The third task of Practice Leadership is observing staff, giving feedback, coaching, and modelling good practice.
By doing this task well, Practice Leaders help support workers to:
This module is in two parts. Part 1 is observing staff and giving feedback. Part 2 is coaching and modelling. |
Observing staff
Observation means directly watching staff support and interact with a person. It is the best way to identify good practice and areas for improvement.
This video introduces observation and feedback.
This video introduces observation and feedback.
What should Practice Leaders observe?
- what is happening in the moment
- the experience of the person or people being supported
- the quality of staff support
As you observe you might focus on different things. Here are some examples.
A specific staff member |
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Preparation |
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The person being supported |
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Other people being supported who are in the same place |
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The team |
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Other people involved in the interaction |
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It takes practice to be competent observing staff – knowing what to look for and paying close attention to what is happening. As you become more skilled you will be able to focus on all of these things at once.
You can assess the effectiveness of staff support against the 4 Essentials of Active Support.
Are staff:
You can assess the effectiveness of staff support against the 4 Essentials of Active Support.
Are staff:
- Ensuring that every moment has potential for the people they are supporting to be engaged in activities? Or are staff leaving a person disengaged for periods of time?
- Providing opportunities using a little and often approach? Are people supported to regularly participate in activities, including parts of activities, or to take a break if they like and return to it again later?
- Breaking tasks down into smaller parts and providing the right type and amount of graded assistance to ensure success? Are staff tailoring the level of assistance to the support needs of each person they support?
- Maximising opportunities for the people they support to exercise choice and control by providing options, ensuring people understand what is on offer and tailoring their communication and support to the needs of each person they support?
Watch the video and make notes about the support you observe. Use the information in the above table and the 4 Essentials of Active Support to conduct the observation.
Thinking about feedback
The purpose of observing staff is to provide them with feedback so they can develop and improve their support skills. The first step of providing feedback is planning. You need to reflect on what you observed and think about what you will say to the support worker.
This helps you to collect your thoughts, prioritise what aspects of support to focus on in your feedback, and think through how you will structure and phrase the feedback.
To plan feedback, ask yourself these questions:
This helps you to collect your thoughts, prioritise what aspects of support to focus on in your feedback, and think through how you will structure and phrase the feedback.
To plan feedback, ask yourself these questions:
- What is working well?
- What is not working so well?
- Was the level of assistance suitable?
- Was the activity performed successfully?
- Was the communication appropriate to the person being supported?
- Is there a better way of providing support?
- What would I have done differently?
- What will I say to this staff member?
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Questions
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Look at the notes you made for Activity 1 or watch the video again.
Plan your feedback to the support worker. Use the above questions to guide your feedback.
Plan your feedback to the support worker. Use the above questions to guide your feedback.
Providing feedback
Support workers rely on feedback to know how well they are performing. Feedback helps support workers to reflect on their practice and how it can be improved. It also motivates them by recognising and encouraging good support.
When and how you provide feedback will always depend on the situation. You must find a time that limits disruptions to the person being supported and when the support worker can engage in a conversation.
Feedback can happen immediately after the observation or later. It may be a quick chat directly after an observation, a longer discussion later in the shift or during individual supervision.
Receiving feedback about their practice can make staff uncomfortable. Feedback delivered in a positive and respectful way will ensure staff are receptive to it, even if it is critical of their practice. Providing feedback is a skill that is learned through practice.
Tips for providing feedback:
When and how you provide feedback will always depend on the situation. You must find a time that limits disruptions to the person being supported and when the support worker can engage in a conversation.
Feedback can happen immediately after the observation or later. It may be a quick chat directly after an observation, a longer discussion later in the shift or during individual supervision.
Receiving feedback about their practice can make staff uncomfortable. Feedback delivered in a positive and respectful way will ensure staff are receptive to it, even if it is critical of their practice. Providing feedback is a skill that is learned through practice.
Tips for providing feedback:
- Find out the support worker’s point of view: start with an open-ended question, “How do you think that went?” Or “What was that like for you?”
- Identify the positives: find something positive to say before focusing on problems. What did the support worker do well?
- Be specific: use examples from your observation - what people said or did.
- Use the language of Active Support: staff should be familiar with the 4 Essentials. Using this language reinforces expectations about the support they provide.
- Encourage reflection: ask open-ended questions to help support workers reflect on their practice. For example, “What were the advantages and disadvantages of doing that?” “How do you think the person you supported responded to that approach?” “What might you do differently next time?”
- Be constructive: give staff ideas and concrete examples about how to do things differently.
- Be timely: give feedback as close to the event as possible.
Now watch this video. Think about how the feedback provided was different.
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Questions
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- How did the Practice Leader provide feedback in each of the scenarios?
- What were the differences between the way feedback was provided in the first and second scenarios?
- What was it like for the support worker in each of the scenarios?
Observing patterns of support over time
When you conduct regular observations, you will see patterns in the way individual staff and the team provide support. Understanding these patterns helps you to identify where they are performing well and any inconsistencies.
When you observe the same staff member over time, you may find they are more skilled in some aspects of support than others. For example, they are good at using little and often, but sometimes do not provide the right type of assistance, or provide good support to one person but have difficulty supporting another person.
When you observe several staff in the service over time, think about the patterns across the team and how people are supported:
When you observe the same staff member over time, you may find they are more skilled in some aspects of support than others. For example, they are good at using little and often, but sometimes do not provide the right type of assistance, or provide good support to one person but have difficulty supporting another person.
When you observe several staff in the service over time, think about the patterns across the team and how people are supported:
- Is the support provided to an individual consistent across all team members or does each staff member provide support in a different way?
- Does one person frequently receive more opportunities to engage in activities than others?
- Do team members provide too much or too little support for a particular individual?
- Are there regular missed opportunities for engagement?
- Are people supported to engage in only a limited range of activities and why is this the case?
Summary
By observing staff and giving feedback, Frontline Practice Leaders can help staff to further develop their practice. It is important to know what to look for and how to effectively provide feedback.
In Part 2 of this module, we look at how modelling and coaching can also be used to develop staff practice.
In Part 2 of this module, we look at how modelling and coaching can also be used to develop staff practice.