Check progress, reflect on outcomes and impacts
Throughout the life of a support plan, collaborate as a team to reflect regularly on progress against the goals. This enables the team to find out how systemic and targeted approaches are progressing, and how a mokopuna is responding to the agreed interventions.
Sharing progress and modifying approaches where needed
Shared evaluation of progress involves considering ongoing information and data collection, enabling shared decisions on how to maintain or enhance progress. If things are not going according to plan, the interventions can be modified and strategies adjusted.
Reflecting on progress at systems level
Practitioners can discuss the systemic implications of what they have learnt, and consider relevance to similar issues and further planning.
Reflecting at an individual and targeted level
Make frequent contact with those working directly with the mokopuna and their whānau, to support the plan’s implementation. The frequency of contact will vary depending on each situation, and should be agreed with the team at the start. This ensures the team feels confident and supported, and provides an opportunity to share successes, and strengthen individual and collective efficacy.
Taking time to review and adjust
Setting times to review the plan gives each practitioner an opportunity to:
- evaluate their contribution and involvement
- adjust their approach if required
- consider what else they could do.
This is also a good time to consider who else could be engaged to help the mokopuna and their whānau achieve their goals and aspirations.
At an agreed time after implementation, hold a team meeting to review outcome data. The meeting can provide an opportunity to discuss change and progress. Barriers and opportunities encountered on the way feed into the team’s ongoing learning, and inform future interventions, practice and support.
Top tip
Revisit the Outcome Measurement Tool during a review
Revisiting the Outcome Measurement Tool and service agreement or negotiation during a progress review can provide a structure to these conversations, and support shared reflection. You can gain consensus with the whānau and educators on when agreed outcomes have been achieved.
Examples of reflecting on progress from practice
The whānau, mokopuna and educator met to review the progress against the planned goals, and celebrate achievements. This meeting provided an opportunity for the team to revisit the work that each member had agreed to do, and record the impacts. The team agreed the educator and whānau had the confidence to continue with the plan and only seek further support if necessary.
A school team were supported in trialling assistive technology to support a mokopuna with of handwriting and processing sensory stimuli. The team had considered the learning goals and tasks of the mokopuna and the features of a tool to best help him to achieve his learning goals. This led to a brief trial of an iPad and a longer and more successful trial of a laptop with Clicker 7 software.
Post-trial data showed that when using assistive technology, the mokopuna went from finding forming letters or write a sentence with difficulty, to being able to write three to six sentences independently and up to nine sentences with intermittent support. Whānau and educators reflected on how the level of engagement and independence of their mokopuna had flourished over this time.
As part of the agreed information-gathering process, a practitioner used the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: SE2 with the parents of a mokopuna attending kindergarten. The information from the tool, alongside initial discussions, highlighted concerns about social behaviours and participation in the kindergarten. It also helped prioritise next steps, and the team put support in place for the parents and kaiako. The parents attended a local Incredible Years Parent programme, and the kaiako learnt how to promote pro-social and self-regulation behaviour strategies in the kindergarten.
When these supports were complete, the tool was revisited as part of the team’s reflective discussion. The team identified that positive progress had been made across all areas of social and emotional competence. The parents and kaiako also reported increased confidence in supporting their mokopuna with pro-social behaviours. The whanau had a better sense of well-being, and the relationship between home and kindergarten was improved.
The team met to review the plan. One particular intervention had been identified as extremely successful. The team discussed which aspects of the strategy the mokopuna responded to most positively, and decided to adapt this approach across settings. The team also agreed that they feel confident to use this intervention to support other mokopuna.
Top tip
Use solution-focussed questioning to structure discussions
Solution-focussed questioning can help to structure discussions around a common goal while exploring what has gone well, what could be learned from the successes, and next steps:
- Activating strengths and resources: “What has helped to achieve those successes?”
- Building on what is working: “How can you learn from your own or each other’s successes to further develop your practice and the implementation?”
- Future opportunities: “How can you apply your learning to further progress the plan?”
Adapted from Adams, M. (2016). Coaching Psychology in Schools: Enhancing Performance, Development and Well-being (pp. 150–151). Oxon: Routledge.