Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS)
Radio is a great way of sharing stories, research and experience. It's almost a year since IRISS launched IRISS.FM, an internet radio station for the social services in Scotland, and we now air a regular schedule of varied programmes: Foetal Alcohol Disorder Syndrome; young people’s safety on the internet; bi-polar disorder; women's imprisonment. Able Radio is another example of how effective this medium can be.
Creative storyboard based on Insight 17 - Culture change in the public sector - written by Michelle Drumm (IRISS). It depicts how organisational culture change can be enabled and sustained and offers some evidence for how culture change happened in the Highlands in relation to the Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Highlands Pathfinder programme.
At times of change and uncertainty, evidence becomes very important to build confidence about how to put policy into practice. Although some relevant evidence exists, as it becomes the mainstream mechanism for
delivering social care, self-directed support (SDS) will bring significant new challenges and evidence needs.
Developed by IRISS in partnership with Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS), the Outcomes Toolbox brings together a range of resources and knowledge relevant to an outcomes-focused approach in the social services.
It includes:
Background
IRISS recently published a report, Rest assured? A study of carers' experiences of short breaks, which was undertaken to improve our overall knowledge and understanding of short breaks provision in Scotland.
Key Points
- There is a range of models of advocacy, each with distinctive characteristics relating to type of work undertaken, length of involvement and appropriate person who should undertake the role
- There is a limited evidence base about the effectiveness of advocacy.
During 2012-13 IRISS, in partnership with the SSSC ran a series of workshops for people involved in designing or delivering learning.
Why?
The Knowledge Management Strategy for the social services recognises that web-based tools — social bookmarking, Twitter, newsfeeds, Google search and Facebook — are now widely used for communication, collaboration and learning.
Building web-based tools and techniques into your daily routine requires little or no technical skill and most are suprisingly easy to master. Because these tools tend to be classed as 'social media', their use in the workplace is frequently restricted if not barred. But, as noted in a report commissioned by the Carnegie UK Trust (Charman-Anderson, S, 2010) social media is experiential:
it is difficult to fully understand social tools until one has participated and experienced them for oneself. Unlike basic computing skills, such as word processing or spreadsheet manipulation, the core understanding required to make good use of social technologies is cultural, not procedural.
These workshops offered the hands-on practical experience and encouragement that people need if they are to exploit the potential of social media. In fact, in the context of learning and development, we prefer the term 'personal knowledge management' to social media:
People who can seek new information, make sense of it, and share it with their colleagues, will be an asset to any work team. However, they need access to their learning networks while at work, and this is often a challenge. Reduce these barriers, and support PKM [Personal Knowledge Management] practices, and the organization will benefit.
(Harold Jarche: Supporting workplace learning http://www.jarche.com/2012/08/supporting-workplace-learning/)
We introduced tools for finding, creating, organising and sharing web-based resources: RSS news feeds, social bookmarking and Twitter; Audioboo, Garageband and Soundcloud to create and share podcasts; and Youtube and Vimeo for video sharing.iTunes U offers interesting possibillities for creating and sharing courses via iPhones and iPads.
The intention, however, was not to provide detailed instruction in the use of these specific tools but rather to introduce new ways of doing the things we have always done (find,create, organise, list and share information), leaving participants stimulated and confident to try out new tools and use their own creativity.
If you have an iPhone or iPad you can find the course outline and links to further resources on Itunes U. The enrol code is EFB-PYK-WW2. Follow this link on your iPhone or iPad https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/enroll/EFB-PYK-WW2
To create courses for iTunes U sign up to Course Manager https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/coursemanager/
Help http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5113
Please contact us if you would like to find out more about building these tools into your daily work.
Executive summary
This is the evaluation report of the 2012 ‘Social Assets in Action Project’, led by IRISS, East Dunbartonshire CHP and East Dunbartonshire Council, with support from the Third Sector. The report may be of particular interest to those concerned with a focus on strengths in professional practice as distinct from promoting a focus on assets in community development.
Generations Working Together, managed by the Scottish Mentoring Network and supported by the Beth Johnston Foundation, is an initiative that provides information, offers support and encourages involvement to benefit all of Scotland’s generations.
The organisation aims to:
