Reflective leadership in a multi-professional context. 4000wds

Reflective leadership in a multi-professional context. 4000wds

Week 1:An Introduction to the Module and to Journaling

Introduction to Module and Journaling .

1.1 Aims this week

The focus this week is: ‘Introduction to the Module and Journaling’. This is outlined below:

•The structure of the module and its content

•Reading materials

•The module assessment and learning outcomes

•Using journaling as a way to self-evaluate and support the development of a reflective leader/manager/practitioner

•Begin to consider the role of leaders and managers

We begin the week by looking at the structure of the module and its content. Make a note of anything you do not understanding as you will have an opportunity to discuss them with your personal tutor.

1.2 Module Syllabus

This module will critically evaluate a range of theories and current perspectives on the distinctive features of leadership within the early years. This will include staff supervision, support and development alongside the development of teamwork. You will examine the role of the early childhood practitioner in relation to other professional roles and parents’ responsibilities and evaluate models of working in partnership with parents and carers.

You will consider the range of professions and occupations involved in the provision of early years services. The benefits and challenges of multi-professional working will be explored and their links to vulnerable groups such as refugees, asylum seekers and children with Special Educational Needs.

You are expected to critically examine the concept of professionalism and how this is perceived from a range of perspectives and identify the implications for each. You will consider their own professional identities and their approaches to practice.

You will look at a range of methods and strategies to evaluate the quality of current provision and explore managing change theory to develop and improve practice, including addressing issues of class, race, gender, culture, language, sexual orientation, age and special needs. The management of curriculum planning, the function and development of policies will be discussed. Relationships with the local community – including collaborative working, partnership with parents and working with governors or managers will also be considered as part of the management structure. Strategies for developing reflexive practice and teamwork will be explored.

1.3 Module Aims

To critically analyse a range of theories relating to leadership and management styles and approaches in the early years

To examine the role of leaders in empowering teams, to extend knowledge and practice within the early childhood community

To explore the underpinning theory and practical knowledge of developing and supporting individual early years practitioners and diverse teams in an equal opportunities context

To consider the different types of provision and professional disciplines that relate to early childhood

To examine concepts of professionalism as they relate to the early childhood community and develop professional skills in working in multi-professional teams

1.5 Praxis and reflexivity?

Whalley et al (2004:p.38) suggests that ‘it is not enough that we reflect in order to know or understand, it is necessary to reflect in order to make a difference – to bring about change’.

Trodd and Chivers (2011:p.177) describes reflexivity as ‘the quality of thinking and seriously considering and grappling with ideas and experiences. Through reflection a person constructs a personal understanding of relevant structures of meaning derived from her or his own action in the world’.

Praxis is a self-directed process springing from our core professional values, demanding that we continuously consider the impact and effect of our own actions. Praxis involves honouring our experience and relating it to theory, and thinking deeply about future action. Sometimes this deepening of awareness and reflexivity will result in us feeling uncomfortable and realising it is our own actions rather than the actions of others that need attention. This may be particularly difficult in our leadership roles, since we have grown up being encouraged to believe our leaders are superior, with in

here

ntly powerful capacities and qualities.

1.6 What is a learning journal and what are the benefits of journaling?

Etherington (2004) believes that a journal is a private document that is used by the writer to document their thoughts and feelings about any number of issues that seem important to them and Moon (2006:p.1) describes it as ‘vehicle for reflection’.

Journaling can be a powerful tool to critically evaluate your leadership role as it can:

•Bring together both the personal and professional, it can also support professional development

•Allow you to express your thoughts and feelings, to review and learn from them

•Prompt you into recording what you think you should do next

•Help you to problem solve

•Support you in teaching yourself through your professional practice

•‘Journals can be used to improve writing skills, improve analytical and creative thinking and build self-awareness’. (Cunliffe, 2004:p.418)

1.7 Key reading one and reflective task

The first reading this week is by Jennifer Moon (2006) chapter 1 and chapter 2 in ‘Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice and Professional Development. Click here to access (it is an E book).

When reading the chapters identified consider Moon’s idea that journals can be used ‘as a meeting place in which ideas can intermingle…[and] give rise to new learning’ (p.17).

What view would you put forward in supporting the use of journals?

1.9 The nature of leadership and management, doing what comes naturally

‘Leadership’ and ‘Management’ have come to represent a rather technical and high-ranking set of practices in the world of work. When we refer to someone as a leader/manager, we assume that they have an important and responsible job more worthy of respect than the jobs that are being managed.

It is worth spending time thinking about this. In what ways are the people who do the following jobs less important and less worthy of respect than those who manage and lead them?

1. Shop Assistant

2. Nurse

3. Police Officer

4. Computer Operator

5. Social Worker

There is also the tendency to think that managers/leaders do something that only a very few of us can aspire to; that being a manager/leader involves rising up the hierarchy of the organisation we work for and developing a whole new range of skills and capabilities.

Yet managing/leading is what most of us do all the time. Between your birth and reading this, you would have been involved in millions of activities that have constituted the management /leadership of your life. While there are many in the management/leadership world that would argue against this idea, good management/leadership is little more than the application of all that we have learnt about being an effective person in the places where we work.

1.10 Children as managers/leaders

You do not have to spend very long with young children to appreciate that they are born managers/leaders. Right from birth they have very powerful ways of getting their needs met and persuading their parents to provide them with the resources they need to go grow and develop. By the time they go to school they will have managed to acquire the language of their home, to stand up and walk, to feed themselves and to make an enormous number of choices during the waking moments of their lives. This is a natural tendency to manage their own lives is graphically described by John Holt (1971:p23).

1.11 Key reading two and reflective task

The second key reading this week is by Jillian Rodd (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood Chapter 1. Click here to read now,

Rodd (2006:p.9) suggests that ‘Leadership is best defined as a process of engagement, the leader engages fellow professionals in the best [ways of] meeting the needs of children and families…in early childhood there is an expectation that leaders will be consultative in their approach’.

Chapter one explores:

•Definition of leadership for early childhood

•General concepts about leadership

•Dimensions of leadership

•Differences between leadership and management

•Leadership as it relates to the early childhood profession

•The role of vision in leadership

•Why leadership works in some situations and not others

In this chapter Rodd unpicks what leadership and management are. Read the chapter, reflect on the information then answer the following questions:

1.What is the writer trying to convey in chapter one?

2.How does the writer refer to ‘an adequate model of leadership in early childhood’

3.How does Rodd describe leadership?

4.Davies (2005) refers to different perspectives that are useful in building a model of leadership. What are these models?

5.What do Sarros and Butchatsky (1996) argue?

6.What does Rodd suggest are ‘key to effective leadership’

7.What does Morgan mean by defining leadership ‘as positional’?

8.What does Solly (2003) say about maintenance becoming ‘a distraction’?

9.What did you learn from reading this chapter?

1.12 Summary of the session

In this session we briefly looked at the structure of the module, its content and assessment. We considered and reflected on key readings linked to practice and explored praxis and reflexivity in relation to your learning and development as a leader, manager or practitioner.

We began to examine the role of leaders and managers, which will be developed further in next week’s session.

1.13 Weekly task

Use the web to download and read an article on leadership in early childhood (summarise the article)

Collate any information you find on the difference between leadership and Management then write one side of A4 on your understanding of leadership and management characteristics.

1.14 References

Cunliffe, A. L. (2004) On becoming a critically reflexive practitioner.

Journal of Management Education, 28, No 4, 407-426.

Davies, B. ed. (2005), The Essentials of School Leadership, Paul Chapman Publishing, and Corwin Press, London

Etherington, K. (2004) Becoming a Reflexive Researcher: Using Our Selves in Research. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: London and Philadelphia

Holt, J. (1971) The Underachieving School London: Penguin Books

Moon, J. A. (2006) Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice Published by Routledge: Oxon and New York

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

Sarros, J.C. and Butchatsky, O. (1996), Leadership: Australia’s Top CEO’s: Finding Out What Makes Them Best, Harper Business, Adelaide.

Solly, K. 2003, What do early childhood leaders do to maintain and enhance the significance of the early years?’, presentation on 22nd May at the Institute of Education, University of London, London

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Inter Professional Working in Practice:Learning and working together for children and families

Whalley, M. et al. (2004) NPQICL Study Programme. Nottingham: NCSL

Week 2:

Leadership and Management

Top of Form

Leadership and Management

 

2.1   Aims this week

· To recap and highlight important themes from last weeks session

· To discuss underlying features of leadership and management

· To consider how leadership and management might be influenced by the childcare agenda

· To consider your experiences of being led, being a leader; being managed, or being a manager

· To critically reflect evaluate your own leadership role or leadership experiences

Last week we began to explore and reflect on the role of leaders and managers. You read chapter 1 in Rodd (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood. Click

here

 to access the chapter.

This week we will be focusing on Underlying Features of Leadership and Management.

  

We established last week that managing is something that we do all the time in our private as well as in our professional lives. In terms of the organisational context of our work, management can be described as that process of getting things done with the help of other people. Such definitions implies a whole host of specific activities for example:

 

· Managing, supervising, supporting and appraising staff

· Working in partnership with other professionals and agencies

· Attending meetings (including multi-agency meetings)

· Defining and communicating policies and plans

· Creating efficient structures and systems

· Maintaining day-to-day procedures

· Ensuring that work gets done

· Monitoring outcomes and results

· Promoting efficiency

· Dealing with budgets and expenditure

 

Many attempts have been made over the years to categorise management functions. Although there are variations between different versions, most of them would include the following:

 

· Planning

· Organising

· Motivating others

· Communicating

· Solving problems

· Evaluating provision and services

While these management functions enable a centre to run efficiently and smoothly, something more is required if the work of the centre is to be inspiring, innovative, developmental and effective. This is what leadership does. Leadership is essentially interactive, about interpersonal engagement. It is concerned in achieving the best out of the centre’s resources. It is also about supporting all staff to utilise and optimise their skills and qualities, whilst striving to challenge themselves. Leadership is also about helping others to develop their leadership skills.

 While management is required to keep the centre running efficiently, leadership is concerned with achieving the best that is possible. Leadership is an engagement with hearts and minds in the interest of the children and families.

 2.2   Leadership and Managers Roles Compared

   

 

Leader	Manager
Inspires	Controls
Thinks	Does
Motivates	Organises
Initiates change	Accepts practice
Dictates	Administers
Makes decisions	Follows through
Sets objectives	Coordinates
Inspires loyalty	Motivates by discipline

 

 2.3   Crucial Elements in Leadership

 

· To be able to show empathy to others

· Conveying the right messages

· Projecting positive body language

· Being self aware

· Empowering others

 

Solley (2003) suggests that the distinctive difference between leadership and management is quite clear: management involves maintenance and oversight of an organisation, whereas leadership is more to do with enhancement improvement and development. Hall (1996:p.11) believes that ‘Leadership is philosophy in action with management an integral part. The women heads in the study were therefore simultaneously leaders and managers. Managing without leadership was unethical; leadership without management was unethical; leadership without management was irresponsible’.
 
 
2.4   Reflective task

Think of experiences when you were well led or well managed. How did you know that your leaders/managers were doing a good job?
Have there been times when you felt you were experiencing poor or inadequate leadership or management?

Use your learning journal to record and evaluate your experiences and reflections.
 

· Personal characteristics necessary for leaders and managers:
1.    To have knowledge and a natural enthusiasm for children, learning
    and teaching
2.    A commitment to the pre-school transition of the child
3.    Have an attraction to the profession for intrinsic rather than extrinsic
    reasons
4.    Have status and rank as a culture setter
5.    Commitment to and a vested interest in child development
6.    Have a strong sense of ambition and to improvement
7.    Have an approach advocating creative intelligence and emotional
    intelligence
8.    Infectious self-awareness
9.    Have a good

sense of humour

and understands the importance of
    fun
10.    Kind, warm friendly
11.    Nurturing, sympathetic
12.    Patient
13.    Rational, logical, analytical
14.    Professional, professionally confident
15.    Visionary
16.    Mentor, guide, empower
17.    Assertive, proactive
18.    Goal-orientated (to get things done).
Becoming a leader is much more than simply accepting a particular role or position. It is about personal values, principles and qualities.
Maxwell (1999)writes that Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside – in qualities that make them up as people.

2.5   What is Emotional Intelligence? 

In What Makes a Leader? Daniel Goleman (1998:p.94) points out that ‘effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of emotional intelligence’.
Below are Goleman’s (1998:p.95) Five Components of Emotional Intelligence at Work.

 

Definition

Hallmarks

Self-Awareness

The ability to recognise  and understand your moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on others

 

Self-confidence

 

Realistic self-assessment

 

Self-depreciating

 
sense of humour

Self-Regulation

The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods

 

The propensity to suspend judgment – to think before acting

 

Trustworthiness and integrity
 

Comfort with ambiguity

 

Openness to change

 

Motivation

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status

 

A propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence

 

A strong drive to achieve

 

Optimism, even in the face of failure

 

Organisational commitment

Empathy

The ability to understand the emotional makeup of people

 

Skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions

 

Expertise in building and retaining talent

 

Cross-cultural sensitivity

Service to clients and customers

Social Skill

Proficiency in managing relationships and building networks

Effectiveness in leading change

 

Persuasiveness

 

Expertise in building and leading teams

 2.6   Senior Management/Leadership

 Work at the senior level requires attention to four particular functions, coordination, responsibility, accountability, and development, which I will discuss in more detail below:
Coordination

Coordination is about harnessing the professional energy and skill of all participants towards a common purpose or goal. This does not only require the appropriate structures and systems being in place but also the skilful management of staff (including multi-agency staff who you may not have complete management responsibility for).

Responsibility

Is about that familiar phrase: ‘carrying the can’. When we take responsibility, we accept a sense of obligation that we will do everything we can in order to meet our contractual duties. These could include many of the following:

· To deliver and be accountable for a quality service

· To develop and articulate a philosophy, values and vision for the centre

· To engage in collaborative and partnership working

· To engage in on-going professional development and to encourage it within all staff

· To be responsive to the need for change and to lead change effectively

· To act as a advocate for children, parents/carers, staff, the profession and general community

A sense of responsibility is not something that leaders and managers can insist upon. It is a response to the work we have been contracted to carry out. It is the responsibility of leaders and managers to support all staff in cultivating responsibility as a key element of their professional commitment.

 

Accountability

Issues of accountability are never far from our minds these days. It is vital to be clear about our responsibilities to share information (The Children Act 2004) with colleagues and explanations with those who are concerned with any early childhood centre, particularly local authorities and other agencies e.g. health professionals.

 In a highly political environment where significant financial investment has gone into the early years and concerns about value for money and high standards, accountability will involve managers and leaders in a great deal of their work.

 Development

One of the most important roles of leadership and management is lead development bringing about the changes that will result in improved quality and service. Recently we have seen unprecedented levels of interest, investment and expectations in the early years. The nature of provision has changed dramatically over the last fifteen years. Early years leaders and managers are faced with two types of developmental activity:

 1.     Leading and managing the changes brought about by government initiatives and legislation e.g. Children Act 2004, Childcare Act 2006.

2.     Managing the internal changes that managers, leaders and staff feel are necessary and desirable to achieve the quality of provision to which they are committed.

Read and familiarise yourself with contents of the Children Act 2004 and the Childcare Act 2006. Click here  and here to read now.

 Many early years leaders and managers feel that the weight and pace of governmentally driven changes is limiting their capacity to give sufficient time and energy to the internal developments, which they feel are of equal importance. Achieving a satisfactory and successful balance between these two is one of the most demanding challenges now facing early years leaders and managers.

 2.7   Reflective Task

How do the four functions outlined (pages 5-6): coordination, responsibility, accountability, and development, feature in your own role?

How is the relationship between centre-generated development and governmentally driven changes managed in your centre?

 Use your learning journal to record and evaluate your experiences, reflections and responses.
 

 Authority and power
The quality of climate and ethos in all early childhood centre’s depends on some significant human factors, some of which are outlined below:
Authority: the right bestowed on the employee to carry out certain task and duties. It specifies the extent to which an employee can make decisions, spend money and make demands on other colleagues.
Power: the employee’s ability or capacity to fulfil specified tasks and duties. While managers may have authority in their role, they do not always have sufficient power to exercise it. Some managers try and use power to exceed the authority the role bestows on them.
Freedom: the extent to which the employee can exercise their own judgment and initiative in carrying out their tasks and duties.
Trust: the extent to which the employee can encourage relationships built on openness and trust.
 

Rights:the extent to which members of staff have their own basic human rights respected and upheld by those who manage their work.
Duties: the extent to which staff respect and uphold the duties they have been contracted to carry out.
These six powerful but often subtle factors merge into a set of dynamic forces, which exercise themselves in most organizations. Effective leadership and management depend upon the skill with which these forces are understood and handled by those in senior positions.
 Organisations, which are built on varying levels of status and pay, always generate challenges which leaders and managers need to develop skills in handling. It is the way these forces combine and intermingle which determines how well centres operate.

2.8   Reflective task

Use the six factors outlined (page 7): authority, power, freedom, trust, rights, as a checklist to reflect upon the nature of authority and power either in your own place of work or in another organisation you are familiar with.

Use your learning journal to record and evaluate your experiences, reflections and responses.
 

2.9   Summary of the session

Important themes from last week’s session were highlighted.
We considered features of leadership and management and how the role may be influenced by the childcare agenda.
You reflected on your experiences of being lead/managed.

Throughout this session you have been given opportunities to begin reflecting and evaluating your own leadership role or experiences.

2.10   Weekly task

Observe a meeting that takes place in your setting. It may be a team meeting, a planning meeting etc. What does the person leading the meeting say and do? How do others react and respond? What would you do differently. In your Journal record and reflect on your findings.

2.11   References

Goleman, D. (1998) What Makes a Leader: Harvard Business Review

Hall, V. (1996) Dancing on the ceiling: A Study of Women Managers in Education, Paul Chapman Publishing, London           
Maxwell, J. C (1999) The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the person others will want to follow, Thomas Nelson, London.
Rodd, J. (2006) ‘Leadership in Early Childhood’, Open University Press London
Solley, K. (2003) ‘What do early childhood leaders do to maintain and enhance the significance of the early years?’ presentation on 22 May
at the Institute of Education, University of London, London.`
The Children Act 2004

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+children+act+2004&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=I21QUMCBE-eK0AW38YCADA#hl=en&gs_nf=1&tok=_gzQJsG-6cJSkOCu2wdnhA&pq=the%20childcare%20act%202006&cp=18&gs_id=2b&xhr=t&q=the+children+act+2004&pf=p&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb%3AIE-SearchBox&sclient=psy-ab&oq=the+children+act+2&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=c3f8c9d111b3741a&biw=1011&bih=606

Accessed 28/08/2012

The Childcare Act 2006

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+children+act+2004&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=I21QUMCBE-eK0AW38YCADA#hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb%3AIE-SearchBox&sclient=psy-ab&q=the+childcare+act+2006&oq=the+childCARE&gs_l=serp.1.1.0l4.52141.56313.0.58657.16.13.0.2.2.4.500.2124.6j5j4-1j1.13.0…0.0…1c.1.R-AWamEScIw&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=c3f8c9d111b3741a&biw=1011&bih=606

Accessed 28/08/2012

Week 3: The Personal Qualities Of an Early Childhood Leader and Leadership Styles Top of Form

Bottom of Form

The personal qualities of a leader (in early childhood) and the various styles of leadership

 3.1 Aims this week

The focus this week is on: ‘the personal qualities of a leader (in early childhood) and the different styles and theories of leadership’. This session will:
· Look at new directions in leadership and management
· Support students in beginning to see their personal qualities as examples of different approaches to leadership
· Introduce students to different typologies and styles of leadership
· Consider the qualities/competencies that make up a leader
· Encourage students to reflect and think critically about how their competencies match the centre’s ethos
 Your first key reading comes from an E book by Bass and Riggio (2006): ‘Transformational Leadership’ (click here to access and look at the preface and introduction).
Your second key reading comes from Ancona et al (2007) and can be accessed by clicking the link here .
3.2   New directions in leadership and management
In recent times we have seen the gradual development of a set of ideas about management and leadership that focus on the human side of the work. This has largely come about through a change in assumptions about work itself and those who do it.
 The beginnings of this shift of understanding can be found in a series of studies that were carried out in the 1950’s. Although they created a great deal of interest at the time, they appeared to have little effect on the practice of management and leadership. As in many other areas of human activity, it often takes a generation or two for radical theories and ideas to become generally accepted.
 
In ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’ Douglas McGregor (1960) found that the behaviour of workers in the factories he studied was largely dependent on the attitudes of their managers towards them and the way those attitudes translated into the leaders behaviour. He expressed this in two contrasting positions, which he defined as Theory X and Theory Y:
Theory X managers believe the following:
 
People dislike work and try to avoid it. They have to be bribed, coerced, controlled and even threatened with punishment to perform adequately.  Most workers lack ambition, prefer to be managed and wish to avoid responsibility. By nature people at work are resistant to change.
 Theory Y bosses believe the following:
 People do like work and value it as an important part of their lives. They do not have to be forced or threatened to perform adequately. If encouraged to pursue objectives to which they are committed, most people will work hard and not only accept responsibility but also actively seek it. Workers have a natural ability to change and adapt.
 What McGregor found was that in workplaces where managers held Theory X views, the staff did try and avoid work, shun responsibility and behave uncooperatively. They also had a low work rate and haggled about the rate for the job. Where managers held Theory Y views and translated them in their working relationships with their colleagues, staff tended to be more committed, innovative and enterprising and with a much higher work volume.
 In all areas of the workforce, people’s expectations of their managers and leaders are changing at an unprecedented rate. Workers are demanding work conditions that are nourishing to the human spirit.
 

3.3 Reflective task 1

 What sort of manager/leader do you think you are? Identify someone who you think is an effective manager/leader either within your workplace or in some other walk of life. In your journal write down and reflect on the qualities or characteristics that contribute to their management/leadership ability?

 3.4   What are the personal qualities of an early childhood leader?
Rodd (2006:p.51) suggests that, ‘Becoming a leader is much more than simply accepting a particular role or position. It is about personal values, beliefs and qualities’. Maxwell (1999:) writes that, Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside in the qualities that make them up as people.
Wonacott (2001) in Rodd (2006) discusses the concept of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is more concerned with values, ethics, standards and achieving long-term goals. It is linked to what is described as female traits such as i.e. communication, collaboration, consensus, nurturing and inclusion.  The focus is on the relationship developed by the leader with team members.
  “Transformational leadership refers to a process whereby an individual engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality of both leader and follower, for example a manager who attempts to change a company’s corporate values to reflect a more humane standard of fairness and justice.” (Northouse 2001)
 3.5   Key reading
 The first reading this week is by Bernard Bass and Ronald Riggio (2006) on ‘Transformational Leadership’. You can access the text as an e-book online through the university library. To gain some context around the subject matter read the preface and the introduction. It may be a challenging read but try it.
When reading the text try to highlight key aspects of transformational leadership, also try to link these to your setting i.e. can you identify any areas of transformational in yours or your leaders style? How could this be developed? Reflect on the reading and make notes in your journal.

 3.6    What is a typology of an early childhood leader?
In the late 1990”s Rodd (1997) undertook research in Britain and Australia with early childhood practitioners. From this research she developed what we now know as a typology of early childhood leaders. The typology includes three different aspects that were identified from survey and interview data. It involves the groupings of personal characteristics, which reflect understanding at different stages of professional development. See below.
 
Rodd’s (2006:54) typology of an early childhood leader
 

Stage of professional development

Personal characteristics

Professional skills

Roles and responsibilities

Direct Care: novice

Kind, warm, friendly, nurturing, sympathetic, patient

Technical competence as an early childhood practitioner to act as a model, guide, mentor

To deliver and be accountable for a quality service
 
To develop and articulate a philosophy, values and vision
 

Direct Care:
advanced

Self-aware
 
Knowledgeable
 
Rationale, logical, analytical
 
Professional, professionally confident
 
 
 

General administration
 
 
Finacial management
 
Effective communication
 
 
Human resource management

To engage in a collaborative and partnership approach to leadership
 
 
To engage in ongoing professional development and to encourage it in all staff
 

Indirect care

Visionary
 
Mentor, guide, empowering
 
Assertive, proactive
 
Goal-oriented

 

To be sensitive and responsive to the need for change and lead change effectively
 
To act as an advocate for children, parents, carers, staff, the profession and general community

 
 Leadership Competencies
· Visionary Leadership is concerned with rational leadership
Builds resonance – moves people to shared dreams
Has a positive impact on the climate in which one is leading
Initiates appropriate change that is sustainable
· Self-awareness
Emotional self-awareness – attuned with their inner signals – this suggests a stable base
· Accurate self-awareness – know their limitations and strengths – welcome constructive criticism and feedback
· Self-confidence – a sense of presence and self assurance that makes them stand out in a group
· Self-management
· Self-control – manage their disturbing emotions and impulses and even channel them in useful ways
· Transparency – an authentic openness to others about their feelings and beliefs and actions
· Adaptability – leaders are able to multi-task and juggle demands
· Achievement – leaders have high personal standards that are reflected in their professional life
· Initiative – are in charge of themselves and will cut through red tape, even bend the rules, when necessary to create possibilities for the future
· Optimism – leaders see others positively, expecting the best of them and their “half-full” outlook leads them to expect that change in the future will be for the better
· Social Awareness
Empathy – leaders are able to attune to a wide range of emotional signals, letting them sense the felt but unspoken emotions in a person or group
· Organisational awareness – politically astute, able to detect crucial social networks and read key power relationships
· Service – leaders foster an emotional climate so that people directly in touch with the client base will keep things on the right track
· Inspiration – leaders inspire and articulate a share mission/vision
·
Influence – leaders adept in influence are persuasive and engaging when they address a group
· Developing others – leaders are good at cultivating people’s abilities
 3.7   Reflective task 2

Consider and reflect on Rodd’s typology table and the bullet points above on leadership competencies. In your journal note down what you believe are your leadership qualities/competencies.
 
3.8   Leadership Styles and Approaches
 
Trait Approach:In the early 20th century the development of ‘great man’ theories which were concerned with innate qualities and characteristics. This approach implied that people were ‘born leaders’ or ‘natural leaders’.
Behavioural Theories: In the 1940s this perspective began to be replaced by behavioural theories such as Style Approach.
A style approach focuses on the behaviour rather than personal characteristics. Task behaviours focus on goal accomplishment and relationship behaviours focus on helping to motivate people. Blake and Mouton (1968) describe different kinds of behaviours for different purposes:
 Authority-compliance: Task orientated, directive, sees people as tools.
Country club management: puts people first and task second, is comforting and uncontroversial.
 Impoverished management: Is disengaged, apathetic and ineffective.
 Middle-of-the-Road management: Takes expedient action, compromises to avoid conflict.
 Team management: Strong emphasis on tasks and people.
 Paternalism/materialism: Benevolent dictator acts graciously but for the purpose of achieving a goal.
 Opportunism: Uses a combination of styles for their own purpose and advancement.
By the beginning of the Second World War an alternative perspective was developing and by the mid 20th century leadership started to be reframed as a relationship between people in social situations.
The basic idea was of how workers were treated by their leaders was a much more significant determinant of how well they operated at work than attention to the detailed operational elements of a task. This led to research into motivation and well being in the work place. Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ emerged from key developments in the 1950’s.
Click here
  for the article which was originally accessed 12/09/12
 
For example in the 1970’s, Path – Goal Theory focused on how to motivate others to accomplish designated goals. It suggested that people would be motivated if the rewards are worthwhile. In this approach the leader defines the goals, clarifies the path, removes obstacles and provides support. This approach is also a ‘contingency theory’ (see below) as the leader also chooses a leadership style to fit the needs of the workers.
 
Contingency Theories: In Contingency Theory effective leadership is seen as contingent on matching a leaders style to the right setting and should not be expected to fit all situations. The idea that different situations require different kinds of leadership emerged in the 1960’s. In this Situational Approach a leader will use directing and supporting behaviours according to the needs of different workers.
 
Transformational Theories: More recently, leadership has been explored as a process as well as a function, those things that any worker can do to affect the quality of work done by colleagues. Transformational leadership is concerned with values, ethics, standards and long-term goals. It can be used to describe a wide range of leadership, from influencing an individual to whole organisations or even cultures.
Transformational leadership ideas incorporate ideas of charismatic leadership in which the leader:
 
· Is a strong role model for the values and beliefs they want others to adopt
· Appears competent to followers
· Articulates ideological goals with moral overtones
· Has high expectations of followers
· Links the individual identity of followers to the collective identity of the organisation
Transformational theories also focus on team leadership, in which the group is helped to accomplish tasks and to function well also seeing the leader as a catalyst of change and strategic visionary.
3.9   Key Reading Two
Ancona et al (2007:p.92) points out that ‘No leader is perfect. The best ones don’t try to be – they concentrate on honing their strengths and find others who can make up their limitations’.http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=in+praise+of+the+incomplete+leader+deborah+ancona&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=jaFQUKulE–S0QXwsYHABwAccessed 12/09/12
 
After reading the article consider the following questions:
 1.   Do you expect leaders to perfect? If yes why? If not why not?
2.   Is the leadership in your centre hierarchical or collaborative? What evidence do you have of this?
3.   Reflect on your leadership capabilities, what are the areas that you believe are weak and need to be developed further?
4.   What key points have you taken from this article and what has been your learning?
3.10   Summary of the session
This session began to explore new directions in leadership and management, also the personal qualities of an early childhood leader. We also considered different leadership styles and approaches.
Key readings were recommended to give a wider perspective of issues relating to leadership and management.
 
3.11  Weekly task
 Try to be more aware of management and leadership in your centre and at home. In your journal record practical examples of leadership styles you encounter.
 3.12   References
Ancona, D. Malone, T. W. Orlikowski, W. J. and Senge, P.M (2007) In Praise of the Incomplete Leader,
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=in+praise+of+the+incomplete+leader+deborah+ancona&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=jaFQUKulE–S0QXwsYHABw 
Argyris, C. (1957) Personality and Organization. New York: Harper and Row
Bass, B, Riggio, R. (2006) Transformational Leadership (2nd Ed),  Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 
Blake, R and Mouton, J. (1968) The Managerial Grid: Key Orientations for Achieving Production through People. Houston Texas: Gulf Publishing
Herzberg, F. (1976) Managing Choice: To be Efficient and to be Human, Dow Jones: Irwin
Jaques, E. (1951) The Changing Culture of a Factory. London: Tavistock
 Maslow, A. (1970) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row
 McGregor, A. (1960) The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill
 Morgan, G. (1986) Images of Organization. London Sage
 Maxwell, J. C (1999) The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the person others will want to follow, Thomas Nelson, London.
 Mayo, E. (1949) The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilisation. London Routledge and Kegan Paul
Northhouse, P. (2001) (2nd Ed.) Leadership: theory and practice. California: Sage
 Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
Schein. E. H. (1985) Organizational Culture and Leadership. San  Francisco: Jossey- Bass
 Wonacott, M.E. (2001), Leadership development in career and technical education, ERIC Digest, No. 225, Columbus, Ohio.

Week 4: The Range Of Professions and Occupations Involved In Early Years Services
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
· The range of professions and occupations involved in the provision of early years services
 4.1 Aims this week
 
The focus this week is to: ‘explore a range of professions and occupations involved in the provision of early years services’.This is outlined below:
· Examine the range of qualifications and professions involved in the early years
· Begin to consider the legal framework underpinning partnership working
· Begin to reflect on some of the benefits and challenges of partnership working
 
4.2   Leadership responsibilities and support
 Effective leadership is vital to the development of early years services, which include the involvement of a range of early years professionals. Leaders/managers are therefore expected to understand and recognize the contribution of other professionals in supporting children and families and support practitioners (where appropriate through supervision) to understand the limitations of their role and recognize when to refer children and families for specialist support.
The government’s vision, set out in the 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy (DCSF, 2008a, P.6) suggests that everyone working with children and young people will be:
· Ambitious for every child and young person
· Excellent in their practice
· Committed to partnership and integrated working
· Respected and valued as professionals
 https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/CYP_Workforce-Strategy_Report-summary Accessed 12/09/12
 The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) practice guide requires professionals to work ‘collaboratively within the setting to share knowledge, question practice and test new ideas – with high aspirations for every child’ (DCSF, 2008c:p.9). Working collaboratively is at the heart of the government’s agenda for agencies to work together (Stacey 2009). Mercer and Littleton (2007) believe that where tasks or activities are complex and no one appears to have the complete answer is often when successful collaboration takes place.
 It is the responsibilities of all professionals and occupations to work together to improve the well-being of children and families. This includes their ‘physical and mental health and emotional well-being; protection from harm and neglect; education and recreation’ (Childcare Act, 2006, p.1). Individual professionals may have different responsibilities but they are ‘all in this together. Responsibilities with each other do not need to be close but they do need to be respectful and understood. (Stacey 2009:p.58)
 It is vital to collaborative working that professionals meet regularly together. All participants need to be aware and clear of ‘the common purpose and goal. Most importantly they need to understand the nature of their contributions and the limits of their decision-making authority’. (Delehant, 2007 cited in Stacey 2009:p.62).
 4.3   Different perspectives on professional traditions or heritages
 1.   Health perspective
The very principles of health-visiting are founded upon an acceptance of the professional responsibility to seek to challenge and influence public policy, rather than submissively assisting people to live with its consequences, taking all the blame themselves for their unhealthy lifestyles. (Goodwin, 1998, pp379-83)
2.   Education perspective
Education and probably early childhood education more than any other area, is political. It is about the distribution of power, the extension of influence and the ability to provide people with the means to conserve and transform society. (Pascal, 1992)
3.   Social work perspective
The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. (BASW, 2001)
4.   Community development perspective
Community development is about building active and sustainable communities based on social justice and mutual respect. It is about changing power structures to remove the barriers that prevent people from participating in the issues that affect their lives. (NPQICL 2011 Booklet 15: Community development, p.17.)
4.4   Reflective task 1

What is your professional heritage/discipline? Does it link with any of the perspectives above? If not, why not? If it does what would you add to the statement and why?
 
Do other professionals (for example: Speech Therapists, Health Visitors, Social Workers) visit your centre and if so what is the purpose of their visit?
 Use your learning journal to record and evaluate your experiences and reflections.

Below is a table of professionals and agencies that work with children and families and may have contact within early years settings. See if you can complete the question on the table.
 

 
 
Profession/Occupation/Agency
 

 
 
What could be the nature of their visit to an early childhood centre?

Health
 
GP
 
Health Visitor (HV)
 
 
Speech and Language Therapist (SALT)
 
 
 
Accident and Emergency (A&E)
 

       

Education
 
Educational Psychologist  (EP)
 
Teacher
 
Nursery practitioner
 
 
 
 

 

Social Services
 
Social Worker (SW)
 
Intervention Team
 

 

Voluntary Organisations
 
Homestart
 
Church or any other religious organization
 
 

 

Housing
 
Environmental Health
 
Architects
 
 
 

 

Police
 
Probation service
 
 

 

 4.5   The Every Child Matters Agenda and key reading
 The Every Child Matters (ECM) document states that ‘we have to do more both to protect children and ensure each child fulfils their potential’. (Every Child Matters, 2003, p.3)
Please spend some time reading and familiarising yourself with the document highlighted through the link below.https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM5860  
Every Child Matters focuses on four key themes:
 
· To increase our focus on supporting families and carers
· To ensure necessary intervention to prevent children from falling through the net
· To address the underlying problems identified in the Victoria ClimbiéInquiry Report – which were weak accountability and poor integration between agencies
· To ensure that people working with children are valued, rewarded and trained
(Every Child Matters, 2003, p.4)
Anning et al (2006:p.127) reminds us that the ‘delivery of services for children and families is better than it was and results in enhanced outcomes for them’.
 4.6    Reflective task 2 

Reflect on the early years perspectives below. Make a list of what each type of setting offers for staff. What qualifications are needed to work in each setting? What are the strengths and limitations of working in each setting?
Social Services Day Nurseries
Education – nursery schools / nursery classes/ children’s centres
Voluntary – playgroups
Community Nurseries
Private and independent
 
4.7   Key Reading   Blocks to development
 (Makins V, 1997, Not Just A Nursery, NCB, London)
 http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Makins+V,+1997,+Not+Just+A+Nursery,+NCB,+London&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=BT1CUPSpBImb1AXChIHICA
 (1/9/12)
· Different legislation
· Different professional values and priorities
· Different geographical and statutory boundaries
· Different training
· Different levels of status and authority
· Different management styles
· Different pay and conditions of service
· Mutual distrust between services
 
4.8   Recent changes and development of settings/centres
· 1997 – Early Excellence Centres
· 1999 – Sure Start Local Programmes (6 waves)
· 2001 – Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative
· 2003 – Children’s Centres
· 2005 – Extended Schools
 
4.9   The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is enshrined in legislation (Childcare Act 2006) and states that,
 ‘The child’s needs are at the centre of all that we do and children have a right to high quality responsive and flexible service. We all need to ensure that that is what they get’. The Early Years Foundation Stage document makes it clear that multi-agency working is a key part of the framework that is designed to deliver improved outcomes for all children in their learning and development.
A common thread running through all government documents is that services and agencies need to work together to make the delivery of services more effective.
  
4.10   Key Messages for partnership or collaborative working (which has been enshrined in legislation, Children Act 2004)
· Multi-agency working is an integral part of early years work
· Discussions about strategies for moving forward should be open, transparent and inclusive. It is through the day to day interactions in settings that dilemmas are worked out.
· Professionals need to feel psychologically safe in organizations in order to take risks. We need to create safe spaces and forums for workers to share, discuss and debate issues that are important to them
· Organisations which support children’s care, learning and development must develop a culture of collaboration.
· Meaningful change comes through the development of self-awareness and the development of trusting relationships between colleagues, both within settings and between organisations and the communities they serve.
· Professional skills should always be drawn on but we should never loose sight of our own beliefs and values.
4.11    Reflective task 3  

As a leader of an early years setting, what do you consider are some of the benefits and challenges to collaborative or partnership working? Make a list, also use your learning journal to record and evaluate your experiences and reflections.
 4.12    Summary of the session 
In this session we began by highlight the responsibility leaders in developing early years services and involving a range of professionals. We looked at a range of professions, perspectives and qualifications necessary for working within the early years. We also began to explore some of the legal framework underpinning partnership working i.e. ECM, EYFS, Childcare Act 2006.
  
4.13    Weekly task
Research the data held by your setting on the backgrounds of the children who attend. Compile a profile on the ethnicity, economic activity and marital status of families in the area around your setting. (Office For National Statistics website will have some information on this). How do these statistics compare with your setting?
 Discuss with your staff team how family well-being impacts on the children in your group/setting.
 Think about recent legislation. Put together a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) demonstrating how it might impact on the families you are working with.
 4.14   References
Anning, A. Cottrell, D Frost, N. Green, J and Robinson, M (2006) Developing Multiprofessional Teamwork for Integrated Children’s. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
British Association of Social Workers (BASW), 2001
International Association of Schools of Social Work and International Federation of Social Workers
DCSF Childcare Act 2006. London HMSO.
DCSF (2008a) 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy. Nottingham: DCSFhttps://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/CYP_Workforce-Strategy_Report-summary Accessed 12/09/12
DCFS (2008c). Practice guidance for the early years foundation stage. Nottingham: DCSF
 Delehant, A (2007) Making meetings work: how to get started, get going, and get it done. London: Sage Publications.
 
Every Child Mattershttp://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=every+child+matters+outcomes&oq=Every+Child+Matters+&gs_l=hp.1.0.0l4.5722.5722.0.16849.1.1.0.0.0.0.108.108.0j1.1.0.les%3Bcesh..0.0…1.2.di6XIPhALFU&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=756d3c283199c9c8&biw=1275&bih=641/   Accessed 18/09/12
Goodwin, S. (1998) Whither health visiting? Health Visitor 6 (12), pp379 – 83
Makins V, 1997, Not Just A Nursery, NCB, London
http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Makins+V,+1997,+Not+Just+A+Nursery,+NCB,+London&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=BT1CUPSpBImb1AXChIHICA(1/9/12)
Mercer, N, Littleton, K (2007) Dialogue and the development of children’s thinking: a socio-cultural approach. London: Routledge
NPQICL booklet 12 (2011) Module 4: Developing integrated centre leadership. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.
NPQICL booklet 15 (2011) Community Development: A framework for thinking and action. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.
Pascal, C. (1992) Early Years, Vol 12, No 2 pp7-12 The Changing context of teacher education for the early years in Europe.
Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Exeter

Week 5: Multi Professional / Multi Disciplinary Working

Top of Form

5.1   Aims this week
 The focus this week is to consider ‘Multi-professional/multi-disciplinary working (MPW) within a context of leadership and management’. The session is outlined below:
 
· To explore what MPW is
 
· Look at a range of terminology
 
· Highlight the links to legislation – The Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004
 
· Consider the legal framework underpinning partnership or MPW
  
· Begin to reflect on the benefits of partnership or MPW
 

Professional roles and responsibilities in partnership working
Leaders are expected to understand and recognise the contribution of the other professionals in supporting children and families and where appropriate to be involved with them in planning of children’s individual needs.

5.2 Reflective task
Take 5-10 minutes to consider what you perceive as MPW. What does it look like? What has been your experience of MPW? Note down your reflections, we will look at them again later on in the session.
5.3 Locating the context and recent history of integrated services for children and families

The provision of seamless services for young children and families is essential to the development of early years services. Integrated Children’s Centres have been central to the Government’s (Labour) commitment to end child poverty.  In order to make the best use of available resources, managers and leaders of centres are encouraged to build partnerships with other professionals and agencies that offer services to young children and families (NPQICL booklet 14).
The first of the integrated early years centres were formed through collaboration and co-location of existing local services provided by different statutory agencies, private providers and voluntary and community organisations. Partner agencies typically included local authority nursery schools, social services day-care centres and/or family centres, health centres, adult learning, Home Start, Pre-school Learning Alliance and/or the National Child-minding Association.
 The earliest of these pioneering early years centres was Hillfields in Coventry, which was set up in 1971 as the first ‘combined’ (Ferri et al, 1981). Not long after, the Thomas Coram Centre bought together nursery education, day-care and health. In 1975, the Dorothy Gardner Centre combined nursery education, day-care and family support. In 1983, the Pen Green Centre in Corby was established in order to provide comprehensive, community-responsive services. Its objective was to realise the vision of a one-stop shop, meeting the needs of young children and families on their doorsteps. The then Department for Education and Skills (DfES) Early Excellence Centre (EEC) programme was started in 1997 and brought much-needed resources to 29 integrated early years centres. In its final years, the DfES EEC programme funded over 100 centres in England.
 In 1999, the Treasury Funded the Trail Blazer Sure Start programmes, which were designed to provide universal and integrated services to all families with children under the age of four who were living in wards with high levels of deprivation in England. Sure Start was funded on the principal that each local programme would be unique because its provision would be responsive to the expresses needs of local parents.  While local Sure Start partnerships, Sure Start partnerships were often similar to Early Excellence Centres partnerships, Sure Start programmes tended to develop a strong outreach and community development focus in collaboration with health visitors and midwives, housing officers, welfare rights workers, community safety organizations and local residents groups. By 2004, there were 526 local Sure Start programmes.
    
The Government planned to fund each local Sure Start programme for 10 years, during which time services would be gradually mainstreamed by their partner organisations with government funding decreasing in the later years. In 2005, the decision was taken to direct all Sure Start funding to local authorities to create an extensive network of children’s centres with at least one in each of the most deprived wards in England.
 The Early Excellence Centre programme and Sure Start brought much-needed capital and revenue funding to early years and led to some exemplary inter-disciplinary and inter-agency collaboration at practitioner and community level. However, they were not universally embraced, by local authorities (HMI, 2004). The short timeframes and the experimental quality of these initiatives challenged traditional relationships within the community and, in many localities, threatened professional boundaries and institutional norms.
 The effectiveness of local programmes was contingent upon engaging and influencing the majority of those families eligible for services, however meaningful parental involvement in the design and delivery of services proved impossible to achieve quickly. In addition, the multi-disciplinary professional environment soon exposed marked differences in professionals’ view of parent participation. (NPQICL booklet 14 (2010:p.2),Sure Start Children’s Centre Practice Guidance (November 2006) DCSF Children’s Plan (2007) www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications)
Definitions and shared meanings
 Many terms are used interchangeably when referring to working collaboratively across professions or agencies.
 
 
Below I have highlighted some vocabulary frequently used:
· Multi-agency / Inter-agency
· Multi-professional / Multi-disciplinary / Inter-professional / Inter-disciplinary
· Co-operation / Collaboration / Co-ordination
· Partnership
· Joined up thinking / Joined up working
· Integrated working
 Integration
To mix with and join a society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits and customs; to combine two or more things in order to become more effective (Cambridge Dictionary)
Integrated working
Where everyone (arrange of professionals) supporting children and families work together effectively to put the child at the centre, meet their needs and improve their lives
 Integrated Service
 Key characteristics:
· Acts as a hub for services, usually on one site but not exclusively
· Partners share a common location, vision and principles
· The management structure supports integrated working
· It is usually delivered from a school or early years centre
· Service level agreements are usually present
· A dedicated manager/leader will often be present
· Services will usually include health, specialist advice and guidance, outreach and adult learning
· Collective training strategies will often be present

Using integrated working leaders and practitioners can:
· Identify needs earlier
· Deliver a coordinated package of support that is centred on the child or young person and help secure better outcomes for them.
They do this by combining practitioners’ professional expertise, knowledge and skills and involving the child or young person and family throughout their work. Integrated working is achieved through collaboration and co-ordination at all levels, across all services, in both single and multi-agency settings. It requires clear and on-going effective leadership and management
 Main benefits:
· The full range of issues can be addressed
· Knock on benefits exist for education standards
· Greater co-working and cross fertilization of ideas between agencies
· Opportunities for joint training
· Shared base enhances communication
· Members remain linked to their home agency
· Members have access to training and development in their host agency
 
5.4 Reflective task
Reflect on the main benefits of integrated services. In your journal see whether you can add any benefits to this list.
Main challenges:
· Requires fresh thinking around the concept of school/early years centre
· Requires engagement through collaborative leadership
· Needs common sense of purpose
· Time and pay issues can need careful handling
(NPQICL booklet 14 (2010:p.3), Developed from Coleman (2006:p.12)
5.5 Reflective task

Reflect on  the main challenges of integrated services. In your journal see whether you can add any challenges to this list.
 
Joined-up
Refers to overcoming existing professional and institutional barriers that impedes seamless or even adequate services to families and communities.
 
Multi-disciplinary or inter-professional working
Refers to a team of individuals with different professional training backgrounds who share common objectives, but who make a different but complementary contribution to a service.
 Multi-agency or inter-agency
Multi-agency working can be defined as: ‘a range of different services which have some overlapping or shared interests and objectives, brought together to work collaboratively towards some common purposes’ (Wigfall and Moss (2001:p.71).  Clark (1993:p.220) suggest that it is ‘bringing various professions together to understand a particular problem or experience … In this sense they afford different perspectives on issues at hand, just as one sees different facets of a crystal by turning it’.
 Multi-agency or inter-agency refers to individuals or teams from different agencies who:
· Co-operate  – service work together towards consistent goals and complementary services while maintaining their independence
· Collaborate – services plan and address issues of overlap, duplication and gaps in service provision towards common outcomes
· Co-ordinate – services work together in a planned manner towards shared and agreed goals (Frost, 2005:p.13)

Post World War 2

 The development of the Welfare State after the Second World War saw 5 main departments/agencies:
1. Social Security (Including benefits)
2. Health Services
3. Education
4. Housing
5. Social Services, which was primarily for: The physically disabled, elderly, mentally ill and deprived children.
All 5 agencies worked mainly in silos with their own values, visions, priorities, budgets and professional status leading to:
 
· Historical divisions
· Professional jealousies
· Barriers created by different priorities
· Lack of co-ordination
· Shortfall in what was available and what families were asking for
Why the push for multi-agency working co-operation and integration of services for children and their families?
 
The answer lies in recent failures of communication between professionals and across agencies. This was most tragically exposed in the area of child protection in a number of deaths and abuse in children. (Laming, 2003:p.3).
 5.6 Reflective task and key reading 

Take some time to research and read (online) information on two of the following children and try to highlight what had gone wrong in partnership or MPW in these cases.
 

1973 – Maria Colwell

 1984 –Jasmine Beckford

 1986 – Kimberley Carlisle

 2000 – Victoria Climbié

 2009 – Baby P
   

Child Protection and safeguarding

As a result of a number of deaths and child abuse cases the government put in legislation to protect and safeguard children.

 

   

5.6 The Children Act 1989 – Key reading
 

Click
here
 to access the Act.  ( http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=the+children+act+1989+summary&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=sTRCUJTdCsr80QWNhIHoBQ (1/9/12)) 

This Act highlights 8 main principles:
 
1. The child is Paramount
1. Parental responsibility
1. Prevention
1. Protection
1. Partnership
1. Participation
1. Planning
1. Permanency
Multi-agency work became a statutory requirement for all agencies and all professionals who work within them. There was now a duty on the Local Authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need. (Section 17) If agencies were approached for help or support they must respond positively as long as the requests is in keeping with their role. (Section 27)
 

5.7 The Children Act 2004 and key reading

http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=the+children+act+2004+summary&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=6TdCUNPOO6nA0QX-7YDgDA
(1/9/12)
The change in policy following the death of Victoria Climbié, the Government set out in the ‘Every Child Matters’ (ECM) Change for Children Programme and the Children Act 2004. The change programme focuses both on strengthening universal services to which every child is entitled to and developing more targeted services for those with additional needs. The ECM Outcomes require all children and young people to:
. Stay safe
. Be healthy
. Enjoy and achieve
. Make a positive contribution
. Economic well being
  
In addition to the Children Act 1989 and The Children Act 2004 requires:
. Agencies to actively make arrangements to promote co-operation between one another
. Have more multi-disciplinary teams with a lead professional
. The co-location of services in schools
. The development of the Common Assessment Framework to identify any additional needs
. The development of Children’s Trust in each area to integrate services under one plan.
   5.8 Summary of the session
This session began by looking at the context, recent history, shared meanings and definitions of MPW. We also continued to explore some of the main benefits and challenges of MPW. We spend considerable time identifying and reading key legislation and initiatives vital to effective MPW, i.e. ECM, The Children Act 1989 and 2004.
 

5.9 Weekly task

 
1. During this week reflect and identify how effective MFW is, within your centre/setting.
1. Complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of MPW.
1. As leader of the centre, what steps would you need to take in order to move MPW on? Which professionals or occupations would this include?
1. Using your learning journal, reflect on your leadership experiences and responses.
 References 
Cambridge International Dictionary of English, Cambridge University Press , 1975
Coleman, A, 2006, Collaborative Leadership in Extended Schools, NCSL, Nottingham
DCSF Children Act 2004. London HMSO.
DCFS (2008c). Practice guidance for the early years foundation stage. Nottingham: DCSF
 
DCSF, (2007), The Children’s Plan, Nottingham, DCSF
DfES, (1999), Sure Start: Making a difference for children and families, Suffolk, DfES
 DfES, (2003), Every Child Matters, CM 5860, Norwich
DfES, (2006), Sure Start Children’s Centres Practice Guidance, Nottingham, DfES
 
Every Child Mattershttp://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=every+child+matters+outcomes&oq=Every+Child+Matters+&gs_l=hp.1.0.0l4.5722.5722.0.16849.1.1.0.0.0.0.108.108.0j1.1.0.les%3Bcesh..0.0…1.2.di6XIPhALFU&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=756d3c283199c9c8&biw=1275&bih=641/
   Accessed 18/09/12
Ferri, E, Birchall, L, Gingell, V Gipps, C, (1981), Combined Nursery Centres, London, Macmillan
Frost , N, 2005, Professionalism, Partnership and joined-up thinking: a research review of frontline working with children and families, Totnes, Blacklers
 HMI, 2004, Children at the Centre: An evaluation of early excellence centres, HMI 2222, London, Ofsted
 
Laming, Lord, 2003, The Victoria Climbie Inquiry, Report of an inquiry by Lord Laming, CM 5730, Norwich, HMSO
NPQICL booklet 14 (2011) Multi-agency working National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.
 Wigfall, V. and Moss, P (2001) More than the sum of it’s parts? A study of multi-agency childcare network. London, National Children’s

Week 6: The framework for the assessment of Children In Need and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) .

6.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is on: ‘The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families and The Common Assessment Framework (CAF)’ This is outlined below:
•To introduce you to the framework for the assessment of children in need and their families
•To look at the role of different professionals in the assessment process (including the leader/manager of the centre) and how this will fit with the new government initiative, the common assessment framework
•To highlight the importance of sharing information between agencies, staff and parents through the CAF and consider the role of the leader in this process
•To develop an understanding of the framework as an ecological approach to assessment
•To develop an understanding of what we mean by a balanced assessment including factors which can impact on our analysis including assessment distortions
We begin the week by looking at the aims of the framework.
6.2 Background and National Context of the Framework
The government believe that we cannot improve the lives of vulnerable or disadvantaged children unless we are first able to identify their needs. And are therefore ‘committed to delivering better life chances…for disadvantaged and vulnerable children…through a range of cross-cutting, inter-departmental initiatives’. (Hutton 2000 p:vii)
Local authority Social Services departments working with other local authority departments and health, have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area who are deemed as being in need (Hutton, 2000).
Definition of a child being in need (Children Act 1989)
•They are unlikely to achieve or maintain or have the opportunity of achieving, or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for them of services by a Local Authority
•Their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired or further impaired, without the provision of such services
•They are disabled (Sec.17/10 Children Act 1989)
The Assessment Framework reflects the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. And is informed by the requirements of the Children Act 1989. The framework places focus on the individual child their specific set of needs, the environment they live in and their parents’ capacity to care for them. It aims to ensure consistency in the collection and recording of data about children, thus facilitating evidence based analysis. Timescales for initial assessments are short and this can often make the collection of data difficult for children with complex needs. The framework is therefore a significant tool, assisting social workers, managers and leaders in the identification of need and the allocation of resources.
6.2 Key reading 1
In order to get an overview of the subject matter open the link below and select and read pages vii–xii of the first PDF document titled ‘Framework for Assessment of Children in Need and their Families’. Click here to read now. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4003256 Accessed 18/09/12
The document is a good reference, therefore keeping a book mark for easy access would be useful. Once you have read the pages see if you can answer the following questions:
1. What is the Framework?
2. Why was it developed?
3. What legislation has the Framework been linked to?
4. Which agency/department has the lead responsibility for assessment of children in need?
5. Why is early intervention crucial in supporting children and families.
If you are unable to complete all the questions do not worry. By the end of the session you should be able to answer any outstanding questions.
6.3 Collating and recording information
Until recently every local authority collected and recorded information in a different way. As a result of this in 2000 the Department of Health published a Framework for Assessment of Children and their Families (DoH 2000):
This framework is a way of ordering and recording information about children. It is represented as a triangle because it has three dimensions: the child’s developmental needs, the parents’ capacity to meet these needs and the environmental factors, which may also impact on their care. The aim of this framework is to ensure that all authorities collect the same information and record it in the same manner. The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) now follows the same framework.
The framework places the child in the middle. This is a reminder that they are the focus of the assessment process.
In order to complete the framework an understanding of developmental theorists such as Piaget (1926), Vygotsky (1978) and Bowlby (1979) are essential as they underpin our understanding of what children need to reach their developmental potential. Similarly an understanding of developmental norms (Sheridan 1997) is required if assessment is to be informed and age appropriate.
The framework takes an ecological approach (Jack 2001). It looks at the child’s developmental needs in the context of their wider environment. This allows for a more holistic approach, which acknowledges the complex interaction between, the child’s needs, the parental capacity to care and the wider environment.
6.4 The child’s developmental needs
The first side of the triangle is the child’s developmental needs. Children need the assistance of another person to carry out their many everyday activities. The amount of help they need depends primarily on their age and most children become more independent as they grow older. For disabled children this ability to achieve independence may be restricted. When gathering information about the child’s developmental needs we are looking not only at the help they need now but what the child needs to develop independence skills, as they get older.
This part of the framework asks us to look at seven aspects:

•Health – What does the child need to remain healthy?
•Education – This may be formal education but could also include attendance at the local school, children centre, nursery or playgroup. Children need to be adequately stimulated from an early age.
•Emotional development – What does the child need in order to reach their developmental potential? Key to this section is the concept of a secure attachment as detailed by Bowlby (1979) and more recently Howe (1999). Children need to be cared for by consistent people and in a consistent way if they are to feel secure and develop emotionally.
•Identity – We all need to develop a sense of identity. We get this from our family, our community and the formal groups we attend like school. It is important that those who care for children value them for who they are as individuals and help in developing their pride and identity.
•Family relationships – This looks at and identifies who the important people are in children’s lives. We need to be aware of not making assumptions. Children can have a variety of primary carers and live in a variety of family groups.

•Social presentation and self-care skills – Younger children need more help with choosing the right clothes to wear, washing, dressing and grooming. As children get older they become more independent. However they learn by example and only gain independence if they are encouraged to do so. Disabled children may need assistance for longer but not necessarily in all aspects of their lives.
6.5 Reflective task
The framework also considers Parenting Capacity and Family and Environmental Factors.
Can you identify a child in your setting who you may have concerns about?
Reflect on all three sides of the assessment triangle and list the areas (of the child’s development) where you have a concern.
Who would you discuss these concerns with and which other professional/agency may you contact for support or information and why?
6.6 Introduction to the Common Assessment Framework (CAF)
The CAF is a key component of the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme (DfES, 2004a) and aims to identify any child or young person’s additional needs that are not being currently met. The CAF has three main elements: a pre assessment checklist; a process for undertaking the common assessment; and a standard proforma to document the assessment.
(The CAF) …will help embed a shared language; support better understanding amongst practitioners; reduce the number of different assessments; facilitate early interventions; and speed up service delivery’ (CWDC, 2007f).
National Context
The change in policy following the death of Victoria Climbiè is set out in the ‘Every Child Matters’ (ECM) Change for Children Programme and the Children Act 2004. The change programme focuses both on strengthening universal services to which every child is entitled to and developing more targeted services for those with additional needs. The aim is to assist children and young people to achieve the five ECM outcomes. This will be achieved by reducing levels of educational failure, ill health, substance abuse and neglect, crime and anti-social behavior among children and young people. It is therefore the expectation of the government that all local authorities and their partners (e.g. Health, Education, Childcare, Early Years, Social Care, Police and Youth Justice) develop and implement the Common Assessment Framework and the Lead professional role as part of Integrated Working by April 2008.
The Five ECM Outcomes are for children and young people to:
1. Stay Safe
2. Be healthy
3. Enjoy and achieve
4. Making a positive contribution
5. Economic well-being
Aims and principles of the CAF are to:
•A process supported by a standard national approach and form
•Improve joint working and communication
•Support the sharing of information
•Rationalise assessments
•Aid better referrals
•Holistic
•Focuses on needs and strengths
•Simple, practical and understood by a range of professionals and agencies
•Empowering and a joint process
The CAF is:
•A shared early assessment of the child’s needs
•Supports early intervention/prevention
•Child or young person centred
•Evidence based
•Common to all agencies and are completed by a variety of professionals e.g. health visitors, nursery staff, teachers etc.
•A process that leads to a coordinated interagency working and a reduction in multiple assessments and duplication of service
The CAF takes a holistic approach to assessment but does consider three main themes:
1. The child’s development: health; emotional and social development;
behavioural; development; family and social relationships; self-care and independence; and learning;
2. Parents and carers: basic care; emotional stability and guidance and boundaries;
3. Family and environmental: family history and functioning; wider family; housing and economic factors; and social and community factors. (Stacey 2009:p.135)
The Three Key Steps of The CAF Process

1. Preparation

2. Discussion

3. Delivery

Talk to child/parent, other professionals/agencies involved

Child centred – consider the needs of the individual child. Where practically possible talk to the child or young person

Identify the Lead Professional

With child/parent, decide if a common assessment would be helpful

Work together to understand issues and develop solutions

Agree an action plan

Use pre-assessment checklist to aid decision

Focus on strengths as well as needs

Make referrals or broker access to other services

Seek parental consent to proceed

Record agreed conclusions and actions

Arrange a TAC (Team Around the Child) meeting

Complete a full CAF (If necessary)

Monitor and review progress

The Pre-assessment checklist
This form is intended to guide managers and practitioners to consider whether or not child is achieving 5 ECM outcomes and whether or not a full CAF is needed.
The (full) Common Assessment Form
This is a national standardized holistic assessment tool. It is designed for all agencies to use to identify, gather and record a range of information of children and families with additional needs.
Identifying Levels of Need (e.g. Levels 1 -3)

Level 1

Low level needs, the need is clear and can be met by the referring agency through own resources or by referring to a single agency

Level 2

Additional needs which cannot be met by a single agency. A Lead Professional is needed to co-ordinate integrated support (CAF)

Level 3

Significant, severe or complex needs, statutory intervention is necessary (Social Care)

Any child protection, safeguarding concerns must be referred to Social Care immediately!

Vision and Core Functions of the Lead Professional
Vision: All children and young people identified with additional needs (after the completion of the CAF) who require support from more than one practitioner should experience a seamless and effective service in which one practitioner takes a lead role to ensure that services are coordinated, coherent and achieving intended outcomes.
Core Functions of the Lead Professional:
•Act as a single point of contact for the child and family
•Co-ordinate the delivery of agreed actions (from the CAF)
1.Reduce overlap and inconsistency in the services received (CWDC, 2008b)
Selecting a Lead Professional
The lead professional could be drawn from any of the people currently involved with the child or young person. The lead professional should be the practitioner who is most relevant to the child or young person’s action plan and who has the most appropriate skills.
Useful skills for Lead Professional Functions
•Strong communication skills; diplomacy; sensitivity
•Establish a successful and trusting relationship with child/family
•Empower child/family to make decisions and challenge when appropriate
•Understand implications of the child’s assessment, for example in relation to risks and protective factors
•Support and enable child/family to achieve their potential
•Work effectively with other professionals from a range of services
•Co-ordinate meetings and initiative discussions with relevant professionals
•Have knowledge of local and regional services for children and families
•Understand boundaries of own skills and knowledge
6.7 Reflective task and key reading 2
Read through the sample forms, pre-assessment and full assessment form (follow the link below) http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/strategy/integratedworking/caf/a0068970/the-pre-caf-and-full-caf-forms Accessed 7/09/12
In light of the information read is there a child in your setting who you feel is not meeting the ECM outcomes? What makes you believe that this may be a child who needs additional support?
As the leader of the setting/centre what would be your responsibility in this process? What steps would you take to support this child? Which agency or professional/s would you need to contact for support and information?
In your learning journal record your thought and responses.
6.8 Team Around The Child (TAC), key features
Once consent to complete the CAF has been gained and information has been shared and gathered, it is the Lead Professional’s role to advise the relevant services and professionals to come together in a TAC meeting to assess the child’s needs and decide with the child/family (where appropriate) the next course of action, which would include the services needed.
The TAC is a multi-disciplinary team of professionals established on a case-by-case basis.
The TAC provides the following:
•Integrated working through a pre- agreed action plan with the child’s needs at the centre
•Gives parents the opportunity to share progress and impact
•Stakeholders can review their support and evaluate outcomes
•A Lead Professional you are expected to do all the work – you are ‘Wrapping the team around the child’
Confidential Information
Confidential – Information that is sensitive, not already in the public domain, shared in confidence. Confidential information can be shared if authorised by the person who provides it or to whom it relates. It can be shared if justified in the public interest:
•Evidence that the child is suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm
•Reasonable cause to believe that the child may be suffering significant harm (where there is a child protection issue social care must be informed)
•To prevent significant harm
•To prevent serious harm
•To prevent crime
It is important that you use your professional judgement!
Consent
•Must be informed
•Should normally be explicit but can be implied (written is preferable but can be verbal)
•Must be willing and not from a non-response
•Can be withdrawn at any time
Professionals must:
•Use clear accessible language
•Explain there are times when confidentiality cannot be maintained
•Be aware of relevant legislation (e.g. Children Act 1989, 2004 and the Childcare Act 2006)
•Follow local policies and protocols
6.9 Summary of the session
This weeks session began by examining the background and national context to the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families Framework.
Key processes of the CAF were explored and the role of the Lead Professional in relation to the coordination of services, particularly the TAC, was highlighted. We looked at the importance of gaining consent and the responsibilities of professionals and practitioners in that process.
Reflective tasks have included exploring the role and responsibilities of the leaders within this process.
6.10 Weekly task
Take the opportunity this week to find out how many CAF’s have been completed for children in your setting (this year) and why. Explore the role and responsibility of the leader in the CAF process.
Using your learning journal, reflect on your experiences and responses.
References
Bowlby, J. (1969) Attachment and Loss Volume 1: Attachment. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) (2007a) Integrated working http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3Bcesh&gs_nf=1&cp=50&gs_id=1&xhr=t&q=www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/integrated- working/storyonce&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/integrated-working/storyonce&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=f6dd2f783ee0307b&biw=1263&bih=641Accessed 8/09/12
Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) (2008b) The lead professional fact sheet http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3Bcesh&gs_nf=1&cp=79&gs_id=3&xhr=t&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.gov.uk%2Fpublications%2FeOrderingDownload%2F0335-2006BKT-EN &pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/0335-2006BKT- EN &gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=f6dd2f783ee0307b&biw=1263&bih=641Accessed 8/09/12
Children Act 1989. London: HMSO
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003) Every child matters (Green paper). London: HMSO
Howe, D. (1999) Attachment theory, Child Maltreatment and Family Support London: Palgrove
Hutton, J. (2000) Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families: Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, Home Office
Jack, G. (2001) ‘Ecological perspectives in assessing children and their families’ In J. Howarth (2001) The Child’s World: Assessing Children in Need DH/NSPCC: JKP
Jack, G. and Gill, O. (2003) The Missing Side of the Triangle London: Barnardos
Piaget, J. (1926) The Language and Thoughts of the Child New York: Harcourt, Brace and World
Sheriden, M. (1997) From Birth to Five Years London: Routledge
Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Ltd Exeter
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes Cambridge MH: Harvard University Press

Week 7: The complexities of working with a range of professionals in order to support children and families .7.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is on: ‘The complexities of working with a range of professionals in order to support children and families’ . This is outlined below:
•To explore some of the challenges related to achieving multi-professional collaboration and multi-professional working (MPW)
•Explore organisational cultures and the impact on professionals/practitioners
Look at the purpose and role of the leader/manager in supporting children and families, which includes a responsibility to develop MPW
•Consider the difficulties and barriers in engaging families who do not access services
•Look at the challenges of managing complex relationships with other agencies (e.g. Health)
•Resolving challenges and finding solutions
7.2 Uncertain Leadership and Organisational culture
We begin the week by looking at a quote by Graham and Jarvis (2011) in Trodd and Chivers (2011:p.131) which states that:
‘Uncertainty is an aspect of current Early Years practice, with multi-disciplinary working, new services and changing relationships with children, families and colleagues. Rapid change, uncertainty about the future and new role expectations can lead to insecurity and lack of clarity about how to move forward’
Does the quote above sum up some of the difficulties that you or your setting are experiencing?
Organisations (which include settings/centres/agencies) are at the heart of our lives and communities. Particular features below are common to all of these organisations:
•They exist in social settings and consist of a complex network of roles, relationships and interactions (particularly multi-agency/professional working)
•They are purposeful. They exist to serve particular intentions, functions and purposes
•They are led and managed. The activities of the people who work within them have to be planned, coordinated and evaluated
•They are life centred, concerned with the experiences and daily life of young children and families
•They are concerned with the growth, development, care and welfare of children and families
•Success in their work is significantly more difficult to measure and analyse than the outcomes of more product-based organisation (e.g. the chain Marks & Spencers)
Organisations like families are human systems in which a whole range of personal, social, psychological and political dramas are played out. Difficulties and challenges are created because it is not easy to achieve agreement about the script: the roles that people play and how the various acts and scenes are to be acted. In bureaucratic organisations there tends to be pressure to adhere to the script but in other types of organisation there is often more room for improvisation.
Cultures refer to the ways in which the various participants in organisational life – the practitioners, children and families that they serve experience their day-to-day work and the extent to which they feel able to commit themselves to the tasks and activities for which they are responsible.
When we become part of an organisation, we find ourselves in two distinct types of environment. First, there is the physical environment: that which we experience with our senses. This includes the building, the fixtures and fittings, the furniture and all the material resources. It also includes the people who work there, what they say and what they do. This sensate environment can be observed and documented. It can be filmed and recorded, and it can be witnessed both by its regular participants as well as by casual and occasional visitors.
Secondly, there is the invisible but equally significant psychological environment: that which is experienced mentally and felt emotionally by those who work there. This environment is not available for observation, filming or recording. It consists of the internal constructs and meanings, which each participant creates and adapts from moment to moment in the course of daily life in that organisation. It is the second environment that we need to give more attention for it is here that many of the clues to conflict, human effectiveness, efficiency, enterprise and success are to be found.
A number of significant features of modern organisational culture can be noted:
•The richness of personal experience
•The messiness of events and incidents (MPW)
•An uncertainty about tomorrow
•Disorder despite efforts at organisational tidiness
•Fun and enjoyment
•Enthusiasm and excitement
•Anguish and despair
Given encouragement people can make the best of most situations. The challenge comes in taking the matter of work culture more seriously than we have done in the past. We need to recognise that quality and effectiveness depend very much on how people are feeling moment by moment during the working day and on the treatment of people who are expected to carry out the key work of the organisation
7.3 Reflective task
Think of work cultures you have experienced during your career.
What similarities and differences can you note?
What effects do different work cultures have on staff?
How can cultures be changed and developed?
Use your Journal to reflect and note your responses.
7.4 The purpose of leaders of settings (particularly children’s centres) in supporting children and families
What makes a setting/centre successful in meeting the needs of children and families is ‘the collaboration and cooperation of different professional groups’ (DCSF 2007:P.3)
It is the role of the leader to ensure that the setting/centre makes a difference to the children and families it serves. They need to ask themselves questions such as: How well services are managed, how well integrated and how effective are those services in helping to reduce the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers. Also are the children safer, healthier, more resilient and better able to enjoy new learning opportunities?
7.5 Key reading – reflective task
This weeks reading is a report / paper by Martin et al (2009) Narrowing the Gap in Outcomes – Leadership (Pages 7-18). Click here to read now.
The report / paper aims to identify whether or not leadership has an effective role in narrowing the gap in outcomes between vulnerable children and young people and other children. Although this report/paper is not specific to the early years, however it does discuss key themes that relate to leading and managing within an early years multi-professional context (particularly children’s centres).
In the context of supporting children and families read pages 7-14 and journal your reflections and responses.
Leaders can make a difference by:
•Establishing and sustaining an environment of challenge and support where children are safe, can flourish and learn
•Providing the vision, direction and leadership vital to the creation of integrated and comprehensive services for children, mothers, fathers and families
•Leading the work of the setting/centre to secure its success, its accountability and its continuous improvement. Central to success is the quality and level of collaboration with other services and the whole community
•Working with and through others to design and shape flexible, responsive services to meet the changing needs of children and families
•Ensuring that all staff understand children’s developmental needs within the context of the family and provide appropriate services/activities that respond to those needs
•Ensuring that the setting/centre collects and uses all available data to gain a better understanding of the nature and complexity of the local community
•Using knowledge and understanding to inform how services/ activities are organised and how to offer differentiated services/activities that are responsive to all groups including fathers, children or parents with disabilities or additional needs, and black and minority ethnic communities (DCSF 2007:p.5)
7.6 Reflective task
Consider your own setting/centre. What is the purpose and role of your leader/manager in supporting children and families? Is it clear? What gaps or limitations can you highlight? What areas would you like to see develop and why?
Use your Journal to record your responses.
7.7 How do families experience services?
Families are less interested in who delivers services than in getting the support they need when they need it.
The family of a child with special needs or a family in crisis needs prompt and well co-ordinated attention from a variety of professionals. In his report following research into supporting parents, David Quinton (2004:p.29) observed that:
‘The benefits of inter-agency working needs to be part of an effort to understand the whole of the parenting ecology, not just a desire to see agencies working better’.
Challenges and barriers in engaging and reaching families
Research has shown that parent’s welcome well-informed, confident, knowledgeable practitioners who want to listen to their views, take them seriously and treat them more as equals. (Draper and Wheeler in Pugh and Duffy 2010). However this is sometimes difficult to achieve, as partnership working does not always appear equal. For instance where practitioners see themselves as the experts on children’s learning they may be reluctant to value the parents view. Parents too may not share the same understanding about how children can learn through play and choose not to listen to advice in the way they can support their child at home.
Accessing services can be difficult for some families due to lack of finance, time, no crèche, pressures of work, or illness (depression) and these families can sometimes be labelled ‘hard to reach’. Pugh and Duffy 2010:p.185 argue that,
‘The reality is that many services are very hard for families to locate, understand and reach, and it is more appropriate to challenge services to reflect upon and adapt everyday practice in order to reach out and meet need’
Do you have parents who find it a challenge to access services and activities in your setting? If yes reflect on how the services could be adapted to meet their needs?
7.7 How practitioners and leaders see partnership working?
Gasper (2011:p.34) highlights the similarities between agencies that contribute to building effective partnerships. These include, ‘clear aims, good relationships and trust…with an overwhelming emphasis on good relationships that are open, honest and respectful’.
Leaders of settings/centres state that one of the most common barriers to partnership working is the ‘fear of change and resistance to change’. Opposition often arises from possessiveness and a rigid view of professional boundaries, which creates an overwhelmingly negative attitude (ibid:p.35).
7.8 Four types of response to multi-agency working
.(Colin Fletcher, adapted from Jon Owen, Brathay Hall in NPQICL booklet 14 2010:p.8)

Active

Protestor

Participant

Sabotaging
Withholding information
Withholding resources
Claiming exclusivity
Pessimism
Cynicism

Taking initiative
Sharing information
Pooling resources
Building partnerships
Networking
Optimism
Passion

Feeling Negative Feeling Positive

Prisoner
Uncommitted
Disconnected
Claims has no resources
Remains in comfort zone
Professionally insecure
Apathy
Passenger
Observer
Shares when required
Contributes reactively
Fence sitter
Jobs worth behaviour
Lip service
Passive

7.9 Reflective task – Leadership
Consider the four responses above. Where do you sit? Are you a protester, participant, prisoner or passenger when it comes to your attitude towards MPW?
Are there particular individuals or groups of people that you find difficult to work with? Why do you think that is?
Are there trusting relationships within, between and beyond your team? How do you know?
What forum with other agencies does your setting/centre have for encouraging constructive and critical debate?
What is happening when everything is working well between teams and agencies? What are the motivational factors that you can identify?
In which relationships do you feel overwhelmed? What is happening when you feel troubled?
In your learning journal record your thoughts and responses.
7.10 Leadership and management challenges in multi-agency working
Change can be exciting as well as challenging at the same time, particularly when it threatens our well nurtured comfort zones (Gasper 2011). Goleman (1999:p.98) points out that, ‘people who lack adaptability are ruled by fear, anxiety and a deep personal discomfort with change’.
Bertram et al (2002:p.40) refers to the need for a ‘culture change’ in agencies, but issues around differing pay rates, and conditions of service for different organisations for example in Health, Social Services and Education only perpetuates difficulties in partnership working.
Hudson (2002) in Anning et al (2010:p.71) highlights that there are three barriers to MPW:
1. Professional identity: how professionals understand themselves and their roles
2. Professional status: how professional hierarchies and different distribution of powers are generated
3. Professional discretion and accountability: how professionals exercise discretion on a day-to-day basis
In expecting that professionals work in multi-professional teams we are often requiring that they confront, articulate and lay to one side the distinctiveness of their long-established ‘tribal’ beliefs and behaviours. It may appear that we are asking them to equate the high status and prestige associated with some professions working within children’s services – for example being a doctor or a speech and language therapist – with what some may consider as being the lower status of others – for example being a nursery nurse or a health visitor.
Aspects of professional identity ‘who I am’, in a multi-professional team and what I bring from my history as a professional are key to effective MPW.
Challenges inherent in multi-agency working:
1. Lack of uniformity in pay and working conditions
2. Co-location/separated space
3. Finance and sustainability – non-financial resources can create challenges e.g. building, sharing offices, equipment and time
4. Access to information and confidentiality – Confidentiality and information sharing strategies between various agencies and the need for common systems and protocols.
5. The use of appropriate language – disability not handicapped
6. Maintaining quality through change
7. Continuous change and its impact on professionals and agencies
8. Keeping community development on the agenda
9. Shared vision (including perception of change)
10. Valuing partners’ contribution -‘It is dangerous to think that one culture [agency] is better than another’ (Sadek and Sadek, 1996:p.21)
11. Staff training across agencies – ‘Enabling and encouraging professionals to work together and adapt common processes to deliver frontline services, coordinated and built around the needs of children and young people’ (DoH 2010)

12. Developing trust
13. Getting governance right (Adapted from NPQICL booklet 14 2010: p.14 Eastern Region Learning Community, January 2006)
Percy-Smith (2005) argues that sustainable partnerships are never easy as there are numerous barriers to overcome.
Below is a case study showing features and challenges of MPW at strategic, operational and professional or cultural levels.

Meaning

‘Its about a number of agencies being able to work together, making sure you are not working in isolation and making sure you are working with stress…we are all interdependent, it’s about the sum of the parts is grater than the whole’
(Health)

Challenges

•Different priorities resulting from different targets and emphases
•Working with agencies with political in put
•Different levels of commitment to working with others
•‘When you sit down as a group and you want to make a
decision, everybody sitting round the table may not be able to deliver that, because the organisation behind them may not support them. It’s about negotiation about your authority, what you are able to bring to the table, about consensus building understanding of the other’s position, really quite complex’

Overcoming barriers

•Pooling budgets –local area agreements: ‘it brings you to the table, makes you look at the whites of each other’s eyes and actually make a commitment’
•Section 31 of Health Act gives a tool, but ‘pooling budgets can take away autonomy and control from other people and getting through those cultural and organisational barriers can be difficult’
•Understanding where everybody else is coming from, the rules, and how local government works, how commissioning works in health, how education works in order to get a common goal

Preconditions

•Leadership ‘setting the environment and the tone’
•Acknowledging that others (e.g. the voluntary sector) can do some things better than us
•Using the tools you have to pool resources

7.11 Reflective task
What challenges have you encountered with MPW? Next to each challenge highlight a possible solution? Use the table below:

Challenge with MPW

Possible solutions/resolving difficulties

7.12 Summary of the session
This weeks session began by looking at uncertain leadership and the impact of organisational culture on practitioners and the working environment. We also began to explore the role of leaders in supporting collaborative working in order to benefit children and families.
We briefly looked at the way families experience services and the challenges that are sometimes present in accessing services. We examined how practitioners and leaders see partnership working and discuss the complexities and challenges that can arise when working with a range of professionals and agencies and considered solutions to these. Throughout the session time was built in to reflect on your practice and areas for development.
7.13 Weekly task
Speak with colleagues in your setting about the challenges that they see with working with a range of Professionals in order to support children and families. Make a note of these and consider solutions to these challenges. Add these to the chart in section 7.11.
Key reading
A key reading for this week is taken from Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education
Naïve Change agent or Canny Political Collaborator? The change in leadership role from nursery school to Children’s Centre by Lesley Curtis and Diana Burton.
To access this article click here to link to the University library. Choose to look at the article through Swetswise. You will be asked to log in with your University User-name and Password. When you are on the journal website, you are looking for 2009 – Issue 3, Volume 37.
When reading this article try to highlight some of the challenges faced whilst leading and managing. Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.
References and additional reading
Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. and Robinson, M. (2010) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services Research, Policy and Practice Berkshire: Open University Press
Bertram, T. Pascal, C. Bokhari, S. Gasper, M. and Holterman, S. (2002) Early Excellence Centre Pilot Programme Second Evaluation Report 2000-2001, DfES Research Report No. 361. Norwich: HMSO, p.40 Typology of network EEC’s; p.77, p.108
Curtis, L. and Burton, D. (2009) Naïve Change agent or Canny Political Collaborator? The change in leadership role from nursery school to Children’s Centre: Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004270903133162
DCFS (2007) National Standards for Leaders of Sure Start Children’s Centres
Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities London: Sage Publications
Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury
NPQICL booklet 14 (2010) Multi-agency working National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.
Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The Early Years (5thEds)London: Sage Publications
Quinton, D. (2004) Supporting parents: Messages form Research London. Jessica Kingsley.
Percy-smith, J. (2005) What Works in Strategic Partnership Working for Children Barkingside: Barnardo’s.
Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Inter Professional Working in Practice Learning and working together for children and families Berkshire: Open University Press.
Week 8: Assessment A: The development plan
Content
Week 8: Assessment A: The development plan .
8.1 Aim this week
The focus this week is on: ‘Assessment (A) The Development Plan’
. This is outlined below:
•To look at assessment details for the first assessment of this module (The Development Plan)
•Discuss the learning outcomes for assessment (A)
•Consider what a development plan is and what it is used for
•Explore S.M.A.R.T Objectives
•Look at the rationale for the Development plan
8.2 The first assessment (A) in detail: The Development Plan
The assessment for this module has two parts, however we will only be concentrating this week on assessment (A). Please take note of the details below outlining what you need to include for the first assessment.
•A Management Development Plan (DP), which demonstrates the student’s ability to assess and plan for growth and change in the workplace
•Along with the development plan you will need to include two A4 (included in the word count) sides outlining your rationale for the DP and the chosen priority area (this will be discussed in more detail later).
•Because there is another assignment (assessment B) for the module, assessment (A), the Development Plan, contributes 40% towards the final mark you will get for the entire module
•You will be given a mark out of 100 for both assessment (A) and assessment (B). Your final mark will be an average of the two marks
•The total number of words you can use for the Development Plan is between 2,000-2,500 words
•When counting words you must include everything in the actual text, including quotes and references. However, we do not include the reference/bibliography list at the end of each assignment
•We allow a margin of 10% either way
•If you use far too few words, it is unlikely that you will have included all the information that you need to pass
•If you are very much over words we stop marking your work at the point you are 10% over. This may have extreme consequences if you have included vital information at the end of your work
8.3 The Learning Outcomes

There are 5 learning outcomes that need to be addressed across the two assignments (A) The Development Plan and (B) The Reflective essay. However there are 2 learning outcomes that are particularly important for assessment (A). The Development Plan will be assessed on the extent to which it addresses the 2 assessment criteria that have been highlighted below:
•Learning outcome 2
Explain the role of leaders in promoting high quality provision in the early childhood learning community
•Learning outcome 3
Discuss a range of theories to support early years teams and relate these to their practice in an equal opportunities context
In addition to meeting the learning outcomes above the Development Plan should:
1. Be realistic, appropriate and achievable
2. Offer a coherent assessment of what needs to be done to achieve
the identified goals
3. Identify the likely impact on children’s learning, development and
well-being
8.4 Assignment Feedback
.You will get two pieces of feedback on your work. One is a formal written feedback sheet and the other is the comments written on your work. It is worth taking time to read both sources of feedback carefully.
Sadly many students do not take this opportunity and can find themselves making similar mistakes in other assignments i.e. referencing, not meeting the learning outcomes. Pay particular attention to the university marking guidelines.
You should be able to understand from the comments why you achieved the mark you did. If you are unclear contact your tutor.
8.5 The Development Plan (also known as an improvement plan)
Development Plans are generally an outline of what you would like to improve (priority area) and how you plan on going about it e.g. an action plan showing who will do what and when.
Development Plans are based on best practice and continuous improvement. They are seen as a step-by-step approach to planning. They are useful tools for assisting the team in improving a particular area and highlighting expectations.
To do this assignment you should review current practice in a work setting related to young children, their families and within a multi-professional context. Prioritise an area that would benefit from a development focus e.g. Introduction of staff supervision within the setting, encourage Multi-professional working, choose a curriculum area to develop or an aspect of provision that need improving.
The extent to which you will be able to implement the planned developments will of course depend upon your role but you should make the process as meaningful as possible. If you are not a manager/leader in the setting, talk to the manager/leader about what you are doing, as they may be able to support you.
Use the grid (see Menu Content to the left of the screen) to indicate aspects of development such as the purpose and aim of the initiative, the range of tasks that will be needed to complete the initiative or development, staff development needs and so on.
Development plan grid
On a large piece of paper, draw (on the computer) a grid with twelve columns. The headings of each column are as follows:
1. Priority area
This will be an area that you wish to develop or improve e.g. a major curriculum issue or provision such as the introduction of ECAT (Every Child A Talker), the 2 year old pilot, EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) or the introduction of Multi-professional working. If you are not sure what constitutes a major area for development or improvement, please check with your tutor. Choosing the home corner to develop is not considered a major issue or area.
2. Objective
An objective is a short-term, measurable step within a designated period of time and moving towards a long-term goal (Do not use more than 4/5 objectives). This should identify what you are trying to achieve. So for example under the priority area of improving children’s Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL) skills, you may want to improve CLL:
•Throughout the setting by creating communication friendly spaces.
•Increase parental understanding of the ECAT programme and raise awareness of the importance of their involvement and the impact it can have on their children’s language development.
•Monitor practitioner/child communication.
3. Tasks
Tasks are like to do lists; things that need to be done and as part of an objective e.g. arranging a team meeting. For each of the objectives you have set there will be a wide range of tasks and these should be identified and listed as far as possible in the order in which you think they should be undertaken.
4. Involvement
Who will need to be involved (and in which of the identified tasks)? e.g. Deputy manager, Multi-agency team, Early Years Teacher, EYP, Parents.
5. Responsibility
Who is to be responsible for the overall development and oversee the task and ensure that it is completed.
6. Start date
When will the task start (estimate)
7. Completion date
8. Staff development
Staff development implications or support. Where possible solutions, for example actual courses, arrangements for visits, reading (policy or academic). These should all be identified.
9. Resources
Resources identify what is needed to get the task completed. The estimated budget figure should be given. As many actual costs as possible should be included. These may include the costs of materials, of covering staff to go on courses or visits or for release to develop materials or work with parents. This column should include time implications, for example staff meetings or meetings with parents, managers or governors.
10. Success criteria
This column should show how you intend to judge whether you have successfully achieved what you set out to achieve. It will not be enough to say for example that a policy is completed – a success criterion may be that the policy is understood by staff and implemented in their practice.
11. Monitoring
Monitoring involves keeping a close watch over a task. Who will actually do the monitoring? What will they actually do and when?
12. Evaluation
This column is for you to set out the ways in which the success criteria will be judged.
Included is an example of a students management development plan. This is meant as a guide only and should obviously be customised to meet your needs.
8.6 S.M.A.R.T Objectives
S.M.A.R.T Objectives are acronyms that are often related to key performance indicators, see the chart below for its meaning (Doran 1981):

S Specific Is the objective clear and well defined? Can everyone understand it?
M Measurable You should be able to tell when the objective has been completed
A Achievable Is the objective realistic? Can it be done?
R Relevant Does the objective matter to achieving the overall goal?
T Timely What will be the start and completion date?
When setting objectives for the DP these acronyms may help you decide whether or not the objectives will be useful in achieving your overall goal. So check your objectives using the above chart.
8.7 The rationale for the Development Plan
This should be written on no more than two A4 sheets of paper (and is included in the word count).
The rationale should include a context around your choice of priority area e.g. During a recent Ofsted inspection it was identified that staff knowledge and understanding of children’s early language development was limited. The Early Years Advisory teacher then recommended the governments Every Child A Talker programme as a way of raising staff knowledge and understanding to support children’s achievement in this area. Obviously this will be discussed in more detail and include elements of the learning outcomes.
There may be more than one reason for your choice of priority area but this must be made clear. Remember to be mindful of the two learning outcomes mentioned previously:
•Learning outcome 2
Explain the role of leaders in promoting high quality provision in the early childhood learning community
•Learning outcome 3
Discuss a range of theories to support early years teams and relate these to their practice in an equal opportunities context
. 8.8 The assessment deadline and the practicalities of handing in your assignment
•The deadline for handing in assessment (A) is the week of 14th January 2013.
•Assignments (the two A4 written sheets and not the DP itself) should be double-spaced and in a clear font such as Ariel. Use a font size no smaller than 12. There should be clear margins at the top, bottom and sides
•Each page should be numbered and should preferably have your University ID in a prominent position
•Include a title page for your assignment, with the module code and the assessment element (A for the Development Plan)
•At the end of each assignment, include a list of references of the sources you have used in the text
•Keep an electronic copy of your final assignment
•Put your work in a plastic envelope or a light binder. Please do not use ring binders that take a great deal of space. Similarly, do not put individual sheets of paper into individual plastic wallets as this is annoying for the marking tutor
•For each assessment (A or B) print off an assessment cover sheet from E vision. Firmly attach this to your assignment
•We would like to remind you that plagiarism is seen as academic misconduct. This is where the submission for assessment of material is originally produced by another person or persons, without indicating that the material is not original and that the work could be assumed to be the student’s own. If you are confused about what plagiarism is please read The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism. This is an E book.
8.9 Reflective task
Take some time out to consider and reflect on the above information. Is there anything that you are unclear about? If there are make a note of these and discuss them with your tutor. Journal your reflections and responses.
8.10 Summary of session
During this session we have covered what a DP is and looks like (example attached). The learning outcomes and word count (2,000-2,500) pertinent to this assessment has been highlighted, which includes a two page A4 rationale for the DP. Reference to SMART Objectives was discussed in relation to keeping your objectives more focussed and meaningful. The practicalities of handing in your assignment and the deadline were also mentioned.
8.11 Weekly task
•Get a copy of your settings Development/Improvement Plan
•Find out as much as you can about how the DP was arrived at in your setting and why
•Speak with colleagues to get ideas and support for your chosen priority area
•Begin to identify and start to develop your ideas (where possible share these with your tutor) then begin to write your DP
References and additional reading
Doran, T. (1981) ‘There’s a SMART way to write Management’s goals and objectives’ Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11 pp.35-36
Neville, C (2010) The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism Maidenhead OUP (especially Ch 6) An E book

Week 9: Working with teams and groups

9.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is on: ‘Working with teams and groups’ This is outlined below:
•Consider Indicators of good practice in multi-professional working
•Highlight both the national and local context of team work in the early years
•Identify what teams and groups are and how they operate
•Explore what it means to be part of a team and explore Belbin’s (1981) theory of effective personality types within work teams
•Engage in continual evaluation and reflection of practice in students learning journal
We begin the week by considering the following quote in relation to team members working together:
Working in an early years setting whether it is large or small involves many interactions between adults… These may be formal or informal. But these interactions are regarded as the building blocks of the service and the outcome of the service’ (Rodd 1998 cited in Jones and Pound 2008:p.25).
9.2 Key reading 1
In order to gain a context of multi-professional working read and reflect on this article from the Scottish Council for Research in Education – Multidisciplinary Teamworking Indicators of Good Practice by Valerie Wilson and Anne Pirrie. Click here to read now.
What are the authors trying to tell us about multi-disciplinary team working? Journal your responses.
9.3 Background, National and Local Context
It is the intention of government to create an ‘integrated workforce, with multi-disciplinary teams (DfES,2004:P.17), and ‘partnerships’ across services (DfES, 2004:p.23), the government has therefore raised the profile of teamwork in Early Years.
In the context of rapid and accelerating change, it is no longer sensible to lead settings/centres, which rely on separation and individualism. Survival and effectiveness depend upon those working in settings/centres developing more efficient and effective ways of satisfying the numerous, varied and continual work demands that are created, particularly with regards to multi-professional working. Much of the stress experienced in settings/centres comes from the fact that team members seem to be competing with each other or agency rather than collaborating.
Ray Krok (1977) suggests that ‘None of us is as good as all of us’. This underlines the enormous potential – lying untapped and underused in most settings/centres – that can only be released by bringing individuals together in powerful work alliances, often temporary ones, to tackle the unending flow of tasks, projects and demands that arrive daily in most settings/centres. Increasing levels of stress suggest that traditional management structures are experiencing considerable difficulty in meeting new demands and changed circumstances. Collaboration has the capability to enable most organisations to increase both their efficiency and effectiveness particularly in meeting the needs of children and families.
In recent years, the combination of pressures from heightened expectations, rapid change and legislation has bought about some significant effects on settings and centres:
•Increase in the weight of individual workloads
•Increase in the complexity of workloads
•Too little time for too many changes
•Managing many significant changes simultaneously
•Lack of time for preparation, adjustment and training
•Changes changed again before being implemented
•Increase in confusion, ambiguity, turbulence
•Panic to cover the ground with insufficient attention to detail
•Further erosion of professional time into personal time at the expense of individual wellbeing, family life and work-life balance.
Reflective task
Think about the differences between working in a setting/centre based on competitiveness and one based on collaboration and cooperation.
Which is best for you?
How, in your experience do individuals tend to react to competitive cultures?
What tends to happen in collaborative cultures?
Use your journal to evaluate and reflect on practice, and where relevant make links to learning outcome 3
9.5 Being a team member and teamwork
What is a team? There are various definitions; Rodd (2006:p.149) has the view that a team is, ‘a group of people cooperating with each other to work towards achieving an agreed set of aims, objectives or goals while simultaneously considering the personal needs and interests of individuals’.
Whalley (2008:p.89) however considers that a team is ‘a number of persons associated in some joint action’. What is your view or definition of a team?
What are the differences then between a team and a group?
Whalley (2008:p.89) gives us her theory and puts forward the view that a group ‘is simply a collection of individuals who happen to be in the same place at the same time but not necessarily bound by any common purpose’. Do you agree with Whalley? If not how would you describe a group?
Duck (2001:p.95) believes that good teamwork it is essential and is about working together for the common good, being committed to the same goals and helping each other to achieve these. He highlights that ‘failure to create that kind of teamwork can be fatal to the entire change’.
Teams are made up of individuals, each with their own hopes and aspirations as well as their worries and concerns. Three particular issues facing us when we join a team:
•Inclusion: Will I feel involved and accepted?
.•Control: How much influence will I have?
•Affection: Will other team members like me?
The following list of questions will help to focus on these issues and to raise awareness of the challenges and difficulties that can arise when people who do not have a great deal of experience working in teams and are often required to work in multi-professional teams in more collaborative ways.

Inclusion

•What am I hoping for in this team?
•How do I want team members to behave towards me?
•Do other team members include me in the process?
•Do they call me by name and invite my participation?
•Do they respond when I make suggestions?
•Do they tend to welcome my contributions?
•How am I feeling about my participation in this team?
•What have been the things I have enjoyed?
•What incidents have upset or worried me?

Control

•Who exerts the most influence in the team?
•How do I react to attempts to influence or control my behaviour in the team?
•Do I get volunteered for tasks? How do I react to this?
•How do others respond when I exert some influence in the team?
•Which people are more inclined to support my ideas?
•Do some team members tend to oppose or try to block my influence?
•How do I behave when I feel the team is moving in directions I am not comfortable with? How do I register my concerns? How do others react when I do this?

Affection

•Do others in the team like me? What have individuals said or done that show that they go?
•How do each of the team members show their feelings towards me?
•How do I feel about my colleagues in the team?
•How do I express my feelings for those I like?
•How does the team handle disagreements and interpersonal conflicts?
•How do I express myself to particular individuals when what they say upsets me?

These issues are crucially important to the effectiveness and well being of individuals in groups yet they are rarely acknowledged as part of the necessary process development of a team. We all bring important needs into teamwork, as we do into other aspects of our work, and good teams develop a sensitive awareness of personal difficulties, worries and concerns. If team members are struggling to handle their feelings of being excluded, being controlled or being disliked, the whole team is likely to suffer and the quality of the teamwork will be inhibited.
9.6 Reflective task
Reflect on your involvement in groups and teams, both at work and in other aspects of your life.
Come up with some examples of when you were:
•Part of a group
•A member of a group
•Part of a team
•A member of a team
Use your journal and consider the questions above (p.3) to guide your reflection and responses.
9.7 Organisational forces and the challenges facing leader/managers
There are many challenges facing leaders and managers of early childhood settings/centres. However one of the great challenges is based on staff involvement and collaboration and the need to abandon the harmful effects of two deeply entrenched positions: competition and hierarchy.
Throughout our childhoods and schooling and later in the organisations, which employ us, we have been socialised into a competitive ethic. Being smarter than someone else, getting better grades, living in a better area and receiving a higher salary have become synonymous with success and achievement. Cooperation has not been on the agenda of qualities to develop in workplaces. It is therefore not surprising that so many of us find it difficult, often preferring to work on our own.
One of the harmful effects of too much competition at work is that it can create a sense that we can either win or lose. Since there tend to be more losers than winners, a loser mentality can set in creating despondency, feelings of inadequacy and the belief that it is not really worth making an effort. The motivational costs of a competitive work culture can be very high with a few striving very hard and the majority wishing they worked somewhere else.
As for hierarchies, they have been developed to emphasise vertical separation and steep career ladders. It is important to be aware of the effects that separating colleagues in such a way can have. Status and salary differentials have traditionally been the cause of a great deal of discontent and conflict and the tendency in recent years has been to produce flatter organisations with fewer status levels.
People at the top of hierarchies tend to see their roles as interesting, challenging, unpredictable, important and satisfying. They have the opportunity to bring to their work the whole range of experience and expertise. Whereas people low down or at the bottom of hierarchies tend to feel bored and frustrated because so little of their total repertoire of skills and experience is involved in their work. Oppressive hierarchies tend to diminish people, make them less than they usually are and certainly less than they could be. Such a crushing of human enterprise is bad for any organisation ensuring a poorer quality of provision and service than is possible.
.9.8 Reflective task
What is your experience of being low down in a hierarchy?
What effect did it have on you?
How do you think leaders and managers can reduce harmful effects that hierarchies can have on those with lower status and play?
Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.
9.9 Team members
Numerous research (e.g. Belbin, 1981) has been done on effective personality types within work teams. Belbin’s research focused on his practical work with teams of managers in training courses, where he identifies arrange of personality types within achieving teams. Belbin (1981) highlights the importance of a team having a variety of attributes. Teams that only have creative and highly intelligent members, for example did not necessarily get on with each other, nor get the task done. To read more, click here .
Below is a brief outline (adapted) of Belbin’s teams (Handy1999).

The Chair person

He/she is the one who presides over the team and co-ordinates its efforts. He/she may not be brilliant or creative but disciplined, focused and balanced. He/she talks and listens well, is a good judge of people and of things: a person who works through others.

The Shaper

The shaper is often described as the highly-strung person, outgoing and dominant. He/she is the task leader. Their strength lies in a passion for the task, but he/she can be over-sensitive, irritable and impatient. They are needed as the spur to action.

The Plant

Unlike the shaper, the plant is introverted but is intellectually dominant. He/she is the source of original ideas and proposals, being the most imaginative as well as the most intelligent member of the team. He/she can, however, be careless of details and may resent criticism and may need to be drawn out or could switch off.

The monitor-Evaluator

The monitor-evaluator is also intelligent, but it is an analytical rather than a creative intelligence. His contribution is the careful dissection of ideas and the ability to see the flaw in an argument. He/she is often less involved than the others, but tucked away with the data, aloof from the rest of the team, but necessary as a quality check.

The Resource-Investigator

This is the popular member of the team, extrovert, sociable and relaxed. He/she is the one who brings new contacts, ideas and developments to the team, the sales person, diplomat or liaison person. However this team member needs the team to pick up their contributions.

The Company Worker

This member of the team is the practical organiser. The one who turns ideas into manageable task, schedules, and charts. Methodical and efficient.

The Team Worker

The team worker holds the team together, by being supportive, listening, encouraging, harmonising and understanding. Likeable and popular but un competitive, he/she is the sort of person you may not notice when they are there but missed when he/she isn’t.

The Finisher

Without the finisher the team might never meet its deadlines. He/she is the one who checks the details, worries about schedules and gets the other moving with their sense of urgency. Their relentless follow-through is important but not always popular.

Handy (1999:p.161) highlights that ‘Too many of one type in a team means a lack of balance; too few roles and some tasks do not get done. In a small team, therefore, one person may have to perform more than one role. The full set is most important where rapid change is involved in the workforce’
9.10 Reflective task
Looking at Belbins theory of team attributes or personality types, which attributes do you bring to your team?
Can you identify team members with any of the attributes or personality type discussed above?
Do you believe that there is a balance of attributes within your team? If not which personality type do you feel is missing and why?
Use your journal to evaluate and reflect your responses.
9.11 Key reading 2
This weeks key reading is a scanned chapter taken from Leadership and management in the early years: from principles to practice, chapter 3. Written by Caroline Jones and Linda Pound. Click here to read now.
Read pages 25-38 and use your journal to reflect on and answer the following questions:
1. How do or can child-minders work as part of a team?
2. How can teamwork have a crucial impact on the quality of services or provision?
3. What are the responsibilities or role of the leader in supporting teams?
4. Why is it important that each team member contributes to an effective team culture?
5. Thinking of the forming, storming, norming, performing stages – What stage would you say that your team is at and why?
6. Looking at the section on characteristics of effective teams, highlight the comments that relate to your team.
7. What areas of those characteristics (p.35) do you believe need developing to make your team more effective?
8. Why is it of paramount importance that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, established and understood?
9. Edington (2004) discusses three types of teams -rigorous and challenging teams, turbulent teams and cosy teams. What is your understanding of these teams?
10. Reflecting on the three types of teams described (on page 37), how would you describe your team and why?
9.12 Summary of week
We began the week by looking at Multi-disciplinary Team Working Indicators of Good Practice by Valerie Wilson and Anne Pirrie, in order to understand the context of this type of working. We then explored the National and local context of team work in the early years. We also examined what being a team member and teamwork involved and considered organisational forces and the challenges facing leaders/managers in relation to competition and hierarchies in teams. We then explored Belbin’s theory on personality types and attributes. We end the week reflecting and analysing a reading by Caroline Jones and Linda Pound on developing a team culture.
9.13 Weekly task
Imagine you have been selected to open a new Children’s Centre with a multi-disciplinary team. What would be among your top priorities as leader/manager?
What would you do to create a culture where everyone felt involved, committed and enthusiastic?
Use your journals to record your responses.
References
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2004) Every child matters: change for children. Nottingham: DfES.
Duck, J. D. (2001) The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change. New York: Crown Business
Handy, C. (1999) Understanding Organizations (4thedn) Penguin
Jones, C. and Pound, L (2008) Leadership and management in the early years: from principles to practice. Open University Press
Krok, R. (1977) Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonalds New York: Berkley
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood (3rdedn). Maidenhead: Open University Press
Whalley, M. E. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings Learning Matters Ltd, Exeter University Press
Wilson, V. and Pirrie, A. (2000) Multidisciplinary Teamworking Indicators of Good Practice: The Scottish Council for Research in Educationhttp://moderntimesworkplace.com/good_reading/GRWhole/Multi-Disciplinary.Teamwork accessed 16/11/12
Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Ltd Exeter University Press.

Week 10: Identifying Values, Principles and Visions

10.1  Aims this week
 The focus this week is on: ‘Identifying values, principles and visions’ . This is outlined below:
 
· Identify the meaning of values, principles and vision
· Look at terms and definitions
· Explore values and visions
· Consider what is needed to create a vision
· Explore how to convert big ideas (vision) into practical actions
· Students to continue to reflect and explore their own values, principles and visions using a learning journal
 
We begin the session with a reflective task.
 

10.2 Reflective task

1.    What are values?

2.    How are values formed?

3. What are principles?

4. How are principles formed?

5. What is a vision?

6. How are visions created?

At the end of the session go back and look at your answers and consider whether your views have changed or whether you would like to add anything.

 10.3 Terms and definitions
In a world abounding in technical terms, it is important to try and define the words we use. It is useful to place these terms within some framework of meaning if management work is to be systematic and purposeful.
 
The following definitions are arranged in three categories – visions, policies and plans. In the work setting, both dreams and visions are to do with our professional hopes and aspirations. Dreams capture what it is we really believe in and what we want to achieve for children and their families. Visions are more about what it will look and sound like when we have achieved it.
 
Visions: what we envisage in our minds
 
· Dream – a glimpse of the future in which our life purposes and yearnings find fulfillment
· Vision – a deliberately created mental picture the future in terms of ‘how we want it to be’
Policies: what we are committed to achieving
 
· Mission – a deliberately stated intention to work towards specific aspects of this vision
· Policy – a statement of commitment to a particular area of development
 
Plans: the sequence of actions necessary
 
· Programme – an outline of the development tasks to be accomplished in a given time
· Plan – a detailed specification, listing the action steps to be taken to accomplish the programme and serve the policy
· Aims and objectives – largely interchangeable terms for concrete and specific intentions within a specific action plan
· Goals and targets – largely interchangeable terms for specific, concrete and desirable end results

10.4 Reflective task

Think of your current work and also other jobs you have done. How have the terms and concepts outlined above featured in your work?

Do you agree with the definitions given or do you have your own different distinctions between the different concepts?

Use your journal to record your responses.

10.5 Exploring values and principles
.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines a value as ‘one’s judgment of what is valuable or important in life’.
Martin and Henderson (2001:p.57) argue that the organisations values influence what they want to achieve and their overall goals and that ‘Values are deep-seated beliefs about what is right or wrong, and what is important and unimportant’.
 The OED defines a principle as ‘A fundamental truth as a basis for reasoning … A law as a guide to action’.
 One of the key features of work in the early years is a powerful commitment to values and principles for young children and their families. Particularly in children’s learning, care, growth and development. Values driven settings/centres pose special and significant challenges to leaders and managers. How we feel about the children and families that we care for educate and work with will influence how they behave and engage with us.
What we believe about how that care, education and work are managed will determine success and effectiveness.
Where there is such a powerful relationship between what professionals feel, think and believe about their work and the outcomes of that work, makes it vital that attention is given to the values and principles themselves. To take them for granted is to disregard their significance and to undervalue their importance. Leaders and managers of early years settings/centres have to be champions of values constantly helping their colleagues to use them as the key foundation of their work.
Since the values and principles are themselves developing, much time and energy will need to be committed to discussing, debating, clarifying and articulating values. This is both interesting and exciting work but it is also very demanding because it goes right to the heart of what we know, think and believe. Such work focuses on some of our most deeply held beliefs about what it means to be a human being. Working with values, particularly with multi-professional teams, is sensitive work and has to be handled with care and skill but it cannot be avoided. Rodd (2006) in Stacey (2009) believe that professionals personal value systems can influence and have a huge impact on their thinking. Stacey (2009:p.81) highlights that,
‘Unless staff acknowledge and discuss their beliefs and share their differences, the messages children and their families may receive could be ambiguous’.

Those who lead and manage early years settings/centres have some of the most difficult and demanding challenges in our society.
 
10.6 Reflective task

 
In your journal write three key values that relate to your particular professional tradition.

What are your values and beliefs about how children should be cared for and educated in the early stages of their lives?

What happens when you meet others who have different values and beliefs?

.10.7 Values and Visions

Key reading by Eden Charles New futures, at whose cost? Click

here
 to read now.
Take some time out to read and reflect on Eden Charles’s paper. It will challenge your thinking about values. Whilst reading use your journal to reflect and respond to any challenges.
Whalley (2008:p.36) believes that ‘One of the most important ways you will demonstrate leadership of equality practice is through your personal value stance… Acknowledging the extent to which our own personal belief and value systems influences what we bring to the Early Years environment is an important ‘first’ step’ en route to anti-discriminatory practice’.
Rodd (2006:p.26/27) highlights that a vision is ‘the leaders hopes and dreams’ that ‘provides direction for and sustains action in the team’.
Most of us spend a lot of our lives locked into our imaginations. Unlike our normal vision, which often needs corrective lenses to improve it, our imaginations stay powerfully active throughout our lives. Imagination is responsible for giving form and shape to our fears and anxieties as well as to our desires and longings.
Virtually all the great achievements of the human race began as seed ideas, which grew into mental pictures in the imagination before they manifested themselves in practical realities, so too in leadership and management.
But it is never enough to stay in the imagination or to be only a dreamer. The hard realities of leadership and management are that the visions and dreams have to be worked and struggled for. But without the powerful visions and dreams for our work, there would be little point to the striving. Effectiveness in our settings/centres and work is the practical realisation of what is first imagined in the mind.
 
Kouzes and Posner (2012) points out the importance of articulating the vision to teams and highlight that,‘There’s nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can’t articulate why we’re doing what we’re doing’. Hesburgh (2012) believes that ‘The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion’.
 The visionary leader
 The key task for leaders is to create and build a vision, which is shared by all those involved. Smith and Langston (1999:p.20) suggest that, ‘Leaders should be visionary yet realistic; sensitive but demanding, innovative yet practical’.
Vision needs to be seen as a calling, rather than simply a good idea. Sharing in a vision can uplift our aspirations and create sparks of excitement, compel experimentation and risk taking, and increase the courage to succeed. Shared vision can never be ‘official’; it needs to bubble up through the staff as well as filter down from the top. Vision is not to be seen as a solution to problems but rather a driving force for development and change. It is one of the key components of leadership work, relentless and never ending. It involves constant attention to three fundamental questions:
· What does the future we are seeking to create look like?
· Why are we pursuing this particular vision?
· How do we behave to be consistent with the vision we are committed to?
 Below is a table outlining principles of visionary leadership taken from Walden and Shaiba’s eight principles for the visionary leader cited in Whalley (2008:) which has been adapted.

 Principles of visionary leadership

Application to leadership practice

A reflective task
 

Principle 1
The visionary leader is observant and vigilant and must do on-site observation leading to personal perception of changes in societal values
 
 
Here the role of the leader in empowering staff keeping them fully informed of key changes affecting policy and practice. This includes staff changing their own perceptions and value stance.

In what ways can the leader act as a conduit of key information relating to policy and practice in the setting?
 
 

Principle 2
Even though there is resistance, the visionary leader never gives up; squeezing the resistance between outside-in pressures in combination with top-down inside instruction.
 
Here the often precarious role of the leader in translating and making many of the changes ‘manageable’ and ‘doable’.
 

Can you think of a time when the leaders vision for practice was met with resistance by colleagues? What helped him/her stick with the vision?

Principle 3
The visionary leader begins transformation of practice with symbolic disruption of the old or traditional system through top-down efforts to create chaos within the organisation.
 
The role of the leader is being able to deal positively and effectively with the chaos that is an inevitable part of transition from one way of organising/’doing’ practice and another.
 
 
 

Think of an instance when you or your leader has been involved in leading change to practice. What personal coping strategies did you or the leader use to cope with the chaos of transition and retain a sense of vision?

Principle 4
The direction of visionary transformation is illustrated by a symbolic visible image and the visionary leader’s symbolic behaviour.
 
Shared action planning and positive role modeling by the leader – not just by action but by attitude – are crucial factors in successful visionary transformation.
 

How could the leader convey positive action and attitude to change?

Principle 5
Quickly establishing new physical, organisational and behavioural systems is essential for successful visionary transformation.
 
The management and timing of change are critical. New systems are crucial but what is needed of the leader is to inspire confidence in colleagues and to empower them to play their part in implementing change. Getting the timing/timescales for this ‘right’ is a key leadership skill.
 

What organisational skills do you believe you bring to visionary leadership? Are there any you particularly need to develop?

Principle 6
Real change leaders are necessary to enable transformation.
 
Skills in change management are essential for all leaders of practice.
 

Begin to reflect on your skills and areas for development in change management.

Principle 7
Create an innovative system to provide feedback from results.

Think of the last time you or your leader created an action plan with colleagues in order to implement some aspect of change to practice.
Did this include structured opportunity for review on a regular basis? If not, why not?
 

Principle 8
Create  a daily operation system, including a new work structure, new approach to human capabilities and improvement activities.
 
This enables the leader to encourage staff to reflect on practice, review practice and engage in an on-going programme of continuing professional development (CPD).

How can the leader support CPD?
In what ways does the leader role-model effective reflective practice on a regular basis?

 
 

10.8  Reflective task

To what extent are you a professional dreamer, building visions in your imagination of an ideal early years world?

Take time to review your professional visions; the clearer they become, the more powerful will be your determination to achieve them.

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses

10.9 Key reading

Judi Marshall – Re-visioning organizations by developing female values. Click

here

 to read now.

This paper by Judi Marshall will challenge your thinking. Marshall considers the potential contributions of female values to organisational life.
Use your journal to reflect and respond to any challenges to your thinking.
 
10.10 Creating a vision
Visioning helps to give professionals a sense of purpose and meaning to their work. If leaders are skilled they can influence professionals getting them excited about their view of the future while inviting them to help develop and form that picture or image.
 How can you create a shared vision?
The Children Act 2004 was one of the main catalysts for encouraging Multi-professional working. The vision is for services to work together to support children in achieving the Every Child Matters five outcomes, whilst helping staff to focus on their roles and responsibilities.
 
1.     Practice creating a vision in an area of your work. Ask yourself  ‘what do I want to create?’
2.     Develop a vision about something that inspires you. Your enthusiasm will motivate you and others. Listen to what they find exciting and important
3.     Expect that not all people will share your passion. Be prepared to explain why people should care about your vision and what can be achieved through it. If people don’t get it, don’t just turn up the volume. Try to construct a shared vision
4.     Don’t worry if you don’t know how to accomplish the vision. If it is compelling and credible, other people will discover all sorts of ways to make it real – ways you never could have imagined on your own
5.     Use images, metaphors, and stories to convey complex situations that will enable others to act (Ancona et al, 2007:p.92)
 
 10.11 From big ideas to practical actions

.In a world obsessed with precise targets, it can be easy to lose sight of the big idea from which we draw our purpose and motivation. Vision is concerned with creating a mental picture of what it is we want to achieve. Targets have little power if they are not part of a desired dream or vision of how we want things to be.  Once we have a clear mental picture of what we desire, we are more able to plan the steps from where we are now to where we want to be at some stage in the future.
 
The striving forward into the future involves three particular and distinct journeys:
 
1.     The visionary journey
Leaders spend a lot of their lives in a visionary landscape. The visionary story which guides and steers their practical work involves constant twists and turns as obstacles are encountered, and sometimes major diversions are necessary when the planned way ahead is blocked.
2.     The psychological journey
This is the journey of desires, ambitions, hopes and fears. Good leaders know that moving from the known into the unknown can be very frightening. Journeys in life can be frightening as well as exciting. A key component of managing is taking a sensitive interest in – and showing an understanding concern for –  the fears and anxieties that arise when people are faced with significant change and are doing something they have not done before.
3.     The practical journey
The visionary and psychological journeys are undertaken through the inner landscapes of imagination and emotion. At work we also have to operate in the outer world of everyday realities. Being effective is about doing actual things and having actual conversations. In the end leaders are judged by what they say and do, and whether or not it achieves the results intended. In practical terms it is through the many professional conversations each day that dreams and visions are built. As they listen to what their colleagues think and feel about their work and how they are experiencing it, leaders are able to reflect their understanding and contribute our own thoughts and ideas. Through such professional dialogue, connections are made, insights gained and actions planned.
.
The issue of the leaders and mangers role in the defining of purposes and intentions is a vital one. We have inherited the tradition that one of the key functions of managers is to define and articulate the purposes and intentions for those lower down in the organisational hierarchy. This was based on the assumption that only leaders and managers had the wisdom and experience to understand the aspirations of the organisation and that those lower placed would not be sufficiently interested or concerned about the organisation.
 

10.12 Reflective task

What is your experience of being involved in the development of being involved in the development of big ideas and of contributing to the building of a shared vision?

What do you think it is like for those who are excluded from this important process?
Use your journal to reflect, evaluate and record your responses.
 
10.13 Summary of week
We began the session reflecting on our initial understanding of values, principles and visions. We them began to explore different theories around values, principles and visions. In the first reading you consider Eden Charles view on values and the second reading by Judi Marshall you considered the potential contributions of female values to organisational life. Both readings offered very different challenges. As we move through the session you look at different ways to create a vision and what that involves, from big ideas to practical actions in making it all happen.
 
10.14  Weekly task

.Consider some of the building blocks of your identity (Dickens, 2002) such as 1.Gender, 2. Ethnicity, 3.Class, 4.Religion and 5.Education.
 
Reflect on the significance of these in shaping who you are and what you believe.
· Describe yourself in a sentence using the five attributes discussed above
· What is the role of the leader in ensuring that staffs are aware of these influences on them and their roles?
· How can leaders give staff the skills and confidence to challenge appropriately overt inequality/ discriminatory practice they witness?

References
 
Ancona, D. Malone, T. Orlikowski, W. and Senge, P (2007) In Praise of The Incomplete Leader: Harvard Business Review
 
Charles, E. (1994) New futures, at whose cost?

http://api.ning.com/files/BRXqmhI9560WPBhEZxoAR4JquiU-0*X2Gb-R8219SjBjwgIO45Aczwq0JkNtZcD2bMF00-RiapJR4QwYlSF3T4OGjlNH3Ifb/cmnewfuturesatwhosecost Accessed 23/11/12
Dickins, M. (2002) All about …Anti-Discriminatory Practice. Nursery World, 3: 15-22
Hesbergh, T. (2012) About.com
http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_vision.htm
Accessed 22/11/12
Kouzes, J. and Posner (2012) About.com
http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_vision.htm
Accessed 22/11/12
 
Martin, V. and Henderson, H. (2001) Managing In Health And Social Care.
London: Routledge
Marshall, J. (1994)Re-visioning organizations by developing female values

http://www.randj.plus.com/Papers/1994%20Marshall%20Futures Accessed 23/11/12
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood (3rd edn). Maidenhead: Open University Press
 
Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in early years settings. London: Routledge
 
Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Ltd Exeter University Press
 
The Oxford English Dictionary (2005) Oxford University Press
 
Whalley, M. E. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings
Learning Matters Ltd
Take a moment to journal your initial thoughts on the following:

false

false
Week 1:An Introduction to the Module and to Journaling

Introduction to Module and Journaling .

1.1 Aims this week

The focus this week is: ‘Introduction to the Module and Journaling’. This is outlined
below:

•The structure of the module and its conten
t

•Reading materials

•The module assessment and learning outcomes

•Using journaling as a way to
self
–
evaluate

and support the development of a
reflective leader/manager/practitioner

•Begin to consider the role of leaders and managers

We begin the week by l
ooking at the structure of the module and its content. Make a
note of anything you do not understanding as you will have an opportunity to discuss
them with your personal tutor.

1.2 Module Syllabus

This module will critically evaluate a range of theori
es and current perspectives on
the distinctive features of leadership within the early years. This will include staff
supervision, support and development alongside the development of teamwork. You
will examine the role of the early childhood practitioner

in relation to other
professional roles and parents’ responsibilities and evaluate models of working in
partnership with parents and carers.

You will consider the range of professions and occupations involved in the provision
of early years services. The

benefits and challenges of multi
–
professional working
will be explored and their links to vulnerable groups such as refugees, asylum
seekers and children with Special Educational Needs.

You are expected to critically examine the concept of professionalism

and how this is
perceived from a range of perspectives and identify the implications for each. You
will consider their own professional identities and their approaches to practice.

You will look at a range of methods and strategies to evaluate the quality

of current
provision and explore managing change theory to develop and improve practice,
including addressing issues of class, race, gender, culture, language, sexual
orientation, age and special needs. The management of curriculum planning, the
function

and development of policies will be discussed. Relationships with the local
Week 1:An Introduction to the Module and to Journaling
Introduction to Module and Journaling .
1.1 Aims this week
The focus this week is: ‘Introduction to the Module and Journaling’. This is outlined
below:
•The structure of the module and its content
•Reading materials
•The module assessment and learning outcomes
•Using journaling as a way to self-evaluate and support the development of a
reflective leader/manager/practitioner
•Begin to consider the role of leaders and managers
We begin the week by looking at the structure of the module and its content. Make a
note of anything you do not understanding as you will have an opportunity to discuss
them with your personal tutor.

1.2 Module Syllabus
This module will critically evaluate a range of theories and current perspectives on
the distinctive features of leadership within the early years. This will include staff
supervision, support and development alongside the development of teamwork. You
will examine the role of the early childhood practitioner in relation to other
professional roles and parents’ responsibilities and evaluate models of working in
partnership with parents and carers.
You will consider the range of professions and occupations involved in the provision
of early years services. The benefits and challenges of multi-professional working
will be explored and their links to vulnerable groups such as refugees, asylum
seekers and children with Special Educational Needs.
You are expected to critically examine the concept of professionalism and how this is
perceived from a range of perspectives and identify the implications for each. You
will consider their own professional identities and their approaches to practice.
You will look at a range of methods and strategies to evaluate the quality of current
provision and explore managing change theory to develop and improve practice,
including addressing issues of class, race, gender, culture, language, sexual
orientation, age and special needs. The management of curriculum planning, the
function and development of policies will be discussed. Relationships with the local

WEEK 12

Building and leading teams (part 1)

 

Leadership in practice

 

12

.

1 Aims this week

 

The focus this week is on: ‘Building and Leading Teams’

  

This is outlined below:

 

· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in early childhood settings/centres

 

· Consider leadership of self and others within the team

 

· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most effective in supporting learning and personal development within teams

 

· Engage with relevant theory and reflect on leadership practice

 
 
 

We begin the week by considering the following quote in relation to building and leading teams:

 

‘Effective leadership and teamwork are considered to be factors which contribute to increased self-esteem, high job satisfaction and staff morale, reduced stress and a decreased likelihood of staff burnout’ (Schiller, 1987 cited in Rodd 2006:p.147)

.

 

In order to achieve effective leadership and team work it is important to consider how we lead, guide and support individuals as well as teams.

.
12.2 Follow my leader

.
 

.
A fairly standard definition of leadership is one such as behaviour that enables and assists others to achieve personal and organisational ambitions and goals.

 .

This suggests that leadership might have as much to do with making helpful suggestions as issuing strategic directives (to the team), as much about listening to other people’s ideas as expounding your own, and as much about gentleness as about toughness.

 .

Effective leadership is about helping people and teams to be as effective as they have the potential to be. Leadership which flows from this idea, has some important features:

 .

· Leadership needs to be seen as a function of a group rather than the role of an individual

.
 

· Leadership can be behaviour which gives power away

.

. 

· The aims of leadership should be the increase of self-directedness and the release of energy, imagination and creativity in all those who form the organisation

.
 

· Leadership behaviour also needs to be designed by the followers. Leaders need to seek information from their colleagues about the sort of leadership that suits them best as a team

.
 

· One of the key functions of leadership is to help in the creating of conditions in which people feel motivated to work to the optimum levels of their capacity, energy, interest and commitment

.

 

In striving for more life enhancing forms of leadership, we need to question our very assumptions about people and personal power. This new concept of leadership adopts an approach, which recognises that, the potential and power to work effectively lies within the person as well as the team rather than the leader. We still cling on to assumptions that people cannot be trusted to direct their own work and that they must be instructed, guided, monitored, controlled, rewarded and punished – the theory X position discussed in week 3. Life centred leaders believe in the basic dignity and worth of people and in their capacity for commitment, self-direction and achievement. The effectiveness of a leader is not always in what they give to us but what they refuse to take away: our self-respect, our integrity and our potential to make a significant contribution.

 
 

12.3 Reflective task

.
 

.

Think about leaders you have worked with. What have been the similarities and differences between them in terms of leading the team effectively?

.

What was it they did that gained the teams respect and loyalty?

 .

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.

 

 .

12.4   Communicating within the team

.

Human communication is a hazardous business and the capacity for misunderstanding between people is enormous. It is a tribute to our natural and intuitive capacities that we manage communication without even more disagreements and conflicts

.
 .

In the process of observing others – listening to what they say and watching what they do – we can begin to sense the nature of their experience. But we all have the capacity to dissemble – to say things and do things, which are not congruent with what we are experiencing and feeling. This can lead to confusion, ambiguity, mixed messages and misunderstanding. To be more effective in our team relationships, we need to be aware of and sensitive to the complex nature of the interpersonal landscape between others and ourselves. It is important to note the range of intra-personal factors that combine to make us what we are and how we behave in different communications situations.

 .

We have all been shaped and moulded by our experience. In any early childhood setting each person has:

 

· Grown up with family members who have provided powerful influences and presented models of behaviour

.
 

· Acquired a personal history of communications and developed a unique profile of relationships

.
 

· Developed a repertoire of strategies for interacting within our complex social world

.
 

· Evolved a code of conduct to guide our actions in the world

.
 

· Established a personal and distinctive set of habits and patterns

.
 

Early childhood settings are complex organisations in which a rich network of differentiated experience and belief is in a state of constant interaction. As well as the purely individual and personal elements, communication behaviour in an organisation is affected by a variety of social and institutional structures:

 .

· Status

 

· Authority

 

· Power

 

· Age

 

· Race

 

· Gender

 

· Disability

 
 

Each factor will further affect the ways in which individuals within teams experience organisational life and how pecking orders, chains of command, informal networks and strategic alliances are established.

 .

Over the past twenty years t

here

have been concerted efforts to change oppressive communication cultures particularly those built on prejudices about age, race, class, gender and ability. Many organisations are careful to develop policies, which protect individual groups from exploitation and oppression. Central to these policies are issues of interpersonal communication: the assumptions we make and the language we use.

 .

In most settings communication is conducted in a climate of increasing challenge and complexity, as old assumptions are rejected and new ones developed. It is important not to set standards so high that people are discouraged from communicating through a fear of making mistakes. An effective communication culture encourages development and expects a certain clumsiness as people struggle to find new patterns and processes.

 .

Building and developing relationships within teams is a process of matching the elements of our own unique world with that of others. The greater the similarities, the greater the likelihood of an open and satisfying relationship. Most of the time our behaviour is purposeful, designed to meet needs and satisfy aspirations. In comfortable relationships and teams where we feel a positive sense of connection within the interpersonal landscape, we tend to strive for harmony between our inner world and our behavior. We become more open and trusting to the other person.

 .

In difficult and uncomfortable relationships we experience a sense of tension and dissonance in the interpersonal landscape. This can create feelings of anxiety which can result in behaviour designed to protect our inner world from attack and judgment. We become more closed and defensive.

 .

Clearly the process of communicating within teams is immensely complex and there is a great deal to try and do in such a short time. We cannot plan every communication incident in advance since we do not know when the majority of them are likely to arise or exactly how individuals will react and respond. But with those that we know we are going to initiate, we can try and take some of these important factors into consideration.

 .

Communication is the key vehicle for management and leadership work. Without this encounter there is no management. Interpersonal communication is the main curriculum for management development. Sadly it is the one that is most neglected.
 

 .

12.5    Reading Task

To begin, read: Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in Groups by Karen John. This is available as a journal article from the Library. Clickhere to access the Library now and look for: The Journal of individual Psychology, Vol56, No.4, Winter 2000.  Please read the article then in your learning journal reflect and evaluate your thoughts, ideas and responses.
The journal looks at the following:

 .

· Conflict

 

· The group mind

 

· Fundamental Psychological Needs

 

· Group Dynamics and the Crucial C’s

 

· Group as Container

 

· Constructive Potential of Within-Group Conflict

 

· Sources and Modifiers of Intergroup Conflict

 

· Work, Work Groups, and Power Relations

 

· Contradictions in New Management

 

· Cooperation in the Workplace

 
.

 

12.6 Reflective task

.

 

.

What do leaders/managers need to do to create a working environment in which communication within the team flows freely and everyone feels informed?

.

What strategies have you found effective in your centre/setting?

.

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.

.
 

 

12.7 Leadership as giving

.

The old maxim that it is more blessed to give than to receive is seldom quoted in the literature of leadership and management yet it is one of the most profound ideas behind transformative leadership.

.

Toxic and tyrannical leadership is all about trying to force things out of people and teams – better performances, more time and increased effort – through behaviours that are cajoling, demanding, critical and impatient. Since such behaviours do not seem to produce more effectiveness and commitment in our colleagues, we might assume that it is because we are not doing it well enough. It may not occur to us that the idea is bad, not the implementation of it.

.

A key question for all those involved in early years leadership is: ‘what do I have to give?’ As well as a range of technical and professional offerings, there are some fundamental human attributes, which can make the world of difference to our colleagues in building and leading teams more effectively:
 

.

· Presence – being there for them

 

· Attentiveness – listening to their experience

 

· Understanding – sharing their concerns

 

· Interest – in what they do, hope for and worry about

 

· Concern – showing that we care about them and the work they do

 

· Sensitivity – recognising vulnerabilities and handling them with respect

 

· Responsiveness – telling them how we think and feel

 

 

Sadly such an approach to leadership has not featured in much of leadership and management training. There are many who do practise their leadership in a giving way but some have been led to see it as a soft option and feel that they should be tougher, more demanding and requiring, and less understanding and concerned.

 

As well as considering leadership from the leaders own perspective, it is important to have regard for the needs that we have of our leaders. Good leaders seem to have an infinite capacity not only to satisfy vital needs but also to anticipate them. Such capacity grows out of four key qualities:

 

· Genuine interpersonal behaviour

 

· Warmth, care and respect

 

· Empathy

 

· Belief in the potential of others to grow and develop

 

 

All of us are needy. Failure to get some very specific needs satisfied – particularly those that contribute to our pattern of motivation – can result in loss of confidence and enthusiasm, a sense of not being involved, a feeling of being unappreciated and undervalued, and a reduction of job commitment and energy. These are expensive losses, which few organisations can afford. Good leadership is the delicate process of anticipating these needs in others and striving to satisfy them. This is as true for learners in classrooms as it is for practitioners. 

.

Effective carers and practitioners are those whose who are able to reach out to children, to appreciate and understand their needs and seek specific and individual ways of satisfying them. Diana Whitmore (1886: p.78) asserts that,

 

‘If children were to experience adults as welcoming, guiding and supportive, they would discover the wonder of life, the joy of exploring, the beauty of understanding’.

 

So too as leaders and managers we can help to create these felt experiences in our colleagues and teams if we seize opportunities to respond to some basic needs:

.
 

· Feeling trusted: conveying to colleagues a belief in their abilities; resisting temptation to increase control when things are difficult; expressing delight at successes and achievements

.
 

· Feeling heard and listened to: constantly seeking opportunities to listen to colleagues experiences, asking questions, seeking information, eliciting opinions, delving into details and showing genuine interest and concern

.

 

· Feeling noticed and appreciated: taking note of contributions and providing regular positive feedback on successes and achievements

.

 

· Feeling encouraged: empathising with the demands and challenges of the work colleagues do, providing support for problem solving and action planning

.

 

· Feeling appropriately challenged: building a climate of systematic and continuous improvement, constantly helping others to seek new angles, new possibilities and new ideas

.

· Feeling valued: providing detailed and specific feedback so that all colleagues feel a deep sense that their contributions and efforts are valued

.
 

· Feeling informed: keeping information flowing freely through the centre, checking that colleagues know what is going on

.
 

· Feeling supported: offering practical help as well as moral support, getting alongside colleagues as often as possible, providing a helping hand and a listening ear

.

12.8 Reflective task

.

 

.

Where do you stand on this issue of leadership as giving?

.

In your experience do teams tend to work more effectively when they are supported and trusted rather than directed and controlled?

.

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.
 

12.9   Eyeball to eyeball

.

It is how we behave in the many face to face situations of setting/centre life that determines whether we influence and support children, families and colleagues effectively. David Howe (1993) also suggests that much depends on our capacity to be more aware of and respond to the basic needs of individuals and teams. He singles out three particular needs:

 

· Feeling accepted: Leaders can help us to feel part of the past, present and future of the centre. They can help us to believe that we have an important part to play in the scheme of things and that our contribution is significant and special

 

· Feeling acknowledged: leaders can notice us. They can draw attention to those parts of our work, which interest and delight them. They can provide encouraging feedback and also draw our achievements to the attention of others

 

· Feeling entitled: leaders can help us feel ok to be who we are, to have the feelings we experience, and to hold the beliefs that are important to us

 

The effect of these leadership behaviours is to affirm our self-esteem and to help us feel worthwhile both about ourselves and about our contribution to the development of the centre/setting. Central to this is the capacity of leaders to understand their teams (and individuals) to engage with them in the struggle to achieve what is important to them in their lives. Perhaps it is the very process of having an interest taken in what is important to us that has such a powerful effect on our professional energy and commitment.

.

Leaders can really make an impact by doing the following:

.

 

· Helping others to figure out what they would be proudest of doing in their role and then helping them to do it

 

· Helping others to satisfy important personal goals through their professional role

 

· Helping others to search for and discover, meaning in the daily grind

 

· Helping others to activate and honour the small voice deep inside them which seeks expression and understanding

 

· Helping others to become who they really want to be

 

We are discovering more and more about those behaviours which seem to make a significant difference in enabling others to release and express more of their potential. The more we do this, the more we see leadership as a process of human nourishment and less a matter of keeping people to their contracts. Development also involves the process of unfolding: encouraging others to allow what is deep within themselves to come to the surface of their being rather than to lay hidden and concealed.
 

The influential psychologist Abraham Maslow (1978) observed that at every moment in our lives we have a choice between the joys of safety and the joys of growth. Far too often in the troubled and conflictual cultures of many settings/centres we choose the safety option, thereby denying ourselves the possibility of development and growth but also preventing our skills and qualities from having a greater impact on the centre/setting itself. Perhaps the very heart of leadership is helping people do justice to their own potential.
 

12.10    Reflective task

.

 

.

Consider the three basic needs referred to above: feeling accepted, feeling acknowledged and feeling entitled.

.

What ways have leaders/managers you have worked with helped you and the team to satisfy these needs?

.

What happens when leaders/managers ignore them?

 

 

12.11      Interruptions

.

Most leadership and management interactions in settings/centres are very brief, the majority lasting less than a minute. Most of these interactions are activated by interruptions by someone who has a need or someone who may be able to satisfy it. This means that a great deal of our leadership work is incidental arising out of the moment. While it is clearly not possible to plan for what is unpredictable, it is possible to be prepared for interruptions when they occur.

 

This preparedness is mostly to do with our communication capability and the sorts of signals and messages we convey to our children, families and colleagues when they interrupt us and when we interrupt them.
 

Our impact on those we interact with is directly related to the look on our face, the words we choose, the tone of voice we use to utter them and the quality of attentiveness we provide when the colleague replies.

.

Below are some of the crucial elements that are present in any leadership encounter:

.

 

· The messages we convey before we utter the first word

· The opening gambit, and its impact on the other person

· Showing our feelings about the other person

· Disclosing our own thoughts and feelings about the business we are discussing

· Encouraging the other to disclose their own thoughts and feelings

· Getting to the point clearly

· Asking for what we want

· Responding to the other’s concerns, worries, enthusiasms and needs

· Conveying understanding of their position

· Clarifying the details of agreements made

 

It is our capacity to keep aware of these factors that is vital in leadership encounters where the success of the communication is much more dependent on the leader than it is on the other.
 

Leadership by interruptions is at the heart of what we do. Every interruption offers us a specific and unique opportunity to make a positive difference. It is through interruptions that we are given the chance to do some of our very best work.

 

12.12 Reflective task

.

How do interruptions feature in your work and that of your leader/manager?

.

 

Do you experience interruptions as an irritant or use them as an opportunity?

.

Use your journals to record your responses.
 

 

  

 

12.13  Summary of session

.

This week’s session began by looking at how leadership behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals. We also began to explore communication within teams. You then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs, Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the team.

.

 

12.14 Weekly task

.

 .

Read the Journal of Workplace Learning Emerald Article: The two faces of leadership: considering the dark side of

leader-follower dynamicsbyChristine Clements and John B. Washbush. Click  here
  to access now.

 

 Abstract

.
A number of years ago, David McClelland, in his studies of managerial motivation, identified two types of power: egoistic (using others for personal gain) and social (facilitating group cooperation and effort for the achievement of the general good). Clearly, the power motive is intimately related to the concept of leadership. However, over the last several decades, a school of thought has arisen which equates leadership with “doing the right thing”. Defining leadership in such an ethical light is both misleading and dangerous. At the same time, little has been done to address the role of followers in the influence process, and transformational models of leadership have exacerbated this problem. Failure to acknowledge the role of followers and to examine the “dark side” of leader-follower dynamics can distort effort to understand influence processes in an authentic way. This paper provides balance to this discussion and identifies a number of critical implications for leadership education.

 

Use your journals to reflect on the article and record your responses.
 

 

 

References

Clements, C. and Washbush, J. (1999) The two faces of leadership: considering the dark side of leader-follower dynamics”, Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 11 Iss: 5 pp. 170 – 176

 

Howe, D. (1993) On Being a Client: Understanding the Process of Counselling and Psychotherapy London: Sage

 

Karen, J. (2000) Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in Groups: The Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 56, NO. 4, Winter 2000

University of Texas Press

 

Maslow, A. (1978) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
London: Penguin

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

Whitmore, D. (1986) Psychosynthesis in Education

Wellingborough: Turnstone Press
 

.

This week’s session began by looking at how leadership behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals. We also began to explore communication within teams. You then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs, Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the team.

.

Week 13: Building and Leading teams (part 2)

 
 

13.1 Aims this week

 .

Last week we began to:

  .

· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in early childhood settings/centres
 
· Consider leadership of self and others within the team
 

· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most effective in supporting learning and personal within teams

 .
 

 .

The focus this week continues with: ‘Building and Leading Teams’ This is outlined below:

  .

· Further develop an understanding of effective leadership in practice

 

· Be aware of nutrients and toxins and the impact they can have on individuals as well as the team

 

· Explore effective leadership and team building

 

· Consider group dynamics and team development

 

· Look at building and leading multi-disciplinary teams

 

· Continue to reflect on practice

 
 
 

13.2 Valuing staff prior experiences

  .

The importance of individual’s life histories and biographies
Each of us brings to our work in the early years a unique life history. Your own life history may have some features that are similar to those of colleagues but no one will have experienced life events in the same way or drawn from them the same insights and understanding that have given meaning to your life. Our progress through life will have been helped or hindered by the impact that various people have had on us.

  .

In the struggle to understand the complexities of leadership work in a multi-professional setting, we believe it is vital that the leader allows and facilitates the to staff team to share and explore the life events that have shaped their lives and from which their core professional values, visions, and beliefs have come from.

  .

In her study of women leaders, Valerie Hall (1996) writes about what she calls ‘leadership antecedents’ and how these have combined to develop leaders with powerful visions and effective skills

.
  

.

Margy Whalley (1999) in her study of successful early years leaders, demonstrated how leadership awareness is significantly increased when, as part of a leadership learning community, leaders are invited to depict in graphic form the life incidents and events they believe helped them to develop their leadership attributes.

  .

In any staff team, it is important for colleagues to identify and recognise different professional perspectives and practices and to understand how and why these have developed. In an integrated centre, staff will have come from different professional traditions such as early education and children’s social work, community services, health or adult educators. The diverse traditions espouse different bodies of knowledge, professional practice and sometimes significantly different value positions. The members of a multi-professional team may have followed circuitous career routes and all will have influenced the role that different team members assume within the centre.

 .

Often we can know a colleague for years and not discover some of the skills and expertise they have gathered in their lives.
  .

13.3 Reflective task

 .
 
.

 .
Rodd (2006:p.145) believes that, ‘Good leaders build teams by making everyone feel that their contribution matters’.

 .

Do you feel that your contribution matters in your setting/centre? If yes, how? If not, why not? Journal your response.

 .
 

13.4 Effective leadership and team building

 .
 

..

In the early childhood field a high importance is put on effective leadership. Sylva and Siraj-Blatchford (2003) affirms that high quality provision is achieved through the quality and qualifications of the leader (Rodd, 2006), as this supports the raising of standards and sets the standard for other staff to follow. One of the basic principles of effective leadership is to enable the rest of the team to be as effective as them (NPQICL booklet 9). This can be achieved by supporting staff encouraging positive attitudes and behaviours.

  .

Rodd (2006:p.61) states that, an effective leader:

 .

· Uses personality to lead by example, thereby stimulating a particular team culture

· Is innovative and is perceived to be making things better by improving team morale and productivity

· Ensures that constructive relationships are established and maintained with the staff and peers (particularly multi-agency teams).

· Focuses attention on behaviour or the situation, not on the person

· Fosters the self-esteem and confidence of team members

· Coaches team members (including multi-professional staff) to improve their performance

 

The following attributes can support the demands of team leadership:

 .

· Adaptable (the capacity to be responsive and innovative)

· Energetic (action-oriented and committed to work)

· People-orientated (values people and communicates openly)

· Quality-conscious (pays attention to standards of excellence and consumer needs and expectations)

· Uniting (clarifies the common purpose and promotes the value of cooperation)

· Entrepreneurial (autonomous and able to articulate the uniqueness of the service)

· Focused (self-disciplined and predictable)

· Informal (a relaxed, straightforward approach to people and situations)

 .
 

When building and leading teams it is vital that the leader is aware of the positive contribution or impact that they bring to that team.

  .

Neugebauer and Neugebauer (1998) cited in Rodd (2006:p.163/164) highlights a five-step framework for team building:

  .

1.     Set achievable goalswhich have been mutually agreed by members of the team. Ensure that the more assertive staff members do not dominate the process, especially during discussion at team meetings

 .
 

2.     Clarify roles.Team members work most effectively when their roles are clear to all and free of conflict. Each staff member should be aware of who is responsible for what. While it will be easier to clarify the formal roles that need to be fulfilled, the informal roles that relate to the internal functioning of the group should not be forgotten (Johnson and Johnson, 2003). The leader needs to analyse the group to make sure that someone is taking responsibility for the team task roles (initiating, information-gathering, opinion-seeking and giving, clarifying, elaborating, energising, summarising and consensus-testing) and team maintenance roles (encouraging, harmonising, compromising, gatekeeping, observing and standard setting)

 .
 

3.     Build supportive relationships.Build in opportunities for feedback, develop trust and provide resources to stimulate a cooperative team spirit. Teams where members feel supported are more likely to deal (rather than ignore) common team difficulties such as role ambiguity, role conflict and group conflict

 .
 

4.     Encourage active participation in order to capitalise on the knowledge and skills of individual team members. In an atmosphere of acceptance, team members will be encouraged to contribute their ideas, opinions and energies. Being part of a cooperative venture can be extremely motivating for team members, and this will increase productivity.

 .
 

5.     Monitoring team effectiveness. There is little point in putting time and energy into team leadership and the team-building process if the team is not achieving the goals effectively or if the team is unhappy with the process. Regular opportunities need to be provided by the leader to assess the extent of goal achievement and how well members are working together as a team. This review process can help identify any problems and establish their cause, as well as assisting with future planning.

  .
 

13.5 Reflective task

 .
 

 ..

Reflect on your current team in relation to the five-step framework and teambuilding.

  .

In your journal make a list of the positive ways in which your leader builds and leads the team. Them make a list of the areas that you believe could be developed further and why.

  .
 

13.6 Leadership nutrients and toxins

 .

Leadership nutrients work to build and develop, a positive, friendly, enriching and ambitious organisational culture and is one way of creating job satisfaction this can be achieved in the following ways, through:

 .

· Commitment

· Energy

· Enthusiasm

· Enterprise

· Responsibility

· Collaboration

· Initiative

· Confidence

Not all leaders will achieve consistency of success in this, but many will be able to create conditions for positive growth and development and work constantly to avoid the consequences of a downward spiral.

  .
 

Our capacity to work effectively towards centre goals is determined by a variety of factors:

 . 

· We want to feel a sense of satisfaction, both about the work we do and about its contribution to the organisation itself

 .
 

· We want to feel able to exercise preferences, both about the conduct of our own roles and responsibilities, but also in decisions about organisational direction and practice

 .
 

· We want to feel interested in, and concerned about, our work so that our efforts and contributions are in tune with our purposes in life

 .
 

· We want to feel challenged to use our best abilities to achieve worthwhile goals

 .
 

· We want to enjoy the process of work and to experience pleasure in being part of the organisational enterprise

  .

Leadership toxins can inhibit our potential and are those verbal and non-verbal behaviours that trigger certain emotions such as fear, anger, resentment and jealousy. These are often painful feelings that are activated when we are on the receiving end of particular types of communication behaviour:

 .
 

· Having our ideas rejected or stolen

· Being over directed

· Facing constant, criticism

· Not being listened to

· Being ignored

· Being misunderstood

· Being judged

 

Effective leadership is about helping individuals and the team to be as effective as them. This involves supporting the team to use their talents, skills and abilities free from restriction and encouraging them through positive attitudes and behaviours.

  .

If the above behaviours (toxins) are employed consistently and systematically they can undermine self-esteem, confidence, commitment and professional ambition, (Whitaker, 1998). They can also create an environment of:
  .

· Compliance

· Apathy

· Lethargy

· Caution

· Cynicism

· Mistrust

·

Fear

 
 

13.7 Group dynamics and team development

  .

Iceberg Theory

.
 

.This theory has been around for over 60 years. Sigumnd Freud (original 1938; republished by Penguin in 2004) said ‘The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water’. In the leadership context the theory liken the staff of an organisation to icebergs ina. Above the water line we can observe individuals behaviour, however below the waterline which is unobservable lay people’s hopes, interests, intentions, feelings, fears, needs, assumptions, psychological wounds, expectations, experiences, belief.

  .

Freud (1938) believes that just as seven-tenths of an iceberg is below the surface of the water, so it is suggested, is seven-tenths of each person. Only the heads stick out above the water line, however, the icebergs collide and bump into each other, sometimes with quite damaging consequences. For many of the staff in most organisations, the real business of relationships is below the surface. Dislikes, fear, resentment, mistrust, envy, jealousy and anger and frustration remain submerged. What is needed for the water level to be lowered so that these interpersonal issues can be exposed, explored and resolved. The superficial veneer of niceness, which characterises the human culture in many organisations, is counterproductive and damaging to effective teamwork, inhibiting to the development of staff and counter to the purposes that most organisations are intent on pursuing.

  .

The iceberg theory can be useful particularly for practitioners who work in children centres as they often find it difficult to challenge and they avoid conflict. There is this veneer of ‘niceness’ amongst staff. However there is often an underlying current of resentment between individuals and teams. Using the iceberg theory in supervision for example can help to break down barriers and encourage challenge and development in a respectful way.

  .

Understanding something about group dynamics – or collective interactions and behaviour patterns that can be observed in groups – as well as the individual needs of group members, can help leaders limit their potential destructiveness in the workplace.

  .

Our fundamental social need to feel we belong or connect is extensively studied in research underpinned by attachment theory. When we feel disconnected from the team, we become overly dependent on others and seek undue attention from the leader and team members. Our need to feel capable is the subject of research on competence motivation or its absence among school-aged children.  When we feel we do not count, are insignificant or overlooked by others, we feel hurt and apply ourselves to hurting back.

  .

The most effective leaders are those who appreciate and devote time to addressing group dynamics and team development and do what they can to help each team member meet their individual needs to belong, to feel competent and significant and to feel able to feel able to handle difficult situations.

(NPQICL booklet 9:p.12-24)

  .
 

13.8 Reflective task

 .
 
 ..

Think of your setting, an organisation you know well or have worked in. Use the iceberg theory to generate descriptions and explanations of how the cultures of these organisations operate/operated?

 .

In your journal record your responses.

  .
 
 

13.9 Building and leading a multi-disciplinary team

 .
Experience tells us that one of the best ways of establishing a strong multi-agency team is to give practitioners and professionals time together. The Co-location of some services, for example health visitors, midwives, family support workers, outreach workers and volunteers sharing office space or a staff room, fosters a better understanding of the aims and priorities for each agency and helps to identify common ground. Leaders have a responsibility to ensure issues of confidentiality need to be addressed specially with information sharing protocols and particular care must be taken if there is any possibility of volunteer workers having access to information about local families.

  .

A strong, skilled leader with enthusiasm must articulate the settings/centre vision that has been agreed. The vision should then be translated into realistic goals and common targets so that all team members are clear that they share the same goals. These should be simply expressed, written down, understood by all. The roles and responsibilities of each partner agency need to be defined and incorporated into a centre agreement that sets out ground rules.

 .

Joint training by practitioners and professionals are crucial to the success of building effective teams and multi-professional working. It provides opportunities for staff to get to know one another, cooperate, discuss and make joint decisions.

  .

It is also particularly important to be clear about the line management structure where this is shared between a line manager in the multi-agency service and a member of the practitioner’s own professional based elsewhere.

 .

In multi-agency teams it is helpful if there is a common line management system that applies to all members of the team, including those who are supervised externally. It is essential that practitioners retain a link with colleagues in their home agency who can give professional support and oversight.

 . 

Regular opportunities for the whole team to meet together to review progress, share experiences and discuss closer working are advisable to really establish a sense of team identity. It sounds simple but with heavy caseloads it can be difficult for everyone to keep in touch. Leaders of settings/centres must ensure that time is made for this important activity.

  .

Appropriate referral systems and procedures should be developed, and mutually agreed, by all agencies involved. Agreement should be reached on the exchange between agencies of information about individual cases. Agreement should be reached on using the Common Assessment Framework to undertake needs assessment.

(DfES 2006:p16 &17)

  .
 

The features, values and approaches discussed when leading teams are important to any early childhood manager/leader when trying to make things happen and by ensuring that staff are involved and participate in the numerous activities and services at the centre/setting.

 .

13.10 Key reading

 . 
This week’s reading by Valerie Wilson and Anne Pirrie

Multidisciplinary Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review of Issues

 .

Click here to access it as a PDF file now. Please read in particular chapter 3 What encourages multidisciplinary team working? And chapter 4 What inhibits multidisciplinary team working?

  .

In light of this week’s session and the above reading how can leaders and managers support, build and lead multidisciplinary teams more effectively? Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

  .
 

13.10  Summary of session
 .

During part 2 of building and leading teams we looked at the importance of valuing staff prior experience, their individual life histories and biographies. You explored what it means to be an effective leader and the importance of supporting and building teams. You also reflected on Neugebauer and Neugebauer (1998) five-step framework for teambuilding in relation to your experience of teambuilding. We briefly discussed leadership nutrients and toxins and the impact on organisational culture. You explored the iceberg theory in terms of group dynamics and team development. Finally we looked at building and leading multi-disciplinary teams.
  .

13.13 Weekly task

 .

 .
This week’s task is a reading by Bruce Tuckman – Developmental Sequence In Small Groups. Click here to access it as a PDF file now.

 

What does Tuckman say about the process of team/group development?

.

How do these relate to your current team?

.

Journal your responses

 .
 
References
 .

DfES, (2006) Sure Start Children’s Centre Practice Guidance

 .

Freud, S (2004) An outline of Psychoanalysis, London, Penguin Books

 .

Hall, V. (1996) Dancing on the Ceiling: A study of women managers in education, London, Paul Chapman

 .

Johnson, D. W and Johnson, F. P (2003) Joining Together: Group Theory and Process, international edn, Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights

 .

Neugebauer, B and Neugebauer. Eds (1998) The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organisations, vol. 2, Child Care Information Exchange, Perth.

 .

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools. 

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Service

s.

.

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

 .

Sylva, K. and Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2003) Effective Provision of Pre-school Education, Department for Education and Skills, London

 .

Tuckman, B (1965) Developmental Sequence In Small Groups Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland

http://aneesha.ceit.uq.edu.au/drupal/sites/default/files/Tuckman%201965

 Accessed 20/1/13

.
 

Valerie, W. and Anne, P. (2000) Multidisciplinary Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review of Issues The Scottish Council for Research in Education

 .

Whalley, M. (1999) Women Leaders in Early Childhood Settings: A dialogue in the 1990s, PhD thesis, University of Wolverhampton

 .

Whitaker, P. (1998) Managing schools, Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann

.

Week 14

Professionalism/professional identity and the role of the leader in supporting continuous professional development

 

14.1 Aims this week

 

The focus this week is to consider ‘Professionalism and professional identity’. The session is outlined below:
 

· To identify what professionalism means?

· To explore what professional identity is within the changing early childhood field

· Consider the role of the leader in identifying developmental needs and supporting professional development

 
 

14.2 What does professionalism mean and who is a professional?

.
 

…

Professionalism can mean different things to different people and coming to an agreed definition within the Early Childhood community can be complicated (Stacey 2009). Friedland (2007) describes professionalism in the Early years as a ‘ball of knotted string’. She describes the ‘knots’, which need untying in order to untangle the ball and reach a clear definition.

..

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines professionalism as ‘The competence or skill expected of a professional’. Bolam et al (2005:p.vi) cited in Stacey (2009:p.74) acknowledges the complications in defining professionalism and suggests that all staff members ‘with qualifications or not, are members of professional learning communities. They distinguish between being ‘professional’ and ‘being a professional’. They highlight the difference between how people perform their jobs and the qualifications they hold. In their study on effective professional learning communities they raise the importance of all professionals adopting professional standards, which should be consistent, whatever the nature of their jobs.

 ..

Frost (2005:p.11) cites a definition of professionalism by Simms et al. (1993) as:

..

· A systematic body of knowledge and monopoly of powers over its applications

· A self-regulating code of ethics, emphasizing values such as respect for the confidentiality of the client

· The sanction of the community at large

· Control over the profession’s own qualification and entry procedures

· An altruistic orientation

 
 

I believe that professionalism includes and involves the way one conducts themselves, their accountability and integrity, someone that wishes to achieve the highest standards within their profession e.g. as an early years practitioner, health visitor, social worker, teacher. Moyles (2001) believes that a passion for the work they do is a vital attribute of professionalism and that professionals what ever their field must be able to articulate these (what they do) clearly.

 .

In her article ‘The Personal is Professional: professionalism and the birth to three practitioner’ Manning-Morton (2006:p.42) contends that ‘professionalism’ in the early years must also be understood in terms of the day-to-day detail of practitioners’ relationship with children, parents and colleagues; relationships that demand high levels of physical, emotional and personal knowledge and skill’.

 .

Osgood (2006:p.9) suggests that professionalism within the Early Years community can sometimes become denigrated and is not always valued in the wider society where professionalism is still defined through masculinised attributes (such as rationality, competiveness, individualism). It is therefore vital that practitioners justify and promote their work with children and families to increase their professional status. This can be achieved if they reflect on their work with children and families stating what they are doing and why?
.
14.3 Key Reading

.This week’s reading Reconstructing Professionalism in ECEC: the case for the ‘critically reflective emotional professional’ is by Jayne Osgood and is a challenging read. To read it now as a pdf file, please click here 

 .

The paper draws on a study with a group of early childhood practitioners and offers a critical reappraisal of the notion of professionalism.

.
Once you have read the article use your journal to evaluate your practice, reflect and record your responses.

 .
 

14.4 Professionalism, multi-professional working, a case study and reflective task..

…
The move towards multi-professional collaboration, and approaches such as the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge (HM Government, 2005) for all those working with children and families, will necessitate a much more fluid and broader definition of professionalism (Whalley 2008).

 ..

Case Study Anne is deputy head of a nursery school and children’s centre. She began as a nursery nurse and has now completed the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL). Her passion for her work comes over when she describes what she does and as she says, the qualifications she has attained have, in some ways enhanced this. She feels confident in her role, but perhaps most important, happy to think outside the box. She uses her position to fight tooth and nail for what she believes is right and with others, can make sure things on offer benefit the children. She is developing her own role as she works across services. Demanding good practice, she is prepared to argue for resources and, having always developed good relationships with others outside, makes demands on them, placing the child at the centre of her actions. For example, she felt perfectly justified in insisting that a social worker, who had wanted a mother and child to come to her office, came to meet them at the centre because there was a possibility that the child would be taken into care. Anne argued that the child needed to be in an environment where she felt secure, not in an unfamiliar office.

.
 

What is your definition of professionalism? Do you consider yourself as being a professional? What does it mean to be a professional?

 .

What attributes of professionalism would you look for when colleagues are interacting with:

 .

· Children;

· Parents and carers;

· Other professional colleagues?

 

Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and responses.

 
 .

14.5 Professional Identity – Who am I?

.

Anning et al (2006:p.7) suggests that professional identity can best be described by  ‘a particular knowledge base set of values, training and standing in the community’. Bligh (in Patrioni 1994) described each profession as behaving like a tribe, with individual members being nurtured in distinctive ways. Professional tribes generally choose their own leaders and establish their own pecking orders. They impose sanctions on any member of the tribe who does not conform. They expel members who begin to demonstrate the characteristics of another tribe.Anning et al (2010:p.71) believes that ‘in demanding that professionals work in multi-professional teams, we are expecting them to confront, articulate and lay to one side the distinctiveness of their long-established ‘tribal’ beliefs and behaviours’.

 .

Gasper (2011:p.74) refers to identity in terms of professional heritage, which he suggests is ‘embedded practices, language and ethos of individual professions which individuals who join become familiar with as they gain experience and progress within the parameters of the profession’. In partnership working it is essential to acknowledge the way that professional heritage affects points of view, language and perceptions of situations.
 .

Hudson (2002) argues that there are three potential barriers to multi-professional working:
. .

1.   Professional identity: How professionals understand themselves and their roles

.

2.   Professional status: How professional hierarchies and different distribution of powers are generated

 3.   Professional discretion and accountability: How professionals exercise discretion on a day-to-day basis.

.
 Below is a case study, which highlights Bertham et al (2002:p.53) view that ‘there can be a tension when ‘child-centred’ and ‘parent-centred’ goals are in competition’.

 .
 

Case study Janice, an outreach worker, had a serious fall-out with a practitioner working in the children’s room. They were both committed to good practice and held similar values about what they were offering. But it was their views on working with parents that differed. Janice saw her priority as supporting the parent, visiting her regularly and encouraging her to come to the groups at the children’s centre and to sign up for vocational training. Barbara felt that Janice was spending too much time with the mother and not enough on the child who was attending very irregularly.

 .

A number of themes about the implications of working with other professionals particularly in multi-professional teams for ‘who I am’ may emerge and are highlighted below:
 .

· Professionals need to be confident enough about the professional identity they bring to multi-professional teams to feel safe about transforming it

· In the period of adjusting to their new roles and assuming different identities in multi-professional teamwork, professionals may feel anxious, destabilized and vulnerable

· Those who are peripheral to core team membership, or feel isolated as lone representatives of a profession in a team are likely to feel less well supported in transitions to new identities

· Professionals believed that the labels assumed by or imposed on them had an impact on how they were perceived both within and outside the team

· The perceived status of professions in the world beyond the team did impact on team functions, but these barriers could be broken down over time

· Professionals who struggled through the pain of transformation to the gains of a new professional identity reported an enhanced sense of ‘who I am’.

(Anning et al 2010:p75)

 
 .

14.6 Reflective task

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…

.How would you describe your professional identity?

.
Has it changed in recent years?

.

If you work in a multi-disciplinary setting/centre, is there a shared identity? Or do people hold on to their original professional identity? What impact does this have on the way you work?

 .
Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and responses.
.
 

….

Now go to the Discussion Board (left hand menu) and record your ideas and debate your ideas about professionalism with other students.

 .
 

14.7 Supporting professional development

..

Aubrey (2011:p.139) highlights that ‘the continuing need to update and reinforce specific professional knowledge and skills in a fast-changing world remains clear’.Bertram and Pascal (2002:p.ii) suggest that research carried out internationally supports the idea of investment in professional staff as a preferable strategy for raising quality.

. 

Apart from going on individual external training to develop new skills, knowledge and understanding Siraj-Blatchford and Manni (2006:p.9) found that effective settings used both ‘informal-formal’ approaches to staff development. These include observations, formal meetings, reflection of ones work and individual feedback from managers/leaders and colleagues.
 .

The political context in supporting professional development

.

The government’s vision set out in the 2020 Children and Young Peoples Workforce Strategy (DCSF, 2008a:p.6) is that everyone (particular professionals) working with children and young people will be:
 .

· Ambitious for every child and young person

· Excellent in their practice

· Committed to partnership and integrated working

· Respected and valued as professionals

 

The Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) report (Sylva et al, 2004) concluded that qualifies teachers, specifically pedagogical leaders, had the most impact on the quality of children’s experiences, particularly in relation to outcomes in pre-reading and social development. The EYFS practice guidance, taking note of this, stresses the need for well-qualified and experienced staff who understand and engage in informed reflective practice-both individually and in groups and work collaboratively within the setting to share knowledge, question practice and test new ideas – with high aspirations for every child (DCSF, 2008c:p.9).

 .

Training for practitioners and leaders to meet the changing demands of recent childcare and education agendas, linked with social change, has been a significant focus in government policy, under the remit of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC). The National College for School Leadership are responsible for the form, content and delivery of the training programme for leaders and managers in Early Years Childcare and Education. The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a qualification that provides an experimental, developmental programme centred on reflective practice, which aims to encourage leaders/managers to explore value, based practice and extends their knowledge and understanding of leadership and multi-agency working. This qualification aims to raise quality and standards.

 .
  
…

The role of the leader in identifying need and supporting professional development

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Commitment to support of staff and continuous professional development (CPD) is considered a key factor to effective leadership (Aubrey, 2011).

.

It is the responsibility of the leader particularly in Children’s Centres to encourage and support staff development and multi-professional working.

.

Studies on multi-professional working have found that some professionals feel that they lack the knowledge and skills needed for integrated working. Davis and Smith (2012:p.9) believe that there are ‘benefits to be gained from working with a range of people with different types of experience …it suggests professionals that hide their feelings, errors or uncertainties (in an effort to keep up an apparently professional appearance) are actually unprofessional’.

.

They suggest it is important for professional to examine their preconceptions and those of their colleagues in order to create collaborative and interrelational approached to learning and professional development.

 .

Regular supervision is primarily the responsibility of the centre leader/manager. During supervision the leader/manager helps staff to use their knowledge and skills effectively in carrying out their daily duties and to enhance and deepen their understanding of professional values. Whalley (2001) believes that the ranges of supervisory responsibilities are complex for managers/leaders to address. It is therefore important to consider, personal and self-development as well as team-building issues.

 .

Rodd (2006:166) suggests that the ‘professional support provided through effective supervision helps staff to listen to and accept constructive feedback and learn to reflect upon and critically evaluate their own performance’. Whalley (2001:p.139) observes that supervision ‘becomes a mechanism of quality control because it involves target-setting, goals and reviews’. When carried out effectively supervision allows for a forum where difficult issues can be discussed openly and in confidence – for example underperformance, sickness level. These days supervision is viewed as a form of continuous staff development where staff competence is the main objective. It is also seen as a way of communicating to staff that they are important to the organisation and that their contribution is valued (Rodd 2006).

 .
 

Capability learning cycle – A tool for supporting development (Michael Schartz and Rob Walker (1995:p.106)
The value of using the Capability learning cycle lies in the distinction that it makes between our conscious operations and our unconscious ones – in other words, between the actions we take with full self-awareness and those we take without consciously having to think about them. This model refers to ideas of continuous growth ad development and all round achievement.

.

The theory suggests that in learning, particularly in relation to the application of skills and knowledge, we move through a series of stages as discussed below:

 .

Unconscious incapability

I am not aware of what I do not know or cannot do until I become aware of a need or a deficiency; then I move to:
Conscious incapability

I am now aware of something I do not know or cannot do. I can now choose whether I want to gain new knowledge or develop a new skill, or not.

If I do, then as I undertake new learning I am aware of being in a state of:
 

Conscious capability

I need to concentrate and think in order to understand new knowledge or to perform the new skill. As I absorb new knowledge and I become skilful I move into a state of:

 

Unconscious capability

New knowledge takes place alongside other acquired knowledge and I am able to apply the new skill without deliberate attention to the techniques involved. Some capabilities I can undertake on automatic pilot.
(NPQICL Booklet 9, 2011:p.6)

 .

The above model is particularly useful to leaders/managers in relation to professional development work.  Development and growth requires individuals to move through the stages. This can be achieved more successfully when learning is supported and encouraged. The key for leaders is being able to intervene to activate capability awakening, rather than incompetence panic, with the damage associated with feelings of anger, guilt, shame and a sense of not being good enough.

 ..

It is the conscious capability stage that sensitive encouragement and support are most crucial. Developing new professional capability involves taking risks, and when those tentative first steps are judged negatively, then development is jeopardised and growth inhibited.

 ..

14.8 Reflective task

.
 
..

Think of a recent time when you decided to learn something new – skill, or taking up a new interest. Use the learning capability model to identify your experiences at each of the stages.
 

 .

14.9  Summary of session

..

During this session you looked at the definition of professionalism and professional identity. You explored the role of the leader in identifying and supporting professional development. You briefly considered the political context around supporting professional development, particularly for the leader/manager. Finally you looked at the Capability Learning Cycle which is a tool leaders can use to support development and learning.
 ..

14.10 Weekly task

..

The second key reading is by Malcolm Knowles – The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy Revised and updated. Click here to access it as a pdf file now.

…
Malcolm Knowles’ attempts to develop a distinctive conceptual basis for adult education and learning via the notion of andragogy became very widely discussed and used. He also wrote popular works on self-direction and on group work (with his wife Hulda). His work was a significant factor in reorienting adult educators from ‘educating people’ to ‘helping them learn’ (Knowles 1950: 6).

 …

Use your journal to reflect on your own learning and development and record your thoughts and responses.

 …

 References and further reading

 

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2006) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services: research policy and practice Maidenhead. Open University Press.

 …

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2010) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services,

Open University Press McGraw Hill Education

 …

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in Early Years (Second Addition)

SAGE Publications Ltd

 …

Bertram, T. Pascal, C. Bokhari, S. Gasper, M. Holtermann, S (2002) Early excellence centre pilot programme. Second evaluation report 2000-2001. Research report 361. Nottingham: DfES.

 …

Bertram, T. Pascal, C. (2002) Early Years Education: an international perspective. London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

www.inca.org.uk

(Accessed 1/2/13)

 …

Bolam, R., McMahon, A. Stoll, L et al (2005) Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities. Research report 637 Bristol: University of Bristol

…

Davis, M. and Smith, M. (2012) Working in Multi-professional Contexts

A Practical Guide for Professionals in Children’s Services

 …

DCSF (2008a) 2020 Children and Young People’s workforce strategy. Nottingham: DCSF.

 …

Friedland, R. (2007) Professionalism in the early years. In Wild, M. and Mitchell, H. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: Reflective Reader, Exeter: Learning Matters

 …

Frost, N. (2005) Professionalism, Partnership and joined Up Thinking. Dartington: Research in Practice

 …

Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities Sage Publications

 …

HM Government (2005) Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children’s Workforce. Nottingham:DfES

 …

Hudson, B. (2002) Interprofessionality in health and social care: the Achilles’ heel of partnership, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 16(1).
 …

Knowles, S. (1970) The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy Revised and Updated

http://www.hospitalist.cumc.columbia.edu/downloads/cc4_articles/Education%20Theory/Andragogy

 Accessed 2/2/13

 …

Manning-Morton, J. (2006) The Personal is Professional: professionalism and the birth to threes practitioner London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
…

Moyles, J. (2001) Passion, paradox and professionalism in Early Years education. Early Years, 21 (2): 81-95.
…

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 …

Osgood, J. (2006) Deconstructing professionalism in early childhood education: resisting the regulatory gaze. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7 (1): 5-14.

 …

Petrioni, P. (1994) Inter-professional teamwork: its history and development in hospitals, general practice and community care (UK), in A. Leathard (ed.)

…

Going Inter-professional: Working together for Health and Welfare. London: Routledge.

 …
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 …

Schratz, M. and Walker, R. (1995) Research as Social Change, London, Routledge

 …

Sylva, K. Melhuish, EC, Sammons, P. Siraj-Blatchford, I. Taggart, B. (2004)The effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project: London: DfEE/Institute od Education, University of London.

.

..
 

Siraj-Blatchford, I. Manni, L. (2006) Effective leadership in the early years sector: the ELEYS study. London Institute of Education, University of London

www.gtce.org.uk/shared/contentlibs/126795/93128/120213/eleys_study

 
 …

Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and collaboration in Early Years Settings, Learning Matters Ltd
 …

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice

…
Whalley, M. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings, Learning Matters Ltd

 …

Whalley, M. (2001) ‘Working as a team’, in Contemporary Issues in the Early Years. Working collaboratively for Children, 3rdedn, ed. G. Pugh, Paul Chapman, London

 support you at this time?

 

.

If you were planning the agenda for your first mentoring session, what three key items would be on the agenda and why?
.

How do you believe mentoring sessions could support you in leading a multi-professional team?

.
 

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

 
.

.

 WEEK 15

15.8 Journaling as a way of supporting CPD

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During week one I introduced journaling to you as a way of reflecting on your practice, their thoughts and responses for the module. Today we look at journaling in terms of supporting CPD.

 
.

Journaling brings together both personal and professional development. The aim is to use your journal to express your thoughts and feelings, to review and learn from them and to record what you think should do next. One way to think about journaling is teaching yourself through your professional practice. You think about your initial learning in order to make improvements for yourself and your setting/centre. Anything that could improve your job for you could also improve your settings/centres outcomes for the children and families using services or activities.

.

Journaling is a conscious way of making sure that you help yourself. You have many ways of helping others to solve problems. Being a participant in your own problem-solving strategies and making sure that you move yourself on can be strengthened by journaling.

.

.
 

15.9  Summary of session

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This week’s session continued the theme of professional development and you began by exploring reflective supervision through two journal articles, examining its role in CPD. You also looked at appraisals the appraisal process and its links to identifying and supporting development. We then considered mentoring and the mentoring experience and finally you reflected on the role of journaling as a way of supporting CPD.

 
.

.

 

15.10 Weekly task

.

 

.

This week’s task involves reading the following article:

.

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

Leading a learning organisation: Australian early years centres as learning networks. Kaye Colmer.

Vol.16, No. 1, March 2008, 107-115

.
 

The article discusses the following:
 
.

· Leading a dynamic learning organisation

· Managing as well as leading change

· Motivating and inspiring staff through shared leadership and reflectivity

· Creating devolved leadership structures and engaging with complexity

· Developing an early years centre as an effective learning networks

· Key strategies in developing early years centres as learning networks

 
 

Use your journal to reflect on the article your own setting/centre. Record your thoughts and responses.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References and further reading

 

Barden, N, 2002, Supervision and the new ethical framework, Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, 13, 6, 28-29

 

British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, (2002), Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Rugby, BACP

 

Colmer, K. (2008) Leading a learning organisation: Australian early years centres as learning networks Lady Gowrie Child Centre, Adelaide, Australia

 

Cullan, S. (2006) What is mentoring? In Robbins, A. (ed) Mentoring in the Early Years. London: Paul Chapman.

 

NPQICL booklet 2 (2011) Journaling for integrated centre leadership National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

NPQICL booklet 3 (2011) Leadership mentoring support National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

Parsloe, E. (1992) Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing: A Practical Guide to Developing Competence. London Kogan Page.

 

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice

Learning and working together for children and families

Weigand, R. and Weatherston (2007) The issue and why it matters

Journal of ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families

 

ZERO TO THREE, November 2007 Volume 28 No.2,

Week 16: Managing Change with multi-professional/disciplinary teams

 

16.1 Aims this week

 

This week we look at  ‘Managing Change with multi-professional/disciplinary teams)’. The session is outlined below:
 

· To gain an enhanced understanding of the implications of change for staff, management and leadership

· To consider the importance of change in relation to providing quality services and provision

· To look at Kotter’s (1995) change model as an analytical tool in supporting change management in multi-agency environments

· To explore the role of the leader in managing change

· To consider what is involved in the change process

· To examine ways of managing conflict and stress (weekly task)

 

16.2 Change is everybody’s concern

.
 
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‘Change is one of the few certainties in life. It is a phenomenon in all aspects of our lives. Given that human beings experience so much change in their day-to-day lives, it can be difficult to understand why the process of change presents such threat to some people’ (Rodd 2006:p.181). We will explore this further during this week’s session.

.
Change is one of the fundamental features of life and work in early years services.  Those who work with children and families are concerned with growth and development and get worried when services, processes, or standards stay the same. One of the main principles of early years work is consistent and continuous change. Duffy (2010:p.1) makes it clear, ‘high quality early education leads to improve outcomes for children, especially those who are disadvantaged’. There is therefore a duty to ensure that standards do not stay the same but develops and improves in order to meet the needs of children and families.

..
The Irony is often that those whose role focuses on change and managing the change process in others or teams are not always as keen to bring about change in their own professional behaviours and working practices.

 ..

Since the working practices of early years practitioners and other professionals are themselves varied, complex and only arrived at through training and experience, it can be a cause of some concern and insecurity to change working practices that have become familiar through experience. Gasper (2011:p.35) highlights that ‘fear of change and resistance to change’ is one of the challenges and barriers to working with multi-professional teams.
Leaders and managers of multi-professional teams, are responsible for providing the best quality service that they can. This often requires change and development.

..

Alvarado et al., (1999) cited in Rodd (2006) states that, ‘leadership has been, and will continue to be, defined in terms of improving program quality’.

 ..

In this fast changing world this can involve staff being introduced to new methodologies, extend existing skills and develop new ones.
..
..

One of the responses or impact to an environment characterized by fast and accelerating change is to put settings/centres and their team under more pressure. One way to exert this pressure is to place increased emphasis on the way we plan and evaluate services. By tightening up on the way we plan and evaluate can help us become more efficient.

..
It is not plans, which change and improve outcomes, nor evaluation, which raises standards it is the people who do the work – the team. In the end it is the capacity of leaders to bring about change in how professional practice is conducted that will enable an early years setting/centre to develop and improve. This involves working with individuals as well as teams who will have ideas and suggestions about how things should be managed. It is never going to be easy persuading staff to stop using skills s/he has taken all his/her life to develop and hone nor to ask someone to leave a role they have striven to learn about and become familiar with.
..

It is in the management of change and development that leadership capability is most challenged.  Rodd (2006:p.182) believes that, ‘The role of the leader has become instrumental in managing change’ as well as orchestrating change.

 ..
..

16.3 Reflective task

..
 

..

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What changes to your professional practice have you experienced in the past few years?
..

..

How were these changes managed? How did the changes affect you?

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Use your journal to record your responses.

..

..
 

16.4 Resistance to change

..
 
..

Aubrey (2011:p.140) highlights that ‘Anything that threatens a core value is likely to be met with a whole gamut of responses that range from active and passive opposition through to apparent acceptance and support’

..
In her work on how organisations will need to develop in the future, Caroline Palmer (1994) suggested that two assumptions are so deep-rooted in the organisations that they have taken on the strength of incontrovertible truths. The first is the belief that you cannot change human nature; the second that you cannot run organisations by trying to do that. Her emphatic response is ‘Oh yes you can’. If these assumptions were actually true, she argues we would still have slavery in this country.
..
Leaders in the early years settings/centres may not be unfamiliar with the cries: ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’ and ‘that wouldn’t work here. Perhaps what such attitudes reveal is a fear of change, of moving out of our comfort zones into the unknown. Goleman (1999:p.98) believes that ‘People who lack adaptability are ruled by fear, anxiety and deep personal discomfort with change’. Until we learn to see change as a journey of discovery rather than as a threat to our wellbeing, these fears will continue.
..
Given the inhibiting influences of our upbringing, education and experiences, we should not be surprised that we have developed considerable aptitude in resisting change in various forms and guises. As leaders/managers we should realize that resisting change is very purposeful behavior: it is a strategy to protect ourselves in face of threats to self-esteem and psychological survival.
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In our roles and work we invest a great deal of physical, intellectual, emotional and psychological energy in constructing our role images and comfortably occupying the organizational niches we have created for ourselves. When change is proposed or enforced, the role image upon which we have based our behavior is declared null and void and we have as yet no alternative with which to replace it. We may feel deprived of the psychological props upon which much of our personal and professional credibility is built. So we fight to remain intact by seeking to preserve the status quo. One of the ways of doing this is to attack the proposition and find as much fault as possible.
..
The following phrases will have a familiar ring to them and some we will identify as part of our own resistance strategy during some events in our lives:
 ..

· ‘We tried that once before and it didn’t work’

· ‘We don’t have the time’

· ‘Let’s get back to reality’

· ‘We don’t have the resources’

· ‘You can’t teach an old dog new trick’s’

· ‘Not that again’

· ‘We’ve managed so far without it’

· ‘Lets form a working party’

· ‘Let’s wait until things settle down’

· ‘We’ve always done it this way; no one has complained’

 

Away from the personal level, there is a range of reasons for resistance to change (Plant 1987):

 ..

· Fear of the unknown

· Lack of information

· Unwilling to share information

· Misinformation

· Historical factors

· Threat to core skills and competence

· Threat to status

· Threat to power base

· No perceived benefits

· Low trust organisational culture

· Poor relationships

· Fear of failure

· Fear of looking stupid

· Reluctance to experiment

· Custom bound

· Reluctance to let go

· Strong peer group norms

 

Plant (1987) believes that resistance to change comes in two forms: systemic and behavioural. Systematic resistance tends to occur when there is a lack of knowledge, information, skill and managerial capacity. It is almost as if the organisation is crying out: We can’t do this’! Behavioural resistance is more emotionally centred and derives from the reactions, perceptions and assumptions of individuals and groups in the organisation. Lack of trust, for example, is much more difficult to manage than lack of information or the absence of resources.
 ..

The challenge for leaders/managers are often compounded by paranoia – the feeling that the resistance is directed at them personally. Coulson (1985) has provided a valuable insight into the psychology of change, which offers guidance to leaders/managers as they contemplate the way forward. This can be summarised as four key points:
..
 

1.   Initiators of the management of change need to be aware that, when change is suggested, those involved in it want to protect what they see themselves to be

..
 

2.   The way that individuals and teams operate in their particular work situations has come about through a long process of establishing an identity in relation to the demands and expectations raised. They strive to satisfy their own work needs and the expectations of others with the minimum of uncertainty and anxiety. Pressure to alter this way of being tends to be received as threats to the comfortable continuity of living and working

..
 

3.   Suggestions that individuals change their way of doing things and their approaches to the professional tasks for which they have responsibility imply a level of inadequacy in their performance. This threatens the identity they have striven to develop. The natural inclination is to become aroused in the defense of the familiar and established

 ..

4.   Far too often leaders/managers and senior staff experience this defensive tendency as opposition to new ideas and see their task as one of overcoming the perceived resistance.  A battle of wills can ensure which is counter productive to the developments themselves and to the professional relationships which are vital to their success

..
 

Much of this polarisation can be avoided if the following six factors are remembered:

 ..

1.   When people resist change they are not usually working in active opposition to it as such but demonstrating that a threat to their personal and professional security has been experienced

..
 

2.   Leaders/managers need to accept this response as natural and inevitable

..
 

3.   A key task for leaders/managers is to listen to the experience of those involved in change and seek to understand what is felt to be threatened

..
 

4.   Leaders/managers need to be deeply caring and concerned about what it is that staff feel they are having to give up and be seen as ally in this process, not as an opponent

..
 

5.   Leaders/managers also need to help staff protect what they perceive to be under threat while moving them towards new methods and strategies

..
 

6.   In the process of change it is vital to try and avoid undermining individuals’ sense of competence and professional wellbeing by appearing to reject or devalue their established practices.

..
 

Much pain and discomfort can be avoided if some of these key ideas are incorporated in the values and assumptions, which underpin approaches to management and leadership. A great deal of stress within settings/centres with staff can often be linked back to insensitive and clumsy handling of innovation and change.

 ..
..

16.5 Reflective task

..
 
..

..
Recall a time when you were required to make a significant change to the way you did things.

..

How did you feel when the changes were proposed? How did you respond? How do you now view the changes that you then had to make?
..

..

Use your journal to record your responses.
 ..

..

16.6 Dynamics of change

..
What the resistance statements quoted above conceal is the considerable confusion, anger and uncertainty that change often stirs up inside organisations. A further insight into the process of change and the individual is supplied by the concept of ‘zones of uncertainty’ (Schon 1971). This suggests that change involves risks in moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar (Whitaker 1998).

Zones of discomfort
 

 

Safe haven	Danger zones	Unknown
Where we are now	Uncertainty Difficult Discomfort Fear Awkwardness Confusion Incompetence	Where we want/have to be

..
The table above shows the first step out of the comfort of the familiar can be most hazardous involving a range of risks and difficulties. It is important to be sensitive to three particular clusters of feelings:

 ..
 

 

 

 

1. Loss	2. Anxiety	3. Struggle
Of firmly held beliefs and ideas	About required levels of understanding	To survive intact
Of established patterns of behaviours	About new skills	To acquire new competence
Of comfortable habits	About what the future will be like	To gain respect and recognition
Of confidence and self-esteem	About being able to cope
About being seen as different

 ..

Among the most valuable of managerial qualities are those that convey an informed and sensitive understanding of the impact of change and of the difficulties that have to be faced to accomplish it. But change must never be regarded as something that has to be feared, resisted and avoided. Change can present us with new opportunities and exciting prospects. It can focus our thinking and concentrate our ambitions. It is through change that we can realise our wilder dreams.

 ..

While it is vital to be sensitive to apparent difficulties, it is also important to recognize the powerful range of human resources that can be activated within each person. People will tend to underperform if expectations of them are too low. Within settings/centres staff will inhibit the full expression of their skills and abilities if they feel oppressed and underestimated. Over recent years organisational development theory has placed increasing emphasis on the importance of assumptions about staff and their work. Successful leaders/managers have been found to be those who are able to activate the inner resources of their team by building a positive and enhanced climate of assumptions.
 ..

..

16.7 Reflective task

..
 
..

Reflect on your own zones off uncertainty.

..

What things have you had to give up in the course of your life in order to move on?

..

How did you feel about these losses?

..

What sorts of anxiety do you experience when you have to do something you haven’t done before?

..

What sorts of struggles have you engaged in as you have developed and changed?

..

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses

 ..

..

16.8 Kotter’s (1995) Change Model

..
 
..

Developing a model of leadership in multi-agency environments
A key focus of multi-agency leadership is upon the process of change management. Although there are a number of different change management models Kotter’s is one of the most popular (DfES 2005d:p.9).

..

In his work Kotter highlights eight steps to organisation transformation
 ..

Kotter’s change model (Kotter, 1995:p.9)

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

1.   Establishing a sense of urgency
2.   Forming a powerful guiding coalition
3.   Creating a vision	Creating a climate of change
4.   Communicating the vision
5.   Empowering others to act on the vision
6.   Planning and creating short-term wins	Engaging and enabling the whole organisation
7.   Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
8.   Institutionalising new approaches	Implementing and sustaining change

..
The first three steps are concerned with creating the environment for change to happen, and include increasing the urgency for change, building the right team and establishing the vision. Steps four to six look at increasing buy-in to the change model process and creating the drive for change. This involves achieving commitment to the vision, the belief that people are empowered to act, and securing short-term wins. The final step looks at the importance of ensuring that change becomes institutionalised. The different demands of multi-agency working means that often building leadership capacity and extensive distribution of leadership particularly within children’s centres are important strategies for the long-term viability of collaborative working.
(NPQICL Booklet 9:p.33)
 ..

..

16.9 The change process
..

.Most of the changes that we are concerned with when leading and managing teams involve us moving away from known positions out to the unknown (such as integrated or multi-agency ways of working). This often means that we have to give up things we are familiar with and adopt practices or ways of working that we have never tried before often with a short lead in time and with insufficient opportunity for reflection and preparation. Mostly we can take the changes in our stride and modify our professional practice to new needs and requirements. Sometimes we do not like what we are expected to do but realise that adjustments have to be made.
..

.Traditional approaches to change management fail to take sufficient account of the impact that change makes on our lives and how it affects our capacity to function effectively.
..

If we are to manage change well, we need to be sensitive to the change process and how it operates in each team member. Below are four particular dimensions of this process, which are significant:

..
 

1.   Conceptual change:changes to the way we think about our work, conceive our roles and responsibilities, how we assess our effectiveness, how we see the nature of change in our lives and our attitudes to the specific issue of the change under consideration.

 

2.   Emotional change:how we feel about the changes proposed, the sorts of challenges and demands it will make on us, the emotions that will be aroused as we begin to struggle with new ideas and fresh expectations, our hopes of success and our fears of failure.

 

3.   Aspirational change:our hopes and ambitions for our work, our professional journey, our commitment to the early years and its vision for the future, our career aspirations and our hopes for the sort of contribution we want to make.

 

4.   Practical change:how we stop doing things we have always done and start doing things in a different way or doing other things we have never done before, how we adapt to new practices and approaches, how we acquire new skills and how we adopt new behaviours.

 

When we consider going on a journey, it is useful to have a map of the route. It is not enough to be told where we should go and that we have a certain amount of time to get there. We need help with three vital questions:

 ..

1.   What is the purpose of the journey?

2.   What will the journey be like?

3.   What will we do when we get there?

 

Below we will look at another use for the four-link development chain. This can help us to focus on different aspects of a proposed change and help those who will be involved to make the journey in ways which reduce confusion and distress and which provide stepping stones into the future:

 ..

1.   Why is change necessary?

..

2.   What will it involve?

..

3.   The challenges to face?

..

4.   What will it be or look like?

..
In considering these key issues we need to appreciate that change is as much an inner process of adjustment as a practical task. How we feel about what we are expected to do significantly affects how we do it. Leaders/managers need to realise that resistance to do something significantly affects how we do it. They need to realise that resistance to change is one way that individuals and teams register – without actually saying so directly – that they are uncomfortable and perhaps even afraid of what is proposed. Effective leaders/managers never assume that anyone finds change easy or even acceptable. Expressing our concerns about changes, which profoundly affect us, is natural and should be expected. Time needs to be allocated for these concerns so that they can be dealt with sensitively and openly.
 ..

Traditionally we have approached change in a somewhat awkward manner defining the tasks that need to be achieved and driving people on. There are more effective ways, ones that respect natural human concerns and misgivings.
..
The behaviour of leaders/managers in the change process is crucial. Impatience to get things moving tends to indicate an undue preoccupation with the task and a lack of concern with those who will be responsible for implementing it. Proper attention to the process itself will tend to take their worries and concerns seriously as well as to provide the proper and appropriate levels of support.
..
It is the role of leaders/mangers to create the nourishing and conducive conditions for change so that the choices that individuals and the team as a whole makes will be for better outcomes for children and families, growth, challenge, achievement and not a retreat into the familiar and comfortable.

..

We can no longer afford the desperate and somewhat blind drive through the danger zones that we have traditionally taken; we need a diversion, which spends appropriate time in preparation zones where appropriate attention can be given to the conceptual, emotional, aspirational and practical changes involved. We like to have control over our journeys in life and we also like to choose our own method of transport but generally we all get there in the end.

 ..

Effective leadership is the process of helping the team to manage change in in ways that acknowledge the challenges and complexities involved, whilst providing the support required and which do justice to their own potential.
 ..

..

16.10 Reflective task

..
 
…

When you have to change your professional practice, what sort of support do you need?

..

How do you get this support: do you have to ask for it or is it offered?

..

In what specific ways can leaders/managers support staff effectively through times of change?

..

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

..
..
 

16.11 Summary of session

..

During this week’s session you looked at the implications of change for staff, management and leadership. You considered the importance of change in relation to providing quality services and provision. You examinedKotter’s (1995) change model as an analytical tool in supporting change management in multi-agency environments. You alsoexplored the role of the leader in managing change and consideredwhat is involved in the change process.

..

The weekly task will allow you to examine ways of managing conflict and stress.

..
 

16.12 Weekly task

..
 
..

 – Reading Managing Staff in Early Years Settings by Adrian Smith and Ann Langston an E-book – Chapter 11

..

Click here to access in the Library now.

.

Often with change comes resistance to change conflict and stress. Read Chapter 11, then write  a couple of paragraphs on the following:

 ..

1.   Causes of conflict

..

2.   Approaches to conflict management

..

3.   Understanding and management of stress in the workplace

..
 
References and further reading
 

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in the Early Years (2ndEd)

London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Coulson, A. (1985) The Fear of change Unpublished paper

 

Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury

 

Kotter, J. P.  (1995) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review. March–April, 1995.

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

Plant, R. (1987) Managing Change and Making it Stick London: Fontana

 

Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The Early Years (5thEd)SAGE Publishers Ltd
 

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 

Schon, D. (1971) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action London: Temple Smith.

 

Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Routledge.

 

Whitaker, P. (1997) Primary Schools and the Future Buckingham Open University Press

Week 17: Communication and leadership

 

17.1 Aims this week

 

This week we look at  ‘Communication and leadership. 
 

· Identifying what communication is

· Examine the importance of effective communication

· Look at the political context surrounding effective communication and multi-professional working

· Consider communication and the interpersonal world

· Through reflection explore the role of the leader in supporting a culture of effective communication within teams, particularly multi-professional teams

· Explore some of the challenges and barriers to effective communication and group dynamics

17.2 What is communication?

 
…

Jorde-Bloom (1997:p.13) defines communication as the ability to ‘synthesise complex information and communicate that information cogently and succinctly to a variety of different audiences’. Steiner (1999) suggests that communication is our ‘link to others’.

 .

Rodd (2006:p.65) believes that management is distinguished by effective communication and states that ‘successful leadership in the early childhood field is a matter of communication more than anything’. Our work with children, parents and professionals revolve around the need to and the ability to communicate effectively.

 .
.

17.3 Reflective task

.
 

.
What is your definition of communication?

.

What does effective communication look like in practice?

.

When have you experienced effective communication within your setting/centre?

.

What role does your leader/manager play in communicating effectively?

.

Journal your reflection and responses

.
 .

17.4 The Political Context

.

Anning et al (2010:p.107) sums up the history and political context around effective communication well by highlighting how, ‘Information-sharing lies at the heart of the government view of multi-professional teams. The government is clearly responding to the Laming Report (2003), finding that failure to share information contributed to the death of Victoria Climbie’.  The Children Act 2004 and the Childcare Act 2006 are clear about the importance of working closely with multi-professionals to share information and communicate effectively to improve outcomes for children and families

.
.
 

17.5  Communication and the Interpersonal world

.
  
.

‘Effective communication skills are the tools that underpin the ability to act in an emotionally intelligent and competent manner’ (Rodd 2006:p.70). Wong and Law (2002) believe that emotional intelligence enhances our job performance and general satisfaction.
.
Early years work is intensely interactive. Despite grand visions, clear policies and specific plans, the essential business of an early years centre/setting is conducted through an endless sequence of interactions and encounters. Some of these are planned and intentional but perhaps most are incidental. They are created in the spontaneity of the moment out of need, circumstances or location.

 .

Frequently these incidental encounters are interruptions to other interactions or activities and we temporarily disengage to give them attention. It is often in these unexpected encounters that we do our best work – dealing with difficulties, supporting people, making agreements, resolving problems, clarifying action and keeping things moving. We are operating in a process world which straddles on moving through an intricate web of highly charged and dynamic signs, signals, messages, comments, questions, initiatives, demands, requests and responses.
.
Interpersonal skill is therefore crucial to effective leadership and communication (Rodd 2006, Whalley 2008). Effective communication and interpersonal relationships are key elements to providing successful provision and improving practice.

 .

There is enormous potential in our encounters for disagreements, misunderstandings, disputes, tensions, hurt feelings, misplaced trust, betrayal and conflict. Much will depend upon our skills as communicators and how we behave in these snatched moments that so characterize a typical day at work. With increased turbulence, pressure and stress, the quality of these interactions will become ever more important. Success will very much depend upon how we manage ourselves in the interpersonal world. Some of the key factors, which will determine our capability, are:
 .

· Self-awareness:a striving to keep in accurate touch with our own patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and the effects these have on others

.
 

· Authenticity:a deep concern to communicate what we are thinking and feeling without deceit, dissembling and concealment

.
 

· Care:a genuine desire to reach out to others and to be of help sharing ourselves in a gentle ‘non do-gooding’ way

.
 

· Receptivity:being open to approaches from others, however trivial and insignificant they may seem from an objective point of view

.
 

· Understanding:seeking first to understand others before we ourselves seek to be understood by them

.
 

· Empathy:listening with deep interest and sensitivity to the experiences of others and conveying our acceptance and sensing of that experience back to them

 .

· Trust: striving to build relationships of openness, warmth and mutual trust in which there are no lies and hidden agendas

.
 

How can the leader communicate effectively to put their point across?

.

The leader needs to send clear, accurate and unambiguous messages to the whole team (including multi-professionals who are not based or co-located at the centre/setting). Asking yourself the following questions beforehand can be useful:

.
 

· Why am I communicating? What is the purpose or objective?

.
 

· Who do I need to tell? It is easy to avoid talking to the right people or person if we are fearful of the outcomes

.
 

· What do I hope to achieve by this communication?What does the receiver already know? What do they, he or she need to know from me?

.
 

· Where is the best place to communicate? The context will make a big difference to how the message is received. Telling someone what you think after a meeting, where it should have been discussed is too late. Talking to someone in front of others so that they are embarrassed is unprofessional, damaging for your ongoing relationships and will not get results

.
 

· When is the best time to communicate?It is unlikely that the person/persons that you are communicating with will hear you if they are concentrating on something else. Giving bad news on a Friday evening could be disastrous

.
 

· How is the best way of communicating this?Being prepared and knowing what you want to say helps you to be assertive in communication. Even in a meeting, when you may have had limited time to prepare what it is you want to say, thinking about your main points before the words come out of your mouth will be much more effective than talking off the top of your head

.
(Stacey 2009:p.48)

.
.

17.6 Reflective task

.
 

.

Choose a situation where you have to make a request at work or put your point across either to an individual or a group. Think about the ways you would communicate assertively and how you would prepare yourself for this.

.

Use your journal to record your responses

.
 .

17.7 Overcoming existing and potential barriers to effective communication

.
When many centres/settings are now open sometimes 52 weeks a year and often from 8 – 6, where staff work 3 or 4 different shifts, both full time and part time and where a range of different professionals come in and out of the setting for what ever reasons, the underuse of IT, availability of part-time professionals and different ways of working are often seen as a challenge to effective communication. It is therefore essential that there are strategies in place to overcome any barriers to effective communication.

 .

Communication, multi-professional working and group dynamics
Discussion and dialogue are essential in multi-professional working and effective communication.Where there is a culture of reflexivity professionals/practitioners are able to provide activities and services that meet the needs of children and families and provide better outcomes (Davis and Smith 2012).

 .

From her studies, Aubrey (2011:p.116) suggests that, ‘poor communication within and between agencies created problems between those working at different levels within agencies’. But why should this be? Pietroni (1992) believes that some of the challenges between professionals is as a result of the professional language and discourses they use and that jargon is often acknowledged as a barrier to effective communication.

 .

Aubrey’s research reveals how ‘team members felt that formal methods of communications through, meetings, telephone contacts, daily transfer of internal post, information chats and social events’ (Aubrey 2011:p.123) aided good communication.

 .

It is important for professionals to contribute their expertise and feel that their contributions are being acknowledged. However this can be a challenge to inter-professional communication and collaboration. Some of these challenges are outlined below:

 .

· Confusion about parameters of roles and responsibilities – especially in working together whilst acknowledging the importance of specialist expertise

.
 

· Disappointment and frustration about slowness or lack of change

.
 

· Conflicting priorities and work practices

 .

· Little systematic or effective sharing

.
 

· Exclusion of others by the use of jargon

 .
 .

Case Study and Reflective Task

 .

Below are two case studies where Yasmin and Sidney share their very different experiences.

 .
 

Case Study 1   Yasmin is a family support worker in an urban Sure Start Local Programme   ‘ I help run twice weekly parent and children lunchtime groups where a specialist playworker organises a play-based programme for the children, a local catering firm provides a healthy vegetarian snack for all users and one or other of the local team of health visitors tries to pop in. My role is one of outreach into the community to try and encourage those who are otherwise resistant to such groups to make use of the service they offer and then befriend and “actively listen” to parents while their children play. Often I encourage the parents to play with the children or even explore the play resources for themselves. Seema, one of the mums, usually loves the playdough but I am concerned about her at the moment as she is increasingly subdued and one of her children, Mohamed, is much more clingy to her and will not go and play independently as he is used to. Seema won’t talk about anything. I have mentioned it once or twice to the health visitor but got a non-committal response and we don’t have the time to get together more formally to share concerns’.

 .
 .

Case Study 2 Sidney, is a deputy manager of full-day care provision within a children’s centre and room leader of two – three year olds   ‘I am three-year old Peter’s key person; he is an only child and lives with dad who is a lone parent. Peter has complex needs, has limited mobility and is not yet using much recognizable language. Since he started at the centre a year ago, I have liaised closely with dad, his (Mencap) family support worker, health visitor and speech and language therapist (SALT). We all meet bi-monthly to review provision for Peter and this has been working well. At the last meeting, the family support worker raised her concerns that dad is increasingly distracted with work demands and is not spending as much time playing with Peter and nurturing his emotional needs as he used to. Dad felt confident enough to share his own concerns here and the health visitor is now in the process of arranging six weekly weekend respite for Peter to give dad a break’.   (Whalley 2008:p 136/137)

 .
 .

Reflective task

.

Both Yasmin and Sidney are working inter-professionally and in a collaborative manner.

 .

What are the factors that are hindering effective communication and multi-agency working in Yasmin’s situation?

 .

What are the factors that are promoting successful communication and multi-agency working in Sidney’s setting?

 .

Note down your experience of communicating with other professionals, beyond your setting/centre.

 .

How can leaders/managers enable others to contribute to the work of multi-professional working and effective communication?

 .

Overcoming the psychological barriers and group dynamics

Rodd (2006:p.74) highlights the ‘psychological barriers’ that may exist to challenge effective communication. Particularly when information becomes distorted due to professionals having different value stances, beliefs, or principles. She believes that an effective leader should ‘not underestimate the power of psychological barriers to interpersonal interactions’.

 

It is important to remember that personality play a crucial role individuals are different in personality, previous experiences, background, age, cultures and in terms of tolerance levels.

 

Below is case study highlighting such difficulties:

 
 

Case Study – Gemma   ‘I have been in the setting for a number of months and thought I was building up strong rapport with most of the team. One of the aspects I was particularly concerned about was the way that creative activities were planned and organised for the children – especially the over two’s. Historically, staff would set out a limited amount of resources and have a sample of the “finished product” to show to children. Some of the staff had likewise shared their concerns about this so we worked together to implement a much more child-initiated approach where the children were free to choose their own resources, work at their own pace and produce – or not! – their own “end products”. We shared this at our team meeting. Rita was one of the practitioners in the setting who was still rather wary of me and my role but I was not prepared for her reaction to these changes. She did not come to me directly but spoke to the room leader saying that she would have nothing to do with this approach, the parents wanted to see “proper art work” and this approach was going to create a lot of “unnecessary mess” in the base room’.

 

Whalley (2008:p 101)

 

17.8 Reflective task

.
 

.

Think about the scenario from the perspectives of both Gemma and Rita.

 .

Can you suggest ways that Gemma might work with Rita from this point to address the psychological barrier that exists here?

 .

What opportunities for effective communication and leadership does this situation offer?
.
Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.
 .

 .

17.9 Key Reading

.

 Managing Staff in Early Years Settings by Adrian Smith and Ann Langston (1999: p.84 -96), which is available as an E-book. Click here to access in the Library now.
 .

Chapter 6 explores the way in which communication is often taken for granted or left to chance and highlight the importance to settings/centres of effective communication.

 .

Read the chapter then journal your reflections and responses to the following:

.

· The different approaches to communication in settings/centres

· The barriers to effective communication

· Possible strategies to achieve improved communication

 

Finally, consider how the information noted could support discussion within your reflective essay.

.
.
 

17.10 Summary of session

.

During this session we identified what communication is and looks like in practice. We considered the political context around the importance of communicating effectively between multi-professional teams. We explored communication and the interpersonal world (touching briefly on emotional intelligence).

 .

We examined the different ways leaders/managers can put their points across and communicate more effectively. We also looked at overcoming barriers to effective communication, particularly in multi-professional teams. You reflected on case studies in order to enhance effective communication and multi-professional working.

 .
 
 
 
 

17.11 Weekly task

.
 
. 

Your task this week is a reading by the Young Children’s Voices Network Listening as a way of life (Leadership for Listening).

.

Click here to access now.

 
 .

Active listening is essential to effective communication. This reading aims to inspire and support early years practitioners in developing a culture of listening in their setting/centre through effective leadership.

 .

During the week observe when and where you see effective communication happening. Also consider opportunities where this could be developed further. Use your journal to record your responses.

 .
 
 
References and further reading
. 

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2010) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services

Open University Press McGraw Hill Education
 .

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in the Early Years (2ndEd) London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 .

Davis, J. and Smith, M. (2012) Working in Multi-professional Contexts  London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 .

Jorde-Bloom, P. (1982) Avoiding Burnout: Strategies for managing time, space and people in early childhood education, Gryphon House, Mt Rainier

.
Laming, H. (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry. London: HMSO

 .

Pietroni, P. C. (1992) ‘Towards reflective practice – languages of health and social care’ Journal of Inter-professional Care, 6(1): 7-16.

 .
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
.
 
Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Routledge.
.
 

Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Exeter

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Steiner, C. (1999) Achieving Emotional Literacy, Bloomsbury, London

.
 

Whalley, M. E. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings Learning Matters Ltd

 .

Wong, C. S. and Law, K. S. (2002) ‘The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and aptitude’, Leadership Quarterly, vol. 134, pp. 243 -74.

.
 

Young Children’s Voices Network Listening as a way of Life Leadership for Listening:  National Children’s Bureau London

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.ncb.org.uk%2Fmedia%2F74060%2Fleadership_for_listening &oq=http:%2F%2Fwww.ncb.org.uk%2Fmedia%2F74060%2Fleadership_for_listening &gs_l=hp.3…4128.4128.0.5348.1.1.0.0.0.0.115.115.0j1.1.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.2.5.psy-ab.-URUapcZjeI&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43287494,d.d2k&fp=651ff7a61caa450c&biw=1277&bih=641

Accessed 8/3/13

Week 18: Leading and managing a quality provision

 

18.1 Aims this week

   .

This week we look at  ‘Leading and managing a quality provision’. The session is outlined below:

.

· Identifying what quality is

· Looking at the political context and vision for providing a quality provision

· Considering who is responsible for quality in centres/settings (e.g. the leader/manager, local authority, governors, OFSTED)

· Exploring the support leaders/managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision

· Looking at distributed leadership as a tool in supporting leaders/managers to deliver quality provision

· To examine 
‘
A Discussion Paper’ by Dr Jillian Rodd Leadership an essential ingredient or an optional extra for quality early childhood provision.

· Continue to reflect on practice in your leadership journal

.

.
18.2 What is quality?

.

 .Defining ‘quality’ in relation to provision is often complex. After all, how do you define quality? What does it mean to you in your daily practice?
Quality is a subjective concept. Moss (1994:p.1) points out that’

.

‘Definitions of quality reflect the values and beliefs, needs and agendas, influence and empowerment on various ‘stakeholder’ groups having an interest in these services’. He also believes states that, ‘the goals set by stakeholders will reflect their needs, interests, concerns and priorities. These in turn will be influenced by values and beliefs’ (p.4).

.
Deming’s philosophy cited in Neave (1990:p.32) asserts that, ‘Quality Begins with Delighting the Customer Customers must get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. An organization must strive not only to satisfy the customers’ expectations. This is the least one should do. A company should also strive to delight their customers, giving them even more than they imagined possible’.

 .

The word ‘quality’ has become a mantra, especially when put with ‘good quality’. It is widely used and desired, but problematic to pin down and define. There can be two different interpretations of the word ‘quality’. One is descriptive and used as a tool to analyse the substance and sum of something, whilst the other is evaluative. The latter is the approach used by government when it talks of quality. It uses the term in an evaluative way when it wants to assess whether a service meets its aims and objectives (Moss, 1994).

.

Deming’s 14 points (his writings now form much of the basis of the Total Quality Management movement) adapted for centres/settings is a useful tool in pursuing quality. It requires centres/settings to:

.

1.    Pursue continuous improvement of curriculum and learning diligently and constantly

.

2.    Adopt the system of profound knowledge in the centre/setting as prime management tool

.

3.    Build quality into teaching and learning and reduce the inspection of quality into work after the event

.

4.    Build a partnership relationship with staff, parents, and other professionals

.

5.    Constantly improve the system within which the team and children’s learning takes place

.

6.    Take every opportunity to train in new skills and to learn from others (children, parents, colleagues)

.

7.    Lead, do not drive or manipulate

.

8.    Drive out fear of punishment, create joy in learning

.

9.    Collaborate with colleagues from other agencies

.

10.  Communicate honestly, not through jargon and slogans

.

11.  As far as possible create a climate without grades and rank orders

.

12.  Encourage and celebrate to develop your teams pride in their work

.

13.  Promote the development of the whole person in children and staff

.

14.  Wed your team to learning by negotiation with them of a quality experience

.

(Greenwood and Gaunt 1994)
   .

.

The Political Context

.

The government has defined what it considers to be ‘quality outcomes’ for all children. It has set goals for every early years providers in an effort to achieve its objectives. ‘Quality is a crucial aspiration of policy development aspiration of policy development for early childhood. Effective regulation and inspection are seen as a vital aspect of ensuring that leaders/managers meet required standard in delivering services for children and families’ (Pugh and Duffy 2010). The government believes that in order to ensure quality, centres/settings need ‘committed, enthusiastic and reflective practitioners with a breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and understanding’ (DfES, 2005C:P.3).

 .

The government strategy laid out in the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda is that provision works in a way that develops and furthers the five ECM outcomes. A vision for the care and education of children was expressed in the Green Paper, ECM (DfES, 2003) that led to the Children Act 2004. The Childcare Act 2006 is a piece of legislation that ‘attempts to bring cohesion to the quality assurance and inspection of early years provision’ (Pugh and Duffy 2010:p.64).

 .

The government (DfES 2005:p 6-9) wants to see ‘good practice become common practice’ for all settings/centres (particularly children’s centres) by:

..

· Reaching the most disadvantaged families and children

Especially those commonly excluded from main stream services

.

· Increasing consistency in the level of support services offered

In order to improve children’s life chances

.

· Improving multi-agency working

‘The Childcare Act 2006 places a duty on local authorities working with their partners…to improve outcomes for all children and in particular to reduce inequalities’

.

· Grounding (specific to children’s centre) practice in evidence

There is now a significant amount of information on specific interventions that help parents support their children’s development (e.g. structured parenting programmes)

.

· Raising the quality of early years provision

Centres/settings should provide early years provision that is tailored to the needs and interests of each individual child and family

.

· Employing more highly trained and qualified staff

Evidence shows that well qualified staff make the biggest difference to the effectiveness of services for both parents and children.

. 

18.3 Reflective task

.
 

. What is your definition of a quality provision?

.

What does quality mean to you in your daily practice?

.
Journal your reflection and responses

 .18.4 Who is responsible for ensuring quality in settings/centres and what does good practice look like?

 
..

 Jorde-Bloom and Sheerer (1992:p.138) points out that, the leader/manager of a setting/centre is ‘the gatekeeper to quality’. Robins and Callan (2009:p.2) also highlights this stating that, ‘there is a significant relationship between the quality of a setting and its leadership’. Hence the increasing drive for leaders and managers to attend leadership training and development such as the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL).  

 .

Working in partnership with parents and other professionals is key to providing quality provision. See below an example of developing good practice with parents.

 .
 .
 

A Picture of Good Practice
 
The following comments were made by a Children’s Centre leader (Robins and Callen 2009:p.106)
 
The centre has created a learning environment where everyone, including parents, mentor each other by learning together, learning from each other and learning through trial and error. This is something that can be achieved when relationships are trusting and strong. As a centre leader, I am not the expert in everything and it is the team that provides expertise in all areas collectively. The team is strong because of:
 
·         Quality relationships
·         Effective communication
·         Drawing on each other’s strengths.
As a result, the centre has developed an ‘ethos’ that everyone is equal and able to make a valuable contribution.
 

.
‘Research indicates that a number of factors influence parental choice of service, and that quality service is a high priority only for those parents who are aware of quality matters’ (Rodd 2006:p.248).

 .

The core purpose of leaders (particularly children’s centre leaders) is to ‘ensure that their centre really makes a difference to the children and families it serves. How well are those services managed, how well integrated and how effective are they in reducing the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers? Is every child and family better off? Are they safer, healthier, more resilient and better able to enjoy new learning opportunities? (DfES 2007:P.3).

 .

It is clear that leaders/managers (service providers) will be held responsible for the quality of their services/provision, particularly through OFSTED inspections, governors, parents and local authorities (Pugh and Duffy 2010).

.
Below we will explore how.

 .

Governance and leading a quality centre/setting
For clarity I refer to governors or governance but recognise that many different terms are used for these roles, for example, management committees, boards, management groups and trustees.

.
‘Governance is the leadership, direction and control of an organization. The function of governance is to ensure that an organization or partnership fulfills its overall purpose, achieves its intended outcomes for citizens and services users and operates in an effective and ethical manner’ (Independent Commission on Good Governance in Public Services, 2005:p.7)

 .

Good governance underpins effective services, and effective leadership cannot be divorced from good governance (DfES, 2007)

.

The purpose of governance arrangements (particularly in children’s centres) is to support strategic development so that partners can meet local needs, identify priorities, agree objectives and draw up and execute development plans, and monitor progress, quality and standards. Governance arrangements do not replace or take day-to-day responsibility for operational management of the centre as this responsibility has been delegated to the leader/manager. (DfES, 2007).

.
 

Local authorities and the impact on leading quality provision

The Childcare Act 2006 places duties on local authorities (an therefore leaders/managers of settings) under the early years outcomes duty. It requires them to undertake activities to improve well-being for children aged 0-5 years through the delivery of services in a way that is integrated and which recognises the contribution that a wide range of partners play in improving child outcomes. These duties include the following:

.

1.    An English local authority must
a) Improve the well-being of young children in their area
b) Reduce inequalities between young children in their area
    in relation to the matters discussed above

.

2.    In the Act ‘well-being’, in relation to children, means their well-being so far as relating to:
a) Physical and mental health and emotional well-being
b) Protection from harm and neglect
c) Education, training and recreation
d) The contribution made by them to society
e) Social and economic well-being

 .

(H M Government, 2006, chapter 21 in NPQICL Booklet 10:p.6)

 .

The government gives funding to local authorities who intern allocates funding to centers/settings to support outcomes, quality and inclusion and childcare.

.

Children centre leaders/managers generally have an ‘annual conversation’ with the local authority. These conversations are an ‘opportunity for centre leaders to add to the authority’s knowledge of what is working well … Some authorities have included others in the annual conversation, asking for parent witnesses to convey their views and feelings about the centre’s performance’ (NPQICL Booklet 10:p.9).

 .

OFSTED

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. They report directly to Parliament and are an independent and an impartial body. They inspect and regulate services, which care for children and young people, and those providing education and skills for learners of all ages.

.

They work with centres/settings, which are not yet good to promote their improvement, monitoring their progress and sharing with them the best practice they find.

..

18.5 Reflective task

.
 
.

. Reflect on your current centre/setting. Whom do you see as responsible for providing quality and why?

.

What impact do parents have in developing quality?

.

What are the governance arrangements in your centre? If you are unsure find out.

.

How do or can you contribute to developing quality in your centre/setting?

.

Get a copy of your last OFSTED inspection. Highlight the really good things that contribute to developing a quality provision. Then highlight the areas for further development.

.

If you were the leader/manager of the centre/setting what areas would you see as a priority to improve first and why?

.

Journal your reflections and responses.

.
.

18.6 Support leaders/managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision.

.

Robins and Callan (2009:p.92) suggests that, ‘it is easier to motivate a team that is functioning well and achieving because success breeds motivation and motivation secures success’.However Elfer and Wedge (1996:p.53) highlight some of the difficulties of working with others. They are of the view that ‘Agreeing standards at a local level is hard work. If different groups are involved, the process can be painful’, as agreement is needed from all when trying to develop quality and set standards.

 .

Ensuring that all professionals involved in the delivering of quality provision get the support they need, is not easy and can be a difficult process.

.

Pugh and Duffy (2006) point out that improving the quality and level of training and qualifications of practitioners and leaders is identified as the primary way in which higher quality of services will be developed. Hence the reason why training for leaders/managers and practitioners to meet the changing demands of childcare and education agendas, linked with social change, has been a significant focus in government policy, under the remit of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC).

(Gasper 2011).

 .

Quality improvement is a ‘journey towards ever higher quality, involving teamwork, commitment and some thorough self-examination of practice’ (NQIN, 2007:P.7). Hence the development of programmes such as the  NPQICL programme designed to support leaders/managers of children’s centres, The NPQH for Head Teachers and the EYPS for those leading the professional practice  of their colleagues or curriculum across the 0-5 age range.

 .

The NPQICL programme in particular was designed to address the complexity and turbulence that leaders and staff of integrated centres face. Leaders/managers are expected to challenge themselves and each other, to reflect on and question their own and other’s practice and motivation and to support others to do the same. Rather than ask leaders/managers to compromise their values and principles, they are encouraged to ask questions that begin: ‘How can we…?’ (Trodd and Chivers 2010). The weekly task reading will give you more information about the impact of NPQICL programme on Centres..

. 
18.7 Distributed leadership as a tool/model for supporting development and increased responsibility in other when trying to deliver a quality provision.

. Distributed leadership considers leadership as a pluralist rather than individual activity (Southworth, 2004:p.3). Within this, authority to lead comes not from the occupancy of a designated organizational role, but is rather based on one’s knowledge, understanding and ability to lead within a specific context.

 .

Leadership is therefore a form of behaviour and not a position. As a result, all members of the organisation are likely to perform as leaders and followers at different times (Gastil, 1997:p.158).

 .

The main advantage of distributed leadership is that it increases the level of skills and expertise available (Harris, 2002). It is particularly desirable in large organisations where scale of activity is so broad it is difficult for any single individual to retain an overarching view of the big picture, and is seen as particularly effective in promoting organisational change (Hay Group, 2004:p.5). Positive effects have also been identified in terms of employee motivation and job satisfaction (Daft, 2002:p.44).

.
Despite this emphasis on openness and the ability of all being able to lead, the formally designated leader remains key to the development of this culture of shared authority and responsibility. The formal leader also plays a critical role in ensuring that, as leadership becomes ever more shared, the group stays on-task, all members of the group are able to contribute to its progress, and that the agreed cultural norms are respected (Gastil, 1997:p.162).

 .

Terms closely related with distributed leadership include: delegated leadership, democratic leadership and dispersed leadership (Bennett et al, 2002:p.4). These alternative models can be differentiated in the extent to which they place different degrees of emphasis on consultation, delegation and empowerment.

 .
 . 

Why is this model so useful?

Where there is such a broad remit (particularly in Children’s Centres) and spectrum of professionals working with children and families across a wide area, it is impossible for leaders/managers alone to have knowledge and expertise in every field. Nor is it possible for one person to have oversight of the many and various activities associated with the centre. This demands that the leader gives considerable attention to creating a culture in which individuals embrace opportunities to lead. Many leaders/managers are reluctant to ask other to take on what they may see as ‘extra work’. However if this is seen in the spirit of developing others as leaders this barrier is soon overcome.
(Cited in NPQICL Booklet 9:p.27)

 .

How does the leadership structure in your centre encourage distributed leadership?

 .
.

18.8 Key reading and reflective task

.
 
.

This key reading is ‘A Discussion Paper’ by Dr Jillian Rodd. Click 

here

 to read as a pdf file now.

.

Leadership an essential ingredient or an optional extra for quality early childhood provision?

.

Once you have read the paper reflect on discussions so far and answer the following questions:

.

1.    What is the relationship between leadership and quality?

.

2.    Why do you believe that it is important for leaders to have appropriate leadership/management training?

.

3.    Why is effective communication and interpersonal skills fundamental to leaders/managers

.

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

.
.

18.9 Summary of session

.

During this session we identified what quality was and looked like. Considered the political context surrounding quality in centres/settings. Identified who is responsible for quality issues within centres/settings and explored the support leaders and managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision. Finally we explored distributed leadership in supporting quality provision.

.
.

18.10 Weekly task

.

1.    Click here for a report for you to look at highlighting The Impact of the NPQICL on Children’s Centre Leaders and their Centre.

 .

2.    Find out what the difference is between quality improvement and quality assurance. Consider the concept of quality improvement in enabling practitioners to ‘make changes to the way they think and feel about their work’ (NQIN, 2007).

 .
.
References and further reading
.

DfES (2003) The Children’s Workforce Strategy, Consultation Paper. DfES.

 

DfES (2005C) Key Elements of Effective Practice, London: HMSO
DfES (2007) Governance of Sure Start Children’s Centres: Planning and performance management, Nottingham, DfES

 

Gasper, M. (2010) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Greenwood, M. and Gaunt, H. (1994) Total Quality Management for Schools, Cassell

 

Independent Commission on Good Governance on Good Governance in Public Services (the Langlands Commission), (2005) Good Governance Standards for Public Services, London CIPFA, OPM & Joseph Rowntree Foundation

 

Jorde-Bloom, P. and Sheerer, M. (1992) The effects of leadership training on child care program quality, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, vol.7.
Laming, H. (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry. London: HMSO

 

Moss, P. (1994) Defining/Quality: Values, Stakeholders and Processes’ in Moss, P. Pence, A. (Eds) Valuing Quality in Early Childhood Services. London: Paul Chapman Publishing

 

Neave, H. (1990) The Deming Dimension, SPC Press

 

NQIN (2007) Quality Improvement Principles London: National Children’s Bureau

 

NPQICL Booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

NPQICL Booklet 10 (2011) Outcomes Matter Most

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Service
 

Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The Early Years, London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Robins, R. and Callan, S. (2009) Managing Early Years Settings

London: SAGE Publications Ltd
 
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Rutledge.

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice
Learning and working together for children and families
 

WEEK 12

Building and leading teams (part 1)

 

Leadership in practice

 

12

.

1 Aims this week

 

The focus this week is on: ‘Building and Leading Teams’

  

This is outlined below:

 

· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in early childhood settings/centres

 

· Consider leadership of self and others within the team

 

· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most effective in supporting learning and personal development within teams

 

· Engage with relevant theory and reflect on leadership practice

 
 
 

We begin the week by considering the following quote in relation to building and leading teams:

 

‘Effective leadership and teamwork are considered to be factors which contribute to increased self-esteem, high job satisfaction and staff morale, reduced stress and a decreased likelihood of staff burnout’ (Schiller, 1987 cited in Rodd 2006:p.147)

.

 

In order to achieve effective leadership and team work it is important to consider how we lead, guide and support individuals as well as teams.

.
12.2 Follow my leader

.
 

.
A fairly standard definition of leadership is one such as behaviour that enables and assists others to achieve personal and organisational ambitions and goals.

 .

This suggests that leadership might have as much to do with making helpful suggestions as issuing strategic directives (to the team), as much about listening to other people’s ideas as expounding your own, and as much about gentleness as about toughness.

 .

Effective leadership is about helping people and teams to be as effective as they have the potential to be. Leadership which flows from this idea, has some important features:

 .

· Leadership needs to be seen as a function of a group rather than the role of an individual

.
 

· Leadership can be behaviour which gives power away

.

. 

· The aims of leadership should be the increase of self-directedness and the release of energy, imagination and creativity in all those who form the organisation

.
 

· Leadership behaviour also needs to be designed by the followers. Leaders need to seek information from their colleagues about the sort of leadership that suits them best as a team

.
 

· One of the key functions of leadership is to help in the creating of conditions in which people feel motivated to work to the optimum levels of their capacity, energy, interest and commitment

.

 

In striving for more life enhancing forms of leadership, we need to question our very assumptions about people and personal power. This new concept of leadership adopts an approach, which recognises that, the potential and power to work effectively lies within the person as well as the team rather than the leader. We still cling on to assumptions that people cannot be trusted to direct their own work and that they must be instructed, guided, monitored, controlled, rewarded and punished – the theory X position discussed in week 3. Life centred leaders believe in the basic dignity and worth of people and in their capacity for commitment, self-direction and achievement. The effectiveness of a leader is not always in what they give to us but what they refuse to take away: our self-respect, our integrity and our potential to make a significant contribution.

 
 

12.3 Reflective task

.
 

.

Think about leaders you have worked with. What have been the similarities and differences between them in terms of leading the team effectively?

.

What was it they did that gained the teams respect and loyalty?

 .

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.

 

 .

12.4   Communicating within the team

.

Human communication is a hazardous business and the capacity for misunderstanding between people is enormous. It is a tribute to our natural and intuitive capacities that we manage communication without even more disagreements and conflicts

.
 .

In the process of observing others – listening to what they say and watching what they do – we can begin to sense the nature of their experience. But we all have the capacity to dissemble – to say things and do things, which are not congruent with what we are experiencing and feeling. This can lead to confusion, ambiguity, mixed messages and misunderstanding. To be more effective in our team relationships, we need to be aware of and sensitive to the complex nature of the interpersonal landscape between others and ourselves. It is important to note the range of intra-personal factors that combine to make us what we are and how we behave in different communications situations.

 .

We have all been shaped and moulded by our experience. In any early childhood setting each person has:

 

· Grown up with family members who have provided powerful influences and presented models of behaviour

.
 

· Acquired a personal history of communications and developed a unique profile of relationships

.
 

· Developed a repertoire of strategies for interacting within our complex social world

.
 

· Evolved a code of conduct to guide our actions in the world

.
 

· Established a personal and distinctive set of habits and patterns

.
 

Early childhood settings are complex organisations in which a rich network of differentiated experience and belief is in a state of constant interaction. As well as the purely individual and personal elements, communication behaviour in an organisation is affected by a variety of social and institutional structures:

 .

· Status

 

· Authority

 

· Power

 

· Age

 

· Race

 

· Gender

 

· Disability

 
 

Each factor will further affect the ways in which individuals within teams experience organisational life and how pecking orders, chains of command, informal networks and strategic alliances are established.

 .

Over the past twenty years t

here

have been concerted efforts to change oppressive communication cultures particularly those built on prejudices about age, race, class, gender and ability. Many organisations are careful to develop policies, which protect individual groups from exploitation and oppression. Central to these policies are issues of interpersonal communication: the assumptions we make and the language we use.

 .

In most settings communication is conducted in a climate of increasing challenge and complexity, as old assumptions are rejected and new ones developed. It is important not to set standards so high that people are discouraged from communicating through a fear of making mistakes. An effective communication culture encourages development and expects a certain clumsiness as people struggle to find new patterns and processes.

 .

Building and developing relationships within teams is a process of matching the elements of our own unique world with that of others. The greater the similarities, the greater the likelihood of an open and satisfying relationship. Most of the time our behaviour is purposeful, designed to meet needs and satisfy aspirations. In comfortable relationships and teams where we feel a positive sense of connection within the interpersonal landscape, we tend to strive for harmony between our inner world and our behavior. We become more open and trusting to the other person.

 .

In difficult and uncomfortable relationships we experience a sense of tension and dissonance in the interpersonal landscape. This can create feelings of anxiety which can result in behaviour designed to protect our inner world from attack and judgment. We become more closed and defensive.

 .

Clearly the process of communicating within teams is immensely complex and there is a great deal to try and do in such a short time. We cannot plan every communication incident in advance since we do not know when the majority of them are likely to arise or exactly how individuals will react and respond. But with those that we know we are going to initiate, we can try and take some of these important factors into consideration.

 .

Communication is the key vehicle for management and leadership work. Without this encounter there is no management. Interpersonal communication is the main curriculum for management development. Sadly it is the one that is most neglected.
 

 .

12.5    Reading Task

To begin, read: Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in Groups by Karen John. This is available as a journal article from the Library. Clickhere to access the Library now and look for: The Journal of individual Psychology, Vol56, No.4, Winter 2000.  Please read the article then in your learning journal reflect and evaluate your thoughts, ideas and responses.
The journal looks at the following:

 .

· Conflict

 

· The group mind

 

· Fundamental Psychological Needs

 

· Group Dynamics and the Crucial C’s

 

· Group as Container

 

· Constructive Potential of Within-Group Conflict

 

· Sources and Modifiers of Intergroup Conflict

 

· Work, Work Groups, and Power Relations

 

· Contradictions in New Management

 

· Cooperation in the Workplace

 
.

 

12.6 Reflective task

.

 

.

What do leaders/managers need to do to create a working environment in which communication within the team flows freely and everyone feels informed?

.

What strategies have you found effective in your centre/setting?

.

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.

.
 

 

12.7 Leadership as giving

.

The old maxim that it is more blessed to give than to receive is seldom quoted in the literature of leadership and management yet it is one of the most profound ideas behind transformative leadership.

.

Toxic and tyrannical leadership is all about trying to force things out of people and teams – better performances, more time and increased effort – through behaviours that are cajoling, demanding, critical and impatient. Since such behaviours do not seem to produce more effectiveness and commitment in our colleagues, we might assume that it is because we are not doing it well enough. It may not occur to us that the idea is bad, not the implementation of it.

.

A key question for all those involved in early years leadership is: ‘what do I have to give?’ As well as a range of technical and professional offerings, there are some fundamental human attributes, which can make the world of difference to our colleagues in building and leading teams more effectively:
 

.

· Presence – being there for them

 

· Attentiveness – listening to their experience

 

· Understanding – sharing their concerns

 

· Interest – in what they do, hope for and worry about

 

· Concern – showing that we care about them and the work they do

 

· Sensitivity – recognising vulnerabilities and handling them with respect

 

· Responsiveness – telling them how we think and feel

 

 

Sadly such an approach to leadership has not featured in much of leadership and management training. There are many who do practise their leadership in a giving way but some have been led to see it as a soft option and feel that they should be tougher, more demanding and requiring, and less understanding and concerned.

 

As well as considering leadership from the leaders own perspective, it is important to have regard for the needs that we have of our leaders. Good leaders seem to have an infinite capacity not only to satisfy vital needs but also to anticipate them. Such capacity grows out of four key qualities:

 

· Genuine interpersonal behaviour

 

· Warmth, care and respect

 

· Empathy

 

· Belief in the potential of others to grow and develop

 

 

All of us are needy. Failure to get some very specific needs satisfied – particularly those that contribute to our pattern of motivation – can result in loss of confidence and enthusiasm, a sense of not being involved, a feeling of being unappreciated and undervalued, and a reduction of job commitment and energy. These are expensive losses, which few organisations can afford. Good leadership is the delicate process of anticipating these needs in others and striving to satisfy them. This is as true for learners in classrooms as it is for practitioners. 

.

Effective carers and practitioners are those whose who are able to reach out to children, to appreciate and understand their needs and seek specific and individual ways of satisfying them. Diana Whitmore (1886: p.78) asserts that,

 

‘If children were to experience adults as welcoming, guiding and supportive, they would discover the wonder of life, the joy of exploring, the beauty of understanding’.

 

So too as leaders and managers we can help to create these felt experiences in our colleagues and teams if we seize opportunities to respond to some basic needs:

.
 

· Feeling trusted: conveying to colleagues a belief in their abilities; resisting temptation to increase control when things are difficult; expressing delight at successes and achievements

.
 

· Feeling heard and listened to: constantly seeking opportunities to listen to colleagues experiences, asking questions, seeking information, eliciting opinions, delving into details and showing genuine interest and concern

.

 

· Feeling noticed and appreciated: taking note of contributions and providing regular positive feedback on successes and achievements

.

 

· Feeling encouraged: empathising with the demands and challenges of the work colleagues do, providing support for problem solving and action planning

.

 

· Feeling appropriately challenged: building a climate of systematic and continuous improvement, constantly helping others to seek new angles, new possibilities and new ideas

.

· Feeling valued: providing detailed and specific feedback so that all colleagues feel a deep sense that their contributions and efforts are valued

.
 

· Feeling informed: keeping information flowing freely through the centre, checking that colleagues know what is going on

.
 

· Feeling supported: offering practical help as well as moral support, getting alongside colleagues as often as possible, providing a helping hand and a listening ear

.

12.8 Reflective task

.

 

.

Where do you stand on this issue of leadership as giving?

.

In your experience do teams tend to work more effectively when they are supported and trusted rather than directed and controlled?

.

Use your journals to reflect and record your responses.
 

12.9   Eyeball to eyeball

.

It is how we behave in the many face to face situations of setting/centre life that determines whether we influence and support children, families and colleagues effectively. David Howe (1993) also suggests that much depends on our capacity to be more aware of and respond to the basic needs of individuals and teams. He singles out three particular needs:

 

· Feeling accepted: Leaders can help us to feel part of the past, present and future of the centre. They can help us to believe that we have an important part to play in the scheme of things and that our contribution is significant and special

 

· Feeling acknowledged: leaders can notice us. They can draw attention to those parts of our work, which interest and delight them. They can provide encouraging feedback and also draw our achievements to the attention of others

 

· Feeling entitled: leaders can help us feel ok to be who we are, to have the feelings we experience, and to hold the beliefs that are important to us

 

The effect of these leadership behaviours is to affirm our self-esteem and to help us feel worthwhile both about ourselves and about our contribution to the development of the centre/setting. Central to this is the capacity of leaders to understand their teams (and individuals) to engage with them in the struggle to achieve what is important to them in their lives. Perhaps it is the very process of having an interest taken in what is important to us that has such a powerful effect on our professional energy and commitment.

.

Leaders can really make an impact by doing the following:

.

 

· Helping others to figure out what they would be proudest of doing in their role and then helping them to do it

 

· Helping others to satisfy important personal goals through their professional role

 

· Helping others to search for and discover, meaning in the daily grind

 

· Helping others to activate and honour the small voice deep inside them which seeks expression and understanding

 

· Helping others to become who they really want to be

 

We are discovering more and more about those behaviours which seem to make a significant difference in enabling others to release and express more of their potential. The more we do this, the more we see leadership as a process of human nourishment and less a matter of keeping people to their contracts. Development also involves the process of unfolding: encouraging others to allow what is deep within themselves to come to the surface of their being rather than to lay hidden and concealed.
 

The influential psychologist Abraham Maslow (1978) observed that at every moment in our lives we have a choice between the joys of safety and the joys of growth. Far too often in the troubled and conflictual cultures of many settings/centres we choose the safety option, thereby denying ourselves the possibility of development and growth but also preventing our skills and qualities from having a greater impact on the centre/setting itself. Perhaps the very heart of leadership is helping people do justice to their own potential.
 

12.10    Reflective task

.

 

.

Consider the three basic needs referred to above: feeling accepted, feeling acknowledged and feeling entitled.

.

What ways have leaders/managers you have worked with helped you and the team to satisfy these needs?

.

What happens when leaders/managers ignore them?

 

 

12.11      Interruptions

.

Most leadership and management interactions in settings/centres are very brief, the majority lasting less than a minute. Most of these interactions are activated by interruptions by someone who has a need or someone who may be able to satisfy it. This means that a great deal of our leadership work is incidental arising out of the moment. While it is clearly not possible to plan for what is unpredictable, it is possible to be prepared for interruptions when they occur.

 

This preparedness is mostly to do with our communication capability and the sorts of signals and messages we convey to our children, families and colleagues when they interrupt us and when we interrupt them.
 

Our impact on those we interact with is directly related to the look on our face, the words we choose, the tone of voice we use to utter them and the quality of attentiveness we provide when the colleague replies.

.

Below are some of the crucial elements that are present in any leadership encounter:

.

 

· The messages we convey before we utter the first word

· The opening gambit, and its impact on the other person

· Showing our feelings about the other person

· Disclosing our own thoughts and feelings about the business we are discussing

· Encouraging the other to disclose their own thoughts and feelings

· Getting to the point clearly

· Asking for what we want

· Responding to the other’s concerns, worries, enthusiasms and needs

· Conveying understanding of their position

· Clarifying the details of agreements made

 

It is our capacity to keep aware of these factors that is vital in leadership encounters where the success of the communication is much more dependent on the leader than it is on the other.
 

Leadership by interruptions is at the heart of what we do. Every interruption offers us a specific and unique opportunity to make a positive difference. It is through interruptions that we are given the chance to do some of our very best work.

 

12.12 Reflective task

.

How do interruptions feature in your work and that of your leader/manager?

.

 

Do you experience interruptions as an irritant or use them as an opportunity?

.

Use your journals to record your responses.
 

 

  

 

12.13  Summary of session

.

This week’s session began by looking at how leadership behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals. We also began to explore communication within teams. You then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs, Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the team.

.

 

12.14 Weekly task

.

 .

Read the Journal of Workplace Learning Emerald Article: The two faces of leadership: considering the dark side of

leader-follower dynamicsbyChristine Clements and John B. Washbush. Click  here
  to access now.

 

 Abstract

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A number of years ago, David McClelland, in his studies of managerial motivation, identified two types of power: egoistic (using others for personal gain) and social (facilitating group cooperation and effort for the achievement of the general good). Clearly, the power motive is intimately related to the concept of leadership. However, over the last several decades, a school of thought has arisen which equates leadership with “doing the right thing”. Defining leadership in such an ethical light is both misleading and dangerous. At the same time, little has been done to address the role of followers in the influence process, and transformational models of leadership have exacerbated this problem. Failure to acknowledge the role of followers and to examine the “dark side” of leader-follower dynamics can distort effort to understand influence processes in an authentic way. This paper provides balance to this discussion and identifies a number of critical implications for leadership education.

 

Use your journals to reflect on the article and record your responses.
 

 

 

References

Clements, C. and Washbush, J. (1999) The two faces of leadership: considering the dark side of leader-follower dynamics”, Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 11 Iss: 5 pp. 170 – 176

 

Howe, D. (1993) On Being a Client: Understanding the Process of Counselling and Psychotherapy London: Sage

 

Karen, J. (2000) Basic Needs, Conflict, and Dynamics in Groups: The Journal of Individual Psychology, Vol. 56, NO. 4, Winter 2000

University of Texas Press

 

Maslow, A. (1978) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
London: Penguin

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

Whitmore, D. (1986) Psychosynthesis in Education

Wellingborough: Turnstone Press
 

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This week’s session began by looking at how leadership behaviour can enable and assist individuals and teams to achieve their personal and organizational ambitions and goals. We also began to explore communication within teams. You then engaged in reading an article by Karen John (Basic Needs, Conflict and Dynamics in Groups). The idea of leadership as giving was discussed and the possibility of using interruptions as a way of making a positive difference to individuals and the team.

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Week 13: Building and Leading teams (part 2)

 
 

13.1 Aims this week

 .

Last week we began to:

  .

· Develop an understanding of the practice of leadership in early childhood settings/centres
 
· Consider leadership of self and others within the team
 

· Reflect on the specific aspects of leadership likely to be most effective in supporting learning and personal within teams

 .
 

 .

The focus this week continues with: ‘Building and Leading Teams’ This is outlined below:

  .

· Further develop an understanding of effective leadership in practice

 

· Be aware of nutrients and toxins and the impact they can have on individuals as well as the team

 

· Explore effective leadership and team building

 

· Consider group dynamics and team development

 

· Look at building and leading multi-disciplinary teams

 

· Continue to reflect on practice

 
 
 

13.2 Valuing staff prior experiences

  .

The importance of individual’s life histories and biographies
Each of us brings to our work in the early years a unique life history. Your own life history may have some features that are similar to those of colleagues but no one will have experienced life events in the same way or drawn from them the same insights and understanding that have given meaning to your life. Our progress through life will have been helped or hindered by the impact that various people have had on us.

  .

In the struggle to understand the complexities of leadership work in a multi-professional setting, we believe it is vital that the leader allows and facilitates the to staff team to share and explore the life events that have shaped their lives and from which their core professional values, visions, and beliefs have come from.

  .

In her study of women leaders, Valerie Hall (1996) writes about what she calls ‘leadership antecedents’ and how these have combined to develop leaders with powerful visions and effective skills

.
  

.

Margy Whalley (1999) in her study of successful early years leaders, demonstrated how leadership awareness is significantly increased when, as part of a leadership learning community, leaders are invited to depict in graphic form the life incidents and events they believe helped them to develop their leadership attributes.

  .

In any staff team, it is important for colleagues to identify and recognise different professional perspectives and practices and to understand how and why these have developed. In an integrated centre, staff will have come from different professional traditions such as early education and children’s social work, community services, health or adult educators. The diverse traditions espouse different bodies of knowledge, professional practice and sometimes significantly different value positions. The members of a multi-professional team may have followed circuitous career routes and all will have influenced the role that different team members assume within the centre.

 .

Often we can know a colleague for years and not discover some of the skills and expertise they have gathered in their lives.
  .

13.3 Reflective task

 .
 
.

 .
Rodd (2006:p.145) believes that, ‘Good leaders build teams by making everyone feel that their contribution matters’.

 .

Do you feel that your contribution matters in your setting/centre? If yes, how? If not, why not? Journal your response.

 .
 

13.4 Effective leadership and team building

 .
 

..

In the early childhood field a high importance is put on effective leadership. Sylva and Siraj-Blatchford (2003) affirms that high quality provision is achieved through the quality and qualifications of the leader (Rodd, 2006), as this supports the raising of standards and sets the standard for other staff to follow. One of the basic principles of effective leadership is to enable the rest of the team to be as effective as them (NPQICL booklet 9). This can be achieved by supporting staff encouraging positive attitudes and behaviours.

  .

Rodd (2006:p.61) states that, an effective leader:

 .

· Uses personality to lead by example, thereby stimulating a particular team culture

· Is innovative and is perceived to be making things better by improving team morale and productivity

· Ensures that constructive relationships are established and maintained with the staff and peers (particularly multi-agency teams).

· Focuses attention on behaviour or the situation, not on the person

· Fosters the self-esteem and confidence of team members

· Coaches team members (including multi-professional staff) to improve their performance

 

The following attributes can support the demands of team leadership:

 .

· Adaptable (the capacity to be responsive and innovative)

· Energetic (action-oriented and committed to work)

· People-orientated (values people and communicates openly)

· Quality-conscious (pays attention to standards of excellence and consumer needs and expectations)

· Uniting (clarifies the common purpose and promotes the value of cooperation)

· Entrepreneurial (autonomous and able to articulate the uniqueness of the service)

· Focused (self-disciplined and predictable)

· Informal (a relaxed, straightforward approach to people and situations)

 .
 

When building and leading teams it is vital that the leader is aware of the positive contribution or impact that they bring to that team.

  .

Neugebauer and Neugebauer (1998) cited in Rodd (2006:p.163/164) highlights a five-step framework for team building:

  .

1.     Set achievable goalswhich have been mutually agreed by members of the team. Ensure that the more assertive staff members do not dominate the process, especially during discussion at team meetings

 .
 

2.     Clarify roles.Team members work most effectively when their roles are clear to all and free of conflict. Each staff member should be aware of who is responsible for what. While it will be easier to clarify the formal roles that need to be fulfilled, the informal roles that relate to the internal functioning of the group should not be forgotten (Johnson and Johnson, 2003). The leader needs to analyse the group to make sure that someone is taking responsibility for the team task roles (initiating, information-gathering, opinion-seeking and giving, clarifying, elaborating, energising, summarising and consensus-testing) and team maintenance roles (encouraging, harmonising, compromising, gatekeeping, observing and standard setting)

 .
 

3.     Build supportive relationships.Build in opportunities for feedback, develop trust and provide resources to stimulate a cooperative team spirit. Teams where members feel supported are more likely to deal (rather than ignore) common team difficulties such as role ambiguity, role conflict and group conflict

 .
 

4.     Encourage active participation in order to capitalise on the knowledge and skills of individual team members. In an atmosphere of acceptance, team members will be encouraged to contribute their ideas, opinions and energies. Being part of a cooperative venture can be extremely motivating for team members, and this will increase productivity.

 .
 

5.     Monitoring team effectiveness. There is little point in putting time and energy into team leadership and the team-building process if the team is not achieving the goals effectively or if the team is unhappy with the process. Regular opportunities need to be provided by the leader to assess the extent of goal achievement and how well members are working together as a team. This review process can help identify any problems and establish their cause, as well as assisting with future planning.

  .
 

13.5 Reflective task

 .
 

 ..

Reflect on your current team in relation to the five-step framework and teambuilding.

  .

In your journal make a list of the positive ways in which your leader builds and leads the team. Them make a list of the areas that you believe could be developed further and why.

  .
 

13.6 Leadership nutrients and toxins

 .

Leadership nutrients work to build and develop, a positive, friendly, enriching and ambitious organisational culture and is one way of creating job satisfaction this can be achieved in the following ways, through:

 .

· Commitment

· Energy

· Enthusiasm

· Enterprise

· Responsibility

· Collaboration

· Initiative

· Confidence

Not all leaders will achieve consistency of success in this, but many will be able to create conditions for positive growth and development and work constantly to avoid the consequences of a downward spiral.

  .
 

Our capacity to work effectively towards centre goals is determined by a variety of factors:

 . 

· We want to feel a sense of satisfaction, both about the work we do and about its contribution to the organisation itself

 .
 

· We want to feel able to exercise preferences, both about the conduct of our own roles and responsibilities, but also in decisions about organisational direction and practice

 .
 

· We want to feel interested in, and concerned about, our work so that our efforts and contributions are in tune with our purposes in life

 .
 

· We want to feel challenged to use our best abilities to achieve worthwhile goals

 .
 

· We want to enjoy the process of work and to experience pleasure in being part of the organisational enterprise

  .

Leadership toxins can inhibit our potential and are those verbal and non-verbal behaviours that trigger certain emotions such as fear, anger, resentment and jealousy. These are often painful feelings that are activated when we are on the receiving end of particular types of communication behaviour:

 .
 

· Having our ideas rejected or stolen

· Being over directed

· Facing constant, criticism

· Not being listened to

· Being ignored

· Being misunderstood

· Being judged

 

Effective leadership is about helping individuals and the team to be as effective as them. This involves supporting the team to use their talents, skills and abilities free from restriction and encouraging them through positive attitudes and behaviours.

  .

If the above behaviours (toxins) are employed consistently and systematically they can undermine self-esteem, confidence, commitment and professional ambition, (Whitaker, 1998). They can also create an environment of:
  .

· Compliance

· Apathy

· Lethargy

· Caution

· Cynicism

· Mistrust

·

Fear

 
 

13.7 Group dynamics and team development

  .

Iceberg Theory

.
 

.This theory has been around for over 60 years. Sigumnd Freud (original 1938; republished by Penguin in 2004) said ‘The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water’. In the leadership context the theory liken the staff of an organisation to icebergs ina. Above the water line we can observe individuals behaviour, however below the waterline which is unobservable lay people’s hopes, interests, intentions, feelings, fears, needs, assumptions, psychological wounds, expectations, experiences, belief.

  .

Freud (1938) believes that just as seven-tenths of an iceberg is below the surface of the water, so it is suggested, is seven-tenths of each person. Only the heads stick out above the water line, however, the icebergs collide and bump into each other, sometimes with quite damaging consequences. For many of the staff in most organisations, the real business of relationships is below the surface. Dislikes, fear, resentment, mistrust, envy, jealousy and anger and frustration remain submerged. What is needed for the water level to be lowered so that these interpersonal issues can be exposed, explored and resolved. The superficial veneer of niceness, which characterises the human culture in many organisations, is counterproductive and damaging to effective teamwork, inhibiting to the development of staff and counter to the purposes that most organisations are intent on pursuing.

  .

The iceberg theory can be useful particularly for practitioners who work in children centres as they often find it difficult to challenge and they avoid conflict. There is this veneer of ‘niceness’ amongst staff. However there is often an underlying current of resentment between individuals and teams. Using the iceberg theory in supervision for example can help to break down barriers and encourage challenge and development in a respectful way.

  .

Understanding something about group dynamics – or collective interactions and behaviour patterns that can be observed in groups – as well as the individual needs of group members, can help leaders limit their potential destructiveness in the workplace.

  .

Our fundamental social need to feel we belong or connect is extensively studied in research underpinned by attachment theory. When we feel disconnected from the team, we become overly dependent on others and seek undue attention from the leader and team members. Our need to feel capable is the subject of research on competence motivation or its absence among school-aged children.  When we feel we do not count, are insignificant or overlooked by others, we feel hurt and apply ourselves to hurting back.

  .

The most effective leaders are those who appreciate and devote time to addressing group dynamics and team development and do what they can to help each team member meet their individual needs to belong, to feel competent and significant and to feel able to feel able to handle difficult situations.

(NPQICL booklet 9:p.12-24)

  .
 

13.8 Reflective task

 .
 
 ..

Think of your setting, an organisation you know well or have worked in. Use the iceberg theory to generate descriptions and explanations of how the cultures of these organisations operate/operated?

 .

In your journal record your responses.

  .
 
 

13.9 Building and leading a multi-disciplinary team

 .
Experience tells us that one of the best ways of establishing a strong multi-agency team is to give practitioners and professionals time together. The Co-location of some services, for example health visitors, midwives, family support workers, outreach workers and volunteers sharing office space or a staff room, fosters a better understanding of the aims and priorities for each agency and helps to identify common ground. Leaders have a responsibility to ensure issues of confidentiality need to be addressed specially with information sharing protocols and particular care must be taken if there is any possibility of volunteer workers having access to information about local families.

  .

A strong, skilled leader with enthusiasm must articulate the settings/centre vision that has been agreed. The vision should then be translated into realistic goals and common targets so that all team members are clear that they share the same goals. These should be simply expressed, written down, understood by all. The roles and responsibilities of each partner agency need to be defined and incorporated into a centre agreement that sets out ground rules.

 .

Joint training by practitioners and professionals are crucial to the success of building effective teams and multi-professional working. It provides opportunities for staff to get to know one another, cooperate, discuss and make joint decisions.

  .

It is also particularly important to be clear about the line management structure where this is shared between a line manager in the multi-agency service and a member of the practitioner’s own professional based elsewhere.

 .

In multi-agency teams it is helpful if there is a common line management system that applies to all members of the team, including those who are supervised externally. It is essential that practitioners retain a link with colleagues in their home agency who can give professional support and oversight.

 . 

Regular opportunities for the whole team to meet together to review progress, share experiences and discuss closer working are advisable to really establish a sense of team identity. It sounds simple but with heavy caseloads it can be difficult for everyone to keep in touch. Leaders of settings/centres must ensure that time is made for this important activity.

  .

Appropriate referral systems and procedures should be developed, and mutually agreed, by all agencies involved. Agreement should be reached on the exchange between agencies of information about individual cases. Agreement should be reached on using the Common Assessment Framework to undertake needs assessment.

(DfES 2006:p16 &17)

  .
 

The features, values and approaches discussed when leading teams are important to any early childhood manager/leader when trying to make things happen and by ensuring that staff are involved and participate in the numerous activities and services at the centre/setting.

 .

13.10 Key reading

 . 
This week’s reading by Valerie Wilson and Anne Pirrie

Multidisciplinary Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review of Issues

 .

Click here to access it as a PDF file now. Please read in particular chapter 3 What encourages multidisciplinary team working? And chapter 4 What inhibits multidisciplinary team working?

  .

In light of this week’s session and the above reading how can leaders and managers support, build and lead multidisciplinary teams more effectively? Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

  .
 

13.10  Summary of session
 .

During part 2 of building and leading teams we looked at the importance of valuing staff prior experience, their individual life histories and biographies. You explored what it means to be an effective leader and the importance of supporting and building teams. You also reflected on Neugebauer and Neugebauer (1998) five-step framework for teambuilding in relation to your experience of teambuilding. We briefly discussed leadership nutrients and toxins and the impact on organisational culture. You explored the iceberg theory in terms of group dynamics and team development. Finally we looked at building and leading multi-disciplinary teams.
  .

13.13 Weekly task

 .

 .
This week’s task is a reading by Bruce Tuckman – Developmental Sequence In Small Groups. Click here to access it as a PDF file now.

 

What does Tuckman say about the process of team/group development?

.

How do these relate to your current team?

.

Journal your responses

 .
 
References
 .

DfES, (2006) Sure Start Children’s Centre Practice Guidance

 .

Freud, S (2004) An outline of Psychoanalysis, London, Penguin Books

 .

Hall, V. (1996) Dancing on the Ceiling: A study of women managers in education, London, Paul Chapman

 .

Johnson, D. W and Johnson, F. P (2003) Joining Together: Group Theory and Process, international edn, Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights

 .

Neugebauer, B and Neugebauer. Eds (1998) The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organisations, vol. 2, Child Care Information Exchange, Perth.

 .

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools. 

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Service

s.

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Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

 .

Sylva, K. and Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2003) Effective Provision of Pre-school Education, Department for Education and Skills, London

 .

Tuckman, B (1965) Developmental Sequence In Small Groups Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland

http://aneesha.ceit.uq.edu.au/drupal/sites/default/files/Tuckman%201965

 Accessed 20/1/13

.
 

Valerie, W. and Anne, P. (2000) Multidisciplinary Teamworking Beyond the Barriers? A Review of Issues The Scottish Council for Research in Education

 .

Whalley, M. (1999) Women Leaders in Early Childhood Settings: A dialogue in the 1990s, PhD thesis, University of Wolverhampton

 .

Whitaker, P. (1998) Managing schools, Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann

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Week 14

Professionalism/professional identity and the role of the leader in supporting continuous professional development

 

14.1 Aims this week

 

The focus this week is to consider ‘Professionalism and professional identity’. The session is outlined below:
 

· To identify what professionalism means?

· To explore what professional identity is within the changing early childhood field

· Consider the role of the leader in identifying developmental needs and supporting professional development

 
 

14.2 What does professionalism mean and who is a professional?

.
 

…

Professionalism can mean different things to different people and coming to an agreed definition within the Early Childhood community can be complicated (Stacey 2009). Friedland (2007) describes professionalism in the Early years as a ‘ball of knotted string’. She describes the ‘knots’, which need untying in order to untangle the ball and reach a clear definition.

..

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines professionalism as ‘The competence or skill expected of a professional’. Bolam et al (2005:p.vi) cited in Stacey (2009:p.74) acknowledges the complications in defining professionalism and suggests that all staff members ‘with qualifications or not, are members of professional learning communities. They distinguish between being ‘professional’ and ‘being a professional’. They highlight the difference between how people perform their jobs and the qualifications they hold. In their study on effective professional learning communities they raise the importance of all professionals adopting professional standards, which should be consistent, whatever the nature of their jobs.

 ..

Frost (2005:p.11) cites a definition of professionalism by Simms et al. (1993) as:

..

· A systematic body of knowledge and monopoly of powers over its applications

· A self-regulating code of ethics, emphasizing values such as respect for the confidentiality of the client

· The sanction of the community at large

· Control over the profession’s own qualification and entry procedures

· An altruistic orientation

 
 

I believe that professionalism includes and involves the way one conducts themselves, their accountability and integrity, someone that wishes to achieve the highest standards within their profession e.g. as an early years practitioner, health visitor, social worker, teacher. Moyles (2001) believes that a passion for the work they do is a vital attribute of professionalism and that professionals what ever their field must be able to articulate these (what they do) clearly.

 .

In her article ‘The Personal is Professional: professionalism and the birth to three practitioner’ Manning-Morton (2006:p.42) contends that ‘professionalism’ in the early years must also be understood in terms of the day-to-day detail of practitioners’ relationship with children, parents and colleagues; relationships that demand high levels of physical, emotional and personal knowledge and skill’.

 .

Osgood (2006:p.9) suggests that professionalism within the Early Years community can sometimes become denigrated and is not always valued in the wider society where professionalism is still defined through masculinised attributes (such as rationality, competiveness, individualism). It is therefore vital that practitioners justify and promote their work with children and families to increase their professional status. This can be achieved if they reflect on their work with children and families stating what they are doing and why?
.
14.3 Key Reading

.This week’s reading Reconstructing Professionalism in ECEC: the case for the ‘critically reflective emotional professional’ is by Jayne Osgood and is a challenging read. To read it now as a pdf file, please click here 

 .

The paper draws on a study with a group of early childhood practitioners and offers a critical reappraisal of the notion of professionalism.

.
Once you have read the article use your journal to evaluate your practice, reflect and record your responses.

 .
 

14.4 Professionalism, multi-professional working, a case study and reflective task..

…
The move towards multi-professional collaboration, and approaches such as the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge (HM Government, 2005) for all those working with children and families, will necessitate a much more fluid and broader definition of professionalism (Whalley 2008).

 ..

Case Study Anne is deputy head of a nursery school and children’s centre. She began as a nursery nurse and has now completed the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL). Her passion for her work comes over when she describes what she does and as she says, the qualifications she has attained have, in some ways enhanced this. She feels confident in her role, but perhaps most important, happy to think outside the box. She uses her position to fight tooth and nail for what she believes is right and with others, can make sure things on offer benefit the children. She is developing her own role as she works across services. Demanding good practice, she is prepared to argue for resources and, having always developed good relationships with others outside, makes demands on them, placing the child at the centre of her actions. For example, she felt perfectly justified in insisting that a social worker, who had wanted a mother and child to come to her office, came to meet them at the centre because there was a possibility that the child would be taken into care. Anne argued that the child needed to be in an environment where she felt secure, not in an unfamiliar office.

.
 

What is your definition of professionalism? Do you consider yourself as being a professional? What does it mean to be a professional?

 .

What attributes of professionalism would you look for when colleagues are interacting with:

 .

· Children;

· Parents and carers;

· Other professional colleagues?

 

Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and responses.

 
 .

14.5 Professional Identity – Who am I?

.

Anning et al (2006:p.7) suggests that professional identity can best be described by  ‘a particular knowledge base set of values, training and standing in the community’. Bligh (in Patrioni 1994) described each profession as behaving like a tribe, with individual members being nurtured in distinctive ways. Professional tribes generally choose their own leaders and establish their own pecking orders. They impose sanctions on any member of the tribe who does not conform. They expel members who begin to demonstrate the characteristics of another tribe.Anning et al (2010:p.71) believes that ‘in demanding that professionals work in multi-professional teams, we are expecting them to confront, articulate and lay to one side the distinctiveness of their long-established ‘tribal’ beliefs and behaviours’.

 .

Gasper (2011:p.74) refers to identity in terms of professional heritage, which he suggests is ‘embedded practices, language and ethos of individual professions which individuals who join become familiar with as they gain experience and progress within the parameters of the profession’. In partnership working it is essential to acknowledge the way that professional heritage affects points of view, language and perceptions of situations.
 .

Hudson (2002) argues that there are three potential barriers to multi-professional working:
. .

1.   Professional identity: How professionals understand themselves and their roles

.

2.   Professional status: How professional hierarchies and different distribution of powers are generated

 3.   Professional discretion and accountability: How professionals exercise discretion on a day-to-day basis.

.
 Below is a case study, which highlights Bertham et al (2002:p.53) view that ‘there can be a tension when ‘child-centred’ and ‘parent-centred’ goals are in competition’.

 .
 

Case study Janice, an outreach worker, had a serious fall-out with a practitioner working in the children’s room. They were both committed to good practice and held similar values about what they were offering. But it was their views on working with parents that differed. Janice saw her priority as supporting the parent, visiting her regularly and encouraging her to come to the groups at the children’s centre and to sign up for vocational training. Barbara felt that Janice was spending too much time with the mother and not enough on the child who was attending very irregularly.

 .

A number of themes about the implications of working with other professionals particularly in multi-professional teams for ‘who I am’ may emerge and are highlighted below:
 .

· Professionals need to be confident enough about the professional identity they bring to multi-professional teams to feel safe about transforming it

· In the period of adjusting to their new roles and assuming different identities in multi-professional teamwork, professionals may feel anxious, destabilized and vulnerable

· Those who are peripheral to core team membership, or feel isolated as lone representatives of a profession in a team are likely to feel less well supported in transitions to new identities

· Professionals believed that the labels assumed by or imposed on them had an impact on how they were perceived both within and outside the team

· The perceived status of professions in the world beyond the team did impact on team functions, but these barriers could be broken down over time

· Professionals who struggled through the pain of transformation to the gains of a new professional identity reported an enhanced sense of ‘who I am’.

(Anning et al 2010:p75)

 
 .

14.6 Reflective task

.
 
…

.How would you describe your professional identity?

.
Has it changed in recent years?

.

If you work in a multi-disciplinary setting/centre, is there a shared identity? Or do people hold on to their original professional identity? What impact does this have on the way you work?

 .
Use your journal to reflect and record your thoughts and responses.
.
 

….

Now go to the Discussion Board (left hand menu) and record your ideas and debate your ideas about professionalism with other students.

 .
 

14.7 Supporting professional development

..

Aubrey (2011:p.139) highlights that ‘the continuing need to update and reinforce specific professional knowledge and skills in a fast-changing world remains clear’.Bertram and Pascal (2002:p.ii) suggest that research carried out internationally supports the idea of investment in professional staff as a preferable strategy for raising quality.

. 

Apart from going on individual external training to develop new skills, knowledge and understanding Siraj-Blatchford and Manni (2006:p.9) found that effective settings used both ‘informal-formal’ approaches to staff development. These include observations, formal meetings, reflection of ones work and individual feedback from managers/leaders and colleagues.
 .

The political context in supporting professional development

.

The government’s vision set out in the 2020 Children and Young Peoples Workforce Strategy (DCSF, 2008a:p.6) is that everyone (particular professionals) working with children and young people will be:
 .

· Ambitious for every child and young person

· Excellent in their practice

· Committed to partnership and integrated working

· Respected and valued as professionals

 

The Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) report (Sylva et al, 2004) concluded that qualifies teachers, specifically pedagogical leaders, had the most impact on the quality of children’s experiences, particularly in relation to outcomes in pre-reading and social development. The EYFS practice guidance, taking note of this, stresses the need for well-qualified and experienced staff who understand and engage in informed reflective practice-both individually and in groups and work collaboratively within the setting to share knowledge, question practice and test new ideas – with high aspirations for every child (DCSF, 2008c:p.9).

 .

Training for practitioners and leaders to meet the changing demands of recent childcare and education agendas, linked with social change, has been a significant focus in government policy, under the remit of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC). The National College for School Leadership are responsible for the form, content and delivery of the training programme for leaders and managers in Early Years Childcare and Education. The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a qualification that provides an experimental, developmental programme centred on reflective practice, which aims to encourage leaders/managers to explore value, based practice and extends their knowledge and understanding of leadership and multi-agency working. This qualification aims to raise quality and standards.

 .
  
…

The role of the leader in identifying need and supporting professional development

.

Commitment to support of staff and continuous professional development (CPD) is considered a key factor to effective leadership (Aubrey, 2011).

.

It is the responsibility of the leader particularly in Children’s Centres to encourage and support staff development and multi-professional working.

.

Studies on multi-professional working have found that some professionals feel that they lack the knowledge and skills needed for integrated working. Davis and Smith (2012:p.9) believe that there are ‘benefits to be gained from working with a range of people with different types of experience …it suggests professionals that hide their feelings, errors or uncertainties (in an effort to keep up an apparently professional appearance) are actually unprofessional’.

.

They suggest it is important for professional to examine their preconceptions and those of their colleagues in order to create collaborative and interrelational approached to learning and professional development.

 .

Regular supervision is primarily the responsibility of the centre leader/manager. During supervision the leader/manager helps staff to use their knowledge and skills effectively in carrying out their daily duties and to enhance and deepen their understanding of professional values. Whalley (2001) believes that the ranges of supervisory responsibilities are complex for managers/leaders to address. It is therefore important to consider, personal and self-development as well as team-building issues.

 .

Rodd (2006:166) suggests that the ‘professional support provided through effective supervision helps staff to listen to and accept constructive feedback and learn to reflect upon and critically evaluate their own performance’. Whalley (2001:p.139) observes that supervision ‘becomes a mechanism of quality control because it involves target-setting, goals and reviews’. When carried out effectively supervision allows for a forum where difficult issues can be discussed openly and in confidence – for example underperformance, sickness level. These days supervision is viewed as a form of continuous staff development where staff competence is the main objective. It is also seen as a way of communicating to staff that they are important to the organisation and that their contribution is valued (Rodd 2006).

 .
 

Capability learning cycle – A tool for supporting development (Michael Schartz and Rob Walker (1995:p.106)
The value of using the Capability learning cycle lies in the distinction that it makes between our conscious operations and our unconscious ones – in other words, between the actions we take with full self-awareness and those we take without consciously having to think about them. This model refers to ideas of continuous growth ad development and all round achievement.

.

The theory suggests that in learning, particularly in relation to the application of skills and knowledge, we move through a series of stages as discussed below:

 .

Unconscious incapability

I am not aware of what I do not know or cannot do until I become aware of a need or a deficiency; then I move to:
Conscious incapability

I am now aware of something I do not know or cannot do. I can now choose whether I want to gain new knowledge or develop a new skill, or not.

If I do, then as I undertake new learning I am aware of being in a state of:
 

Conscious capability

I need to concentrate and think in order to understand new knowledge or to perform the new skill. As I absorb new knowledge and I become skilful I move into a state of:

 

Unconscious capability

New knowledge takes place alongside other acquired knowledge and I am able to apply the new skill without deliberate attention to the techniques involved. Some capabilities I can undertake on automatic pilot.
(NPQICL Booklet 9, 2011:p.6)

 .

The above model is particularly useful to leaders/managers in relation to professional development work.  Development and growth requires individuals to move through the stages. This can be achieved more successfully when learning is supported and encouraged. The key for leaders is being able to intervene to activate capability awakening, rather than incompetence panic, with the damage associated with feelings of anger, guilt, shame and a sense of not being good enough.

 ..

It is the conscious capability stage that sensitive encouragement and support are most crucial. Developing new professional capability involves taking risks, and when those tentative first steps are judged negatively, then development is jeopardised and growth inhibited.

 ..

14.8 Reflective task

.
 
..

Think of a recent time when you decided to learn something new – skill, or taking up a new interest. Use the learning capability model to identify your experiences at each of the stages.
 

 .

14.9  Summary of session

..

During this session you looked at the definition of professionalism and professional identity. You explored the role of the leader in identifying and supporting professional development. You briefly considered the political context around supporting professional development, particularly for the leader/manager. Finally you looked at the Capability Learning Cycle which is a tool leaders can use to support development and learning.
 ..

14.10 Weekly task

..

The second key reading is by Malcolm Knowles – The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy Revised and updated. Click here to access it as a pdf file now.

…
Malcolm Knowles’ attempts to develop a distinctive conceptual basis for adult education and learning via the notion of andragogy became very widely discussed and used. He also wrote popular works on self-direction and on group work (with his wife Hulda). His work was a significant factor in reorienting adult educators from ‘educating people’ to ‘helping them learn’ (Knowles 1950: 6).

 …

Use your journal to reflect on your own learning and development and record your thoughts and responses.

 …

 References and further reading

 

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2006) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services: research policy and practice Maidenhead. Open University Press.

 …

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2010) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services,

Open University Press McGraw Hill Education

 …

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in Early Years (Second Addition)

SAGE Publications Ltd

 …

Bertram, T. Pascal, C. Bokhari, S. Gasper, M. Holtermann, S (2002) Early excellence centre pilot programme. Second evaluation report 2000-2001. Research report 361. Nottingham: DfES.

 …

Bertram, T. Pascal, C. (2002) Early Years Education: an international perspective. London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

www.inca.org.uk

(Accessed 1/2/13)

 …

Bolam, R., McMahon, A. Stoll, L et al (2005) Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities. Research report 637 Bristol: University of Bristol

…

Davis, M. and Smith, M. (2012) Working in Multi-professional Contexts

A Practical Guide for Professionals in Children’s Services

 …

DCSF (2008a) 2020 Children and Young People’s workforce strategy. Nottingham: DCSF.

 …

Friedland, R. (2007) Professionalism in the early years. In Wild, M. and Mitchell, H. (eds) Early Childhood Studies: Reflective Reader, Exeter: Learning Matters

 …

Frost, N. (2005) Professionalism, Partnership and joined Up Thinking. Dartington: Research in Practice

 …

Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities Sage Publications

 …

HM Government (2005) Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children’s Workforce. Nottingham:DfES

 …

Hudson, B. (2002) Interprofessionality in health and social care: the Achilles’ heel of partnership, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 16(1).
 …

Knowles, S. (1970) The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy Revised and Updated

http://www.hospitalist.cumc.columbia.edu/downloads/cc4_articles/Education%20Theory/Andragogy

 Accessed 2/2/13

 …

Manning-Morton, J. (2006) The Personal is Professional: professionalism and the birth to threes practitioner London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
…

Moyles, J. (2001) Passion, paradox and professionalism in Early Years education. Early Years, 21 (2): 81-95.
…

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 …

Osgood, J. (2006) Deconstructing professionalism in early childhood education: resisting the regulatory gaze. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7 (1): 5-14.

 …

Petrioni, P. (1994) Inter-professional teamwork: its history and development in hospitals, general practice and community care (UK), in A. Leathard (ed.)

…

Going Inter-professional: Working together for Health and Welfare. London: Routledge.

 …
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 …

Schratz, M. and Walker, R. (1995) Research as Social Change, London, Routledge

 …

Sylva, K. Melhuish, EC, Sammons, P. Siraj-Blatchford, I. Taggart, B. (2004)The effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project: London: DfEE/Institute od Education, University of London.

.

..
 

Siraj-Blatchford, I. Manni, L. (2006) Effective leadership in the early years sector: the ELEYS study. London Institute of Education, University of London

www.gtce.org.uk/shared/contentlibs/126795/93128/120213/eleys_study

 
 …

Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and collaboration in Early Years Settings, Learning Matters Ltd
 …

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice

…
Whalley, M. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings, Learning Matters Ltd

 …

Whalley, M. (2001) ‘Working as a team’, in Contemporary Issues in the Early Years. Working collaboratively for Children, 3rdedn, ed. G. Pugh, Paul Chapman, London

 support you at this time?

 

.

If you were planning the agenda for your first mentoring session, what three key items would be on the agenda and why?
.

How do you believe mentoring sessions could support you in leading a multi-professional team?

.
 

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

 
.

.

 WEEK 15

15.8 Journaling as a way of supporting CPD

.
During week one I introduced journaling to you as a way of reflecting on your practice, their thoughts and responses for the module. Today we look at journaling in terms of supporting CPD.

 
.

Journaling brings together both personal and professional development. The aim is to use your journal to express your thoughts and feelings, to review and learn from them and to record what you think should do next. One way to think about journaling is teaching yourself through your professional practice. You think about your initial learning in order to make improvements for yourself and your setting/centre. Anything that could improve your job for you could also improve your settings/centres outcomes for the children and families using services or activities.

.

Journaling is a conscious way of making sure that you help yourself. You have many ways of helping others to solve problems. Being a participant in your own problem-solving strategies and making sure that you move yourself on can be strengthened by journaling.

.

.
 

15.9  Summary of session

.

This week’s session continued the theme of professional development and you began by exploring reflective supervision through two journal articles, examining its role in CPD. You also looked at appraisals the appraisal process and its links to identifying and supporting development. We then considered mentoring and the mentoring experience and finally you reflected on the role of journaling as a way of supporting CPD.

 
.

.

 

15.10 Weekly task

.

 

.

This week’s task involves reading the following article:

.

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

Leading a learning organisation: Australian early years centres as learning networks. Kaye Colmer.

Vol.16, No. 1, March 2008, 107-115

.
 

The article discusses the following:
 
.

· Leading a dynamic learning organisation

· Managing as well as leading change

· Motivating and inspiring staff through shared leadership and reflectivity

· Creating devolved leadership structures and engaging with complexity

· Developing an early years centre as an effective learning networks

· Key strategies in developing early years centres as learning networks

 
 

Use your journal to reflect on the article your own setting/centre. Record your thoughts and responses.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References and further reading

 

Barden, N, 2002, Supervision and the new ethical framework, Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, 13, 6, 28-29

 

British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, (2002), Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Rugby, BACP

 

Colmer, K. (2008) Leading a learning organisation: Australian early years centres as learning networks Lady Gowrie Child Centre, Adelaide, Australia

 

Cullan, S. (2006) What is mentoring? In Robbins, A. (ed) Mentoring in the Early Years. London: Paul Chapman.

 

NPQICL booklet 2 (2011) Journaling for integrated centre leadership National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

NPQICL booklet 3 (2011) Leadership mentoring support National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

Parsloe, E. (1992) Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing: A Practical Guide to Developing Competence. London Kogan Page.

 

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice

Learning and working together for children and families

Weigand, R. and Weatherston (2007) The issue and why it matters

Journal of ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families

 

ZERO TO THREE, November 2007 Volume 28 No.2,

Week 16: Managing Change with multi-professional/disciplinary teams

 

16.1 Aims this week

 

This week we look at  ‘Managing Change with multi-professional/disciplinary teams)’. The session is outlined below:
 

· To gain an enhanced understanding of the implications of change for staff, management and leadership

· To consider the importance of change in relation to providing quality services and provision

· To look at Kotter’s (1995) change model as an analytical tool in supporting change management in multi-agency environments

· To explore the role of the leader in managing change

· To consider what is involved in the change process

· To examine ways of managing conflict and stress (weekly task)

 

16.2 Change is everybody’s concern

.
 
..

‘Change is one of the few certainties in life. It is a phenomenon in all aspects of our lives. Given that human beings experience so much change in their day-to-day lives, it can be difficult to understand why the process of change presents such threat to some people’ (Rodd 2006:p.181). We will explore this further during this week’s session.

.
Change is one of the fundamental features of life and work in early years services.  Those who work with children and families are concerned with growth and development and get worried when services, processes, or standards stay the same. One of the main principles of early years work is consistent and continuous change. Duffy (2010:p.1) makes it clear, ‘high quality early education leads to improve outcomes for children, especially those who are disadvantaged’. There is therefore a duty to ensure that standards do not stay the same but develops and improves in order to meet the needs of children and families.

..
The Irony is often that those whose role focuses on change and managing the change process in others or teams are not always as keen to bring about change in their own professional behaviours and working practices.

 ..

Since the working practices of early years practitioners and other professionals are themselves varied, complex and only arrived at through training and experience, it can be a cause of some concern and insecurity to change working practices that have become familiar through experience. Gasper (2011:p.35) highlights that ‘fear of change and resistance to change’ is one of the challenges and barriers to working with multi-professional teams.
Leaders and managers of multi-professional teams, are responsible for providing the best quality service that they can. This often requires change and development.

..

Alvarado et al., (1999) cited in Rodd (2006) states that, ‘leadership has been, and will continue to be, defined in terms of improving program quality’.

 ..

In this fast changing world this can involve staff being introduced to new methodologies, extend existing skills and develop new ones.
..
..

One of the responses or impact to an environment characterized by fast and accelerating change is to put settings/centres and their team under more pressure. One way to exert this pressure is to place increased emphasis on the way we plan and evaluate services. By tightening up on the way we plan and evaluate can help us become more efficient.

..
It is not plans, which change and improve outcomes, nor evaluation, which raises standards it is the people who do the work – the team. In the end it is the capacity of leaders to bring about change in how professional practice is conducted that will enable an early years setting/centre to develop and improve. This involves working with individuals as well as teams who will have ideas and suggestions about how things should be managed. It is never going to be easy persuading staff to stop using skills s/he has taken all his/her life to develop and hone nor to ask someone to leave a role they have striven to learn about and become familiar with.
..

It is in the management of change and development that leadership capability is most challenged.  Rodd (2006:p.182) believes that, ‘The role of the leader has become instrumental in managing change’ as well as orchestrating change.

 ..
..

16.3 Reflective task

..
 

..

.
What changes to your professional practice have you experienced in the past few years?
..

..

How were these changes managed? How did the changes affect you?

..

Use your journal to record your responses.

..

..
 

16.4 Resistance to change

..
 
..

Aubrey (2011:p.140) highlights that ‘Anything that threatens a core value is likely to be met with a whole gamut of responses that range from active and passive opposition through to apparent acceptance and support’

..
In her work on how organisations will need to develop in the future, Caroline Palmer (1994) suggested that two assumptions are so deep-rooted in the organisations that they have taken on the strength of incontrovertible truths. The first is the belief that you cannot change human nature; the second that you cannot run organisations by trying to do that. Her emphatic response is ‘Oh yes you can’. If these assumptions were actually true, she argues we would still have slavery in this country.
..
Leaders in the early years settings/centres may not be unfamiliar with the cries: ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’ and ‘that wouldn’t work here. Perhaps what such attitudes reveal is a fear of change, of moving out of our comfort zones into the unknown. Goleman (1999:p.98) believes that ‘People who lack adaptability are ruled by fear, anxiety and deep personal discomfort with change’. Until we learn to see change as a journey of discovery rather than as a threat to our wellbeing, these fears will continue.
..
Given the inhibiting influences of our upbringing, education and experiences, we should not be surprised that we have developed considerable aptitude in resisting change in various forms and guises. As leaders/managers we should realize that resisting change is very purposeful behavior: it is a strategy to protect ourselves in face of threats to self-esteem and psychological survival.
..
In our roles and work we invest a great deal of physical, intellectual, emotional and psychological energy in constructing our role images and comfortably occupying the organizational niches we have created for ourselves. When change is proposed or enforced, the role image upon which we have based our behavior is declared null and void and we have as yet no alternative with which to replace it. We may feel deprived of the psychological props upon which much of our personal and professional credibility is built. So we fight to remain intact by seeking to preserve the status quo. One of the ways of doing this is to attack the proposition and find as much fault as possible.
..
The following phrases will have a familiar ring to them and some we will identify as part of our own resistance strategy during some events in our lives:
 ..

· ‘We tried that once before and it didn’t work’

· ‘We don’t have the time’

· ‘Let’s get back to reality’

· ‘We don’t have the resources’

· ‘You can’t teach an old dog new trick’s’

· ‘Not that again’

· ‘We’ve managed so far without it’

· ‘Lets form a working party’

· ‘Let’s wait until things settle down’

· ‘We’ve always done it this way; no one has complained’

 

Away from the personal level, there is a range of reasons for resistance to change (Plant 1987):

 ..

· Fear of the unknown

· Lack of information

· Unwilling to share information

· Misinformation

· Historical factors

· Threat to core skills and competence

· Threat to status

· Threat to power base

· No perceived benefits

· Low trust organisational culture

· Poor relationships

· Fear of failure

· Fear of looking stupid

· Reluctance to experiment

· Custom bound

· Reluctance to let go

· Strong peer group norms

 

Plant (1987) believes that resistance to change comes in two forms: systemic and behavioural. Systematic resistance tends to occur when there is a lack of knowledge, information, skill and managerial capacity. It is almost as if the organisation is crying out: We can’t do this’! Behavioural resistance is more emotionally centred and derives from the reactions, perceptions and assumptions of individuals and groups in the organisation. Lack of trust, for example, is much more difficult to manage than lack of information or the absence of resources.
 ..

The challenge for leaders/managers are often compounded by paranoia – the feeling that the resistance is directed at them personally. Coulson (1985) has provided a valuable insight into the psychology of change, which offers guidance to leaders/managers as they contemplate the way forward. This can be summarised as four key points:
..
 

1.   Initiators of the management of change need to be aware that, when change is suggested, those involved in it want to protect what they see themselves to be

..
 

2.   The way that individuals and teams operate in their particular work situations has come about through a long process of establishing an identity in relation to the demands and expectations raised. They strive to satisfy their own work needs and the expectations of others with the minimum of uncertainty and anxiety. Pressure to alter this way of being tends to be received as threats to the comfortable continuity of living and working

..
 

3.   Suggestions that individuals change their way of doing things and their approaches to the professional tasks for which they have responsibility imply a level of inadequacy in their performance. This threatens the identity they have striven to develop. The natural inclination is to become aroused in the defense of the familiar and established

 ..

4.   Far too often leaders/managers and senior staff experience this defensive tendency as opposition to new ideas and see their task as one of overcoming the perceived resistance.  A battle of wills can ensure which is counter productive to the developments themselves and to the professional relationships which are vital to their success

..
 

Much of this polarisation can be avoided if the following six factors are remembered:

 ..

1.   When people resist change they are not usually working in active opposition to it as such but demonstrating that a threat to their personal and professional security has been experienced

..
 

2.   Leaders/managers need to accept this response as natural and inevitable

..
 

3.   A key task for leaders/managers is to listen to the experience of those involved in change and seek to understand what is felt to be threatened

..
 

4.   Leaders/managers need to be deeply caring and concerned about what it is that staff feel they are having to give up and be seen as ally in this process, not as an opponent

..
 

5.   Leaders/managers also need to help staff protect what they perceive to be under threat while moving them towards new methods and strategies

..
 

6.   In the process of change it is vital to try and avoid undermining individuals’ sense of competence and professional wellbeing by appearing to reject or devalue their established practices.

..
 

Much pain and discomfort can be avoided if some of these key ideas are incorporated in the values and assumptions, which underpin approaches to management and leadership. A great deal of stress within settings/centres with staff can often be linked back to insensitive and clumsy handling of innovation and change.

 ..
..

16.5 Reflective task

..
 
..

..
Recall a time when you were required to make a significant change to the way you did things.

..

How did you feel when the changes were proposed? How did you respond? How do you now view the changes that you then had to make?
..

..

Use your journal to record your responses.
 ..

..

16.6 Dynamics of change

..
What the resistance statements quoted above conceal is the considerable confusion, anger and uncertainty that change often stirs up inside organisations. A further insight into the process of change and the individual is supplied by the concept of ‘zones of uncertainty’ (Schon 1971). This suggests that change involves risks in moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar (Whitaker 1998).

Zones of discomfort
 

 

Safe haven	Danger zones	Unknown
Where we are now	Uncertainty Difficult Discomfort Fear Awkwardness Confusion Incompetence	Where we want/have to be

..
The table above shows the first step out of the comfort of the familiar can be most hazardous involving a range of risks and difficulties. It is important to be sensitive to three particular clusters of feelings:

 ..
 

 

 

 

1. Loss	2. Anxiety	3. Struggle
Of firmly held beliefs and ideas	About required levels of understanding	To survive intact
Of established patterns of behaviours	About new skills	To acquire new competence
Of comfortable habits	About what the future will be like	To gain respect and recognition
Of confidence and self-esteem	About being able to cope
About being seen as different

 ..

Among the most valuable of managerial qualities are those that convey an informed and sensitive understanding of the impact of change and of the difficulties that have to be faced to accomplish it. But change must never be regarded as something that has to be feared, resisted and avoided. Change can present us with new opportunities and exciting prospects. It can focus our thinking and concentrate our ambitions. It is through change that we can realise our wilder dreams.

 ..

While it is vital to be sensitive to apparent difficulties, it is also important to recognize the powerful range of human resources that can be activated within each person. People will tend to underperform if expectations of them are too low. Within settings/centres staff will inhibit the full expression of their skills and abilities if they feel oppressed and underestimated. Over recent years organisational development theory has placed increasing emphasis on the importance of assumptions about staff and their work. Successful leaders/managers have been found to be those who are able to activate the inner resources of their team by building a positive and enhanced climate of assumptions.
 ..

..

16.7 Reflective task

..
 
..

Reflect on your own zones off uncertainty.

..

What things have you had to give up in the course of your life in order to move on?

..

How did you feel about these losses?

..

What sorts of anxiety do you experience when you have to do something you haven’t done before?

..

What sorts of struggles have you engaged in as you have developed and changed?

..

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses

 ..

..

16.8 Kotter’s (1995) Change Model

..
 
..

Developing a model of leadership in multi-agency environments
A key focus of multi-agency leadership is upon the process of change management. Although there are a number of different change management models Kotter’s is one of the most popular (DfES 2005d:p.9).

..

In his work Kotter highlights eight steps to organisation transformation
 ..

Kotter’s change model (Kotter, 1995:p.9)

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

1.   Establishing a sense of urgency
2.   Forming a powerful guiding coalition
3.   Creating a vision	Creating a climate of change
4.   Communicating the vision
5.   Empowering others to act on the vision
6.   Planning and creating short-term wins	Engaging and enabling the whole organisation
7.   Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
8.   Institutionalising new approaches	Implementing and sustaining change

..
The first three steps are concerned with creating the environment for change to happen, and include increasing the urgency for change, building the right team and establishing the vision. Steps four to six look at increasing buy-in to the change model process and creating the drive for change. This involves achieving commitment to the vision, the belief that people are empowered to act, and securing short-term wins. The final step looks at the importance of ensuring that change becomes institutionalised. The different demands of multi-agency working means that often building leadership capacity and extensive distribution of leadership particularly within children’s centres are important strategies for the long-term viability of collaborative working.
(NPQICL Booklet 9:p.33)
 ..

..

16.9 The change process
..

.Most of the changes that we are concerned with when leading and managing teams involve us moving away from known positions out to the unknown (such as integrated or multi-agency ways of working). This often means that we have to give up things we are familiar with and adopt practices or ways of working that we have never tried before often with a short lead in time and with insufficient opportunity for reflection and preparation. Mostly we can take the changes in our stride and modify our professional practice to new needs and requirements. Sometimes we do not like what we are expected to do but realise that adjustments have to be made.
..

.Traditional approaches to change management fail to take sufficient account of the impact that change makes on our lives and how it affects our capacity to function effectively.
..

If we are to manage change well, we need to be sensitive to the change process and how it operates in each team member. Below are four particular dimensions of this process, which are significant:

..
 

1.   Conceptual change:changes to the way we think about our work, conceive our roles and responsibilities, how we assess our effectiveness, how we see the nature of change in our lives and our attitudes to the specific issue of the change under consideration.

 

2.   Emotional change:how we feel about the changes proposed, the sorts of challenges and demands it will make on us, the emotions that will be aroused as we begin to struggle with new ideas and fresh expectations, our hopes of success and our fears of failure.

 

3.   Aspirational change:our hopes and ambitions for our work, our professional journey, our commitment to the early years and its vision for the future, our career aspirations and our hopes for the sort of contribution we want to make.

 

4.   Practical change:how we stop doing things we have always done and start doing things in a different way or doing other things we have never done before, how we adapt to new practices and approaches, how we acquire new skills and how we adopt new behaviours.

 

When we consider going on a journey, it is useful to have a map of the route. It is not enough to be told where we should go and that we have a certain amount of time to get there. We need help with three vital questions:

 ..

1.   What is the purpose of the journey?

2.   What will the journey be like?

3.   What will we do when we get there?

 

Below we will look at another use for the four-link development chain. This can help us to focus on different aspects of a proposed change and help those who will be involved to make the journey in ways which reduce confusion and distress and which provide stepping stones into the future:

 ..

1.   Why is change necessary?

..

2.   What will it involve?

..

3.   The challenges to face?

..

4.   What will it be or look like?

..
In considering these key issues we need to appreciate that change is as much an inner process of adjustment as a practical task. How we feel about what we are expected to do significantly affects how we do it. Leaders/managers need to realise that resistance to do something significantly affects how we do it. They need to realise that resistance to change is one way that individuals and teams register – without actually saying so directly – that they are uncomfortable and perhaps even afraid of what is proposed. Effective leaders/managers never assume that anyone finds change easy or even acceptable. Expressing our concerns about changes, which profoundly affect us, is natural and should be expected. Time needs to be allocated for these concerns so that they can be dealt with sensitively and openly.
 ..

Traditionally we have approached change in a somewhat awkward manner defining the tasks that need to be achieved and driving people on. There are more effective ways, ones that respect natural human concerns and misgivings.
..
The behaviour of leaders/managers in the change process is crucial. Impatience to get things moving tends to indicate an undue preoccupation with the task and a lack of concern with those who will be responsible for implementing it. Proper attention to the process itself will tend to take their worries and concerns seriously as well as to provide the proper and appropriate levels of support.
..
It is the role of leaders/mangers to create the nourishing and conducive conditions for change so that the choices that individuals and the team as a whole makes will be for better outcomes for children and families, growth, challenge, achievement and not a retreat into the familiar and comfortable.

..

We can no longer afford the desperate and somewhat blind drive through the danger zones that we have traditionally taken; we need a diversion, which spends appropriate time in preparation zones where appropriate attention can be given to the conceptual, emotional, aspirational and practical changes involved. We like to have control over our journeys in life and we also like to choose our own method of transport but generally we all get there in the end.

 ..

Effective leadership is the process of helping the team to manage change in in ways that acknowledge the challenges and complexities involved, whilst providing the support required and which do justice to their own potential.
 ..

..

16.10 Reflective task

..
 
…

When you have to change your professional practice, what sort of support do you need?

..

How do you get this support: do you have to ask for it or is it offered?

..

In what specific ways can leaders/managers support staff effectively through times of change?

..

Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

..
..
 

16.11 Summary of session

..

During this week’s session you looked at the implications of change for staff, management and leadership. You considered the importance of change in relation to providing quality services and provision. You examinedKotter’s (1995) change model as an analytical tool in supporting change management in multi-agency environments. You alsoexplored the role of the leader in managing change and consideredwhat is involved in the change process.

..

The weekly task will allow you to examine ways of managing conflict and stress.

..
 

16.12 Weekly task

..
 
..

 – Reading Managing Staff in Early Years Settings by Adrian Smith and Ann Langston an E-book – Chapter 11

..

Click here to access in the Library now.

.

Often with change comes resistance to change conflict and stress. Read Chapter 11, then write  a couple of paragraphs on the following:

 ..

1.   Causes of conflict

..

2.   Approaches to conflict management

..

3.   Understanding and management of stress in the workplace

..
 
References and further reading
 

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in the Early Years (2ndEd)

London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Coulson, A. (1985) The Fear of change Unpublished paper

 

Gasper, M. (2011) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury

 

Kotter, J. P.  (1995) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review. March–April, 1995.

NPQICL booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

 

Plant, R. (1987) Managing Change and Making it Stick London: Fontana

 

Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The Early Years (5thEd)SAGE Publishers Ltd
 

Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
 

Schon, D. (1971) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action London: Temple Smith.

 

Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Routledge.

 

Whitaker, P. (1997) Primary Schools and the Future Buckingham Open University Press

Week 17: Communication and leadership

 

17.1 Aims this week

 

This week we look at  ‘Communication and leadership. 
 

· Identifying what communication is

· Examine the importance of effective communication

· Look at the political context surrounding effective communication and multi-professional working

· Consider communication and the interpersonal world

· Through reflection explore the role of the leader in supporting a culture of effective communication within teams, particularly multi-professional teams

· Explore some of the challenges and barriers to effective communication and group dynamics

17.2 What is communication?

 
…

Jorde-Bloom (1997:p.13) defines communication as the ability to ‘synthesise complex information and communicate that information cogently and succinctly to a variety of different audiences’. Steiner (1999) suggests that communication is our ‘link to others’.

 .

Rodd (2006:p.65) believes that management is distinguished by effective communication and states that ‘successful leadership in the early childhood field is a matter of communication more than anything’. Our work with children, parents and professionals revolve around the need to and the ability to communicate effectively.

 .
.

17.3 Reflective task

.
 

.
What is your definition of communication?

.

What does effective communication look like in practice?

.

When have you experienced effective communication within your setting/centre?

.

What role does your leader/manager play in communicating effectively?

.

Journal your reflection and responses

.
 .

17.4 The Political Context

.

Anning et al (2010:p.107) sums up the history and political context around effective communication well by highlighting how, ‘Information-sharing lies at the heart of the government view of multi-professional teams. The government is clearly responding to the Laming Report (2003), finding that failure to share information contributed to the death of Victoria Climbie’.  The Children Act 2004 and the Childcare Act 2006 are clear about the importance of working closely with multi-professionals to share information and communicate effectively to improve outcomes for children and families

.
.
 

17.5  Communication and the Interpersonal world

.
  
.

‘Effective communication skills are the tools that underpin the ability to act in an emotionally intelligent and competent manner’ (Rodd 2006:p.70). Wong and Law (2002) believe that emotional intelligence enhances our job performance and general satisfaction.
.
Early years work is intensely interactive. Despite grand visions, clear policies and specific plans, the essential business of an early years centre/setting is conducted through an endless sequence of interactions and encounters. Some of these are planned and intentional but perhaps most are incidental. They are created in the spontaneity of the moment out of need, circumstances or location.

 .

Frequently these incidental encounters are interruptions to other interactions or activities and we temporarily disengage to give them attention. It is often in these unexpected encounters that we do our best work – dealing with difficulties, supporting people, making agreements, resolving problems, clarifying action and keeping things moving. We are operating in a process world which straddles on moving through an intricate web of highly charged and dynamic signs, signals, messages, comments, questions, initiatives, demands, requests and responses.
.
Interpersonal skill is therefore crucial to effective leadership and communication (Rodd 2006, Whalley 2008). Effective communication and interpersonal relationships are key elements to providing successful provision and improving practice.

 .

There is enormous potential in our encounters for disagreements, misunderstandings, disputes, tensions, hurt feelings, misplaced trust, betrayal and conflict. Much will depend upon our skills as communicators and how we behave in these snatched moments that so characterize a typical day at work. With increased turbulence, pressure and stress, the quality of these interactions will become ever more important. Success will very much depend upon how we manage ourselves in the interpersonal world. Some of the key factors, which will determine our capability, are:
 .

· Self-awareness:a striving to keep in accurate touch with our own patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and the effects these have on others

.
 

· Authenticity:a deep concern to communicate what we are thinking and feeling without deceit, dissembling and concealment

.
 

· Care:a genuine desire to reach out to others and to be of help sharing ourselves in a gentle ‘non do-gooding’ way

.
 

· Receptivity:being open to approaches from others, however trivial and insignificant they may seem from an objective point of view

.
 

· Understanding:seeking first to understand others before we ourselves seek to be understood by them

.
 

· Empathy:listening with deep interest and sensitivity to the experiences of others and conveying our acceptance and sensing of that experience back to them

 .

· Trust: striving to build relationships of openness, warmth and mutual trust in which there are no lies and hidden agendas

.
 

How can the leader communicate effectively to put their point across?

.

The leader needs to send clear, accurate and unambiguous messages to the whole team (including multi-professionals who are not based or co-located at the centre/setting). Asking yourself the following questions beforehand can be useful:

.
 

· Why am I communicating? What is the purpose or objective?

.
 

· Who do I need to tell? It is easy to avoid talking to the right people or person if we are fearful of the outcomes

.
 

· What do I hope to achieve by this communication?What does the receiver already know? What do they, he or she need to know from me?

.
 

· Where is the best place to communicate? The context will make a big difference to how the message is received. Telling someone what you think after a meeting, where it should have been discussed is too late. Talking to someone in front of others so that they are embarrassed is unprofessional, damaging for your ongoing relationships and will not get results

.
 

· When is the best time to communicate?It is unlikely that the person/persons that you are communicating with will hear you if they are concentrating on something else. Giving bad news on a Friday evening could be disastrous

.
 

· How is the best way of communicating this?Being prepared and knowing what you want to say helps you to be assertive in communication. Even in a meeting, when you may have had limited time to prepare what it is you want to say, thinking about your main points before the words come out of your mouth will be much more effective than talking off the top of your head

.
(Stacey 2009:p.48)

.
.

17.6 Reflective task

.
 

.

Choose a situation where you have to make a request at work or put your point across either to an individual or a group. Think about the ways you would communicate assertively and how you would prepare yourself for this.

.

Use your journal to record your responses

.
 .

17.7 Overcoming existing and potential barriers to effective communication

.
When many centres/settings are now open sometimes 52 weeks a year and often from 8 – 6, where staff work 3 or 4 different shifts, both full time and part time and where a range of different professionals come in and out of the setting for what ever reasons, the underuse of IT, availability of part-time professionals and different ways of working are often seen as a challenge to effective communication. It is therefore essential that there are strategies in place to overcome any barriers to effective communication.

 .

Communication, multi-professional working and group dynamics
Discussion and dialogue are essential in multi-professional working and effective communication.Where there is a culture of reflexivity professionals/practitioners are able to provide activities and services that meet the needs of children and families and provide better outcomes (Davis and Smith 2012).

 .

From her studies, Aubrey (2011:p.116) suggests that, ‘poor communication within and between agencies created problems between those working at different levels within agencies’. But why should this be? Pietroni (1992) believes that some of the challenges between professionals is as a result of the professional language and discourses they use and that jargon is often acknowledged as a barrier to effective communication.

 .

Aubrey’s research reveals how ‘team members felt that formal methods of communications through, meetings, telephone contacts, daily transfer of internal post, information chats and social events’ (Aubrey 2011:p.123) aided good communication.

 .

It is important for professionals to contribute their expertise and feel that their contributions are being acknowledged. However this can be a challenge to inter-professional communication and collaboration. Some of these challenges are outlined below:

 .

· Confusion about parameters of roles and responsibilities – especially in working together whilst acknowledging the importance of specialist expertise

.
 

· Disappointment and frustration about slowness or lack of change

.
 

· Conflicting priorities and work practices

 .

· Little systematic or effective sharing

.
 

· Exclusion of others by the use of jargon

 .
 .

Case Study and Reflective Task

 .

Below are two case studies where Yasmin and Sidney share their very different experiences.

 .
 

Case Study 1   Yasmin is a family support worker in an urban Sure Start Local Programme   ‘ I help run twice weekly parent and children lunchtime groups where a specialist playworker organises a play-based programme for the children, a local catering firm provides a healthy vegetarian snack for all users and one or other of the local team of health visitors tries to pop in. My role is one of outreach into the community to try and encourage those who are otherwise resistant to such groups to make use of the service they offer and then befriend and “actively listen” to parents while their children play. Often I encourage the parents to play with the children or even explore the play resources for themselves. Seema, one of the mums, usually loves the playdough but I am concerned about her at the moment as she is increasingly subdued and one of her children, Mohamed, is much more clingy to her and will not go and play independently as he is used to. Seema won’t talk about anything. I have mentioned it once or twice to the health visitor but got a non-committal response and we don’t have the time to get together more formally to share concerns’.

 .
 .

Case Study 2 Sidney, is a deputy manager of full-day care provision within a children’s centre and room leader of two – three year olds   ‘I am three-year old Peter’s key person; he is an only child and lives with dad who is a lone parent. Peter has complex needs, has limited mobility and is not yet using much recognizable language. Since he started at the centre a year ago, I have liaised closely with dad, his (Mencap) family support worker, health visitor and speech and language therapist (SALT). We all meet bi-monthly to review provision for Peter and this has been working well. At the last meeting, the family support worker raised her concerns that dad is increasingly distracted with work demands and is not spending as much time playing with Peter and nurturing his emotional needs as he used to. Dad felt confident enough to share his own concerns here and the health visitor is now in the process of arranging six weekly weekend respite for Peter to give dad a break’.   (Whalley 2008:p 136/137)

 .
 .

Reflective task

.

Both Yasmin and Sidney are working inter-professionally and in a collaborative manner.

 .

What are the factors that are hindering effective communication and multi-agency working in Yasmin’s situation?

 .

What are the factors that are promoting successful communication and multi-agency working in Sidney’s setting?

 .

Note down your experience of communicating with other professionals, beyond your setting/centre.

 .

How can leaders/managers enable others to contribute to the work of multi-professional working and effective communication?

 .

Overcoming the psychological barriers and group dynamics

Rodd (2006:p.74) highlights the ‘psychological barriers’ that may exist to challenge effective communication. Particularly when information becomes distorted due to professionals having different value stances, beliefs, or principles. She believes that an effective leader should ‘not underestimate the power of psychological barriers to interpersonal interactions’.

 

It is important to remember that personality play a crucial role individuals are different in personality, previous experiences, background, age, cultures and in terms of tolerance levels.

 

Below is case study highlighting such difficulties:

 
 

Case Study – Gemma   ‘I have been in the setting for a number of months and thought I was building up strong rapport with most of the team. One of the aspects I was particularly concerned about was the way that creative activities were planned and organised for the children – especially the over two’s. Historically, staff would set out a limited amount of resources and have a sample of the “finished product” to show to children. Some of the staff had likewise shared their concerns about this so we worked together to implement a much more child-initiated approach where the children were free to choose their own resources, work at their own pace and produce – or not! – their own “end products”. We shared this at our team meeting. Rita was one of the practitioners in the setting who was still rather wary of me and my role but I was not prepared for her reaction to these changes. She did not come to me directly but spoke to the room leader saying that she would have nothing to do with this approach, the parents wanted to see “proper art work” and this approach was going to create a lot of “unnecessary mess” in the base room’.

 

Whalley (2008:p 101)

 

17.8 Reflective task

.
 

.

Think about the scenario from the perspectives of both Gemma and Rita.

 .

Can you suggest ways that Gemma might work with Rita from this point to address the psychological barrier that exists here?

 .

What opportunities for effective communication and leadership does this situation offer?
.
Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.
 .

 .

17.9 Key Reading

.

 Managing Staff in Early Years Settings by Adrian Smith and Ann Langston (1999: p.84 -96), which is available as an E-book. Click here to access in the Library now.
 .

Chapter 6 explores the way in which communication is often taken for granted or left to chance and highlight the importance to settings/centres of effective communication.

 .

Read the chapter then journal your reflections and responses to the following:

.

· The different approaches to communication in settings/centres

· The barriers to effective communication

· Possible strategies to achieve improved communication

 

Finally, consider how the information noted could support discussion within your reflective essay.

.
.
 

17.10 Summary of session

.

During this session we identified what communication is and looks like in practice. We considered the political context around the importance of communicating effectively between multi-professional teams. We explored communication and the interpersonal world (touching briefly on emotional intelligence).

 .

We examined the different ways leaders/managers can put their points across and communicate more effectively. We also looked at overcoming barriers to effective communication, particularly in multi-professional teams. You reflected on case studies in order to enhance effective communication and multi-professional working.

 .
 
 
 
 

17.11 Weekly task

.
 
. 

Your task this week is a reading by the Young Children’s Voices Network Listening as a way of life (Leadership for Listening).

.

Click here to access now.

 
 .

Active listening is essential to effective communication. This reading aims to inspire and support early years practitioners in developing a culture of listening in their setting/centre through effective leadership.

 .

During the week observe when and where you see effective communication happening. Also consider opportunities where this could be developed further. Use your journal to record your responses.

 .
 
 
References and further reading
. 

Anning, A. Cottrell, D. Frost, N. Green, J. Robinson, M. (2010) Developing Multi-Professional Teamwork For Integrated Children’s Services

Open University Press McGraw Hill Education
 .

Aubrey, C. (2011) Leading and Managing in the Early Years (2ndEd) London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 .

Davis, J. and Smith, M. (2012) Working in Multi-professional Contexts  London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 .

Jorde-Bloom, P. (1982) Avoiding Burnout: Strategies for managing time, space and people in early childhood education, Gryphon House, Mt Rainier

.
Laming, H. (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry. London: HMSO

 .

Pietroni, P. C. (1992) ‘Towards reflective practice – languages of health and social care’ Journal of Inter-professional Care, 6(1): 7-16.

 .
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press
.
 
Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Routledge.
.
 

Stacey, M. (2009) Teamwork and Collaboration in Early Years Settings: Learning Matters Exeter

.

Steiner, C. (1999) Achieving Emotional Literacy, Bloomsbury, London

.
 

Whalley, M. E. (2008) Leading Practice in Early Years Settings Learning Matters Ltd

 .

Wong, C. S. and Law, K. S. (2002) ‘The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and aptitude’, Leadership Quarterly, vol. 134, pp. 243 -74.

.
 

Young Children’s Voices Network Listening as a way of Life Leadership for Listening:  National Children’s Bureau London

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.ncb.org.uk%2Fmedia%2F74060%2Fleadership_for_listening &oq=http:%2F%2Fwww.ncb.org.uk%2Fmedia%2F74060%2Fleadership_for_listening &gs_l=hp.3…4128.4128.0.5348.1.1.0.0.0.0.115.115.0j1.1.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.2.5.psy-ab.-URUapcZjeI&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43287494,d.d2k&fp=651ff7a61caa450c&biw=1277&bih=641

Accessed 8/3/13

Week 18: Leading and managing a quality provision

 

18.1 Aims this week

   .

This week we look at  ‘Leading and managing a quality provision’. The session is outlined below:

.

· Identifying what quality is

· Looking at the political context and vision for providing a quality provision

· Considering who is responsible for quality in centres/settings (e.g. the leader/manager, local authority, governors, OFSTED)

· Exploring the support leaders/managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision

· Looking at distributed leadership as a tool in supporting leaders/managers to deliver quality provision

· To examine 
‘
A Discussion Paper’ by Dr Jillian Rodd Leadership an essential ingredient or an optional extra for quality early childhood provision.

· Continue to reflect on practice in your leadership journal

.

.
18.2 What is quality?

.

 .Defining ‘quality’ in relation to provision is often complex. After all, how do you define quality? What does it mean to you in your daily practice?
Quality is a subjective concept. Moss (1994:p.1) points out that’

.

‘Definitions of quality reflect the values and beliefs, needs and agendas, influence and empowerment on various ‘stakeholder’ groups having an interest in these services’. He also believes states that, ‘the goals set by stakeholders will reflect their needs, interests, concerns and priorities. These in turn will be influenced by values and beliefs’ (p.4).

.
Deming’s philosophy cited in Neave (1990:p.32) asserts that, ‘Quality Begins with Delighting the Customer Customers must get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. An organization must strive not only to satisfy the customers’ expectations. This is the least one should do. A company should also strive to delight their customers, giving them even more than they imagined possible’.

 .

The word ‘quality’ has become a mantra, especially when put with ‘good quality’. It is widely used and desired, but problematic to pin down and define. There can be two different interpretations of the word ‘quality’. One is descriptive and used as a tool to analyse the substance and sum of something, whilst the other is evaluative. The latter is the approach used by government when it talks of quality. It uses the term in an evaluative way when it wants to assess whether a service meets its aims and objectives (Moss, 1994).

.

Deming’s 14 points (his writings now form much of the basis of the Total Quality Management movement) adapted for centres/settings is a useful tool in pursuing quality. It requires centres/settings to:

.

1.    Pursue continuous improvement of curriculum and learning diligently and constantly

.

2.    Adopt the system of profound knowledge in the centre/setting as prime management tool

.

3.    Build quality into teaching and learning and reduce the inspection of quality into work after the event

.

4.    Build a partnership relationship with staff, parents, and other professionals

.

5.    Constantly improve the system within which the team and children’s learning takes place

.

6.    Take every opportunity to train in new skills and to learn from others (children, parents, colleagues)

.

7.    Lead, do not drive or manipulate

.

8.    Drive out fear of punishment, create joy in learning

.

9.    Collaborate with colleagues from other agencies

.

10.  Communicate honestly, not through jargon and slogans

.

11.  As far as possible create a climate without grades and rank orders

.

12.  Encourage and celebrate to develop your teams pride in their work

.

13.  Promote the development of the whole person in children and staff

.

14.  Wed your team to learning by negotiation with them of a quality experience

.

(Greenwood and Gaunt 1994)
   .

.

The Political Context

.

The government has defined what it considers to be ‘quality outcomes’ for all children. It has set goals for every early years providers in an effort to achieve its objectives. ‘Quality is a crucial aspiration of policy development aspiration of policy development for early childhood. Effective regulation and inspection are seen as a vital aspect of ensuring that leaders/managers meet required standard in delivering services for children and families’ (Pugh and Duffy 2010). The government believes that in order to ensure quality, centres/settings need ‘committed, enthusiastic and reflective practitioners with a breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and understanding’ (DfES, 2005C:P.3).

 .

The government strategy laid out in the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda is that provision works in a way that develops and furthers the five ECM outcomes. A vision for the care and education of children was expressed in the Green Paper, ECM (DfES, 2003) that led to the Children Act 2004. The Childcare Act 2006 is a piece of legislation that ‘attempts to bring cohesion to the quality assurance and inspection of early years provision’ (Pugh and Duffy 2010:p.64).

 .

The government (DfES 2005:p 6-9) wants to see ‘good practice become common practice’ for all settings/centres (particularly children’s centres) by:

..

· Reaching the most disadvantaged families and children

Especially those commonly excluded from main stream services

.

· Increasing consistency in the level of support services offered

In order to improve children’s life chances

.

· Improving multi-agency working

‘The Childcare Act 2006 places a duty on local authorities working with their partners…to improve outcomes for all children and in particular to reduce inequalities’

.

· Grounding (specific to children’s centre) practice in evidence

There is now a significant amount of information on specific interventions that help parents support their children’s development (e.g. structured parenting programmes)

.

· Raising the quality of early years provision

Centres/settings should provide early years provision that is tailored to the needs and interests of each individual child and family

.

· Employing more highly trained and qualified staff

Evidence shows that well qualified staff make the biggest difference to the effectiveness of services for both parents and children.

. 

18.3 Reflective task

.
 

. What is your definition of a quality provision?

.

What does quality mean to you in your daily practice?

.
Journal your reflection and responses

 .18.4 Who is responsible for ensuring quality in settings/centres and what does good practice look like?

 
..

 Jorde-Bloom and Sheerer (1992:p.138) points out that, the leader/manager of a setting/centre is ‘the gatekeeper to quality’. Robins and Callan (2009:p.2) also highlights this stating that, ‘there is a significant relationship between the quality of a setting and its leadership’. Hence the increasing drive for leaders and managers to attend leadership training and development such as the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL).  

 .

Working in partnership with parents and other professionals is key to providing quality provision. See below an example of developing good practice with parents.

 .
 .
 

A Picture of Good Practice
 
The following comments were made by a Children’s Centre leader (Robins and Callen 2009:p.106)
 
The centre has created a learning environment where everyone, including parents, mentor each other by learning together, learning from each other and learning through trial and error. This is something that can be achieved when relationships are trusting and strong. As a centre leader, I am not the expert in everything and it is the team that provides expertise in all areas collectively. The team is strong because of:
 
·         Quality relationships
·         Effective communication
·         Drawing on each other’s strengths.
As a result, the centre has developed an ‘ethos’ that everyone is equal and able to make a valuable contribution.
 

.
‘Research indicates that a number of factors influence parental choice of service, and that quality service is a high priority only for those parents who are aware of quality matters’ (Rodd 2006:p.248).

 .

The core purpose of leaders (particularly children’s centre leaders) is to ‘ensure that their centre really makes a difference to the children and families it serves. How well are those services managed, how well integrated and how effective are they in reducing the gap between the most disadvantaged children and their peers? Is every child and family better off? Are they safer, healthier, more resilient and better able to enjoy new learning opportunities? (DfES 2007:P.3).

 .

It is clear that leaders/managers (service providers) will be held responsible for the quality of their services/provision, particularly through OFSTED inspections, governors, parents and local authorities (Pugh and Duffy 2010).

.
Below we will explore how.

 .

Governance and leading a quality centre/setting
For clarity I refer to governors or governance but recognise that many different terms are used for these roles, for example, management committees, boards, management groups and trustees.

.
‘Governance is the leadership, direction and control of an organization. The function of governance is to ensure that an organization or partnership fulfills its overall purpose, achieves its intended outcomes for citizens and services users and operates in an effective and ethical manner’ (Independent Commission on Good Governance in Public Services, 2005:p.7)

 .

Good governance underpins effective services, and effective leadership cannot be divorced from good governance (DfES, 2007)

.

The purpose of governance arrangements (particularly in children’s centres) is to support strategic development so that partners can meet local needs, identify priorities, agree objectives and draw up and execute development plans, and monitor progress, quality and standards. Governance arrangements do not replace or take day-to-day responsibility for operational management of the centre as this responsibility has been delegated to the leader/manager. (DfES, 2007).

.
 

Local authorities and the impact on leading quality provision

The Childcare Act 2006 places duties on local authorities (an therefore leaders/managers of settings) under the early years outcomes duty. It requires them to undertake activities to improve well-being for children aged 0-5 years through the delivery of services in a way that is integrated and which recognises the contribution that a wide range of partners play in improving child outcomes. These duties include the following:

.

1.    An English local authority must
a) Improve the well-being of young children in their area
b) Reduce inequalities between young children in their area
    in relation to the matters discussed above

.

2.    In the Act ‘well-being’, in relation to children, means their well-being so far as relating to:
a) Physical and mental health and emotional well-being
b) Protection from harm and neglect
c) Education, training and recreation
d) The contribution made by them to society
e) Social and economic well-being

 .

(H M Government, 2006, chapter 21 in NPQICL Booklet 10:p.6)

 .

The government gives funding to local authorities who intern allocates funding to centers/settings to support outcomes, quality and inclusion and childcare.

.

Children centre leaders/managers generally have an ‘annual conversation’ with the local authority. These conversations are an ‘opportunity for centre leaders to add to the authority’s knowledge of what is working well … Some authorities have included others in the annual conversation, asking for parent witnesses to convey their views and feelings about the centre’s performance’ (NPQICL Booklet 10:p.9).

 .

OFSTED

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. They report directly to Parliament and are an independent and an impartial body. They inspect and regulate services, which care for children and young people, and those providing education and skills for learners of all ages.

.

They work with centres/settings, which are not yet good to promote their improvement, monitoring their progress and sharing with them the best practice they find.

..

18.5 Reflective task

.
 
.

. Reflect on your current centre/setting. Whom do you see as responsible for providing quality and why?

.

What impact do parents have in developing quality?

.

What are the governance arrangements in your centre? If you are unsure find out.

.

How do or can you contribute to developing quality in your centre/setting?

.

Get a copy of your last OFSTED inspection. Highlight the really good things that contribute to developing a quality provision. Then highlight the areas for further development.

.

If you were the leader/manager of the centre/setting what areas would you see as a priority to improve first and why?

.

Journal your reflections and responses.

.
.

18.6 Support leaders/managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision.

.

Robins and Callan (2009:p.92) suggests that, ‘it is easier to motivate a team that is functioning well and achieving because success breeds motivation and motivation secures success’.However Elfer and Wedge (1996:p.53) highlight some of the difficulties of working with others. They are of the view that ‘Agreeing standards at a local level is hard work. If different groups are involved, the process can be painful’, as agreement is needed from all when trying to develop quality and set standards.

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Ensuring that all professionals involved in the delivering of quality provision get the support they need, is not easy and can be a difficult process.

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Pugh and Duffy (2006) point out that improving the quality and level of training and qualifications of practitioners and leaders is identified as the primary way in which higher quality of services will be developed. Hence the reason why training for leaders/managers and practitioners to meet the changing demands of childcare and education agendas, linked with social change, has been a significant focus in government policy, under the remit of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC).

(Gasper 2011).

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Quality improvement is a ‘journey towards ever higher quality, involving teamwork, commitment and some thorough self-examination of practice’ (NQIN, 2007:P.7). Hence the development of programmes such as the  NPQICL programme designed to support leaders/managers of children’s centres, The NPQH for Head Teachers and the EYPS for those leading the professional practice  of their colleagues or curriculum across the 0-5 age range.

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The NPQICL programme in particular was designed to address the complexity and turbulence that leaders and staff of integrated centres face. Leaders/managers are expected to challenge themselves and each other, to reflect on and question their own and other’s practice and motivation and to support others to do the same. Rather than ask leaders/managers to compromise their values and principles, they are encouraged to ask questions that begin: ‘How can we…?’ (Trodd and Chivers 2010). The weekly task reading will give you more information about the impact of NPQICL programme on Centres..

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18.7 Distributed leadership as a tool/model for supporting development and increased responsibility in other when trying to deliver a quality provision.

. Distributed leadership considers leadership as a pluralist rather than individual activity (Southworth, 2004:p.3). Within this, authority to lead comes not from the occupancy of a designated organizational role, but is rather based on one’s knowledge, understanding and ability to lead within a specific context.

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Leadership is therefore a form of behaviour and not a position. As a result, all members of the organisation are likely to perform as leaders and followers at different times (Gastil, 1997:p.158).

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The main advantage of distributed leadership is that it increases the level of skills and expertise available (Harris, 2002). It is particularly desirable in large organisations where scale of activity is so broad it is difficult for any single individual to retain an overarching view of the big picture, and is seen as particularly effective in promoting organisational change (Hay Group, 2004:p.5). Positive effects have also been identified in terms of employee motivation and job satisfaction (Daft, 2002:p.44).

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Despite this emphasis on openness and the ability of all being able to lead, the formally designated leader remains key to the development of this culture of shared authority and responsibility. The formal leader also plays a critical role in ensuring that, as leadership becomes ever more shared, the group stays on-task, all members of the group are able to contribute to its progress, and that the agreed cultural norms are respected (Gastil, 1997:p.162).

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Terms closely related with distributed leadership include: delegated leadership, democratic leadership and dispersed leadership (Bennett et al, 2002:p.4). These alternative models can be differentiated in the extent to which they place different degrees of emphasis on consultation, delegation and empowerment.

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Why is this model so useful?

Where there is such a broad remit (particularly in Children’s Centres) and spectrum of professionals working with children and families across a wide area, it is impossible for leaders/managers alone to have knowledge and expertise in every field. Nor is it possible for one person to have oversight of the many and various activities associated with the centre. This demands that the leader gives considerable attention to creating a culture in which individuals embrace opportunities to lead. Many leaders/managers are reluctant to ask other to take on what they may see as ‘extra work’. However if this is seen in the spirit of developing others as leaders this barrier is soon overcome.
(Cited in NPQICL Booklet 9:p.27)

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How does the leadership structure in your centre encourage distributed leadership?

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18.8 Key reading and reflective task

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This key reading is ‘A Discussion Paper’ by Dr Jillian Rodd. Click 

here

 to read as a pdf file now.

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Leadership an essential ingredient or an optional extra for quality early childhood provision?

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Once you have read the paper reflect on discussions so far and answer the following questions:

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1.    What is the relationship between leadership and quality?

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2.    Why do you believe that it is important for leaders to have appropriate leadership/management training?

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3.    Why is effective communication and interpersonal skills fundamental to leaders/managers

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Use your journal to reflect and record your responses.

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18.9 Summary of session

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During this session we identified what quality was and looked like. Considered the political context surrounding quality in centres/settings. Identified who is responsible for quality issues within centres/settings and explored the support leaders and managers and other professionals need to develop and deliver quality provision. Finally we explored distributed leadership in supporting quality provision.

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18.10 Weekly task

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1.    Click here for a report for you to look at highlighting The Impact of the NPQICL on Children’s Centre Leaders and their Centre.

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2.    Find out what the difference is between quality improvement and quality assurance. Consider the concept of quality improvement in enabling practitioners to ‘make changes to the way they think and feel about their work’ (NQIN, 2007).

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References and further reading
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DfES (2003) The Children’s Workforce Strategy, Consultation Paper. DfES.

 

DfES (2005C) Key Elements of Effective Practice, London: HMSO
DfES (2007) Governance of Sure Start Children’s Centres: Planning and performance management, Nottingham, DfES

 

Gasper, M. (2010) Multi-agency Working in the Early Years Challenges and Opportunities London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Greenwood, M. and Gaunt, H. (1994) Total Quality Management for Schools, Cassell

 

Independent Commission on Good Governance on Good Governance in Public Services (the Langlands Commission), (2005) Good Governance Standards for Public Services, London CIPFA, OPM & Joseph Rowntree Foundation

 

Jorde-Bloom, P. and Sheerer, M. (1992) The effects of leadership training on child care program quality, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, vol.7.
Laming, H. (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry. London: HMSO

 

Moss, P. (1994) Defining/Quality: Values, Stakeholders and Processes’ in Moss, P. Pence, A. (Eds) Valuing Quality in Early Childhood Services. London: Paul Chapman Publishing

 

Neave, H. (1990) The Deming Dimension, SPC Press

 

NQIN (2007) Quality Improvement Principles London: National Children’s Bureau

 

NPQICL Booklet 9 (2011) Leadership concepts and analytical tools

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services.

NPQICL Booklet 10 (2011) Outcomes Matter Most

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Service
 

Pugh, G. and Duffy, B. (2010) Contemporary Issues In The Early Years, London: SAGE Publications Ltd

 

Robins, R. and Callan, S. (2009) Managing Early Years Settings

London: SAGE Publications Ltd
 
Rodd, J. (2006) Leadership in Early Childhood, OpenUniversity Press

Smith, A. and Langston, A (1999) Managing Staff in Early Years Settings London: Rutledge.

Trodd, L. and Chivers, L. (2011) Interprofessional Working in Practice
Learning and working together for children and families