleagues' practice.


The course is taking place in a Young People's Unit in Dundee. It is believed that the training will be the first of its kind to be undertaken in a residential child care resource in the United Kingdom. All fifteen staff including the cook and the handyman will participate in the course. The young people's permission to have their conversations with staff filmed was sought and was given. The young people have been both helpful and vocal about the project.

The project will be evaluated after 4 sessions. Early indications are that the staff are positive and enthusiastic about the project, having overcome a natural trepidation about having their engagement with young people video recorded for use in future reflective practice workshops. The goodenoughcaring Journal hopes to publish an article* about the pilot project when it has been completed .
 
* This article can be found at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalArticle.aspx?cpid=111