Workforce Development Group
Written by Jo at Essex Recovery Foundation
We had another fantastic workforce development group this month, where we were able to feedback about the Tier Four report that was produced from the last session. You can read the report here, which details everything that was raised by the workforce and fed back to the steering group, whose focus is to improve the Tier process for everyone. You can read the outcomes from initial discussions with the steering group here.
The key thing to say is that your voices are being heard and processes are being reviewed so we hope you can see how valued your thoughts and ideas are.
We are also really grateful to the members of staff who have come together to develop a training programme for staff around Tier Four processes. This joined up approach to training is something we hope will continue to grow - as there is so much to be gained by bringing all your knowledge and ideas together!
Elizabeth Bayliss also joined the workforce development group this month to speak about the workshops she has been running on ‘developing our practice’. This week, she is running a workshop for managers to ensure that we are all working together to create space and time to reflect on our work, learn from one another and be creative about how we make working in Essex the best it can be. We will be running another series of workshops for practitioners in October/November - so keep an eye out and book yourself a place!
In addition, Elizabeth opened up the opportunity for the group to begin to think big on what an accredited training programme for recovery workers should include and how best this would be assessed. This hot topic is one of the key objectives drawn from the Dame Carol Black review, and is part of the national workforce development strategy for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services. We brought this to the group as we want to do our best to make sure your experience is acknowledged and can feed into the development of a programme which is dynamic, coherent and responsive to need. The group spoke out about the importance of value-driven work that is relational and keeps the human at the heart of it - which was music to our ears!
The discussion around values was so inspiring that two of our members have kindly volunteered to run a ‘exploring our values’ workshop in the next session. So don’t miss out on this brilliant opportunity and book yourself into the next workforce development group on Thursday 7th November by following this link: https://essexrecoveryfoundation.beaconforms.com/form/2e71b9d0
We will also be inviting Liz Digby in to speak about her ideas on how we can support neurodiverse people at work. Thankyou to Liz, who has kindly agreed to give her time and expertise to help develop this piece of work. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by people who have so much to offer and share.
We are always keen to hear from you… so please share any of your ideas or suggestions here.
Save the date
Workforce Development Group
DATE: November 7th
TIME: 10am-2pm
VENUE: Essex Community Foundation, 3 Hoffmans way, Chelmsford, CM1 1GU
DATE: January 9th
TIME:10am-2pm
VENUE: Essex Community Foundation, 3 Hoffmans Way, Chelmsford, CM1 1GU