Community Learning Development Resource 302 – 03
EXPLORING CO-WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
SUMMARY
Notes from workshop sessions with community learning, community development and neighbourhood regeneration workers, where they are discussing their experiences of co-working arrangements with other workers and agencies.
What are the benefits of effective co-working?
- Developing individual agency and worker practice and growing capacity – sharing and learning from each other – e.g., shared identification of needs; shared problem –solving; shared targeting expertise
- Giving better value for money through more fit-for-purpose arrangements – rationalising delivery, reducing duplication, playing to the strengths of partners
- Offering seamless and coherent services for users and co-workers – developing a comprehensive and effective delivery framework – seeking order out of chaos
- Offering an expanded and more comprehensive range of services and opportunities – e.g., delivery of additional opportunities by partner agencies
- Better access to alternate and additional specialist provision and services – being able to address a wider variety of client/learner needs and wants
- Improved accessibility of services and provision – joined-up, promotion, advice and information giving – accessing and communicating through partner networks
- Effective use of scarce resources – maximising the use of individual agency and worker resources with a co-working framework
- Joint planning with better awareness of ranges of needs and agency/worker roles and functions within the big picture
- Capacity for partnership in collaborative planning and bidding for resources – able to address strategic concerns of funders
- Sharing and receiving information – e.g., sharing user feedback and disseminating ideas and information
- Improving quality through shared interagency monitoring, evaluation and review – more able to collectively legitimise evidence of success and achievements.
What factors should we consider in developing effective co-working across agencies, within a patch?
- Can we ensure continuity and consistency in delivery to clients?
- Can we ensure that addressing the needs and wants of individual clients informs and shapes co-working arrangements?
- Can we manage professional and organisational boundaries to be seamless in supporting and enabling clients?
- Can we develop and manage co-working arrangements and relationships that appropriately address the concerns of partners and of local people?
- Can we have appropriate communication – an agreed and shared common language, accessible to clients, as well as partners?
- Can we remain loyal to our agency – are we prepared to adapt and change our organisation and practice in order to manage our contributions for effective co-working practice?
- Can we have respect for the work of other agencies and workers, whilst recognising and addressing perceived limitations, difficulties and shortfalls?
- Can we manage and maintain our value set within our co-working arrangements – can we find and agree a common set of values – equality, mutual trust and respect, client-centredness, etc.?
- Will we be able to relate to individual agency protocols codes of practice, in ways that support & enable clients, e.g., confidentiality, choice, participation, empowerment, etc.?
What might be the constraints or problems of interagency working?
- Increasing or excessive demands on worker time – maintaining interagency and co-working arrangements and relationships
- Constraints from other agencies – requirements to conform
- Agency parochialism and territorial disputes
- Lack of mutual trust and honesty
- Mismatch of values, cultures, purposes, styles and consequent confusion for workers and clients – lack of consistency and continuity – no ‘seamless robe. This could extend to challenging agencies and workers about unacceptable values, lack of values, unacceptable cultures, behaviours and working styles!
- Not having a shared, understood and agreed framework, protocols and ethics, e.g., confidentiality
- Loss of legitimate control through co-working – unhelpful power factors
- Breakdowns in relationships, communication, trust, etc.
- Reduction in the effectiveness of what we individually do for clients/learners – wholly and/or partially within the co-working arrangements
- The co-working arrangements become ineffective, e.g., maintenance becomes too demanding in time & effort, arrangements break down or constrain effective working.
About evaluating co-working practice
- When setting up a partnership arrangement include ways of systematically supporting and learning from shared monitoring, evaluation and review, make sure that interagency feedback is encouraged
- Review co-working relationships made with other workers or agencies – record who they are with and the usefulness of the arrangement
- Identify any contacts made by others with you or your organisation, with a potential for co-working arrangements and work through what you think the purposes and usefulness could be
- List co-working relationships that you would like, but do not yet have, with other workers or agencies and review the reasons why you need them, and reflect on how these might be brought into existence
- Ensure that the evidence of successful partnership working is shared effectively, e.g., to support the development of the work and funding bids, and to disseminate good practice.
PROMPTS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
- Who needs to be involved in negotiating co-working arrangements?
- Who needs to benefit from any co-working arrangement?
- Can co-working arrangements be selective and partial rather than requiring whole agency/organisation co-working?