Background

By Catherine Fraser.

The field Learning Partnership Project pilot – the group that created this website – is an evolving story. It begins with the field (then DISTSS) review of ‘workforce learning needs’ in the Victorian disability services sector, back in 2006/7.

At field – furthering inclusive learning and development – we promote and model a culture of learning for people with disability, the disability services workforce and the community to create a more inclusive society. This is in the context of a broad social agenda driven by human rights.

Some of the documents that informed the development of  the Learning Partnerships Project (LPP) concept can be found on the field website, particularly:

• http://field.org.au/about/reports/survey_people_with_a_disability.pdf
• http://field.org.au/about/reports/survey_support_providers.pdf
• http://field.org.au/sector/index.html ( esp. field Recruitment & Retention Community of Practice resources page)

Analysing and reflecting on these and other material led field staff to identify some areas of recurring interest to us:

• Attitudes and values – people keep coming back to these as the make-or-break point of the disability service experience … but how to/can you ‘train’ for them?
• Workforce recruitment and retention issues – this is a critical issue for ‘industry’ and the quality of service experienced by people with disabilities: Who comes into the sector and why, do they like their job, will they stay in the job, are they able to provide the support the way the person with a disability needs and expects?
• Valuing people – the ‘coalface’ is undervalued. The rhetoric about ‘valuing people with disability’ is also reflected in the value ascribed to those who work with them. We believe that the fortunes of both support workers and people with disability are linked, and the adversarial positions that have sometimes been adopted are counter-productive to this.
• That the ‘relationship’ – what it is, the range, and how it gets played out was central to not only the intent of policy and service systems, but to the success and satisfaction at the ‘practice’ / experience end-point. That maybe the whole ‘industry’ boils down to the relationship between individuals at the coalface.
• Direct support workers apparently get less access to professional development opportunities than others in the service system – the chance to learn beyond the competency based tasks, to explore their role and be exposed to and develop new ideas is seldom available and if so, frequently, at the worker’s own expense.
• People who use disability support services often get cast into a ‘receiver’ mode and would really like to be more involved in ‘industry’ learning and development – and to be recognised and valued for that contribution.

We wanted to explore these threads – they seemed connected and really could be ‘woven together’ in a way that created a new cloth to cover the many issues, problems and difficulties that keep being identified.

The process to work out how to do this involved getting an idea for a ‘coalface Co-Learner Group‘ down in writing and circulating this with a group of ‘critical thinkers’. Using the feedback we came up with the concept for the Learning Partnership Project pilot: an action learning process brining together people with disabilities and direct support workers as colleagues, learners and sources of knowledge.

In 2008 field employed an independent facilitator (Mary Burgess) to run a 10 week program of 2 hour sessions with 5 disability direct support workers, and 5 people with disabilities who receive in-home support to explore and in some way document the direct support relationship.  These people were paid as contributors to industry learning, not ‘studied’.

This LPP pilot group conceived of and built this website to share some of their understandings and experience through narratives. This Not Just Work website “explores the dynamics of the relationships that are forged by people with disabilities and the workers who provide necessary support.” The LPP group maintain editorial control of this site and its contents with support from field.

Together,  we continue to explore ways this resource can be shared and grown for the benefit of individuals and the industry. The Not Just Work site was launched in December 2008 at the opening of the field art exhibition “Difference – source for Growth”. We have presented at a number of conferences:

• Mutually Beneficial Direct Support Partnerships – Key to Satisfaction for a More Skilled & Longer Lasting Workforce, field presentation to National Disability Service Conference, Hobart, May 4th 2009 by Catherine Fraser, Dr Peter Gibilisco, and Deb Mackenzie.
• Creating Sustainable Futures: Direct Support – It’s About More than the Money, field presentation to the CSHITB conference 2009 by Catherine Fraser, Maree Ireland and Deb Mackenzie.

We are continue to actively explore ways the Not Just Work resource can be used in ‘workforce strategies’ and in the formal training system.

- Catherine Fraser