DR7L 04 (CCLD 401)Establish and develop working relationships

Elements of competence

CCLD 401.1Establish and develop working relationships with colleagues

CCLD 401.2Establish and develop working relationships with other professionals and agencies

CCLD 401.3Encourage and facilitate others to reflect on practice and share knowledge

About this Unit

This Unit is about managing relationships with people important to the setting. Relationships with colleagues, other professionals and agencies are key to ensuring that children receive the best possible provision.

The Unit is for you if you have responsibility for supporting others in their work and in ensuring good relationships in a setting or service where the main purpose is children’s care, learning and development.

Keywords

What we mean by some of the words used in this Unit
Anti-discriminatory / Taking positive action to counter discrimination: this will involve identifying and challenging discrimination and being positive in your practice about differences and similarities between people
Colleagues / Other people who work with you in the setting or service to whom you offer support as part of your work role: they may be paid or unpaid
Inclusion and inclusive practice / A process of identifying, understanding and breaking down barriers to participation and belonging and implementing these principles in your practice
Professionals / Other workers who have professional status either in the same sector or related sectors, representatives of statutory agencies

Evidence Requirements for the Unit

It is essential that you adhere to the Evidence Requirements for this Unit

GENERAL GUIDANCE
  • Evidence must be provided for ALL of the performance criteria and ALL of the knowledge.
  • Work with children and families does not lend itself to a series of fragmented activities. When assessment planning it is essential that assessors and candidates identify opportunities to integrate a number of activities for assessment on any particular occasion.
  • Assessment of knowledge and understanding should wherever possible be carried out during performance to ensure that theory and practice are linked.
  • The evidence must reflect, at all times, the policies and procedures of your workplace as linked to current legislation and the values and the principles for good practice in children’s care, learning and development.
  • All evidence must relate to your own work practice.

SPECIFIC Evidence Requirements for this unit
Simulation:
  • Simulation is not permitted for this unit.

The following forms of evidence ARE mandatory:
  • Direct Observation: Your assessor * must observe you in real work activities which will provide evidence of some part of Element 3 of this unit.
  • Reflective Accounts: You should describe your actions in a particular situation and explain why you did things. You may be able to use a reflective account to provide some of the performance evidence for this unit. e.g. how you established and developed working relationships with colleagues and/or other professionals and agencies, how you have upheld your own professional expertise whilst respecting the expertise and responsibilities of others.

Issues for consideration:
  • The following performance criteria may be difficult to evidence by observation:
Element 1 - all performance criteria
Element 2 - all performance criteria
Element 3 – PCs 5,6,7 and 8
Competence of performance and knowledge could also be demonstrated using a variety of evidence from the following:
  • Questioning/Professional Discussion: Questions may be oral or written. In each case the question and your answer will need to be recorded. Professional discussion should be in the form of a structured review of your practice with the outcomes captured by means of audiotape or a written summary. These are particularly useful to provide evidence that you know and understand principles which support practice, policies, procedures and legislation, and that you can critically evaluate their application e.g. the range of professionals involved and the need to ensure equality of esteem, relevant legislation, actions emphasising the importance of multi-agency working and the sharing of information, the reasons for this and the benefits to the child and family, the need to break down unnecessary professional barriers in the interests of the child.
  • Products: These are non-confidential records made, or contributed to, by you, e.g. minutes of meetings, documented working arrangements.
  • Confidential Records: These may be used as evidence but must not be placed in your portfolio, they must remain in their usual location and be referred to in the assessor records in your portfolio e.g. situations involving conflict, notes of sensitive meetings, personal records.
  • Original Certificates and other evidence of prior experience and learning: These may be used as evidence but must not be placed in your portfolio, they must remain in their usual location and be referred to in the assessor records in your portfolio e.g. situations involving conflict, notes of sensitive meetings, personal records.
  • Case Studies, projects, assignments: These methods are most appropriately used to cover any outstanding areas in the knowledge requirement of your award.
  • Witness Testimony: Colleagues, allied professionals, children, young people, families and carers may be able to provide testimony of your performance. Your assessor will help you to identify the appropriate use of witnesses.

*This is a mandatory unit and as such Direct Observation MUST be carried out by an assessor. Expert Witnesses could supply additional evidence.

Knowledge specification for this unit

Assessment of knowledge and understanding should wherever possible be carried out during performance to ensure theory and practice are linked.

You need to provide evidence for ALL knowledge points listed below:

To be competent in this Unit, you must know and understand the following: / Enter Evidence Numbers
1Relevant legal requirements and procedures covering confidentiality and the disclosure of information
2The types of information that should be treated confidentially: who you can and cannot share this information with
3The meaning of anti-discriminatory/inclusive practice and how to integrate this into your relationships with children and other adults
4The processes you should follow to help colleagues adjust to and develop their roles and responsibilities
5The importance of making sure each team member understands and supports the roles and responsibilities of others and how to make this happen
6The importance of good communications with all types of colleagues and communication methods you should use
7The importance of maintaining agreements with colleagues and what to do if you are unable to maintain agreements
8Why it is important to share information and knowledge with your colleagues and methods you can use to do this
9Why it is important to encourage others to give you feedback on your performance and how to deal with this feedback
10Types of conflict that may occur with colleagues and how to resolve these in a constructive way
11The range of other professionals with whom you should liaise
12Why it is important to establish and agree respective roles and responsibilities with other professionals and how to do so
13Why it is important to agree common objectives, ways of working and communicating with other professionals and how to do so
14The importance of respecting professional boundaries and how to do so
15The importance of effective communication with other professionals and how to communicate with other professionals in a way that meets their expectations
16Why it is important to be aware of the limitations of your own expertise and responsibilities and respect the expertise and responsibilities of other professionals
17When it is important to assert your own expertise when working with other professionals and how to do so in a way that will maintain an effective relationship
To be competent in this Unit, you must know and understand the following: / Enter Evidence Numbers
18Good practice, values and ethical requirements when liaising with other professionals
19How to handle disagreements with other professionals and inter-agency misunderstandings
20Why it is important to show respect for other adults’ individuality and how to do so
21How, why and when it may be necessary to adapt the way you communicate to meet the needs of other adults
22Typical situations that may cause conflict with other adults, how to deal with these effectively and support colleagues who may be involved in these situations
23The importance of all those involved with children sharing knowledge and experience
24How to create or make use of opportunities for others to discuss their experiences
25How to foster an environment in which people feel happy to discuss what they are doing and the challenges they face
26Essential skills in listening to others and helping them to evaluate and learn from their experiences
27The importance of learning from the experiences and knowledge of others
28The types of situations that may occur when the challenges facing others exceed the limits of your own expertise and the procedures you must follow
29How to encourage colleagues to share their experiences and knowledge more widely

CCLD 401.1Establish and develop working relationships with colleagues

Performance criteria
Enter Evidence Numbers
DO / RA / EW / Q / P / WT
1Initiate relationships with colleagues that help them adjust to and develop their roles and responsibilities
2Identify and agree with colleagues ways in which you can support each other’s roles and responsibilities to maintain and improve provision to children
3Identify and agree how you will communicate with each other
4Maintain your agreements with colleagues or take the initiative to review arrangements when necessary
5Work with colleagues to deal with conflict constructively

CCLD 401.2Establish and develop working relationships with other professionals and agencies

Performance criteria
Enter Evidence Numbers
DO / RA / EW / Q / P / WT
1Identify other professionals and agencies relevant to your work and establish effective working relationships
2Clearly define and agree your own role and responsibilities and those of other professionals
3Agree common objectives and ways of working and communicating with other professionals and respect these boundaries
4Exchange complete, accurate and up-to-date information with other professionals whilst respecting requirements for confidentiality
5Work effectively with other professionals to improve provision for children
6Acknowledge your own limitations and respect the expertise and responsibilities of other professionals whilst upholding your own professional expertise
7Maintain relationships with other professionals which are in line with good practice, values and ethical requirements

CCLD 401.2Establish and develop working relationships with other professionals and agencies (contd)

Performance criteria
Enter Evidence Numbers
DO / RA / EW / Q / P / WT
8Handle any disagreements and complaints promptly, positively and in line with organisational procedures andprofessional guidelines

CCLD 401.3Encourage and facilitate others to reflect on practice and share knowledge

Performance criteria
Enter Evidence Numbers
DO / RA / EW / Q / P / WT
1Create opportunities for others to discuss the work they are doing
2Foster an environment in which others feel able to discuss their progress and share any concerns or challenges they are facing
3Allow others to discuss what they do and actively listen to what they have to say
4Help others to structure, evaluate and learn from their experiences
5Reflect on and learn from what others have experienced and learned themselves
6Share information and knowledge with others to assist them in dealing with challenges
7Identify when the difficulties which others are facing are beyond your level of expertise and refer them to an appropriate source of advice and support
8Encourage and create opportunities for others to share their experiences more widely so that provision can be improved

DO = Direct ObservationRA = Reflective AccountQ = Questions

EW = Expert Witness P = Product (Work)WT = Witness Testimony

To be completed by the Candidate
I SUBMIT THIS AS A COMPLETE UNIT
Candidate’s name: ……………………………………………
Candidate’s signature: ………………………………………..
Date: …………………………………………………………..
To be completed by the Assessor
It is a shared responsibility of both the candidate and assessor to claim evidence, however, it is the responsibility of the assessor to ensure the accuracy/validity of each evidence claim and make the final decision.
I certify that sufficient evidence has been produced to meet all the elements, pcS AND KNOWLEDGE OF THIS UNIT and that the candidate has demonstrated the application of the princIples and values.
Assessor’s name: …………………………………………….
Assessor’s signature: ………………………………………....
Date: …………………………………………………………..
Assessor/Internal Verifier Feedback
To be completed by the Internal Verifier if applicable
This section only needs to be completed if the Unit is sampled by the Internal Verifier
Internal Verifier’s name: ……………………………………………
Internal Verifier’s signature: ………………………………………..
Date: ……………………………………..…………………………..

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Unit: DR7L 04 (CCLD 401) Establish and develop working relationships