15 Working in partnership/teams

Legal Advice organisations are required to work in partnership/teams with a wide range of other agencies, such as the courts, social services, health services, local authorities, voluntary organisations, the police, probation services, and government departments. National Occupational Standards provide a common currency and a common language for working in partnerships and teams and open up further opportunities for collaboration.

Please refer to Section G for a full list of standards-setting bodies who will be able to provide you with sets of National Occupational Standards for their sectors (some will charge for these).

Steps to take:

Step 1 Agree common Standards of working
In a partnership/team, it is important that the standards of performance are clearly stated and agreed by all. National Occupational Standards offer a concise and transparent way of describing the quality of performance expected of staff working within the partnership/team. They also allow performance to be measured in an objective way.

When agreeing roles within the partnership, specify the National Occupational Standards to which people should be working.

Step 2 Audit capacity of the partnership/teams
It is important to know whether the partnership/team has the capacity – in terms of people’s knowledge, skills and abilities – to meet its objectives.

Assess staff against the relevant National Occupational Standards to get a picture of their personal capabilities. Bring these assessments together to get an overview of the strengths of the partnership/team and areas where you need to develop or recruit people to meet objectives that would otherwise not be met.

This can help you prioritise training and development for the partnership/team as a whole.

Step 3 Develop joint learning arrangements
Organise joint learning and development based on National Occupational Standards to meet learning objectives that partners/teams have in common.

The obvious benefits of joint learning and development arrangements include the following:

Sharing of costs
Strengthening of funding applications
Cost-effective use of training resources
Broadening experience and opportunities for individuals
Better understanding of different organisations’ aims and values at individual and partnership/team levels
Widening network of contacts

Step 4 Share assessment arrangements
If people are working to common standards, it is important that their performance is assessed in a consistent way, whether the assessment is for formal qualifications or for quality assurance of the partnership/team as a whole.

Develop common protocols and techniques for assessment and share the resources of assessors. The ability of assessors to work across organisational boundaries increases the objectivity, impartiality and quality of assessment.

Step 5 Use National Occupational Standards as criteria for monitoring and evaluating performance
Partnership agreements need to specify the roles each partner will play and the outcomes expected. Often these outcomes will be in quantifiable terms, e.g. the number of training sessions held or the number of referrals made. However, they can also specify the quality of performance expected from the people involved. This can be expressed concisely using National Occupational Standards, e.g. staff should be working to agreed units of the Legal Advice Standards, or staff involved in partnerships should work to the standard described in Unit LA23 Operate within networks.

Use National Occupational Standards as the criteria for monitoring the progress of partnerships and evaluating whether outcomes have achieved the required quality.

Checklist

Do you use common standards of performance within your partnerships?
Have you audited the capacity of all partners?
Are you involved in joint learning and development activities with partners?
Have you investigated the potential for sharing assessment arrangements?
Do you use National Occupational Standards for monitoring and evaluating performance in partnerships?