Professional Culture and Collaboration

This unit aims to introduce students to the theory and practice of inter-professional collaboration as a practice framework and method for working across disciplines to improve outcomes for young people. It provides students with an understanding of professional collaboration as a framework for engaging with other professionals such as teachers, policy planners, community development workers and health and legal personnel. The unit aims to develop a better understanding of collaboration and the principles and processes that underpin it. Students develop skills and knowledge of planning and learn to establish effective partnerships with key stakeholders, so as to better manage the competition that might arise, and drive a vision that is youth-orientated.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Conceptualise how professional frames of reference influence perspectives and practices when working with young people with complex needs;
2. Develop frameworks for practice that facilitate effective collaboration among the various professionals that often engage in complex work with young people;
3. Demonstrate a range of effective communication and collaborative skills which facilitate inter-professional collaboration;
4. Investigate the principles, benefits and challenges of inter-professional collaboration and inter-disciplinary service provision;
5. Identify an issue or complex problem affecting young people and participate in a disciplinary team to develop an effective inter-disciplinary approach to address the problem;
6. Critically reflect on their own learning and the process of collaboration as they experience and observe it in their class teams and in their agency placement; and
7. Evaluate current collaboration practice models.