As a project we recognised the benefits in arranging group sessions for frontline workers, and the mentor has been responsible for establishing and facilitating these. Groups are convened in order to explore experiences of practice and opportunities for growth. Alongside formal supervision from managers and peer supervision that happens naturally within the office, the group sessions provide a space for encouraging learning and development.
The group session structure typically begins with developing skill base and knowledge by focussing on a particular topic relevant to the project, followed by a focus on reflective practice. There is an effort to incorporate different ways of sharing information as we know that people have different learning styles, so at times videos or visual activities are also used. Often, workers drift naturally into reflection throughout the session and lots of discussions take place.
Within the ECP project, a new reflective practice framework to use in group sessions has been developed, and this will form part of the group sessions as they continue over the course of the project. This framework is based on the CLEAR model used most often in the field of coaching and mentoring.
Through discussion with the team manager and the workers, small group sessions were agreed initially rather than whole team sessions, in order to provide people with the space and opportunity to speak openly and comfortably. Some sessions will focus on the whole team in order to maximise the sharing of knowledge.
As with the individual sessions, flexibility is required and the numbers in a group session may change due to work demands. Management support has been very positive and workers are encouraged to attend group sessions in order to have an arranged reflective space available to them.
