SAMPLE. CHCINF407C Meet information needs of the community. Learner guide. CHC08 Community Services Training Package. Version 1. Product Code: 3008

Transcription

1 CHC08 Community Services Training Package CHCINF407C Meet information needs of the community Learner guide Version 1 TRAINING AND EDUCATION SUPPORT INDUSTRY SKILLS UNIT MEADOWBANK Product Code: 3008

2 Acknowledgments TAFE NSW TES Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank, would like to acknowledge the support and assistance of the following people in the production of this resource package: Writer: Debra Cross Teacher, Children s Services TAFE NSW Contributors: Donna Field, Deborah Peters Teachers, Children s Services TAFE NSW Reviewer: Louise Holz, Teacher, Children s Services TAFE NSW Project Manager: Gail Horwood A/Education Programs Manager TAFE NSW Enquiries: Enquiries about this and other publications can be made to: Training and Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank Meadowbank TAFE Level 3, Building J, See Street, MEADOWBANK NSW 2114 Tel: Fax: The State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, TAFE NSW, Training and Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank, Copyright of this material is reserved to TAFE NSW Training and Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank. Reproduction or transmittal in whole or in part, other than for the purposes of private study or research, and subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act, is prohibited without the written authority of, TAFE NSW. Training and Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank ISBN Developed by Training & Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank TAFE NSW 2010

3 Table of Contents Introduction General introduction Using this learner guide Prior knowledge and experience Unit of competency overview Assessment Section 1 Identifying Information Requirements Identifying Information Requirements Consulting with users and stakeholders Mechanisms for identifying relevant information requirements Providing relevant information to groups and individuals Identifying and addressing gaps in the information base Section 2 Addressing information requirements Addressing Information Requirements Evaluating Existing Information Developing New Information Materials Basic Project Management and Implementation Answers to Activities Reference List Developed by Training & Education Support Industry Skills Unit, Meadowbank TAFE NSW 2010

4 Section 1 Identifying Information Requirements Elements and performance criteria: 1. Identify information requirements 1.1 Employ appropriate mechanisms to identify information requirements of the community and specific groups 1.2 Collect and maintain current, accurate and comprehensive information on a range of relevant issues/services for the group to ensure information needs will be met 1.3 Identify gaps or inadequacies in the information base and implement strategies to address them Getting Started Before you begin make sure you have the following resources The National Quality Standards for the service relevant to the course in which you are enrolled. NSW Curriculum Framework for Children s Services Children s Services Regulations. These documents can be accessed via the internet. See the Resource section for website addresses. Identifying Information Requirements Assessing the organisation s information needs Before we can determine the information needs of the community we need to define and identify the community. It is also necessary to identify the stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities of the community to the stakeholders. Page 16 of 106

5 What is a community? Community may have a different meaning for individuals or groups. Take a few minutes to think about the definition of community. The types of people that make up a community may include: families, children, parents, community organisations, businesses, government services e.g. Post Office, Local Council, schools, children s services professionals and professional services such as doctors, dentists, accountants, solicitors, police, ambulance, fire fighters, sporting organisations and teams. The list is endless. The NSW Curriculum Framework for Children s Services (2002) discusses The Children s Services as a Community. This is an important resource to read and become more familiar with. Diversity goes beyond culture however, and a service that operates as a desirable community embraces diversity in background, level of education and qualification, life experience the richness of human diversity. Diverse views and perspectives are not simply tolerated, but welcomed as a catalyst for generating better ideas and solutions to problems. (p.93).another area the curriculum framework focuses on within this section is The Children s Service in the Wider Community. Read this section as it provides some useful background. Identifying the stakeholders of the service and defining the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders is only the first step in meeting and assessing the community information needs. If the children s service is to be successful in meeting the organisation s information needs the staff and management will need to have a complete understanding of the wider community. Accessing the local governments strategic plans which are usually set out over a four year plan is a start. Many local government areas have websites that allow the community to access these and the statistics from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics that reflect their own community. Page 17 of 106

6 Activity 1.1 Have a look at the Bureau of Statistics for your own community or try looking up an area you might like to go to. Let s look at the town of Penrith. First type in On the left hand side click on Census data On the right hand side you will see Community Profiles click on this Type in Penrith You will notice there is a long list of areas in Penrith If you click on Penrith a small map of Penrith will appear Click view community profile Click basic Community profile Lick on free download of community profile This will download in an excel file Using the tabs at the bottom of the excel sheet to find the information you want Under the list of tables choose religion and you will see how many people with each religion there is in Penrith. Now that you can see how simple it is to gather this information in the surrounding areas of your community we need to look closer at the individual service. Turn to the end of the learner guide for suggested answers. Page 18 of 106

7 Maintaining information Imagine that you are the relief co-ordinator of an Outside of School Hours Care service. A 5 year old boy arrives at the centre feeling ill and appears to have a fever. Another staff member tends to the child while you go to the office to look up the child s records on the computer. Within a few minutes you have the child s records up on the monitor and you are dialling the work contact number for the child s mother. After waiting on hold for three minutes you are told that the child s mother left that place of employment several weeks ago and there is no forwarding number. You can hear the child crying outside he is becoming quite distressed. A staff member pops her head in the office door to inform you that his temperature is 38 degrees and appears to be rising. You decide to look into the child s records in the filing cabinet. There is no information relating to the parents change of employment so you find it necessary to contact the Co-ordinator on her day off. The Co-ordinator remembers the child s parents completing a change of information form and she thinks it may be in her work tray on her desk waiting to be entered onto the computer. You search through the pile of paper in the tray and find the relevant form. Thirty minutes has now passed since the child first complained of feeling ill. Here we have a situation where information is provided but is not acted upon appropriately. There has been a delay of thirty minutes in informing the parent and possibly getting medical treatment for this child. This could have related in further health complications for the child. The child s distress could have been reduced had the staff been able to assure him that his mother was on the way. Two staff members are involved in tending to this child s needs, again for a period of thirty minutes. Who is caring for the other children while two staff members are occupied? This scenario demonstrates the importance of effective maintenance and storage of information to ensure that it is accessible and up to date. We can also see the importance of having both parent details and emergency contact information. What if the parent hadn t given the updated information to the co-ordinator? This is something that does occur regularly even though many services send reminders out to families to keep their information current. Using the emergency contacts would have eased this situation a lot sooner. Page 19 of 106

8 Now imagine that you are the Co-ordinator of a Outside School Hour Care service in a busy inner city suburb. Many of the families who use your service speak a language other than English so you have used the services of a multi-cultural resource unit to prepare information booklets in varying languages. It is time to review and update the information booklets so you access the telephone number of the resource unit in the service directory in the office. However, when you dial the number you discover that this number now belongs to the local newspaper. After further investigation you find that the multi-cultural resource unit, in response to government funding changes, has consolidated its resources and moved to a suburb on the other side of town. Children s services workers have very busy days. Workers are dealing with varying concerns of families, staff, children and the community in varying degrees on a daily basis. It can be very frustrating when we try to access a service only to find the contact details have changed. We know that changes in government funding can often result in changes to community organisations. It may result in A change in the name of the organisation Cancellation or changes to projects within the organisation Changes to projects aims to address funding requirements A change of address A change in human resources. As professionals we need to be aware of these changes and how they affect the service we provide. Look back at the last scenario. Why do you think the information book needs to be updated? It could be that the policies and procedures of the service have been reviewed to address changes in the operation of the service. Changes to the policies and procedures could be the result of the new regulations or a quality assurance review, or it could simply be that staff and the committee have identified some changing needs of staff or clients. Both of the situations outlined in the above scenarios resulted in frustration for staff and impacted upon the provision of care and service to clients. It is our responsibility in children s services to ensure that information provided to clients is up to date and accurate and to ensure that our current information sources are evaluated and updated accordingly. Page 20 of 106