How Consultations with Service Users Can Improve Service Provision - Essay Example

Consultations with Service Providers Consultations with Service Providers Meaningful engagement is important in an effective service delivery because it has an impact that is positive on the quality of people’s life. Engagement comes from the need for residents to be treated with care dignity and respect (Adams, 2002) To ensure that the services are efficient and make meaningful impacts upon the lives of all the parties involved in the provision and reception of community services, all the parties need to actively participate in consultations on the issues affecting them ensuring that the people are fully and comprehensively consulted on issues that will affect them either directly or indirectly without any biasness or leaning towards any party. The effective engagement of all the parties will ensure positive gains to the community and the government and all the support agencies will provide acceptability to the body or entity that is running the enterprise. (Boyes & Melvin, 1999) Wellbridge is a resource centre with home care resource services provided in teams headed by team leaders and Julie has just been selected as the manger. Julie faces a challenge of the transition from practitioner to manager in handling the management tools which might help her in the task. To the team a member the manager is expected to show support and at the same time solve their problems has to deal with all the difficult situations that rise complexity recognition and practice role focus. On the other hand, the managers senior to Julie give her a challenge of expecting her to; having a strategic and holistic view, guide and advice staff, meet strategies reduce absenteeism and partnership development. In meeting the challenges being faced by most of the managers’ consultation plays a major role. It brings about what the expectation of other team members and parties concerned are promptly. In the conversation between Barry Shan and Julie at the coffee shop, it was easy for Julie to find out what other team members needs and shortcomings that impede their performance. With consultation the opportunity of releasing the tension between the top managers and others lessens and a bridge connects the parties involved. Consultation has a weakness of concealing the truth, with a shy member of the consultation involved, the truth cannot easily be obtained. In consultations where leading questions are asked, the respondent is not always given a chance to explain his or her idea. Open ended questions ideal for explanation. On the other hand consultations should not be question answering sessions, it is an interaction and both parties should be allowed to participate equally. At Wellbridge, Barry complains that time allocation during service provision is minimal. Time is a factor that would determine the effectiveness of the output of consultation. Sufficient time should be allocated during consultation. When little time is provided, the service provider will not achieve the objective and the whole process will just be a waste of time. Little time also makes the receiver of the service feel belittled and less important in the process. Informal consultation, e.g. face to face consultation has a greater output than informal consultation such as letters, emails and posters. Although these formal methods also have their advantages in tackling of the issues they are very important. Face to face consultation builds communication confidence and friendship between the parties involved. In this mode, hard feelings and emotions are hard to hide. We see that during the conversation between Julie, Barry and Chan at the coffee shop, Julie keeps on interrupting Barry; she raises her voice and does not control herself. Barry and Chan on the other hand Barry and Chan drop their pens on the table angrily when Julie lives. Face to face consultation is time consuming than formal consultations. Consultation through writing of mail and phone voicemails are more confidential, these are used from one person to the other person unlike face to face which can be addressing a large number of people (meetings). Formal methods can be used when privacy is required. It can also be used when little time is available for consultation. The reporting of a lazy member of a team to a manger can be done through formal consultation. However in formal methods feedback is not prompting as in informal face to face. If mails are sent, the sender has to wait for the recipient to receive the mail, read it and later reply. The reply may not be prompt as expected. In voicemail calls, the caller must wait for the receiver to give them a call back which may not be immediate. When short information is to be displayed to a large number of people living in scattered areas, notices can be used to consult with the public. Notices are efficient, because the same information will reach several people without alteration, unlike in face to face where the information may change when it moves from one person to another. The major demerit of notice use in consultation is that, feedback from the other party (public) takes a long time to be received. The consultation is not efficient when used a lone and must be used with an informal method in the latter stages of the consultation. Consultation has several potential benefits. It solves the problem of misunderstanding, after the meeting, Chan confesses that he never thought that most of his issues would be addressed. In the collection of information of what other members of the team are doing, consultations are important. A work schedule was sent to Julie by Gloria, detailed information were clearly shown in the table. Consultations can be used in designing solution for problem solving, e.g. the fish bone illustration. In building strong teams, consultation is a key factor. This is evidenced by the better relationship between Barry, Chan and their manager after the several meetings they had. The financial officer Suzanne (audio) states that for budgeting, the team needs to look together on what they can and cannot afford if quality value is to be obtained. In financial report development, group discussions are involved since money is a delicate matter and transparency is required. In carring out training for the group (staff) members, consultation plays two major critical roles; it is used in the collection of the information that training is to achieve. Consultation also ensures that the training process is carried out efficiently and it also aids in the evaluation of the training process. In service provision it is paramount that consultation is given the first preference. This should not only exist between the service receivers but also among the management. In the introductory video, we see that the consultation is organised and this may be the reason behind the success of Wellbridge in service provision. The service provider first introduces the organisation, what they do and how they can help. There is also additional information on other services that can be enjoyed by the service receiver e.g. computer services. Consultation being a major tool in the success of organisations and institutions need to be improved and worked on thoroughly. Some of the proposed modes of improvement are as discussed below. The service provider should have adequate knowledge of the topic being handled and choose appropriately the consultation model (formal or informal) to use. This ensures that service provision is maximised and both parties get satisfied. There should be respect and mutual trust among the parties involved in the consultation. This ensures that each party recognises the aim of the consultation and tries to stay within the objectives. With this in place, little time will be wasted trying to address irrelevant issues which are not part of the consultation process. Each consultation session should be allocated the required time. The time should not be little or too much. Too much time gives room for time wastage, the members involved will be able to talk about unnecessary issues and at the end of the day, the important issues may remain unaddressed. There should be discipline in the consultation. This is important for the formal methods where high level of privacy is guaranteed. For example while sending mails, the parties should not use abusive languages just because the receiver only will read the mail ( if the mail is sent to an individual). When addressing issues through the internet high level of caution should be observed since not all internet providers are secured. Feedback systems should be more efficient. The recipient should be able to understand the message and at the same time have their problems solved. For example, if a message was sent through posters, it better for the feedback to be through letters, emails or even face to face consultation. This will ensure that as the consultation progresses better understanding will be among the members consulting each other. During consultation there should not be a bridge between the members, the members should be as close to each other as possible so that confidentiality and trust can be created, if possible the set up should not be ‘across the table’. Finally management has to be careful in handling consultation issues because it also involves them as the spear heads of the organisation and human resources. In dealing with individuals and improving their own managerial skills, consultation must be given a priority and dealt with carefully as it is the key to an organisation’s success. (Reynold, 2005) Bibliography Adams, O. (2002). WHO perspective on human Resource for Health. Ottawa,Canada: Longhorn Publishers. Boyes, W., & Melvin, D. (1999). Microeconomics. New York: Houghton Publishers. Reynold, D. (Director). (2005). Consultations and Discussions of Service Providers in the Society [Motion Picture]. Read More