ESRC Seminar Series: Re-Imagining Professionalism in Mental Health

ESRC Seminar Series: Re-imagining professionalism in mental health:

towards co-production

Seminar 7: Education, training and supervision for co-production

University of Huddersfield 27 October 2017

We warmly invite you to participate in the 7th seminar of the series.

Encouraging debate across boundaries between service users/survivors and carers, academics, and professionals from voluntary and public organisations.

This seminar will explore conceptual frameworks for a redefinition of professionalism based on coproduction and power-sharing, and how this might be fostered through educational experiences.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE

To make enquiries or to apply for a travel bursary (available to service users, carers, and professionals in voluntary organisations, please email:

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See our ESRC Co-production blog:

The programme

09.30 / Registration (with tea and coffee available)
10.00 / Opening with Christine Rhodes and Pamela Fisher
10.15 / Keynote: Professor John Wattis
EDUCATION, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION FOR PROFESSIONALISM BASED ON CO-PRODUCTION: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
The use and meanings of terms like professionalism, education, training and supervision will be discussed. A distinction between education and training will be made and a brief critical account of competency-based education will be presented. The need will be emphasised to combine competencies with personal professional development and situational factors to deliver co-production of mental health. Some possible competencies for professionals working to co-produce mental health will be presented for later discussion. These are based the International Coach Federation standards for professional coaches. Personal professional development will be considered in terms of socialisation into the professional role as a ‘limited expert’. As well as understanding professional standards and how to apply them, the methods of acquiring the attributes of the professional role will be considered. These involve interactive learning involving people who use services, group discussions of ethical issues, complex situations and professional dilemmas. In addition, the importance of role models, coaching and mentoring and compassionate motivation will be stressed. Resilience - the ability to sustain knowledge, skills and motivation in the face of adverse circumstances - is another important attribute. Situational factors that obstruct co-production of mental health will be considered as will factors that promote co-production. An example of NAViGO, a comprehensive adult mental health service that operates on co-operative lines, will be briefly discussed; but it will be emphasised that this kind of working is counter-cultural and we need to recognise the need to persist in seeking cultural change.
11.15 – 11.30 / Discussion of arising themes (with tea and coffee available)
11.30 - 12.30 / Julian Raffay and Nadine Crawford
CO-PRODUCTION: EDUCATION, LEARNING OR TRANSFORMATION?
Effective co-production benefits both people and organizations. This interactive seminar explores how insights from mental health services can serve education, learning, and supervision. We consider the interplay between education, learning, and transformation. We begin with our experiences of co production. We then explore useful conceptual frameworks. We suggest a targeted approach to value everyone’s contribution. We close with practical suggestions. We expect this seminar will interest service users, carers, academics, and service managers.
12.30 – 1.30 / LUNCH
1.30- 2.00 pm / Paul Frazer, Heather McDonald and Leanne Winfield
THE RISK TRAINING GROUP
Paul, Heather and Leanne were instrumental in a Multi-Agency Clinical Risk Training project which was a good example of co-production. Firstly, we will give an introduction of our training project. One of the participants, Paul, will then provide a practical example of the training provided, by reading out an account of his personal experience.
After a demonstration of the training, Leanne will then offer how she sees co-production, by providing her definition of co-production, and a comment on the term “professional”. (For Leanne, co-production means people from different areas coming together as equals to work towards a goal that has been decided in collaboration. There will be value to all experiences, whether “Experts by Experience” or “Experts by Learning”. Leanne also has a question of the term “professional” – and argues that it is an approach, rather than a status.)
Once we have given thought to co-production, Heather will detail some of the benefits of co-production, and in particular provide some feedback from the participants of the training.
Then Leanne will again offer a critique of co-production, and look at how some voices may be included despite offering a view which is factually incorrect. This leads into looking at the difficulties we may have faced with this training, and Heather will provide some suggestions as to how this could work better in future.
Finally, Paul will look at how we think professional education and training could be reformed in order to facilitate co-production, with specific ideas of continuing future training, training specifically for service users, use of a steering group to share experiences, and the possibility of a newsletter.
2.00 - 2.20 / Matt Ellis Kirklees Recovery Colleges
CO-PRODUCTION AND PROFESSIONALISM THE NEED TO REFOCUS
What are the barriers to making co-production happen from a professional point of view? How do organisational culture and the ideas around “professionalism” hinder or help? What are the challenges that professionals need to own and face up to?
Matt will contend that it is time for honest discussions that cut to the very heart of what it means to be a professional. Professionals need to locate themselves in the complex tapestry of society, communities and services, unpicking the threads that bind them to organisational and “professional” barriers that have warped reality and distanced them from the very people they seek to serve. There needs to be a refocus from improving services to improving lives. The only way to make and bring sustainable, enabling change is through co-production that allows influence not only on what professionals do but on how they do business and who with.
How we as professionals work within our communities needs a radical re-think and that is challenging, inspiring and frightening!
2.20 – 3.00 / Huddersfield University Public Partnership Group (PPG)
SHARED SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES
The involvement of service users/carers/ people with experience, in health and social care professional curricula is a central theme, and expectation, in government reviews, reports and policy directives. It is also a requirement of professional regulators approving and reviewing curricula, for example, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council. However, there is significant evidence that the ability to develop such partnerships and collaborative working is still lacking in practice and is often, despite efforts from all parties, tokenistic.
This session will include a specific focus on the approach that the PPG have adopted to support educational experiences. The discussion start with some consideration to the infrastructure required followed by examples of the challenges and opportunities the PPG have experienced in their quest to adopt a collaborative approach to find shared solutions to co-create meaningful involvement.
3.00 / Tea and coffee and identification of the main points arising from presentations and discussions
3.30 / Additional networking opportunity

Speaker Biographies: -

John Wattis was appointed visiting Professor of Psychiatry for Older Adults at Huddersfield University in 2000, John worked as an NHS consultant in the specialty until 2005. Before coming to Huddersfield, he was responsible for pioneering old age services in Leeds for nearly twenty years. He completed his training in Birmingham and Nottingham where he was Lecturer in the Department of Health Care of the Elderly which pioneered a holistic approach. He has experience of management as Medical Director of a large Community and Mental Health Trust and as Director of Research and Development for several NHS Trusts. After ‘retirement’ he provided part-time support to medical management in several NHS organisations, including the award-winning NAViGO care social enterprise. Until last year he also worked as a life and business coach, supporting people working in the NHS, Higher Education and Voluntary sectors. He has published research on the development of old age psychiatry services, alcohol abuse in old age, the prevalence of mental illness in geriatric medical patients, educational issues in old age psychiatry and outcomes of psychiatric care for older people. More recently he has focused on spiritual aspects of health care, co-supervising several research projects in this area. He has written or edited several books, the latest of which is the co-edited work Spiritually Competent Practice in Health Care*. At the University, he gives occasional lectures mostly on Spiritually Competent Practice. He is involved in the research supervision teams for several PhD students. He is a committee member of the School of Human and Health Sciences Spirituality Special Interest Group. This has been involved in several research projects concerning healthcare professionals can assess and support patients in this area and how educators can prepare them for the task. This seems to share a great deal with ideas about co-production of mental health.

*Wattis J, Curran S and Rogers M. Spiritually Competent Practice in Health Care.2017: Boca Raton; CRC Press.

Julian Raffay works for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust as Specialist Chaplain (Research, Education and Development). He is co-producing an action research cycle to show that co-production delivers better mental health services, improves satisfaction, and is cost-effective. This is yielding deep insights into co-production and challenges superficial understandings. It is practical but draws on theoretical approaches to education, management, psychiatry, and ethics. He is also involved in research evaluating a recovery college.

Julian is in his fifth year of a part-time Professional Doctorate at Durham University, focussing on relationships between mental health services and faith communities. He teaches ethics and professional practice to healthcare chaplains at Cardiff University and identifies himself as having experienced mental health problems.

Julian holds degrees in Psychology with Management Science, Theology, and Chaplaincy Studies. He has been a vicar, social worker, psychology technician, and support worker. He has published articles and book chapters and is co-producing an edited book.

Nadine Crawford works for Mersey Care NHS Foundation trust formerly as a Recovery College tutor now as a Pathways Advisor. Working in front-line services is a totally new career for Nadine. Previously she worked her way up in the Civil Service whilst studying a part-time Law degree. After qualifying in Law Nadine had a complete change of heart and mind and decided to take a career break. She left her home, job and family and travelled around 14 different countries across 3 continents in just over a year. Nadine found this a valuable experience, mixing with people from all walks of life and gaining insight into other cultures.

During her varied career Nadine has experienced co-production in a variety of guises. Whether leading on a project or volunteering her time she has found the output and co-operation levels are far better when a model of co-production is used.

Paul Frazer is an active service user based in Leeds. He has made very positive contributions through his involvement with different services and organisations including; Leeds Involving People, Service User Network (SUN), Sunrays and Better Lives in Leeds. In addition he has contributed to mental health research at Leeds University and Bradford University.

Heather McDonald is a team leader of One-to-One services within Leeds Mind. After gaining an interest in psychology during her college studies, she went on to study Psychology with Nutrition and Health studies at Leeds Trinity University. Heather has also worked within the Voluntary and statutory sectors and within a range of services; from support worker within Intermediate hostels, Care coordinator within Rehab and Recovery services. She also has a great interest in “risk”; what this means, how this is managed and how individuals can be supported to take control of their own risk assessment and safety planning to encourage self-management. Heather had the great pleasure of working with Leanne and Paul on the Multi Agency Clinical Risk Training project as project lead; this was funded by the CCG and through Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust. It was through this project that they were able to coproduce a multi-agency attended Risk training package aimed at changing the culture of risk assessment and management and the practices associated with this.

Leanne Winfield is a Patient Champion with NHS Leeds CCG Partnership and has been involved in developing co-production training being delivered across Leeds. Leanne is also the co-ordinator of the monthly West Yorkshire ADHD Support Group meetings held at Pinderfields Hospital. In these roles Leanne has delivered training on a number of topics, including co-production, clinical risk, and dual diagnosis and is currently participating in an Advanced Health and Wellbeing Training Programme with Leeds City Council.
In 2016 Leanne was part of a team of four service users awarded First Runners Up at the LYPFT awards, in the Developing People category, for our Multi Agency Clinical Risk Training.

Matt Ellis Matt Ellis is Principal of Calderdale and Kirklees Recovery Colleges at part of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT). He has worked in Social Care for over 25 years and in Mental Health as a qualified Social Worker, Approved Mental Health Professional and operational Manager. He is known for his innovation and leadership pioneering creative approaches. He managed the Garage Project, a Mental Health Service for Young People that won a NIMHE (National Institute for Mental Health) positive practice award in 2005. He also chaired the local Kirklees collective for Creative Minds winner of the HSJ award for ‘Compassionate Patient Care’ in 2014. More recently Matt was responsible for establishing a Recovery College in Kirklees and now has the additional responsibility in co-ordinating “Recovery” development and the 5 Recovery Colleges within SWYPFT. Matt is passionate about co-production, strengths based and creative approaches which value the contribution of those with a “lived” or “caring” experience.

Huddersfield Public Partnership Group (PPG). The PPG is made up of a number of service users and carers and staff from the University that work together to take a lead role in shaping and delivering the public involvement strategy that includes education and research. The PPG was established as the School of Human and Health Sciences believes it is of great value to staff and students to involve a wide range of people who have experience of health and social care. The overall aim is that through a partnership approach service users and carers have the opportunity to make a difference and influence the work of the School and future health and social care services. Individual biographies of the people presenting will be provided in the seminar pack.