Research and Development : Evaluation, Monitoring & Impact C
If you are seeking a professional, reliable and both breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and experience obtained from my roles across within local authority social care and health; criminal justice and children, young people and families services. In addition, over the last decade I have 'twin tracked' my practice & policy career, by simultaneously undertaking social research, evaluation, article writing and in-house peer reviewing, editing and proof reading As my experience has developed and varied key transferable skills have been very well honed, as have my employment options, e g. becoming freelance or independent, where I have provided short and long term consultancy to senior management directly and within voluntary context, Board of Trustees / Directors. I produced substantial evidenced based interim briefings, annual reports, funding bids to various third sector finders and contributed to progress and end reports to existing funding organisations with effectively structured, accessible format detailing the effectiveness of a specific pilot project or an altered imitative by measuring to what degree the identified outcomes for project clients and stakeholders have been achieved based upon consultations with clients, stakeholders, organisational partners, staff practitioners, senior management and Trustee/Directors Boards, informed also by relevant policy context, legislative obligations, existing key research, statistics, creative use of appropriate theoretical and ethical best practice frameworks.
I have excellent communication abilities, both verbally and in writing for varied purposes and target audience. Indeed, I have had significant opportunities in my twin track interconnected career paths , to gain and refine a plethora of easily transferable skills. these include but are not limited to: strong inter personal and customer / client focused engagement skills; forging effective partnerships, networks and working relationships with relevant parties; exemplary organisational,, administration, time and workload management skills,. I am well equipped in assessing and responding to changing client and business /agency needs and objectives. Subsequently, I have well adapted abilities to prioritise tasks, review diary management and work efficiently both on my own initiative and as part of a team, offering support to my colleagues and contributing to training newly qualified practitioners and para professional colleagues as well as teaching within an Higher Education setting, to under and post graduate students. From teaching as both an Associate Lecturer within social policy, media and communications and teaching first year, honours and Masters students within e.g. sociology, criminology, Scottish CJS and misuse of penal institutions. I
also took part in each courses development or review of accurate learning objectives, course delivery and means of assessment, and subsequently design lectures, seminars and tutorials which engage diverse student groups, undertake critical assessment of long essays, policy reports and research project plans, ethical applications and ultimately dissertation at honours and Masters levels. I have a strong commitment to multi disciplinary ways of working, collorabating with internal colleagues, key stakeholders, end users and senior personnel with high level of specific expertise. my work within social work and research has involved either direct or indirect support of vulnerable social groups, as a result of structural as well as self determination and environmental factors. As a statutory worker and project manager, I have undertaken advanced training in child and adult protection, and therefore have vast amount of experience in responding to emergent risk of harm referrals. This typically turns the practitioner into an Investigator, adhering to organisational, practice policies and relevant accurate application of these and legislative principles and duties. Furthermore, the worker also has to seek out and identify the most appropriate documentary evidence plus existing or historical risk and need assessment or case recordings. in addition, I routinely identify and source individuals and agencies that may have relevant information or evidence which assists me and my multi disciplinary team, in assessing the credibility and accuracy of either perceived risks during involvement with a client or via other reporting mechanisms. There are multitude of legislatively and policy determined practice duties within state social work and care services, including strict often short, deadlines for decision making e.g. 3 days in certain contexts to determine the risks of substantial harm and whether further action is required and what kind of action, retaining the clients welfare as of paramount concern within the child or adult protection investigation. subsequently deadlines for comprehensive full assessments centred upon specific concerns,but vast history,current familial / health / economic / housing/ mental health / disability / offending behaviour / education / personal relationships, safe and appropriate holistic care beyond basic survival needs / substance misuse as key examples, and collating all this info gained from various previous assessments where possible, and liaison with other agencies and the client herself, assessing the potential risk and drawing on theoretically informed decision making, making a recommendation within the report and articulated directly as the Lead Practitioner or supporting the Lead, whom I supervise as a manager, within the convening multi disciplinary meeting. It is here we begin to move from immediate crisis management into developing Ann urgent safety plan and joint care planning to adequately manage risks posed, undertaken by the clients Core Group of formal supports, consisting of the most important agencies which depend upon the circumstances of each case and trying to engage the most resistant client or parents/carers of children where risk of harm has been found following full investigation which may have led me as lead to make extremely important decisions which will impact upon the clients and their families in possibly very significant ways e.g. decision to seek an emergency Child Protection Order from a Sheriff Court to remove a child from the imminent risks and put the child within a place of safety. This involves the lead practitioner or their manager in completing a shorter legal focused report,following defined rules for content; explaining how the evidence gathered to date net the legal standard or threshold to actually obtain the authority to remove children from their homes, or to refer adults to inpatient provision as one example. I explain all of this purely to demonstrate the editors of SW practice and the very serious and important responsibilities to protecting the vulnerable whilst maintaining the legally defibed principle of minimum intervention into private lives, and trying to promote the rights of the child and parents, or adult and caters. These are often competing demands, and conflict often results due to the significant emotional implications for child and potentially family, hence need to be truly transparent, honest and genuine, keeping clients informed and supporting them in achieving more stable, positive and safe homes and parenting including age appropriate nurture and behaviour management, all with the objective of reunification of families,wherever this is in the best interests of a vulnerable individual. otherwise further difficult decisions require to be made should risks grow or remain static due to lack of carer engagement or action in accordance with the easily understood care planning document and many many discussions about the specifics e.g. failing drug tests, not attending to mental health or other agency referrals including parenting support and sadly child contacts or presenting as under the influence for visit with their loved one, where I must challenge this and make a decision as to whether it is safe or appropriate to allow a contact session to continue, and most likely it is not safe or appropriate.
In most of my roles, I have taken significant responsibility for my own admin needs, and I have strong IT skills, including Word of course, Excel and PowerPoint. I am most capable at multi tasking effectively, seeking advice when required, learning new systems or IT databases/applications easily and quickly. I also thrive within fast paced dynamic context, with multiple looming deadlines, high workload and lack of adequate staffing, none of these ideal practices, but within SW these become the norm, and I enjoy challenging myself . I very rarely fail to meet a deadline or obligation as I am dedicated also to my role or task at the time, and happily work late or at home when needed to achieve targets, progress and deadlines. My research and evaluation experience,as well as my management experience also aid me in managing various competing demands, managing and resolving problems effectively and ensuring my actions remain completely ethical and in accordance with my own values and principles, as well as those of given role and organisation.
I have written various academic book reviews, learning support papers ,designed and dekivered study skills workshops to distance learners and classroom based learners via virtual learning environment e.g. online seminar/webinar, course Q and A etc. I am keen to make more creative use of the many IT and technology tools now available to utilise within practice and teaching sectors e.g. comprehensive monitoring for sustainable quality assurance, use of podcasts in delivering workshops it classes or using video chat in a group, or as a one to one therapeutically focused session. this has proved useful when one or more are working remotely across different locations, we can arrange video conferencing meetings , improving on Conference calls or online group meeting in dedicated 'chat room'.
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I have significant freelance experience of completing written tasks/projects, including academic and research papers, literature reviews, policy and theoretically informed PowerPoint presentations, delivering study and assessment skills to range of students, including those with additional learning needs, and writing articles, titles, social media posts and defining tag lines within education, risk abtd care management / providers and related sectors primarily. However, these are transferable skills, and would like to expand my experience to other sectors too. Other freelance work has involved evaluation of new vol sector projects or streams, developing engagement and communications strategy to encourage clients to participate in sharing their views , taking part in commissioned research and also in consultations within community and institutional context in respect to advocacy, welfare and support setvices. with the outcomes of achieving at least 85% engagement rate within the more resistant client groups, and influencing the agent's provision and it's extension, identifying unmet or internet needs, discovering the most engaging and efficient delivery methods, e.g. participator framework v professional led, and contributing to the recruitment and selection process for new staff, from interviews to contributing to person and job specifications.
I have also completed various virtual assistant tasks , around my primary role, and am well equipped to do so as whilst at university initially I worked as a part time Personal Assistant to an entrepreneur with high expectations, exacting requests and wide variety of support tasks across his professional, business and personal lives. I gained huge amount from this role, and indeed from my business Director/Owner, who took time to explain key processes, nature of his business and investments and technical information, plus his expectations of me in the role of PA, which required out of hours support at times,a little travelling, travel and accommodation arrangements, managing his diary, invoices and payments, data entry, letter and report writing, editing and proof reading his or interns work, manage employers emails, assessing and prioritising messages into categories/folders depending upon their level of priority, and dealing directly to certain emails and telephone enquiries on matters I was authorised and equipped to do; setting up client meetings and entertainment, and wide range of administration duties paying attention to detail and offering excellent customer service to existing and potential clients and other agencies.over time, supported business in respect to writing clear meaningful copy for information booklets, website and services pricing and contributing to developing new marketing ideas and new projects within property sector mainly; handling initial complaints and challenging clients at times.
I also assisted with managing aspects of his personal life, for example social media, responding to invitations, ensuring diary availability maintained for children's events and other familial obligations, health appointments and sourcing appropriate people and services to assist him with physical fitness, trade organisations, sourcing certain clothing and presenting 3 options of potential gifts for his partner and extended family for Christmas etc and and general Co ordination of his personal and professional lives.
I f you are seeking an intelligent, efficient, positive and proactive adaptable and quick learner that enjoys 'hitting the ground running' and can complete a wide range of tasks and support to diverse professionals, including aspects of personal business, then please look no further....
