Explain why person-centred values must influence all aspects of social care work

Person centred values recognise a person’s individuality, dignity, choice, rights, equality and diversity and independence which is principle value of all aspects of social care work. It helps us to deliver care according to every individual’s needs which respect their choices, rights, dignity, privacy and independence. It also helps to promote individual’s choices, rights, privacy and independence which are General Social Care Council’s (GSCC) codes of practice.

Person centred values helps an individual to gain self-esteem, which helps them to protect from any potential harm and abuse. If we do not maintain person centred values in our practice, then we will not be able to deliver care according to individual’s needs and we will be failed at our role’s aims and objectives.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain the benefits of using a personal development plan to identify ongoing improvements in knowledge and understanding

A personal development plan helps us to identify trainings and skills, which are required to accomplish to reach our goal. Then it encourages us to accomplish qualifications and trainings step by step using milestone or timeline. When we achieve each qualification, then we put this knowledge into our practice which becomes our strength later on. Using a personal development plan, we can easily track down our improvements in knowledge and understandings, which can contribute to our professional development. It is also a way to organise training and skills.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain the role of others in the development of a personal development plan in identifying:

a)    Strengths: A senior care worker or supervisor can identify my strength, as I will be closely working with them. By observing, they may find out what you are very good at and what areas you need to improve. Even if you reflect on your practice, you may find out areas need to improve your practice. You can also seek feedback on your performance from senior colleagues, manager, mentor, service users, relatives and other professionals which can help you to identify your strength.

b)    Areas for development: A manager, senior care worker, supervisor, trainer and mentor can help you to identify areas for development. A manager or supervisor has a duty to have a supervision meeting with his employee in every 3-6 months, when an employee’s performance is reviewed, and areas for further training and development are found out.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Why it is important for a social care worker to seek feedback on performance

Feedback is a way to receive appreciation for the service we  provide. The only way we can be aware of the quality of our work is by obtaining feedback. It helps one to be more effective on their job. It also helps us to identify our strengths, skills, learning and development needs within our service provision. We can use feedback to identify our learning and development needs to improve our practices. If feedback doesn’t meet our expectation, then we should work on areas, need to improve our practices, and adhere to learning new skills in order to improve quality of service. Hence, we constantly require seeking feedback from service users, relatives, social service, manager, assessor, mentor and other professionals. Without obtaining feedback it will be unknown to us whether services we provide are meeting expectation or not.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain how people may react and respond to receiving constructive feedback

Constructive feedback is essential to improve professional development which increases the effectiveness of the service. It helps social care worker to identify areas of knowledge and skills development. Everyone thinks they are doing very good job until their work is evaluated by other professionals. We all expect to receive good feedback on our service. When we receive criticise of our work, some of us may react defensively. They may counterattack or try to blame others. Some of us may try hard to change the subject or reluctantly accept the blame and promise to improve. In worst scenario, some may become very emotional or flee.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain the importance of reflective practice in continuously improving the quality of service provided

The only way is to know by evaluating our existing practice, whether there is any need to improve quality of service or not. When we reflect on our own practice, we analyse our own work to find out areas we need to improve our knowledge and skills, which helps to improve quality of not only the service but also the service user’s life. The process to reflect on our own practice involves the following –

1)    What did we do?

2)    What we are doing?

3)    Is it meeting service standards and individual and others expectation?

4)    What went well?

5)    Why do we do it this way?

6)    Can we do it different way by maintaining or improving standard?

If we do not reflect on our practice, many errors and omissions may go undetected. We may also not know whether our current practices are meeting the standards or not. Therefore, we require continuous review of our own work and think effectively to bring any changes which can improve the quality of service.

If we reflect on our practices, we may bring some changes after evaluating, which can not only improve the quality of services but also the individual’s quality of life.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar

Explain what reflective practice is

Reflective practice is scrutinizing of your own practice for identifying areas you need to improve including knowledge, skills and quality of service which promotes professional development. It is a process of thinking of your own practice, by reviewing positive and negative aspects of your work, which influences and improve quality of service and individual service user’s life. Reflective practice is a way to identify areas for professional and service development.

By Md Foisal Miah Talukdar