Genuine Partnerships

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About

We are a friendly team made up of skilled practitioners, parents and carers, and young people, with a diverse range of experiences.

Whether you are a school, college, setting, service or provider we can work with you to further develop involvement of parents and carers, children and young people, adults and families at a range of levels.

• We offer training, action research and bespoke packages of support

• We are respectful and appreciative, applying positive psychology

See how this has worked through the creation of the Rotherham Charter.

Our four principles:

Welcome and Care

Value and Include

Communicate

Work in Partnership

developing and nurturing each of these areas to build

Trust

VOICES: National Alliance

“It’s been a day I’ll remember for a long time and for all the right reasons.” (Parent Carer)

“I feel grateful for being given the opportunity to speak…coming here today has made me feel better about myself.” (Young Person)

Recognised for their national best practice in co-production, in 2016 the Genuine Partnerships team was invited to join VOICES: National Alliance for Local Area Partnership Working. Co-production involves children, young people, families, practitioners and partners working jointly together in an equal and reciprocal relationship, but there are no real measures underpinning the 2014 Children and Families Act and/or SEND Code of Practice. The Alliance recognises the need to help Local Areas establish and embed recognisably good co-production. Its aims are supported by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department of Health (DH) and the work involves a range of key national partners.

One outcome for the Alliance has been to formally adopt the Rotherham Charter principles as the Four Cornerstones of Co-production nationally. Genuine Partnerships was asked to work in partnership with Contact (formerly Contact a family) to lead pilot work in three Local Areas to highlight good practice and strengthen co-production. This VOICES work was positively evaluated by NDTi.

Demonstrating commitment to authentic co-production at home, the Genuine Partnerships team also facilitated a VOICES Day in Rotherham.

The key intention of the VOICES process is to stimulate a process of transformation, by building on good practice, thereby improving the experiences of, and outcomes for, children, young people and their families. Inviting young people, parent carers as well as key practitioners from Education, Health and Care services to come together, makes it possible for a dialogue to start through which greater co-production can then emerge.

There is strong national interest in this exciting work and the team is looking forward to facilitating more VOICES processes in other Local Areas in the coming months. If you are interested in VOICES for your Local Area please click on VOICES: Making co-production a reality.

Training Packages

Our training packages can be accessed by practitioners, parents, carers and young people. Find out more about the training packages currently available below:

The listening package:

How we listen: working in partnership with children, young people and families

This full day workshop is a must for people in any capacity involved in communicating regularly with children, young people and their families. Drawing upon psychological theory and emphasising reflexive practice, the primary focus is on the fundamental importance of active and supportive listening. There is an opportunity to practice skills within a safe and friendly context. A key focus is given to parent/carer and child/young person voice and the essential qualities and key skills we all need to have in our relationships with children, young people and families, and each other.

Training outcomes:

More effective communication skills when working in partnership with children, young people and families
Greater understanding of the problems and strengths children, young people and families bring
Knowledge and understanding of psychological theory in relation to this work
Understanding of the essential qualities and key skills required
A more reflexive approach

Co-production:

More than just a buzz word. Moving from tokenistic jargon to authentic practice.

What do we mean by true partnership working? Explore with us how to move from tokenistic jargon to authentic practice. Creating meaningful relationships between parents and practitioners is at the very heart of ‘Genuine Partnerships’ and shapes everything that we do. This course allows you to explore your own practice and ways in which you can build the core value of trust within your work. See how embedding co-production in systems can enhance and improve experience.

Training outcomes:
• Learn how to engage truly collaboratively and gain increased confidence and skills when working with parents, carers and young people
• Gain a better knowledge and understanding of the strengths, difficulties and challenges parents, carers and young people may bring to a situation
• Develop an action plan which you can take back to your organisation to both challenge and improve partnership working and facilitate greater empowerment

Appreciative inquiry:

Looking for nuggets and helping create heaps of gold

Learn about the power of asking positive questions, listening to and hearing people’s stories and celebrating success. In a world where we are increasingly judged against harsh standards and criteria which seemingly miss the point, this course stresses the importance of highlighting what is working well through the process of appreciative inquiry and explores the positive difference that this can make to organisations. Hear and share real life examples of how small changes can make a big difference.

Training outcomes:
• Learn how to move from top-down, one-way conversations to meaningful two-way dialogue
• Improve your ability to notice the little things and better recognise what is important to others, focusing upon people’s energies and efforts and what they value
• Reflect upon the way positive questions can lead to positive action and bring about change
• Gain the skills and confidence to utilise an appreciative approach

The Rotherham Charter:

How small changes can make a big difference

Find out how to develop your own model of co-production by learning about the development of the Rotherham Charter. The Rotherham Charter asks for a commitment from schools, colleges, settings and services to parents, carers, children and young people that they will work with them to help improve the following four areas: WELCOME and CARE, VALUE and INCLUDE, COMMUNICATION and PARTNERSHIP. Hear the Rotherham story from the start and learn from the journey. The training includes input from Charter users as well as team members. This training is suitable for those wishing to learn more about the Rotherham Charter principles, organisations interested in buying a package of support or those hoping to develop a similar model in their area or organisation.

Training outcomes:
• Develop a greater understanding of the core ethos behind the Rotherham Charter and its underlying principles from early beginnings to national launch
• Learn how to lead an appreciative inquiry and apply positive psychology, systemic thinking and narrative approaches to your work
• Decide which approach would best suit your area or organisation or as a parent/carer how you can help adopt a similar way of working to improve outcomes

Walk in my shoes:

Exploring the reality of being the parent of a child with additional needs

By listening to the stories of parents this training will help you develop a greater and deeper empathy for those living day-to-day with children who have additional needs. This hard-hitting course addresses some difficult issues around feelings of loss and may raise a variety of emotions. Exploring these emotions in a safe and supportive environment, participants will be enabled to gain a better understanding which will hopefully filter through to practice, help to break down barriers, result in fewer battles and ultimately result in mutually respectful and beneficial relationships.

Training outcomes:
• Gain a greater appreciation of the impact and multiple consequences that having a child with additional needs has on families
• Enable the identification of typical stressors such as loss of identity and learn how mental health issues can interplay and have an impact on the individual
• Understand that a diagnosis isn’t everything; develop a way of working which celebrates each unique individual and reflects their voice when trying to meet their needs

Theo’s story – there’s another side to this!

How creating stories together can transform lives.

Meet Theo, a young person with additional needs about whom everybody has a story. This workshop provides an opportunity to experience layers of narratives that have been created around Theo related to Education, Health and Care and, at last, to hear Theo’s voice. For parents, young people and practitioners, this course will provide plenty of time to reflect and discuss how the stories we tell each day give us opportunities to transform lives, and how together we can enable stories children and young people bring and need us to hear.

Training outcomes:
• Develop knowledge and understanding of the use and application of narrative approaches (‘storying’) when working with children and young people
• Enhance understanding of power issues that might limit Voice and ways we could respond
• Increase personal skills and confidence

Promoting emotional resilience

A workshop aimed at how to look after our own mental health when faced with difficult situations both in the workplace and at home. This course is aimed at anyone and everyone who wants to try and maintain composure when everything else seems to be falling apart. Participants will be supported to find and protect their own inner strength as well as consider how to better empower others to do the same. Leave feeling more confident, happy and energised.

Training outcomes:
• Develop a deeper knowledge about resilience, its nature and how it impacts and shapes us
• Improve your self-awareness so that you know how to support and protect yourself and others through good and bad times and are better equipped to deal with setbacks
• Increased feelings of assertiveness and empowerment leading to personal enrichment and a sense of enhanced wellbeing

Managing work demands and maintaining a sense of wellbeing:

exploring ways to maintain and protect staff wellbeing

This training package will be useful for practitioners working for organisations in either a paid or voluntary capacity. It can be easy to neglect our own wellbeing, when the demands of school life feel relentless. Drawing from the findings of recent research that explored teacher wellbeing, this workshop invites practitioners to consider staff wellbeing as a collective responsibility between school managers and the individual. During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to share and reflect on their personal strategies and experiences in school, in a safe and supportive environment. The workshop will help participants to recognise the early signs of stress and how this can affect our mental health, before we explore the ways in which staff wellbeing can be promoted in schools/settings and the personal actions that participants can take to address their own wellbeing needs. It is hoped that from this workshop, participants will generate ideas and gain practical strategies that they can take away and consider to help improve their own practice.

Training outcomes:
• Develop knowledge and understanding of how stress can affect our mental health
• Share and explore ways in which staff wellbeing can be supported in schools
• Share and explore ways in which we can maintain and protect our own wellbeing

Support and Consultancy

Supporting local authorities, parent forums, service providers and organisations to co-create processes leading to genuine partnership working and potential Charter Gold accreditation.

For further information please contact Eva Ogden - 01709 254793 / [email protected]

A Rotherham Charter development co-created by the children and young people, families and practitioners of Rotherham

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