#sssc23things

Evidence selected from Thing 4 -

On a personal level, it showed how inconsistent I am in my leadership. For example in the Collaborations and Influencing. I felt, prior to completing the questionnaire that I was good at collaborating as I feel that I spend time on the floor, with the team, however, the questions demonstrated that I only some times. It is clear that I do not challenge the team, I let things slide. A key example of this is an outdoor questionnaire I put out to all staff prior to Christmas. My Head of Centre stressed that it needed to be complete prior to Christmas holidays, however, when I logged into the forms it as clear that only 20% of the team actually took time to fill the questionnaire in, despite being very eager to do it. Initially I reflected on this statistic and collated the results and sent them to management, stating my disappointment in the uptake. However, I feel, after completing the feedback activity, I needed to be more vocal, so I have done just that. I was calm, polite and open, however I made it clear that it was unacceptable. I reiterated the importance of the questionnaire and the rationale behind it. At first, the team were unnerved by my stance, which made it uncomfortable to work alongside them, but within a couple of hours, I had all the replies so that my data was accurate and now we can take the improvement plan with the team at the front leading. There were some things which were not a surprise. I strongly believe that relationships are important and this was reflected in the feedback I received. What was surprising was the disparity between my answers and those of colleagues as I was stating “ sometimes” in my answers, however, they were pointing out that I was “ consistently”

I need to be more verbal and more proactive, taking risks, getting communication out to the wider ELC community about our improvement plans

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Across the six capabilities, what are your leadership strengths and areas for development? The exercises in Part 3 of the workbook can help you to identify how you evidence your leadership capability at all levels.

I completed the exercise in part 3 of the workbook in January 2022, and on reflection I have seen an improvement in my confidence when implementing changes within practice to improve the quality of service. An example of this is between March-June 2022 I ran a transition project using the QI methodology to measure impact and ran a Literacy project on the floor to improve quality, outcomes and the quality of observations . I led both projects from the front, modelling best practice, sharing results, discussing impact and significance. Although I was sharing my work and its importance, I was still shaking like a leaf in case someone took offence to what I was trying to do and when that happens, it escalates very quickly. This demonstrates that I am continuing to develop my leadership skills linked to motivating and inspiring

Empowering

Since November 2021, I have been working with the practitioners and management to develop a sense of agency within the team. Though my support and guidance we have successfully piloted “champion roles” and now, in this academic year we are encouraging all staff to take on a leadership role and be active within it. As mentioned in previous badge work , I have been running a narrative around evidence based practice , tracking and monitoring and quality improvement methodology. My narrative and modelling through practice is being embedded into the setting and the management are leading the changes. It was lovely to hear my words come out of the management mouths during the inservice day sessions. This has also demonstrated how through my creativity I have addressed the elephant in the room as my current setting is openly again data driven quality improvement.

What leadership skills would you most like to develop? What difference could this make to your work?

I am continuing to develop my skills within communication and building up my confidence in my Leadership skills. I feel that it will improve my ability to lead the team through the projects which my QIO sets for us to lead.

I am continuing to develop the resilience of our team and the narrative / dialogue. I am overseeing mental health / staff wellbeing. I am introducing mindfulness activities etc

What is your plan for continuing your leadership development?

Throughout the 23things process I feel that I have address this badge clearly. Through my role as Equity and Excellence lead I am positioned into Early Learning Centres / Family Centres to improve the quality of the service to improve outcomes for those children / families who are considered to be at the most disadvantaged and subsequently close the poverty related attainment gap. I work with the management team, practitioners and families to implement change and to embed Quality Improvement Methodology into the Early Years environment and practice.

EVIDENCE 1

I need to have a vision of what I wanted to achieve, how I was going to achieve it and how would I know I had been successful. Through my Health and Wellbeing Leadership I guided the process of improvement, I planned how we were going to achieve the desired outcomes and prioritised the tasks. Through a combination of management and leadership I coordinated the effort with all educators, delegated the tasks to all staff, however, I modelled what I wanted to see to reassure the other staff that it wasn’t out of their capabilities to complete.  I was required to monitor that the tasks were being complete and support staff when this was not happening. Once the data was collected, It was my responsibility to collate and analyse the data so I could report the results, evaluate and predict the outcomes and further change the approach so that the outcomes would be achieved. As part of the project design, I was required to state what resources I required and how mum they would going to be. This then had to go to senior management to approve. I had to ensure that all educators / groups had the correct resources to comfortable to the job required of them.

I saw my role in this project more as a leader than a manager and I had to support the other staff to become leaders in their own rights. After sharing my vision for the project, discussing opening with the team what we were doing, why we were doing it and who was doing what I provided a focus through the use of the Natural Health Award and RHET Tastie Tatties competition and using these links to develop areas of the setting, I modelled the HWB projects, providing a narrative to what I was doing and why I was going, when I saw a member of the team doing something good, I directly praised them and used their work as examples of best practice. Quickly I realised that implementing this change unlocked emotions in the team, so I went and trained as a Mental Health Champion and became a safe base for staff to open up and talk to me about their concerns about their work or working environment. Any promises I made about helping them I would ensure that  I would keep, this build relationships and trust which fed into our work and improvement methodology. I feel that I inspired and motivated my fellow educators because prior to me leaving the nursery, I spent time handing over my work to another educator who had volunteered to take the leadership forward, this particular educator was quite reserved and wouldn’t speak up in meeting, however I feel that I supported her to unleash her own potential and recently she has been intouch with me to ask for support in applying for a promoted role.

EVIDENCE 2

Having looked at the Bluebird Care video, which of the descriptors do you think are demonstrated in the story

I observed that the leadership are dedicated members of the team who have a passion for A* service for their clients but also to the team.

They have a very clear vision and USP“ best care matters” “ high quality” service and to support the clients to stay in their own home for aslong as possible

Clear learning and development programme open to all staff and actively encouraged. “ You can do it attitude”

CI – stated that the team are

” Proactive” “service motivated”, ”Aware of nation wide legislation”.

Staff motivated and confident, understood the important role that they played in the companies vision

Stepping into leadership “ feeling empowered”

Leadership all about passion, and the Management team demonstrate in the video that they are passionate to provide the best care possible. The team trust the Senior Management team,

 

Lolly pop moment = praise from customers which they feed back to the carers and vice versa- this builds up positive relationships between the team and the clients.

The carer stated that they “ Believes in you”, Insires “ We do have a voice”

 

 In what way do they express appreciation about the service, staff, quality of leadership practice and overall sense of direction (vision)?

They do this in a number of different way :

·         Having daily meetings so that there is a strong communication ethos in the company

·         Openly recognise those “ Lollypop” moments

·         “blue bird” to be placed near a staff member if they say something which the team feels it requires recognition.

·         Using “ Step into Leadership” as a tool in supervision so that the carers can work through the criteria and earn badges which that can wear on their uniforms

 

 

How do people respond?

The staff are motivated and happy in their work as they feel that they trust their management and want to come to work.

 

What difference does it make?

The team moulds together which means that, when change occurs, they are more like to trust the management to lead then through the change.

 

What are the outcomes?

The outcomes are as followed :

The staff are motivated to follow the vision that the directors have from the company

The staff are upskilled through the “ step into leadership”

The staff feel valued and willing to get the extra mile

Ultimately the quality of care for the clients will be second to none.

My vision for the future of my current setting is to provide a high quality service to our stakeholders ensuring both Equality and Equity in our approach and our environment.

The experiences which have informed my vision is working in a range of settings from both the Scottish and English Educational systems, I have seen some which work and some which require significant amount of input to improve the quality of the service. I keep up to date with a documents bother local and national, ensuring that I have a reference point from each document ie – Realising the Ambition and Vision 2030:Learning for sustainability . I have professional conversations with my peers within the Equity and Excellence team in my Local authority, sharing best practice, getting advice etc.

                                                                

I am using my vision in several different ways in my current setting they are as followed

·         Developed a Planning document which incorporates RTA, CofE and ITMP- this will ensure that we are following the child’s interest and being responsive in our planning.

·         I am working with the nursery team and stakeholders to develop our outdoor spaces. This includes developing both a parental and team steering groups, consultations processes with all stakeholder ( including the children). My vision is to develop a leadership role within the outdoor area to ensure that there is depth and breadth in provision.

·         I have developed home learning bags for the children to take home. These have themes ie- emotions/ heuristic play etc. The plan is to develop learning groups from the parents.

·         As I am part of the Equity and Excellence team, I am required to demonstrate improvement methodology to improve outcomes for children in the SIMD 1 &2. I am currently working with pre-schoolers talking and listening. I am doing this in a few different way; firstly, I have observed all pre-schoolers, spoken to the team as well as learning journals and tracked them according to benchmarks to talking and listening. This provides us with a statistical baseline for improvement, I share my finding with the team and make a plan on how to improve their outcomes ( looking at different interventions) this requires to team to invest in what I am doing and ultimately upskill them.

This will improve staff morale, as they can see the impact that they have on the children and families, the children will benefit because they quality of learning will improve, which, hopefully will contribute to closing the attainment gap, families feel supported and involved in the ELCC and feel that they have a voice.

 

Using the Logic model –

Im a new Equity and Excellence lead, therefore, I am being challenged. I understand that I require training and mentoring and I am confident to say to the team that I was an Early Years Practitioner only a couple of months ago, so I understand how hard it is. I am in the process of building relationships with the team. I am only 8weeks into my new role, so we are still forming and norming.  I spend as much time as possible on the floor with the team, providing support, modelling good practice and taking some of the work load off them so that they can enjoy doing their roles. I understand that we all have our own unique sets of skills and interests, and I am keen to utilise them to develop a forward thinking team.

 

My strengths are that I have a  clear vision, I can project plan and I can work as part of a team. Sometimes, this comes as a detriment because I sometimes forget that I am part of leadership, and, because I do show my vulnerability at times, when its tome to be assertive, or tell someone what to do  or the fact, they have done something wrong – which is something I had to do today infact, I find it challenging to find the words in case I upset them or knock their confidence – so its leadership communication is something I really need to work on

The open badges website is a good website as it is easy access and everything is labelled so it's easy to read and go onto your own badges and profile.

I also learned new things while trying to earn my badges, such as, Open badges has over 3,000 companies worldwide, 'Reflective Accounts' are taken to Open Badges so they can give feedback of what badges you have been rewarded and that your badges get looked over to see if your answers to each question are worth a badge.

It also goes more into detail about the SSSC and what it does, what it means and useful resources on SSSC as well.

Hi I'm Morgan, I'm new here.

I will let you know a little bit about me. I'm Morgan and I'm 18 years old, I'm currently undertaking a Modern Apprenticeship in Childcare and I've nearly completed my first year.

During my course I have learned a lot of things on the job, such as, helping all children develop at their own pace and speed as all children develop milestones differently. I have also dealt with a few ASN (additional support needs) children and that's been one of my best experiences as it helps me understand them and get to expand my learning while doing a one-to-one with them.

Doing a Modern Apprenticeship is one of the best things I have done as I get the hands on experience as well as theory work. It also allows me to talk to other Apprentices and take on board what their setting is doing so I can give feedback to my setting.

This workshop asked me to review the social media codes of practice, watch a short video, read articles and reflect on my own use of social media.

I believe that your social media presence is an extension of yourself and your personality. Therefore things that you say online have just as much importance as they would in real life.

I may show a different side to my personality than I do in a professional setting, the language and tone used may be more casual however once I press ‘post/send’ I have committed to showing this to the world and despite the option to delete being available, as soon as it is out there it cannot be fully taken back. It is important to think before I post as I would think before I speak in real life.

Social media is a now fundamental part of human culture and life in most places and can be a great thing when used correctly. It has made it significantly easier to create and maintain connections and relationships and obtain information instantly. This also comes with negative issues such as the spread of misinformation and online disagreements which can become toxic.

I do not post on social media frequently however when I do, I am happy that the things I share reflect the type of person I am and that I adhere to the social media policy of the SSSC.

The SSSC social media guidance for staff highlights how social media is a great tool for engagement and advises that staff should display behaviours which are in line with the same laws and expectations of real life. This is important as it can be easy to mistake the online world as a separate place where there is more leniency.

I have had access to technology from a young age and have likely left a lot of digital footprints over the years. When I think back to the amount of sites I would access and happily put my name, email address DOB etc in to it is quite scary.

When I google myself fortunately it is hard to find information without narrowing down the search through specific details however there is still information likely from social media and other sites I have signed up to in he past. I am not particularly active on social media anymore besides browsing so I can imagine for someone who posts a lot the results would be significant. 

As an adult I have become significantly more aware of how traceable your actions online are. This is extremely prevalent on social media where you can find copious information on an individual should you wish to. I don’t think that a lot of people think about it in that way, it is very normal to post online about where you are, who you are with and what you are doing in real time. I think that it is nice to be able to interact with people like this however it is important to be aware of the risks.

The infographic linked in Thing 3 on the digital experience of social service workers provides an interesting insight into how individuals use digital resources and how they rate their own skills - https://23digital.sssc.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Digital-capabilities-infographic.pdf

As I am not a social service worker I can only provide my opinion based on my interactions with these workers or from people I know personally. 

I find it interesting that the survey reports that workers have confidence in their digital skills, in a lot of my customer service interactions I found that people have lower confidence in themselves and that they would surprise themselves when they were successful in their task.

The survey does only cover ‘basic’ skills however, and the disparity between the perception of the workers and managers could be related to what different people consider to be ‘basic’ skills.

I believe that there is a certain fear of technology present in some people, for example many customers and colleagues I have spoken with or provided training to are afraid to do certain things on a computer in fear that they will irreparably damage something, even if it is something harmless like moving an icon or an update. These fears are almost always unfounded and can come from a low level of understanding. There is also a lot of frightening information surrounding cyber security issues which can dissuade individuals from trying things out. Cyber Security is incredibly important however it is best when people know where the risks are and where there is little to no risk. This issue is more common in generations who did not grow up in a digital world however it is not uncommon to find this even in Millennials or Gen Z who have grown up with access.

As part of Thing 3 I completed a short self assessment form to rate my digital skills.

I scored myself as 4/5 for confidence and capability and 5/5 for relevant to my role.

I feel I have a good level of digital skills and am confident in my ability to pick new things up, I do however have a lot more I would like to learn and the amount of information can be intimidating. I scored the highest option for relevance to my role as I will need to use current skills and develop new ones to succeed in my role as Project Officer.

I think it is incredibly important to continue to educate people to not only use digital resources but to actually understand what it is they are doing and how things work. I believe if the social service workforce becomes more digitally capable and confident then this will only benefit workers as well as care service users. In an ever-changing digital world workers must be able to adapt to changes and new technologies which can assist in the work they do.