This handbook brings together guidance and tools to assist both the self-development and the work of training professionals involved in any inter-agency context. These may include: adult safeguarding, children in need, early years, child protection, young minds, youth offending, adult mental health, adult offending and others. Whether helping training professionals who are stepping into inter-agency work with some of its basics or supporting more experienced colleagues when they feel stuck, it aims to empower and develop resilience. Some of the tools can also be used by supervisors and managers in their inter-agency work, or by anyone considering employing an inter-agency trainer. Using the example of Local Safeguarding Children Boards, it will help ensure that inter-agency training happens, is of good quality and enhances inter-agency communication and cooperation. Practical in focus, with underlying theory offered where useful, the tools can be adapted for different circumstances and disciplines.
Extensively tried and tested, it offers: * Practical tools, exercises and checklists for use at each stage of the training cycle - from planning to evaluation * Strategies for when you encounter obstacles * An opportunity to appraise, affirm and develop trainers' own skills and knowledge * Inspiration to try something new and different Carefully focused on the specific complexities of inter-agency work that influence how training can be run and managed, it is designed for use where there are: * Diverse and multiple agencies, stakeholders, structures and contexts * A wide range of perspectives and cultures * An endemic presence of stereotypes and prejudices * Divergent professional and organisational priorities * Various traditions and structures of power * Diversity of language and understandings * Diversity of working traditions * A wide range of roles and responsibilities. Much of the material has been used to work with the additional complexities of using front line practitioners as volunteers to deliver training, and of involving vulnerable service users to help bring the training to life.