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Save Substance misuse service manager
Harriet manages a co-located advice and support service aimed at reducing substance misuse among young people. In her team there is a health and support worker, an arrest and referral worker, a nurse/therapist, a youth issues worker, a looked-after children worker, a housing support worker, and outreach workers for individuals and families. Involvement of the voluntary sector has been very important to the success of this service; many of the operational staff come from voluntary sector backgrounds and they are also very involved at a strategic level.
Previously, Harriet was a project manager for the local council, dealing with addiction issues. She was involved in assessing young people and planning and carrying out support. Harriet often felt frustrated that she was working in isolation and welcomed the opportunity to take a more team-based approach to support.
"Young people may come to us with substance misuse issues, but for many of them, this is only a symptom of wider problems. For example, some have mental health problems and some are homeless. While we focus on drug use, our effective links with other services mean we can work with them to develop and implement a more effective care plan."
Harriet has had to support her new team through a series of difficult transitions while strategic management evaluated what was most appropriate to local needs. Firstly, services for young people had to be detached from the local adult drug and alcohol services. A coordinator of young people's services was appointed and a virtual team was set up, but there were many challenges associated with this way of working. It was very difficult to establish a team identity and to change people's established ways of working. Therefore, strategic managers decided to relocate team members to a local drop-in centre. The team members were very resistant to this at first, and Harriet had to work hard to ensure that they felt supported in this move.
Establishing a team identity
However, Harriet feels that, ultimately, co-location has been really important to establishing a team identity. The young people all see them as 'matrix workers' and don't associate individuals with different agencies. They have a shared vision, a common approach to working and collective goals. Co-location has also been vital to improving communication and resource sharing. But Harriet also feels that her staff members have struck a good balance and retained their professional identities.
- Harriet says the partnership has been really effective and young people are getting an improved service.
- The major challenge she has faced is in developing productive relationships with other established agencies. Many of them have been precious about letting go of staff and have found it difficult to try out this new way of working. The strategic managers in Harriet's area have had to convince others that services need to consider young people's needs first, and their own service needs second.
- It has also been very important to think through and manage the development of new systems to support this new way of working. They have worked hard at developing policies and practices that are in harmony with established policies which the staff feel comfortable with.
- Harriet's staff retain the terms and conditions associated with their home roles and Harriet acknowledges that this has been problematic. Harriet has tried to be open and sensitive about this issue, in order to prevent it becoming a barrier to effective, but she recognises that there are no easy answers.
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Last updated on 30/04/2009
