Developing a tool to review My Team Around Me
At Changing Futures, we are piloting a My Team Around Me approach to better meet the needs of people facing multiple disadvantage. Assessing the effectiveness of the approach has presented us with interesting challenges rooted in the complexity of team dynamics and individuals’ perceptions of progress and success. In this blog, Ben Muton-Phillips, our Data and Evaluation Officer, explains how he developed a tool to review how teams are progressing with their implementation of MTAM.
Establishing a MTAM with a team of multi-agency professionals and a person experiencing multiple disadvantage is not straightforward. Building strong relationships and trust takes time, and it is unrealistic to expect a team to embody every aspect of MTAM from the off. Never-the-less by striving to incorporate MTAM ways of working into client support, positive outcomes can be achieved.
It would be useful for professionals, and for evaluators, to measure the progress a team is making towards embodying the principles of MTAM. This is an interesting challenge, and one I was happy to take on with help from colleagues at Changing Futures.
At this point, it’s worth reminding ourselves of what MTAM is. MTAM is an approach for working with people experiencing multiple disadvantage who need multi-agency support. Under this approach, emphasis is placed on:
Service continuity: professionals working across sectors commit to relational and service continuity through transitions.
Shared accountability: Learning together to do things differently through regular communication, shared safety and support planning.
Client-led, trauma-informed and strengths-based support: building trusting relationships and working on strengths.
Innovative Practice: Working collectively to create new and flexible ways of working that may inform strategy and commissioning
My Team Around Me is being piloted in Bristol by the Changing Futures Service Coordinators Team, Bristol City Council’s Homeless Move on Team, and the Second Step Link team. Members from each of these teams, and people with lived experience from Independent Futures were invited to contribute to the development of a review tool for professionals to answer the question, “How are we doing implementing MTAM ways of working?”.
Working in groups, many questions were suggested that might help a professional reflect on an aspect on MTAM. From this longlist, three questions for each of the four MTAM principles were voted on and refined.
Each question could be answered either “Yes, I agree”, “I agree to an extent” or “No, I don’t agree” with a numerical score of 3, 2 and 1 being awarded respectively. The minimum possible score is 12, and the maximum is 36. Depending on the score, one of three messages is returned to the person completing the review tool:
Developing (Points <20) “You are establishing the team around the client. Keep focusing on developing relationships within your team and agree your roles and responsibilities. Share the MTAM video with team members. https://youtu.be/ZENl-vHMwaE?si=9iL7kWGvqxS8bFCt
Accomplished (Points 20 – 31) “You have good working relationships between members of the team. Take a look at the resources available online to continue to embed the objectives of MTAM within your team. https://www.changingfuturesbristol.co.uk/my-team-around-me
Outstanding (Points 32 – 36) “You're embodying the objectives of MTAM. You can share your learning and listen to the experience of other professionals by attending one of the many learning spaces across Bristol. https://www.changingfuturesbristol.co.uk/events
To address potential issues of accessibility, a printable version of the review tool was also produced, with a radar chart style scoring tool. This would enable a person or team to complete the tool without a screen, perhaps in a multi-agency team meeting.
The MTAM Review Tool has been in use for 6 months, and early testing has produced encouraging results. One member of the team attributes the use of the tool to their better understanding of MTAM, and how it can be applied to their practice.
It has also been particularly useful for team managers to explore the open text sections of the tool with their team. The narrative provided in these sections has been the starting point for several case studies.
We have also seen an increase in the number of MTAM teams moving up the points scale, suggesting that the teams are performing better under each of the four MTAM principles.
We will continue to test the tool within the Changing Futures teams and would welcome others who would like to use the tool and suggest feedback.