Interprofessional continuing professional development: towards integrated children and family services

Meyer, Edgar, Payler, Jane, Humphris, Debra and Ashford, Claire (2007) Interprofessional continuing professional development: towards integrated children and family services. 1st European Interprofessional Education Network (EIPEN) Conference, Kraków, Poland. 11 - 13 Sep 2007.

Abstract

This paper outlines the rationale, process, and pedagogy of an interprofessional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme for health, social care and education professionals in Services for Children and Families. The CPD is a flexible programme, currently tailored to the specific needs of a local Children and Young People Directorate in England to encourage implementation of interprofessional working for children and family services in line with Every Child Matters (2003).

The paper will outline the origins of the programme and situate these within the context of current UK policies on children and family services. The programme was developed jointly with a local authority that is currently undergoing restructuring in response to the Children’s Act 2004. We will discuss how the process of employer engagement has led to a CPD programme that is not solely focused on academic excellence, but also aimed at facilitating practice change. Adopting this dual focus allows facilitating individual professional development whilst actively supporting the implementation of the learning in practice. Thus, by collaboratively designing the curriculum, the interprofessional CPD is responsive to the needs of the children and family services in the area.

We will discuss how the use of specific pedagogical features was aimed at enhancing the process of interprofessional education. For instance, the programme uses facilitated collaborative interprofessional learning and a problem-based learning approach to support appropriate learning experiences. One of the major attributes of IPL is to learn “…from and about each other to improve collaboration…” Hence, whilst a sound foundation of content is facilitator-led, large parts of the programme are student-led to allow for time and space to reflect on practice and develop areas of particular interest to the CPD groups. The paper will provide indicative evidence on the effectiveness of such process in facilitating interprofessional learning.

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