Licenced Trainers: how to support the use of Talking Mats part 2

In her blog last year, Janie Scott told us about the use of Talking Mats within the Services for Children, Young People and Families of Perth and Kinross Council.  READ HERE . 

To coincide with our most recent batch of trainers completing the Licenced Trainer course, Janie’s second blog describes how the tool was embedded in the service and subsequently evaluated.

Having delivered several Talking Mats Foundation Training courses to colleagues and used the framework to develop resources specific to the Services for Children, Young People and Families, the challenge then was how best to share information and ideas. Janie writes:

Electronic Document Management Site (EDMS) for Talking Mats

As the new resources were developed they were initially emailed round the team but with support from IT a specific site for Talking Mats was developed. It included:

• Useful links – to websites and webinars
• New site – this celebrates when a group passes the training with a photo
• Documents – this contains all the resource packs that have been developed and the report templates
• Teams channel – this highlights any news from Talking Mats and any new resources

Access is given to the site after session 1 of the foundation training.

Ongoing Support

Part of the role of the Talking Mats trainer is to provide ongoing support. This has been done over the last year in the form of a Teams consultation. A webinar was also given via a direct work forum. This was attended by 70 participants from social work and education.

Feedback

The SLT sought feedback after every foundation course and sought to gather feedback a few months after the training. The SLT reported numbers back to Talking Mats and sought case studies from participants.

Numbers Trained

During 2022, 40 staff from Field Work and Looked After Services completed their Foundation Training. This increased to 74 by May 2023. All REACH staff were trained in Talking Mats, most to an advanced level, having done the ‘Keeping Safe’ training. In 2023 three members of the Child Protection Duty Team attended the online’ Keeping Safe’ Advanced Training, run by Talking Mats, after embedding the Foundation Training into their practice.

Measures of Impact

Feedback following Foundation Training

53 participants

Feedback overall was very positive with participants feeling that it would help to support gaining the voice of the child and parents.

Feedback following use of Talking Mats in Practice

18 participants responded to the questionnaire sent out several months after the Foundation Training.  The feedback supported research findings that the quality and quantity of what is said increases and that the young person’s voice is heard.

Quotes from participants 

Thank you to Janie for this blog.  If you are interested in becoming a licenced trainer please contact licenced@talkingmats.com for more details.