Introduction - NB this audit has now been superceded (June 2015):
AMBIT training works best when teams are clear about why they are coming for training; many of the teams we train are already very experienced at doing what they do, with a local population and service ecology that they know better than anyone else. We developed an updated team audit/application form in Dec 2014 (shown below) in response to feedback that (even) more preparatory work to help teams in the lead up to training is helpful.
Since then, we have further increased the intensity of the "pre-training" phase of the AMBIT training, and the pre-training audit (bleow) has been superceded (June 2015) by a full day of consultation with 2 AMBIT Trainers that itself is preceded by an updated online questionnaire. You can read about this new structure at PREP day: Overview
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Pre-training team audit
You will find the earlier version of the pre-training team audit below, but please read through the preamble here to make sense of this vital part of the process.
The Pre-training team audit is a vital part of the
AMBIT Training Application Process.
Remember that the AMBIT training is only offered to Teams, not individuals (see also
Guidance for Teams Considering Applying for Training).
AMBIT is not just a theory- and evidence-based set of practices that teams are taught and then adopted, but includes at it core the idea that
Mentalization underpins the work of the team
at all levels:
- Hence teams are invited to mentalize their own behaviours - reflecting on their own learning needs as they apply to their own specific predicaments.
- We strongly prefer to hold a Briefing session for senior managers/commissioners to clarify the training objectives.
- It is crucial that senior managers take part in the training alongside or before team practitioners. If a whole service training (multiple teams from a locality) is considered, we prefer to train senior managers as observers on a team training prior to the training for their local service so that there is clarity about what (and why) training is being arranged.
- There is no such thing as an "AMBIT team" - but rather a community of AMBIT-influenced teams.
Pre-training team audit: a team task
It is very important that as the first stage of
AMBIT training teams set aside time to spend together to consider what they are doing well (or feel confident about being able to do) and what they struggle with (or predict that they will struggle with). This process of defining their
Post-training outcome goals is similar to
Marking the Task in one of the core practices of AMBIT called
Thinking Together.
The audit form is designed to support teams in this process and forms an important element of the application process. AMBIT is not a "One-size-fits-all" approach to therapeutic working, and a significant part of the approach is about developing the relationships and culture within a local team to support local learning from local experience. The more preparation before training takes place, the better - AMBIT is nothing if not participatory and co-constructed!
The video below is designed to be shown to by managers to their team when they are considering, or applying for, AMBIT training. It introduces AMBIT briefly and introduces the pre-training team audit task.
There is a direct link to the Application form
HERE (Click on
File > Download to get a copy for yourself) ...Or see the embedded document below (the key questions for TEAM discussion are listed below that, too):
Key Questions:
A: Basic "demographics" about the team
- Who is in the team
- What do you do
- Map the LINE MANAGEMENT and SUPERVISION relationships for each team member who will be present at training
- We do not assume that the Line Manager and Supervisor will necessarily be different people, and many teams may use group supervision, etc. It is simply important for us to have an understanding of how things are organised at present.
B.1 What does your service already do well in your work with young people and what are the challenges?
B.2 How do you work together as a team and what are the challenges of doing this well?
B.3 What other agencies are important in your work with young people? What issues arise in your work with them?
B.4 How do you build up your expertise in your work? What helps you to do this and what can make this difficult?