This e-learning programme sets out to help front line social workers gain a basic understanding of the principles and practice of knowledge management, as well as organise and manage their knowledge and information as effectively as possible.

Modules include:

A day in the life
Day to day work contexts for knowledge in a professional practice, deciding how useful different sources of knowledge are.

Types of knowledge
The knowledge cycle and framework

How do I organise my knowledge?
Explores the different ways in which knowledge may be organised and accessed

When knowledge gaps occur
Strategies for managing deficiencies in organising and managing knowledge

Sharing knowledge in teams
Strategies for improving knowledge managing in teams

Using technology to improve knowledge sharing
Choosing appropriate technology from the range available

Knowledge beyond the team
Approaches to locating external knowledge resources and building a personal list

Knowledge is our business
Identifying the culture enabling knowledge sharing

Social care 2.0 – Innovation through technology
Web 2.0 and user centred practice

The project will encourage local authorities to work with other public, private and third sector service providers to develop their capacity and commitment to engaging with young people through social networking.

The Action Learning Set is aimed at anyone interested in enabling local authorities to work with social networking sites and young people in order to encourage young people’s engagement in civic society, including: youth workers, policy officers and councillors.

Download full details and a joining form from the LGiU’s Children’s Services Network website.

The founding principle is that no work should be done unless it is going to create customer value. By clearly defining value for a specific product or service from the end customer’s perspective, all the non value activities, or waste, can be identified and removed step by step.

The origins of Lean Thinking

It is easiest to understand how Lean Thinking applies to organisations which manufacture products, for example car production. In fact, the ideas behind what is now termed Lean thinking were originally developed in Toyota’s manufacturing operations – known as the Toyota Production System. The faster you can process an order, build a product, or provide a service the less it costs to provide and the happier the customer. Lean Thinking focuses on streamlined work process, reduced inventory, no backlog, maximizing throughput, and eliminating bureaucracy.

The term was popularized in the book “The Machine that Changed the World” which clearly illustrated the significant performance gap between the Japanese and western automotive industries. [1] It described the key elements accounting for this superior performance as lean production – “lean” because Japanese business methods watsted less and used less of everything:

• human effort
• capital investments
• facilities
• inventories
• time spent in
  • manufacturing
  • product development
  • parts supply
  • custom relations

Customer focussed working

For most organisations it is important to recognise that only a small fraction of the total time and effort actually adds value for the end customer. It is estimated that for most production operations only 5% of activities add value, 35% are necessary non-value adding activities and 60% add no value at all. [2]

Can Lean Thinking be applied to any organisation in any sector?

Although its origins are firmly in an automotive production environment, the principles and techniques are transferable, often with little adaptation. Womack and Joneshave showed how firms in several industries have doubled their performance while reducing inventories, throughput times and errors reaching the customer by 90%. [3] These results are found in all kinds of activities, including order processing, product development, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and retailing.

Can Lean Thinking be applied to the Care Services Improvement Partnership?

Yes. The key to this thinking is taking time to reflect on the purpose of what we do and specify that which is valuable in the eyes of the customer as distinct from the perspective of the organisation or functions we provide. Saigei suggest that, ‘this is the gateway between marketing and operations and is fundamental to the customer centric organisation.‘ [4]

Lean Thinking invites us to map the steps in our work activities which are required to deliver the most value to our customers. This process will often lead to the identification of activities which add little or no value at all in the eyes of our customers.

Traditionally, lean seeks to eliminate 7 types of waste or ‘muda’. Within CSIP we might we might interpret these as follows:

• duplication of activity that can be rationalised
• too may steps or stages in our work processes that can be simplified
• inappropriate amounts of work that add little value to our customers
• activities which generate anti-value from our customers perspective

How do I do it?

A number of tools and techniques have been developed to support Lean Thinking. These include: Value Stream mapping, Quick Changeover/Setup Reduction, Kaizen, and Pull/Kanban Systems. Don’t be put off by the terminology used as the tools are based on common sense and have real practical application.

More information about these can be accessed using the further reading and useful links.

Further reading and useful links

• Bringing Lean Systems Thinking to Six Sigma. Quality Digest http://www.qualitydigest.com/mar05/articles/05_article.shtml
• Cardiff Business School Lean Enterprise Research Centre http://www.cf.ac.uk/carbs/lom/lerc/index.html
• Carlino, A. and Flinchbaugh, J. (2005) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road
• Connecting Lean and Organization Learning Reflections: The Society of Organizational Learning Journal http://www.leanlearningcenter.com/Connecting%20Lean%20and%20Organizational%20Learning.pdf
• Cookson, P. (2003) Does “lean thinking” relate to network-based distance education? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning http://www.irrodl.org/content/v4.2/editorial.html
• Executive Reflection Saigei’s bi-monthly journal for Trust and Health Authority Chief Executives http://www.saigei.com/pages/Reflection.htm
• Flinchbaugh, J. (2006) Leading Lean: Right Tool, Right Problem, Right Thinking http://www.assemblymag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,6493,165856,00.html
• Glenday, I. (2006) Breaking Through To Flow
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Resources http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Topics/Improvement/ImprovementMethods/Resources/
• LeanBlog.org
• Lean Enterprise Academy http://www.leanuk.org/
• Lean Enterprise Institute http://www.lean.org/
• Lean Government http://www.geocities.com/scrate/lean_Government.htm
• Lean Learning Center http://www.leanlearningcenter.com/
• Lean Operations Concepts http://www.saigei.com/pages/Resources%20-%20lean%20operations%20concepts.htm
• Principles of Lean Thinking http://www.poppendieck.com/papers/LeanThinking.pdf
• Perry, S. (2005) Sense and Respond: The Journey to Customer Purpose
• Rich, A. (2001) An Executive Guide to Lean Thinking. Deloitte & Touche
• Rother , M. and Shook, J. Learning to See http://www.leanuk.org/Lean_books_learning_to_see.htm
• Saigei http://www.saigei.com/
• Scottish Enterprise – Lean Thinking http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/…/services-to-business/improving-performance/leanthinking.htm?siblingtoggle=1
• Strategic Application of Lean Thinking http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~tommelein/IGLC-6/GarnettEtAl.pdf
• The high performance organisation http://www.ebbf.org/pdf/publications/highperf.pdf
• Value Stream Mapping Workshop Participants’ Guide http://www.leanuk.org/Lean_books_value_stream_mapping.htm
• Womack, Jones & Roos (1990) The Machine that Changed the World
• Womack and Jones (1996) Lean Thinking
• Womack and Jones (2005) Lean Solutions How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together
• Womack and Jones (2005) Seeing The Whole

References

1 Womack, Jones & Roos (1990) The Machine that Changed the World. Simon & Schuster, New York
2 Ibid. 1
3 Womack and Jones (1996) Lean Thinking. Simon & Schuster, New York.
4 Saigei Founding Principles of Lean-production http://www.saigei.com/pages/Resources%20-%20principles%20of%20lean%20production.htm

These young people have been out of the more traditional educational systems for a variety of personal and logistical reasons.

They include the phobic, ill, disaffected, sick, pregnant and the excluded. Notschool.net is specifically aimed at those for whom traditional alternatives such as home tutoring have not worked.

During its first phase, Notschool.net established a virtual community of 100 young people who were given the opportunity to develop their self-esteem and be reintroduced to learning. This was achieved through the support of mentors, buddies, experts and the use of new technology.

17 local authorities have turned to Notschool and over 1500 children have been through Notschool’s virtual doors. The success of Notschool.net exceeded all expectations and is now in it’s third phase. It is being rolled out to Education Authorities across the UK and overseas, creating a multinational and supportive learning community.

The children involved are known as researchers. Each is given a Macintosh computer, a printer, a digital camera and an internet connection usually the fastest broadband connection available in the area (whether it be ADSL or ISDN) with 24/7 connection. This means that the researcher and their family can access the internet as much as they like at no cost.

The reserchers are free to choose there own subjects and learning patterns. They are supported by on-line mentors and subject experts.

Notschool.net is part of TheCademy, a charity working towards inclusion.

Further information

• Visit the website www.notschool.net
• Download the 2005 report or the 2005 evaluation
• Listen to the founder, Professor Stephen Heppell, talk to Libby Purves on the BBC Radio 4 programme the Learning Curve. This includes a fascinating interview with one of the researchers, Carl Hamilton from Bolton who describes notschool as ’school heaven’.
• If you are a Local Education Authority, Education Action Zone or simliar, contact enquiries@notschool.net. If you are a parent, contact your Local Education Authority, or email enquiries@notschool.net and notschool will acknowledge your query and forward it to your Local Education Authority.

Most organisations use web-based technologies to support their work. However, these technologies should not be considered a good thing in and of themselves. If we cannot show why a website or application adds value to our work there is no reason to invest in its development.

This toolkit is designed to help us to reflect on and better understand the reasons the:

• reasons for developing a web site and the value it will add to our work proceeding to invest in its development,
• intended audience groups and the anticipated benefits a web site will give them,
• key points to consider before creating a web site such as set up, features, content, organisation, maintenance and marketing, and
• importance of monitoring and evaluating the usefulness of the web site.

The methodology used in the toolkit is transferable and could be applied to the development of any communications product.

>> Download the draft toolkit (PDF 680KB)