LINks ACADEMY

Autumn 2009 Training Programme

The future 18 months is a time both of challenge and opportunity for Local Involvement Networks. LINks ACADEMY's new Autumn programme offers professional, high quality training and development workshops for your LINk - targeted to address the more challenging aspects of LINk development. These can be combined and tailored to maximise the development and success of your LINk. Contact us for a discussion on how we can assist you.

Workshops Available in the Autumn Programme

Understanding LINks

Attending this workshop will help you gain a foundation level of understanding about the work of a LINk and how you can contribute to the work the LINk undertakes. It is a workshop designed to provide a good induction to public engagement in the form of a LINk. All aspects of LINks work will be discussed at an appropriate level for this introductory workshop.

Conflict Resolution

The purpose of this workshop is to provide a practical methodology for resolving conflict within a relationship. Each person that attends will have the opportunity to explore their own responses to situations of conflict and then learn how to most appropriately manage their way through that situation. There will also be chance to explore the source of many working conflicts and so raise an awareness of some of the early warning signals.

Understanding Scrutiny

As a LINk it is expected that you will build and maintain a strong working relationship with your local authority Scrutiny committee (or panel). To be able to take a credible role in the work of the Scrutiny Committee it is necessary for you to understand the decision making structure that governs the work of the committee and how you can contribute effectively within their protocols. This workshop will prepare you for this role and help you gain a greater understanding of how to influence within this local authority setting.

Enter and View (Liability and CRB included)

This workshop looks at the practical outworking of the legislation that now governs the work of a LINk in regard to it's ability to enter and view premises. The complexities of preparation and then undertaking an enter and view exercise need to be clearly understood before a LINk should embark on this activity and this workshop is designed to raise your awareness of all the requirements that need to be undertaken. The focus of this workshop will be on sharing knowledge and building a positive view of this activity and how a LINk can add value through this type of work.

Community Engagement

At last a workshop that gets to grips with the fundamental tenets behind the concept of community engagement. This practical workshop will challenge and engage you as we explore the successes and failures of past attempts, while considering the future and how to move towards something more effective and empowering for the citizens of our towns and cities. This is also an opportunity to look beyond a LINk to a much bigger picture.

Value of Diversity

Working with different cultures and within different organisations there is a clear need to focus on the opportunities presented rather than the blockages we perceive. Valuing the diversity within organisations, and within groups of individuals frees us to hear new ideas and explore new ways of working together. For a LINk to have universal appeal it must value diversity. This workshop will be based on current equalities legislation, to ensure the development of best practice within your LINk.

Managing a Consultation

At the core of LINk responsibilities lies the greater involvement of local people in the redesign of services. Therefore, how can your LINK support both the NHS and Adult Care services in involving local people in decision-making? What skills will you need to influence this agenda? How will you know that their voice is heard? This workshop will highlight the best of public involvement practice, examine lessons learnt and encourage you to become a source of wisdom in support of public involvement in service change.

Coaching & Mentoring

This workshop is intended as an introduction to the skills involved in coaching and mentoring others. Coaches and mentors are used extensively in business because of the value they bring in the development of others. Come and learn how to apply the skills of coaching and mentoring and see the difference this can make in your LINk and in your relationships with external stakeholders. This workshop will not only give you a chance to learn the skills but will also provide you with an opportunity to experience them firsthand.

LINks, Personalisation and Individual Budgets

The implication of personalisation and individual budgets is the issue that is currently the most challenging for Social Care policy makers to address. What do you understand about this new agenda for change? This workshop will allow you to explore some of history shaping these changes, challenging you to address key issues of individual choice and welfare reform. You will leave with a wider understanding of the pertinent issues, having discussed how your LINk can contribute to this development

Understanding Quality

This workshop provides you and your LINk a rare opportunity to stand back and be clear about what quality means for you as you operate in the world of health and social care. What is acceptable as a standard, when would you Enter & View, how do you define and build rigour into your work around quality issues? Clarity upfront will bring success in the future.

Engaging Young People

If you want to see how effectively you can engage young people in the work of your LINk, then this is the workshop to attend. We will discuss the practical issues of how to attract the interest of today's youth and then how to give them the space to make a contribution to the work of the LINk. We will help you understand the value of reaching out through different media and share insights and ideas with you for moving forward in this aspect of community engagement.

Team Building

A LINk by it's very nature is a group of individuals who come together as a result of a common interest in improving health and social care provision in their local area. Within a LINk there is a clear need to establish teams who focus on different aspects of the workplan and who communicate effectively with each other. Taking a group of individuals and giving them a shared purpose does not make them a team. So this workshop explores the dynamics of team working and how to move to a high performance team state from simple beginnings.

Community Leadership

What do we mean by community leadership and who exactly is a community leader? Locally elected councillors have a developing role in shaping the agenda for local communities. How can your LINk influence this new role, supporting Councillors and senior policy makers in their responsibility to shape local policy? This workshop will examine the changing role of elected members, asking "How can your LINK support this new responsibility?

Working in Partnership/Relationship Master Class

This one day workshop is an opportunity for you to consider how to most effectively influence the people around you. For LINks to be successful the relationships between stakeholder partners needs to be successful. Using the Influence and Political Styles Questionnaire (IPQ) you will recognise your own style and preference when influencing others, whilst identifying subtle changes you could make to create stronger and more robust partnerships.

Committee Skills and Decision Making

Is your LINk working effectively? Is everyone aware of their responsibilities and duties? This workshop seeks to make the essential business of a LINk easy to understand and implement. Tips on decision making processes will be included.

Understanding your Host

To be able to form a strong working relationship with your Host it is vital that you understand the role they have to play in the success of your LINk. This workshop is designed to illustrate to you the boundaries that should be in place and some of the more basic protocols that should be followed. The purpose of this workshop is to empower the LINk in their decision making and to enable good relationships to be fostered between LINk members and Hosts.

Media Training

Does your LINk work proactively with the media, or is the media something to avoid at all costs? This workshop will provide you with the fundamental skills to equip you to work positively with the media. You will explore how to establish and maintain positive relationships with the media, clarify upon whose behalf you speak and gain confidence in getting your message across.

Understanding the NHS and Social Care

This workshop offers participants a wider understanding of duties and responsibilities of the NHS, Local Government and Social Care, the fit with public engagement and the responsibilities of a LINk. A dynamic use of different media bring clarity and understanding to how these two organisation work both together and stand alone.

Commissioning Explained

To influence the commissioning activities of the NHS and Social Care, LINk members will need to understand what is meant by commissioning and how this activity is undertaken by the various agencies. Commissioning is a new responsibility and therefore practice can vary considerably. This workshop will allow you to familiarise yourselves with the fundamental elements of the commissioning task, introduce you to the Joint Strategic Needs Analysis, and allow you to explore how best your LINk can involve and influence these responsibilities.

Working with the Private Sector

Most LINks feel very comfortable working alongside health, and as time passes the confidence when working alongside social care is also growing. But what about the Private Sector Providers? This workshop explores the role of a LINk in the private sector arena and seeks to establish best practise for all activities that may be undertaken.

Managing a Virtual Team

Today's environment sees us dealing with an ever increasing number of virtual teams. Engaging large numbers of people in the work of your LINk will establish more such teams, so the question is 'How do you manage these teams?' This workshop provides a discussion forum into best practise and will allow the sharing of ideas between delegates. We will focus in on some of the key areas such as: accountability, communication and outcomes.

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