Interview - Wendy Weal
Monday, March 7, 2016
Managing director, Interface
You’ve devised a Level 4 certificate specifically for early intervention, which has been endorsed by Tim Loughton MP.Why?
We can see that nursery and school staff are working with a broader range of children and families. They are expected to work with all family members to achieve sustainable outcomes, and multi-agency working is now much more common place.
We started responding to these changing needs by adding content to existing courses, but they were getting increasingly further away from what’s really needed. So we went back to the drawing board and started again.
We wanted to create a flexible programme that could support staff wanting an accredited qualification, as well as those wanting to increase their skills without leading to the qualification. Importantly, we knew we needed a programme that could be adapted within the assessment criteria to suit different roles.
What does the course involve?
The course is ideal for those wanting to improve their understanding, ability and confidence in working with children and families. It will lead to a recognised Level 4 qualification, although we do have learners not taking it to that level as well.
The programme offers 15 credits over three comprehensive modules:
Engagement and communication – safe relationship building, communication, boundaries, working with all family members, challenge and the role of attachment.
Assessment, tools and planning – skills and tools to assess and plan effectively for the whole family in a multi-agency environment, including attending/chairing family meetings.
Supporting family members towards independence and self-reliance – exploring origins and cycles; entrenched needs; motivational approach; reflective practice.
We then carry out an assessment of skills. It usually includes a mixture of written assignments, workplace observations, assessor direct questions/discussion, reflective accounts, case studies, work projects and witness testimony.
How can the programme support practitioners in their day-to-day work with families?
Staff are working with older members of the family and a wider group of partners. This is often outside of their knowledge base and comfort zone. It’s not what they thought they would be doing when they started their career. This can be scary and so the course will give them a lot more confidence to carry out their role.
Workers really enjoy what they learn, saying that it changes their understanding of what works and why. They also get a great learner resource, which contains materials and tools and tips for use after the course. We know they really value having this as an ongoing resource.
How can early years workers access the programme?
We are running this across the country with the next dates starting in April.
