Developing Key Working

The Guide to Developing Key Working aims to offer guidance to those involved in developing, managing and delivering key working for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families. The primary audience is commissioners and managers in local areas and in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector implementing key working, but it is also intended to be of use for a wider range of people including policy makers and those carrying out key working functions

Addressing the needs of the children’s integrated workforce: A method for developing collaborative practice through joint learning

The delivery of welfare, health and educational provision to the majority of children aged 0–18 in England is primarily led by local authorities via their children’s integrated service. In 2004 the children’s integrated service model was launched and it promised the benefits of an integrated and collaborative system of working, regarding flexibility and responsiveness to national policy, local development and capacity building (Robinson et al, 2008). However, the implementation and emergence of this model has been characterised by competing local and national agendas, practitioner misunderstanding and lack of trust, a lack of strong leadership and also financial restrictions. It can therefore be contended that conceptually children’s integrated services are not operating fully with a collaborative and integrated workforce. As a possible solution to the current situation, it is proposed that joint learning, along with a combined continual professional development (CPD) framework, be made available as a valuable starting point for such organisations. Learning and working together has benefits for children and practitioners, and especially, as this article will argue, for playwork practitioners

Developing a CPD Framework in a time of organizational cultural conflict

The need for continual organisational improvement is of critical importance for organisations like that of children’s integrated services where there is both a legal and moral authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. However, the implementation of children’s integrated services since 2004 has produced a series of challenges in the forms of contextual barriers, changing political climates, organisational change and cultural issues (Robinson et al., 2008). A perennial challenge for children’s services has been the ability to meet the CPD needs of the various professions that constitute its workforce without seemingly destabilising the wider organisational norms and beliefs. This paper specifically focuses on the current development of a CPD framework for an entire children’s integrated workforce, and the impact the organisational culture, as well as the professional sub-cultures are having. Reference will be made to members of the workforce being cultural carriers and the role of leaders in relation to organisational change (Schein, 1993 and Lucas and Kline, 2008). In seeking to answer the real world problem of developing a CPD framework for multiple professions within a single organisation, the paper will identify the factors that need to be taken into account

Taking advantage of dissonance: a CPD framework

Purpose: To communicate the findings of an empirical research project based on a real world problem that involved the development of a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework for a children’s integrated service workforce. In addition, to give attention to the notion that children’s integrated services have not necessarily been viewed from the perspective of conflict management and that this has meant ensuing conflicts that characterise such organisations are more often than not ignored. Design/Methodology/Approach: A case study approach involving a mixed methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews for senior managers and service leads; a quantitative survey for frontline practitioners and focus groups for service users, carers and children. Findings: Rather than the service being fully integrated, services were aligned, and this was reflected in the conflict between professional cultures, reinforcing an ‘us and them’ culture. This culture had seemingly permeated all aspects of the organisation including the senior management team. It was also noted that certain systems and processes, as well as bureaucracy, within the service were seen as hindering integrated working and was in effect a catalyst for conflict. Originality/Value: Through the application of conflict management theory it will be illustrated how conflict could be used to effectively steer children integrated services towards creativity and productivity through an organisational wide framework that not only embraces dissonance, but also promotes a learning environment that takes advantage of such dissonance to incorporate a hybrid of professional practice and expertise

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Developing a model of CPD for a children’s integrated workforce

The development of a CPD model is of key importance at a time of significant change in the transformation agenda and integrated working model for the delivery of statutory services to children and their families by local authorities. In the light of changing and sometimes inconsistent guidance from central government, Southampton City Council worked with The Open University Social Work Department to develop a model of CPD delivery for its workforce. The project gathered information and advice from a range of interested stakeholders. In this session young people in receipt of services themselves, members of the Council’s workforce development unit and Open University researchers will present their experience of the development of an integrated model of CPD and the lessons learnt

Gathering perspectives on CPD

The development of a CPD model is of key importance at a time of significant change in the transformation agenda and integrated working model in the delivery of health, education, social care and early interventions to children and their families. In the light of changing and sometimes inconsistent guidance from central government, Southampton City Council worked with the Open University Social Work Department to develop a model of CPD delivery for its integrated children's workforce. The project consulted and gathered evidence from a range of interested groups including service users and carers, social workers and non-registered social care staff, commissioners, as well as senior managers within the authority. The presentation will include details of the methodology used and will then go on to explore some of the themes and issues that have emerged from the research. Specifically, members of the research team will share initial thinking about appropriate CPD models for a children's integrated workforce and the principles required for the implementation

Taking advantage of dissonance: the development of a CPD model for a children’s integrated service

The delivery of welfare, health and educational support provision to the majority of children aged between nought and eighteen years of age in England is led by local authorities via their children’s integrated service. When launched in 2004 this service model promised the benefits of integrated and collaborative working in terms of flexibility and responsiveness to national policy, local development and capacity building (Robinson et al., 2008). However, the implementation and ongoing maturation of this service model over a period of more than a decade has been marred by conflict, capital and co-operation. Using the key terms of the conference theme, this presentation will communicate the findings of an empirical research project based on a real world problem that involved the development of a CPD framework for a children’s integrated service workforce. The presentation will highlight a range of ongoing multi-faceted conflicts that include: the rhetoric of joined up working and co-operation verses the reality; the jarring of professional cultures amongst frontline practitioners, and strategic leadership that failed to appreciate the need for consensus building. The presentation will then move on to look at the human capital of the children’s integrated service and how it can be effectively steered towards creativity and productivity through an organisational wide CPD framework that not only embraces the contradictions and misunderstandings that ensue when different professions work together, but also promotes a learning environment that takes advantage of such dissonance and can incorporate the hybrid of professional practice and expertise

Developing a CPD Framework in a time of organisational cultural conflict

The need for continual organisational improvement is of critical importance for organisations like that of children’s integrated services where there is both a legal and moral authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. However, the implementation of children’s integrated services since 2004 has produced a series of challenges in the forms of contextual barriers, changing political climates, organisational change and cultural issues (Robinson et al., 2008). A perennial challenge for children’s services has been the ability to meet the CPD needs of the various professions that constitute its workforce without seemingly destabilising the wider organisational norms and beliefs. This paper specifically focuses on the current development of a CPD framework for an entire children’s integrated workforce, and the impact the organisational culture, as well as the professional sub-cultures are having. Reference will be made to members of the workforce being cultural carriers and the role of leaders in relation to organisational change (Schein, 1993 and Lucas and Kline, 2008). In seeking to answer the real world problem of developing a CPD framework for multiple professions within a single organisation, the paper will identify the factors that need to be taken into account