I went through My Key with a member of staff on Monday this week; he told me about a situation at the weekend that did not result in a positive outcome for two people we support. In brief… two people said they were going for lunch at 10.00am and the member of staff was trying to explain that it was too early for lunch and tried to delay them. The people were obviously not happy and told the member of staff it was none of his business and went into town anyway! (Quite rightly).
At first we discussed delay tactics and being more creative and making interactions interesting. As we discussed each of the ten facilitation skills the member of staff realised how he could improve his skills. As discussions continued we realised another factor…..why did we feel we needed to delay the two people going to lunch at 10.00am anyway?! We got quite excited then because we realised that maybe lunchtime does not mean the same to everybody! Maybe some people get hungry at 10.00am, even if they have had breakfast, or maybe it’s the social aspect that people really like. Our conclusion was …we don’t need to delay people anymore! The member of staff kept saying “this is really good”.
Other discussions with staff have highlighted the fact that our ego’s get in the way when we have interactions with people and we can be tokenistic. I had a discussion with a member of staff about completing a monthly Person Centred Plan (PCP) with the person he key works. The member of staff sees it as “paperwork that has to be completed”. The person does not know what it is…..so what’s the point of doing it in this way? By the time we finished with My Key the member of staff saw the PCP as a valuable tool to knowing what the person really wants to achieve, how they feel about their life the previous month and what they want to do or achieve for the next month. It does not need to be rushed and it does not have to be done in the home; the important thing is that it’s a brilliant opportunity for both to have a wonderful interesting and fun interaction with good outcomes for the person supported.
I tell staff that not only is My Key a very useful tool in the workplace but it’s useful for them on a personal level too. I have been promoting My Key to anyone who will listen; I have had conversations with a C.Q.C inspector and social workers to date. I can’t praise it enough.
The only negative thing is that it will take some staff a long time to understand the concept of reflecting on their own practice and learning from that, however this is not a reflection on My Key itself and I feel that using this tool in supervisions and to understand particular things as detailed above, I will be able to support my team in our journey of continuous improvement. Once staff have a better insight of the way they interact, they will find it easier to see how this impacts on others and find ways of improving their skills. It’s hard to understand other people if you don’t first understand yourself.
Ann Tavarez
Head of Service
Worcester