Author: Donna

Going back to my roots: Presenting the Carers Star to the Carers Awareness Day in Hong Kong

Posted on by Donna
Stock photograph of a street in Hong Kong at night
Star co-creator Joy MacKeith reflects on how the Carers Star is taking her back to where she started life in Hong Kong

It is always exciting to have the opportunity to speak at an event about the Outcomes Star, but my presentation on the Carers Star to the Carers Awareness Day in Hong Kong this Friday is particularly meaningful to me.

I was born in Hong Kong and lived there until I was seven. My parents had travelled there from England just six months earlier so my father could take up a management post at the Nethersole Hospital on Hong Kong Island. He had been inspired by his aunt who had worked as a teacher in Shanghai and then Hong Kong from the 1930s to the early 1960s.  What a delight (just) over fifty years later to be able to share a tool I co-created with a Hong Kong audience of professionals, policy-makers and carers themselves.

Photograph of Joy MacKeith as a child with a group of people
Joy MacKeith, aged 6, with nurses from the Nethersole Hospital where her father worked

The annual event aims to promote the awareness of carers and their needs among the social service sector and policy makers. It is organised by Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service (BOKSS) a not-for-profit which provides a wide range of services across Hong Kong including children, youth and family services, services for older people and mental health services.

BOKSS have established a CARE College which provides training to carers, professionals and related agencies and raises awareness of the needs of carers. When they came across the Carers Star they recognised that the collaborative approach to assessment and action planning that is at the heart of the tool fitted perfectly with their holistic and participative approach. 

Image of the Carers Star in chinese
The Carers Star in Chinese

The Carers Star was developed by Triangle with the Carers Trust and Social Enterprise of East Lothian in Scotland. It covers seven key areas in which carers often need support including their own health, adapting to the caring role and making time for themselves. It is already widely used in the UK (including by The Carers Trust and Barnardos) and Australia (including by Australian National Carer Gateway and Uniting Care West), with over 30,000 readings on the Star Online. 

My presentation will introduce the Carers Star and outline its dual purpose as a key-work tool to support a structured and empowering conversation with a support worker, and an outcomes measurement tool providing valuable information about how things are changing for carers whilst they receive support. Sadly for me the event is completely online but on the positive side that will mean that I can be joined by colleagues Angela Kallabis and Laura Baker for the Q+A session. 

Percentage of service users moving forward in the seven Carers Star outcome areas

It is a long time since I lived in Hong Kong, but it is where life started for me and I still have vivid memories of my time there. I never could have dreamt that I tool I co-created would reach out so far into the world and pull me back, half a century later, to my roots. I will follow the journey of the Carers Star in Hong Kong with great interest and hope that it is as helpful there as it has been in the UK and Australia.

 

****

The Carers Star was recently translated into Chinese in collaboration with Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service (BOKSS). For more information on the Stars and how to use them internationally or in translation take a look at our International section or contact Triangle for more information.

Recruiting now: Client Services Co-ordinator

Posted on by Donna

Are you excellent at record-keeping and enjoy making sure everything is accurate? Are you super organised? Interested in working with a social enterprise that supports third sector organisations? We are seeking a maternity cover for our Client Services Coordinator who will be responsible for organising a large number of training courses for new and existing clients.

Triangle is seeking a capable and organised Client Services Coordinator to support our clients, and provide excellent customer service. The successful candidate will be responsible for responding to, managing, and co-ordinating the large number of training courses that new and existing clients require.

We’re looking for a pleasant and self-confident professional with an ability to develop and build strong relationships with clients and collegues.

The Client Services Coordinator is a vital role in managing and co-ordinating the large number of training courses. Main tasks will include liaising with clients and the training team (across the UK and beyond) to find suitable training dates, and manage the booking process and administration of these courses, maintaining and keeping our CRM up-to-date, monitoring numbers and organising appropriate training. You’ll also be responsible for organising records and pre-training resources, information including quotes and invoices as well as generating and issuing personalised certificates using Adobe to trainees who have completed their sessions.

The successful applicant will be based out of our Hove office, and we are open to flexible working arrangements especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Find out more and apply

Visit our Careers page to find out more about us and the role.

*****

You can download the job description and application form from our careers page to see if this is the next step for you. If you’d like an informal conversation about the position, please email miranda@triangleconsulting.co.uk

Moving to the Youth Star 2nd Edition

Posted on by Donna
Graphic: text reads, Youth Star (2nd Edition). A new and improved version of the Youth Star for working with young people taking part in community-based youth projects
Key questions and answers about the new Edition of the Youth Star, and how organisations can transition to the new version

The new Youth Star is a new and improved edition of an Outcomes Star designed to support services working with young people and in the youth work and community sectors. 

1 Why a new Edition?

Triangle is responsible for ensuring that the Outcomes Stars stay relevant and are as good as possible; we keep them under review, seeking and analysing feedback and developing new editions as needed. We published the Youth Star in 2012 and since then have developed many more Stars for different sectors, leading to new learning, including how to make the Stars and guidance even more trauma-informed, strengths based and person-centred.

The 1st Edition of the Youth Star was published without detailed scale descriptions, so a key aim of developing a new edition was to develop detailed scales to support training, consistency and clarity. Further, Triangle has gathered feedback about the Youth Star and also about how the youth sector has changed and evolved, resulting in helpful feedback. This also pointed to a need to review this Star to make it as good a fit as possible for youth work today.

2 What has changed?

We have created detailed scale descriptions for the six areas covered by the Youth Star. These are in a new User Guide, along with a graphic of the short scale descriptions. The User Guide is most relevant as an important new resource for workers, in training and initial familiarisation with the Youth Star and for reference to ensure accurate and consistent completion of the Star. However, it is written in accessible language and can be shared with young people who are interested and able to engage with more detail.

There is more detail in the Development Report but in summary the main changes are:

  • The first stage of the Journey of Change is renamed stuck, to recognise that things may feel or be stuck for a young person at that stage for many reasons, not necessarily because they are ‘not interested’, as the language in the 1st Edition implied. This also makes this wording consistent with other versions of the Outcomes Star
  • The first scale is now Interests and activities (replacing ‘Making a difference’). This area still emphasises helping others, group activities and teamwork but is widened to recognise activities and interests such as sports, arts, music that are positive for young people but can be individual not group activities and not aimed at making a difference to others.
  • Health and well-being replaces ‘Well-being’ as it now covers both a healthy lifestyle and emotional health, including managing physical or mental health conditions. It recognises that those who are younger may not have much control over their diet or other choices and that their family may not support living healthily.
  • Education and work now emphasises getting the most out of school/ work rather than focusing on achievement. It was also widened to include training, apprenticeships or internships and to recognise the role of the school, college or workplace in providing extra support where needed, so it is not just up to the young person. 

There are other minor tweaks to scales, with some aspects moving from one scale to another to increase clarity and accessibility and adding references to social media and staying safe online. In addition, we listened to feedback from young people and workers and changed some wording to be more sensitive, trauma-informed and responsive to the issues people faced and created flashcards and new guidance.

3 Should I move to the new edition?

We believe that the 2nd Edition of the Youth Star is better, and the additional resources will make it a more effective tool for supporting and measuring change with young people, so we recommend you do transition your service to the 2nd Edition. However, the 1st Edition will continue to be available for the foreseeable future, so you have a choice and time to decide.

The 2nd Edition of the Youth Star is available for those with a Star licence to access on the Star Online, so you can download and it and review the new resources for yourself to help make a decision.

4 What should I do to move the to the new, 2nd Edition?

If you already have Star licences, there is no extra cost to using the new edition and no requirement for additional training, though you may want to consider refresher training. Talk to Triangle about your current licencing and how to make the most of the transition to support good use of the Star.

Consider how you will introduce the new edition to practitioners, for example by finding ways to ensure that they familiarise themselves with the User Guide with detailed scales, changes in wording and other new resources, including the flashcards and updated guidance. This can be done through refresher training, supervision sessions, discussions in team meetings and by sharing and promoting the “introducing the new Youth Star 2nd Edition” poster for practitioners, available from the Star Online or Triangle.  

You also need decide when and how to introduce the 2nd Edition. The main options are:

  1. Introduce the 2nd Edition for new clients and keep using the 1st Edition for existing clients who have already completed at least one Star. The advantage of this approach is that clients only have to engage with one version and their change shown from one reading to the next is valid because it is gathered using the same version
  2. Decide on a date from which to introduce the 2nd Edition with all clients, both new and existing. This is more straightforward for the service because than using both versions and makes the move more swiftly to the new edition. However, change measured from one reading to another is not valid and may be misleading if different editions are used with the same person (see data section below). This has implications for both keywork/ action planning with that individual and for the validity of the service’s Star data overall.

5 What about my Star data?

Because some of the Youth Star scales have significant changes and others have minor changes, data gathered using the 1st Edition will not be directly comparable to data gathered using the 2nd Edition. The most marked example is that someone actively and positively pursuing individual interests such as arts or sports, may be at 1 in the first scale of the 1st Edition (Making a difference) but could be at 5 in the 2nd Edition (Interests and activities). The other differences are summarised above and set out in more detail in the development report.

There are three main options for how to approach data and reporting when making the transition to the second edition of the Youth Star, as set out below

We believe that different options will work for different services. The most appropriate approach for your service will depend on how long you have been using the Youth Star and the amount of data you have and the importance for you of being able to monitor trend over a number of years. Talk to Triangle if you would like advice. However, in general:

  1. We would normally recommend the first option as it’s the most straightforward. Although this is likely to lead to difficulty presenting the data in the year in which you make the change to the 2nd Edition, this disadvantage is short lived, and the issues can be explained to those using the data internally and to funders or commissioners.
  2. The second option is generally only recommended for services with a small data set, particularly those who have started using the Youth Star within the last year, and where it is important to maintain continuity of monitoring over the time of the transition to the 2nd
  3. We strongly advise against combining the datasets from the 1st and 2nd Editions as in option 3, as there are significant changes to the scales that make the transition somewhat like moving to a different version of the Star. However, if you would like to be able to create high level reports across the two editions, we have a briefing called ‘reporting on different versions of the Star’ that would help with this and you can contact Triangle for advice as needed.

6 Questions and next steps

If you have any queries about the Youth Star, new editions or what would work best for your service, please get in touch with your Implementation Lead at Triangle, email us on info@triangleconsulting.co.uk or ring us on 0207 272 8765

5 things licensed trainers and keyworkers need to know about trauma-informed approaches

Posted on by Donna
nick
As part of Triangle’s Licensed Trainer option, trainers are expected to complete a certain number of continuing development programs over the course of each year. Nick Karr will be running a session, this May, for Licensed Trainers on how the Star is becoming more trauma informed and how this can be embedded into Outcomes Star training. He shares 5 key things that people should know about trauma-informed approaches.

5 things licensed trainers and workers should know about trauma-informed approaches:

  • A trauma-informed approach, like the Star, uses the client centred and strengths based approaches you already know about and use with clients
  • It shifts the perspective from ‘what is wrong with you’ to ‘what has happened to you’
  • You can’t take away the client’s past – but a supportive relationship with a worker, can make a big difference
  • The conversations you have with clients when using the Star contribute to a trauma sensitive approach, as we are focusing on the present, not the past
  • It isn’t all up to you as a worker – a trauma-informed approach, like the Outcomes Star, needs buy in from your organisation and you need their support.

On May 24, 2021, Nick Karr will host a short session on the Star and trauma informed approaches and training. These CPD sessions are free but available for Licensed Trainers only. Nick Karr has worked with Triangle for seven years. He delivered the first Outcomes Star training in the USA in 2010 and then helped launch and run the Outcomes Star in Australia for two years. Nick is a London based psychotherapist where he has worked in a range of specialist clinical roles, and is now the Lead in an NHS service for people with mental health and substance misuse problems. He completed a Masters’ in Social Work at the Tavistock Clinic, taught on university social work and mental health programs, and is also a Professional Advisor for Young Minds.

****

For more information on how the Stars can support organisations and keyworkers to work in a more trauma-informed manner, please take a look at our guide, or contact Triangle for a more in depth conversation about the Stars, which Stars may be appropriate for your organisations and more information on our training offers.

Employability and the Outcomes Stars

Posted on by Donna
The annual Employability Day is usually seen as an opportunity to recognise the good work that’s being done by a wide range of organisations to help people into work. Triangle’s Managing Director, Graham Randles reflects, given this year seems more relevant than ever.

According to the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the latest official labour market data shows that “in September to November of 2020 unemployment hit 5 per cent, with redundancies at a record high of 395,000”. While the government’s Job Retention Scheme has no doubt helped many businesses and other organisations that may otherwise have made even more jobs redundant, there is significant uncertainty over what the future may hold.

As creators of the Outcomes Star, Triangle works with many of the organisations that provide front-line employability services, particularly those whose services focus on more vulnerable individuals and groups. People who are unemployed and struggling with issues such as mental illness, addiction or homelessness face significant challenges with finding employment at the best of times; now their prospects of finding meaningful work may seem more remote. Others may have recently found themselves facing family difficulties, trauma or other complex issues as a result of the pandemic that create barriers to finding employment.

It is widely reported that already disadvantaged groups have generally fared worse than others over the last year, exacerbating already existing inequalities. For example, ERSA reports that “disabled jobseekers are now more than twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people” and that “the UK jobless rate for young black people has also risen by more than a third, to 35 per cent” over the past year.

In 2021 there is a significant need for traditional forms of employment support to help those people who have recently become unemployed or who face the risk of redundancy. However, we must also ensure that the longer term unemployed are not overlooked in the process. There is a need for holistic, person-centred services that engage with the range of complex, and often related, issues that are the underlying reason why an individual may be unemployed. These innovative programmes offer bespoke one-to-one help for people with complex needs, focusing on helping individuals to overcome the specific challenges they face. This is where the popular Outcomes Star can be most useful.

Triangle has developed two versions of the Outcomes Star for providers of employability services: the Work Star and the Pathway Star.

Employment support services have been using the Work Star for many years to support people to return to work or to find a job for the first time. The original Work Star was developed with service providers and commissioners from Camden, Islington and Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council. Now in its 3rd edition, the Work Star covers the traditional areas of employment support – skills and experience, aspiration and motivation, job search skills and the like, but also has two areas for drilling down into the person’s context – their health and well-being and the level of stability they have in their life. The current version was published in 2017 with input from the Department of Work and Pensions, Prospects, Hounslow Council and The LightBulb.

Launched in late 2019, the Pathway Star was developed by Triangle with service providers and commissioners from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as part of its Households Into Work (HIW) programme; a unique and innovative programme of support for people who, because of their circumstances, have difficulty finding and sustaining employment.

The Pathway Star is designed for use with people who need considerable support if they are to move towards work. It is an outcomes tool that helps guide keywork and conversations, with the focus on helping people move towards work rather than necessarily finding a job. It’s structured around the individual and the barriers they face to employment – things like stability at home, household finances, family and relationships and emotional well-being.

For service users, working with either the Work Star or the Pathway Star, seeing their situation and their progress in a simple visual form can be powerful. “I got a surprise regarding my progress over the last few months,” said one person on the HIW pilot. “I’m pleased I’ve got some change in my life where I wanted help.”

“The Work Star is ideal for mainstream services or for people who need help with navigating job search or brushing up on skills. But if you’re a service working with people who are far from being job-ready and you’re offering in-depth, holistic support, take a look at the Pathway Star. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s a really persuasive tool in helping people to change.”
Juliet Kemp
Implementation Lead

For managers and commissioners of employability services, there are additional benefits in the form of the management information that these tools provide. Using the Outcomes Star can provide organisations with a unique and valuable data set around meaningful outcomes for service users and the progress they have made. Analysing and evaluating the holistic dataset collected by the Outcomes Star can be useful in a number of ways:

  • Demonstrating and evidencing the impact of services to a range of stakeholders
  • Learning about what is working well and what can be improved for the future
  • Providing motivation for service users and for staff by highlighting the change that has been achieved

Ultimately, though, the most significant benefit of implementing the Outcomes Star may be the change that this encourages towards more of an enabling approach to service delivery. Employability services that focus on a strengths-based, holistic and person-centred way of working enable individual service users to focus on the outcomes that they to wish to achieve.

*****

If you have any questions or queries about the Work Star or Pathway Star, or you would just like find out more about how the Stars can support your service users, keyworkers and organisation, please contact us on info@triangleconsulting.co.uk or +44 (0) 207 272 8765.

Meet the team…Jane Borer, Client Services Manager

Posted on by Donna

We have a vacancy for another Client Services Advisor. Jane Borer shares some insights on her team and what her best piece of advice to her younger self would be

The Client Services team plays a vital role in achieving Triangle's mission and vision. We aim to listen and learn from our clients to support Triangle in creating effective tools which can support service providers to help people achieve sustainable change, whatever the future may hold.

Jane Borer

Firstly, tell us a bit about the Client Services team, and how it works with Triangle…

How has the Triangle and the Client Services team changed over the years? Why is this? 

Triangle has grown so quickly, when I started working with Sara and Joy back in 2010 I was covering maybe one or two calls a day, organizing training courses, sending out packs of Star materials to clients, and preparing invoices and licences. It soon became unsustainable, so more people were recruited, then we started to take on broader tasks and we became involved in many different aspects of client support as the business grew in response to the needs of our clients and demand for the Stars. We have evolved in to a thriving team, with skills that have added immense value to how Triangle has been able to both support existing clients, and attract new ones.

How does Client Services integrate with other teams at Triangle? 

As we are the first point of contact for the majority of interested and existing clients, and we provide planning and co-ordination support to the setting up of new accounts and the ongoing maintenance of existing ones,  we work closely with every other team – we have to liaise closely with the Training team, we are in constant contact with the Implementation team to share knowledge about clients, we work closely with the marketing and comms team to engage with new campaigns and disseminate important information about the Star, and we then respond to the follow up from that. We are also closely linked with our internal systems team as heavy users of the CRM, and of course our finance colleagues to ensure clients are receiving their invoices. Another aspect of our work is to share knowledge across the teams, especially for the Directors, so they can use it for making strategic decisions.

What qualities do you and the team have in abundance? 

We are a diverse team of professionals with varied backgrounds and skills, and we all complement each other – the main common qualities that I feel we all share are warmth, the ability to build relationships, empathy, flexibility, and we all have a VERY good sense of humour!

Where do you see the Outcomes Star and the Client Services team five years from now? 

I see continued increase in demand for the Outcomes Star, across many diverse sectors. In Triangle’s mission statement one of the goals is that we are “responding to a changing world” and I see the Client Services team as a key element in achieving this goal – we will listen and learn from our clients, and share this learning across Triangle so that we are continuing to produce tools that can support service providers to help people achieve sustainable change, whatever the future may hold.

And on a lighter note… we’d love to know more about you…

If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?  

I would want to help people to see the joy and fun in everything, and remember to always be NICE! 

If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would they be and why? 

Oh easy –1) David Bowie – just because 2)  Clint Eastwood – for all the stories of Hollywood – and 3) Yootha Joyce – my favourite British comedy actress and one who is often totally underrated.

What did you want to be/do when you were growing up? 

I swayed between wanting to be a ballerina, an air hostess and a nurse. I didn’t do any dance classes as a child so the ballerina was not even a remote possibility! The air hostess and nursing options were probably more to do with the uniforms and the TV shows I watched at the time!

What book are you reading at the moment?

I used to read all the time when I commuted from Brighton to London for work back in the day, then I struggled to find the time when I had my son, but like so many other people lockdown has given me the chance to reignite my enjoyment, and I’ve read more since March 2020 than I have for the last 18 years! I’m currently reading  two books, “The Last Thing to Burn” by Will Dean which is excellent, and the latest autobiography of Michael J Fox, which is really inspirational, as he describes living with Parkinson’s Disease.

What’s your favourite film?

I have many – “Some Like it Hot”, “The Bridges of Madison County”, any of the Peter Sellers Clouseau/Pink Panther films, and Wayne’s World – 1 and 2 – a rather strange mix but one that pretty much sums me up!

Best piece of advice you’d give to your younger self? 

Stop caring so much about what other people think about you, and always do your own research and be confident to make up your own mind!

****

For more information on our current vacancies please visit our Careers page. To find out more about the team and what it’s like working at Triangle take a look at our blog series and meet some of our other staff.

Better outcomes for refugees

Posted on by Donna

The genesis of the Integration Star

In a follow-up to our webinar introducing the Integration Star, research analyst Dr Anna Good tells the story of how the new Star for refugees came into being.

Help for refugees to integrate into this country has long been under-resourced and patchy. Specialist refugee organisations are doing brilliant work, but many other services struggle to work out how best to support refugees. And until recently, there’s been little in the way of solid outcomes data that can help shape service delivery.

It’s this context that spurred the creation of the Integration Star – a tool for services working with refugees that enables both better conversations and better outcomes.

“We had often felt that there was more we as an organisation could do to demonstrate a consistent way of measuring an individual’s progression as a result of our support”
Andrew Lawton
Andrew LawtonHead of Integration, Refugee Council

The new Star has come out of an exciting and timely meeting of minds. For some years, Triangle had been interested in developing a Star for refugees. “It was on our radar, and several refugee organisations had said it would be great to have an Outcomes Star,” says Triangle director Sara Burns. “I could see it could really work. But because refugee support services tend to be small organisations and quite poorly funded, there was never the support necessary for the collaboration.”

“So I was delighted when in 2018 the Refugee Council approached us and said they wanted to collaborate on a Star. They’d just received a tranche of European funding for a refugee integration programme, and as part of that they had undertaken a commitment to collaboratively create a tool for refugee integration.”

The wider integration and employment programme, New Roots, was led by the Refugee Council in partnership with organisations in Yorkshire and Humberside, and has supported some 2700 refugees, often with complex and multiple needs. In our recent webinar, Better Conversations, Better Outcomes, Refugee Council head of integration Andrew Lawton explains that this programme gave the organisation an excellent opportunity ”to consider how we assessed the impact of our services, not just for the Refugee Council but also for its clients and for others working in the same space”.

“We had often felt that there was more we as an organisation could do to demonstrate a consistent way of measuring an individual’s progression as a result of our support,” he says.

At the time, the Home Office was working on a new framework to support its integration strategy, Indicators of Integration. However, that didn’t include a practical tool for service delivery organisations to measure outcomes. So the participants in the New Roots programme decided to collaborate on a tool that could work for people providing help on the ground, aligned with the Home Office Indicators of Integration.

“We wanted to work towards a set of outcomes that could be used across a range of front line services and that could be shared with other services doing similar work,” says Andrew Lawton.

The Refugee Council was already aware of the Outcomes Stars and approached Triangle about a new Star for refugees. And so the collaboration – between Triangle, the Refugee Council, four New Roots partners and ten refugee community organisations – was born.

These organisations formed the expert committee that helped develop the outcome areas and Journey of Change for the Integration Star. As research analyst at Triangle, I carried out an initial literature review around important outcome areas for working with refugees and mapped these onto the domains in the Home Office’s framework. This research was used to inform Triangle’s tried and tested iterative process of working closely with managers, practitioners and service users to draft and refine the new version of the Star.

“The result? ‘An evaluation tool that places the beneficiary at the centre of their own journey.’”

Andrew Lawton

Throughout the process we were careful to make sure that new Star could work both for refugees arriving through a government resettlement programme and for those who enter the asylum process after arrival. While resettlement refugees receive a package of support that starts with meeting them at the airports and encompasses finding accommodation and providing day-to-day integration casework, the same specialist support doesn’t exist for other refugees. “It’s left to refugee support organisations and the wider voluntary sector to intervene depending on capacity, funding and services they have available,” says Andrew Lawton.

The result of the collaboration? In Andrew Lawton’s words, “an evaluation tool that places the beneficiary at the centre of their own journey, providing them with a tool that is visual, that helps them recognise their own achievements, and really track their own progress with the support of an adviser”.

Following extensive testing and revision, the final version of the Integration Star was published in autumn last year.

“It was a long time coming,” says Sara Burns. “But we’re delighted it happened – it’s a really important tool for the refugee sector.”

Collaborators in developing the Integration Star 
The Refugee Council
RETAS (Refugee Education Training Advice Service), Leeds
PATH Yorkshire
Humber Community Advice Services (H-CAS)
Goodwin Development Trust.

10 community refugee organisations
Leeds Refugee Forum, Refugee Action Kingston, Iranian Association, Diversity Living Services, Bahar Women’s Association, Action for Community Development, West Yorkshire Somali Association, DAMASQ, Stepping Stone 4 and Leeds Swahili Community.

*****

The Integration Star was published at the end of 2020. A separate version, for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, the Planning Star, was published in July 2020. Both Stars are available to all organisations with a Star licence and training is available for workers and managers. Contact us for more information on info@triangleconsulting.co.uk or +44 (0) 207 272 8765.

A day in the life of… the client services team

Posted on by Donna

We asked our Client Services Manager, Jane Borer what a day in the life of her team looks like...

One of the best parts of working in client services at Triangle is that I get to speak to people (keyworkers, managers and organisations) that really inspire me.

Jane Borer

What’s a typical day look like in Client Services? 

A typical day involves checking the new enquiries that have come in, both via email and the phone, and planning how to respond, also catching up with work in progress, arranging training and licenses, and having Zoom/Teams calls with clients or colleagues. It’s busy, and you have to be prepared to be sidelined away from something, it’s rarely possible to focus on one thing and get it completed. This can be frustrating, but there’s never a dull moment. I’m often heard to be saying “Now, what was I doing before I got distracted…”! 

How do you ensure you provide a first rate customer service to clients and colleagues? 

Client Care is our mantra, every email and phone call is either a potential new Star user, or someone who can be supported by Triangle to use the Star even better than they already do, and if we get that right, then the people THEY support are going to benefit. It’s all about ensuring we respond in a responsive and timely way. Any query that comes in to us is responded to within 24 hours if at all possible, at least with an initial contact, to arrange a conversation, which increasingly since lock down now happens via Zoom rather than the traditional phone call! We troubleshoot for our colleagues too, and have a similar approach in our responsiveness to their requests for support.

What top three things about the Outcomes Star do you get asked by potential clients? 

Mainly 1) – how does it work? 2) – what will the benefits be to my service and the people I support? and 3) – who are the other services just like mine who are using it, and how does it benefit them?

What’s the most challenging thing about working in Client Services? 

The pace is very demanding, you have to be responsive to whatever comes your way, and you never really know what that might be. You also have to be prepared to juggle many different tasks and keep lots of plates spinning.

What’s the most rewarding thing about working in Client Services? 

Hearing the back stories from clients about how they started their charities, what drives them, their passion for what they do – and gaining a huge understanding for the difficulties and challenges that so many people face on a daily basis. Also, when a client tells you how using the Star has had an impact on not only their service users but on them as a team, then that is fantastic and gives you that “this is why I do my job” buzz.

Make a difference in the world

Take a look and see what vacancies we have
Join the team

*****

Sign up for our newsletter for more information, updates and news about vacancies. Take a look at our our other blogs to find out more about Triangle, our other teams and their members. We are currently recruiting for a Client Services Advisor to work with Jane and the team: visit our vacancy page for more information and a job description or contact us for a chat about the role.

LT resource update

Posted on by Donna

During 2020 we launched a new online system, and all training resources were moved over to that new site in November 2020. The ‘training library’ that some Licensed Trainers may remember has now gone and everything can be found in one place on the Star Online.

All Licensed Trainers should have been sent a new log-in and password to enable them to access the site even if their organisation doesn’t use the Star Online for recording service user Stars. 

There is also a second site, the ‘training site’ which all Licensed Trainers can access.  The single function of the training site is to enable new practitioners and colleagues to understand how the system works.  Trainers can access this site and, if their organisation uses the Star Online system for completing and recording service user Stars, then they will find it a really helpful option. 

What’s new?

There are some new resources in the main site and a useful discrete space for Licensed Trainers in the help section. By accessing the training site, all Licensed Trainers can set up self-directed learning opportunities for their colleagues to practice using the system or trainers can just use it to deliver demonstrations of how it works.

So how do Licensed Trainers access other versions of the Star?

This has been a question that has been asked by many Licensed Trainers, so here is the answer…

Licensed Trainers are only able to access training resources for Stars that are linked to their account (these will have been set up by the account lead for each organisation).  If a decision is made to use a new Star version within an organisation or service, then the request for additional Star versions to be added to the account will need to be made by the manager of the service to the account lead. This request will need to be made before the training takes place or trainers will not be able to access training resources or other resources such as User Guides and Star Charts. 

*****

Licensed Trainers are part of a community of trainers. For more information on the benefits and uses of becoming a Licensed Trainer or what the process entails, please contact laura@triangleconsulting.co.uk

Demo dates for April-June 2021

Posted on by Donna

A series of free introductory sessions for clients and trainers/trainees introducing them to the Star Online System are planned for April, May and June.

Each webinar will consist of a short video presentation, which will be followed by a question and answer season and it is designed to support clients by sharing knowledge, ideas and information. Please note: these sessions are not a substitute for official training.

A Practitioners Guide to the Star Online

This session is only relevant to practitioners who use the SOL and is not a substitute for training. The session covers an orientation of the new Star Online and during the session we will introduce practitioners to the new Star Online features, such as setting up engagements and managing notifications. It will also explore many of the main tasks practitioners need to complete, including:

  • Creating a service user
  • Adding Stars and Action Plans
  • Navigating the Help Centre and
  • Locating the Star resources you need

Click on the links below to book your place.

Dates available:

laptop with star online open on the screen

How to use the Reports dashboard on Star Online

Hosted by two Star experts, this workshop is ideal for Managers and anyone responsible for producing reports on Outcomes Star data. This session will cover:

  • The three new report dashboards for implementation, snapshot and distance-travelled reporting
  • How to use the filters
  • How to think about engagements to create instant and engaging charts that can be downloaded to add to any report or funding bid.

We will also discuss what the reports can tell you about how Stars are being used in a service and the progress made by service users.

Click on the links below to book your place.

Dates available:

These webinars are not a substitute for core training.

For more information on the sessions, how to book, or what clients need to do, please take a look at our previous posts, or find the links through the Star Online. Please note: We have limited spaces available, and we expect them to fill up quickly!

*****

If you would like to be included in a mailing list for future webinars, demo’s or sessions, please sign up for our mailing list, and if you have suggestions or would like to request specific content and sessions on the Outcomes Star and the Star Online please email webinars@triangleconsulting.co.uk

If you have any questions about remote training, new Stars, or would like any information on the new Star Online, or anything else, please contact us on info@triangleconsulting.co.uk or +44 (0) 207 272 8765.