Part 3 of the explanation of the ToC: The first job of the transition manager or the transition team will be to create an overview of what the transition process will entail – something like this model, but with more details relevant to the local situation -, what resources will be needed to take care of at different stages, who will be responsible for taking care of various tasks and a rough timeline on how all of this will fit together. From that overview, a strategy and a plan can be devised.
Planning and determining strategy are not a once-off action. It is something that needs to be reviewed and redone regularly. Depending on the circumstances and the speed at which the transition takes place, this may be once every few months or even every few weeks. From time to time the transition manager will have to see whether the process is still on track in line with the latest strategy and plan and whether new information or knowledge has made it clear that adjustments need to be made. If there is any indication that the previous plan is no longer completely accurate, a new planning and strategy meeting needs to be held to adjust the plans.
Planning and strategy meetings are not solely dependent on whether things are still ticking along as expected. There are also several stages of the transition process where new planning is required, as has been indicated by the yellow arrows in the model.
While the first task of the transition manager or team is to create a rough strategy and plan for the process, this is essentially provisional planning. Because the data gathering and analysis of the next stage are what will give a basis for making informed decisions. So, although a preliminary plan was made at the start, once an overview has been created through the data gathering of what there is to work with, this will allow for more informed and reliable planning to be done.
Similarly, the stage of awareness-raising and advocacy will require new planning and devising a strategy for how to incorporate this in everything that is done going forward. Once individual assessments have been done and care plans have been written, the information this provides will allow for more precise planning with regards to when and how children will be moved to new placements and what will need to happen before they can be moved. Here it can be useful to determine a date on which you are hoping to move a particular group of children out and then calculate back to see if it is possible to fit everything that needs to happen in before that time.
New planning is also going to be needed when the stage where children have all been moved out of institutions approaches and the next stage is about to start, which has the focus on cementing all the family-based care and family strengthening provisions and making sure that they keep running smoothly and keep improving. Here, again plans and strategies need to be devised, however, it is possible that at this stage, the transition team or manager is no longer in charge and hands over to the people or departments in charge of running the alternative care and family strengthening services.
Ideally planning and strategising should not be done by one single person. It is important to have discussions and feedback at these points. So if there is a transition team, they can work on this together. If there is only a single transition manager, he or she should see whether higher management or board members of the organisation for which he or she works can join for a planning and strategy meeting. Or a ‘leadership team’ can be put together, made up of outside people who are knowledgeable about the transition to family-based care, people who are part of the organisation or government department involved in the process and people from the transition team. This leadership team can provide feedback and guidance throughout the process.
If you would like to read the explanation with the model from the very start, you can go HERE.
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