Client and Learner Needs Determination

An example:

• Desired State: Dawn went into Connections Adult Learning with a request to learn two things that she didn’t know in Excel. After a little discussion, Dawn also said that she was out of work and that she wanted to be a bookkeeper or work in administration in another capacity.

• Current State: As the literacy worker talked with Dawn, she found out that Dawn hadn’t worked on Excel since the 2003 version. The interview also revealed that Dawn had no accounting software training and she did not seem to know about double-entry accounting.

• Needs: Together they did a little occupation and labour market research. Through this information, they found that in order to meet her goal, Dawn would need bookkeeping knowledge, up-to-date spreadsheet training, a good understanding of accounting software, and likely a college certificate or diploma. The Essential Skills Profiles for Bookkeeper show that a level 4 is needed in numeracy and digital technology and a level 3 for the rest of the skills.

• Gaps: The worker then suggested an LBS assessment to determine Dawn’s OALCF levels. This would help determine if she needed to upgrade any of the competencies in LBS and if she had sufficient levels to fill other gaps needed to reach her goal (bookkeeping credit, software training, possible college program and funding for it). Dawn’s assessed skill levels in the Understand and Use Numbers competency showed some gaps.

• Solution Options:

Not all of the solution referrals need to take place at the initial interview. Some may be more appropriate at a future date when the client/learner is ready to move to another step toward their goal.

LBS Practitioner Responsibilities

When a client walks in our doors, we are expected to determine what the client needs. In some cases, it may turn out that LBS services are not what the client is really looking for or what they really require.

LBS practitioners are not expected to be able to meet all of a client’s or learner’s needs. However, we are expected to “have a process in place to identify their information and referral needs in an efficient and effective way.” (LBS Service Provider Guidelines)  Your program may have already developed its own processes. If this is not the case, here are some important steps to include:

1. Determine the client’s or learner’s needs through a needs gap analysis. (For more on this, see Client and Learner Needs Determination earlier in this section.)

2. Determine if there are resources within your agency or the community to meet these needs. (See Identify Appropriate Interventions or Solutions further on in this section)

3. Make appropriate referrals using established protocols.

4. Some clients or learners are able to do their own research, make their own contacts or make their own appointments if you give them the information they need. On the other hand, if it appears that they help to connect with the suggested agency or person, provide them with appropriate assistance.

5. Document the information that you gave to the person (if appropriate) or referrals for learners in their files. For learners, input a Referral Sub-goal and Plan Item into the EOIS-CaMS or provide the information to the staff member who does the EOIS-CaMS updates.

6. Follow up with the learner or service (if you have permission) to ensure that the learner was able to get the help/service needed.

7. Document the referral result in the learner’s file and in EOIS-CaMS.

Identify the Gap and Need

As we have said, the first step in the needs determination process is identifying the gap between the current and desired situations. As shown in our earlier example, to do this we need to find out what the client’s/learner’s current “state” is and where the client or learner wants to be or what they want to do (“desired state”). As each gap or issue will have different solutions, it is important that we are clear and specific. For example, a client may walk in and tell you he needs help writing a resume. In the following chart, we have set out basic current/desired state pairs that we might discover through investigation:

There are a number of “investigation” methods to help you determine the need. Different techniques may be more suitable for different circumstances. Combinations of techniques may be necessary to drill down to the problem. Here are some suggested methods:

• Observation – Sometimes just watching a client or learner can provide insight on what the “gap” might be. For example, you might notice the learner seems to have vision problems that are affecting the learner’s ability to read.

• Asking – Whether within individual interviews, focus groups or questionnaires, we can often find out what a client or learner wants just by asking. Asking questions during an interview would probably be the best technique in our example of the client who wants help with resumes.

• Discussion – Regularly discuss learners’ needs with them. Provide open opportunities to discuss challenges and barriers. Consult with people in key positions or with specific knowledge. Sometimes, caseworkers or relatives can provide insight into clients’ or learners’ needs (if you have permission to discuss them). In our example of the resume writer, input from an Employment Services consultant would be useful.

• Assessments, tests and work samples – Using these tools may provide you with insight to specific skill gaps that need to be addressed. Make sure, however, that assessment and test tools and solutions are appropriate to the client/learner goals. Work samples from an employer are particularly useful as they provide context to the skill gaps.

• Records – School records such as Individual Education Plans (IEP) and high school transcripts can be very useful.

• Research – To determine the true gaps, you may need to investigate what the “desired state” entails. For example, you might use the Essential Skills Profiles to determine which competencies and levels are necessary for employment in a particular occupation.

Wellington County Learning Centre’s Screening Questions Interview Form helps them determine what a client needs. You can find a copy of this form in the Sample Forms section of this module.

Trust and a supportive relationship help in determining learner challenges and needs. The willingness of learners to disclose (directly or indirectly) the challenges that they have and the support that they need to address them may depend on trust. This trust can be developed between a learner and a staff member over time. The identification of needed supports is most likely to occur when the learner feels that the service provider is trying to address challenges and solve problems and is not judging the learner. Once the relationship is established, learners understand that some gaps can be addressed outside the LBS Program and that staff will facilitate the necessary referrals to other service providers.

When investigating gaps, remember that actual needs are not always the same as perceived needs or “wants.” People do not always know what they need. Sometimes, they want to learn things that they don’t really need to reach their goal.

Identify Appropriate Interventions or Solutions

After we have discovered the client/learner gaps and needs, we can begin to recommend strategies and supports aimed at eliminating the gap between the current, “what is”, and the desired, “what should or could be.”

At this time, it is also important to determine if Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) services are appropriate for the learner. Is the client eligible? Is the learner suitable? Does your agency have the capacity or is there a wait list? The Iroquois Falls Adult Learning Centre created an Eligibility and Suitability Form to help them establish if a learner is right for their program. You can find a copy in the Sample Forms section of this module.

The needs determination may establish that other services would best assist the clients/learners to reach their goals. In these cases, we should take care that we match clients with the service and provider that best meet their needs in the fewest possible steps. Referrals to other services need not happen in isolation from LBS learning. By providing supported access to other services we can all help clients/learners achieve their goals.

Supports and Referrals for Learner Success

LBS learners, as do other adults, have many issues, pressures and responsibilities in their lives. Balancing these against the demands of learning is often difficult. It doesn’t take very long in the LBS field for practitioners to know that many literacy learners face challenges beyond the mandate and funding of LBS services. In fact, most literacy learners need some supports other than quality literacy instruction in order to succeed. If learners do not have the time, energy or focus for their learning activities, they will not make the progress required to reach their goals. Personal worries and challenges can divert a learner’s efforts from their LBS learning.

OALCF Supporting Learners through Service Coordination and Referrals reports that research has identified fifteen supports, falling into five categories, which are important for learner success.

• Financial/Material Supports

  • Income Support

  • Transportation

  • Childcare

• Academic Supports

  • Learning Disability Assessment/Programming

  • Tutoring/Mentoring

  • Monitoring/Support of program participation

• Employment Supports

  • Job Search

  • Monitoring and support for entry or re-entry into the workforce (e.g., orientation to workplace, work experience and job coaching, motivation/attitude regarding employment)

• Social Service Supports

  • Housing Assistance

  • Legal Assistance (including parole, pardon, custody, Children’s Aid)

  • Personal/Family Counselling (including Anger Management/Stress Management Groups)

  • Life/Social Skills (e.g., time management, interpersonal skills, assertiveness, problem solving, conflict resolution)

• Health Supports

  • Mental Health Assessment/Support

  • Addiction/Substance Abuse Counselling or Program

  • Food/Nutrition

It is not possible for LBS programs and practitioners to develop the skills and expertise to help learners with all the issues that may be overwhelming them. Instead, by using service coordination and referral, we can link learners to the non-instructional supports they need. To do this we must have the knowledge, partnerships and tools that enable us to provide timely access to the required supports and services within our communities, over the Internet, etc.

For example, John is a learner at your program. He has always been a happy, energetic and motivated participant. You notice he is tired and fidgety and not applying himself. You sit down with him and tell him how you have noticed a difference. You ask if there is something troubling him that you could help with. He tells you that his wife has been laid-off from her job, so now he doesn’t know how they are going to feed their family. If you do not know already, you research where there is a local food bank. You obtain an application (or let John do this if he is able) and help him to fill it out, if necessary. You check with John in a few days to ensure he was able to go to the food bank and get support.

Using 211 Ontario

An excellent source for information about services is 211 Ontario. According to their website, through their telephone hotline (dial 211) and their website search tools, 211:

• provides a gateway to community, social, non-clinical health and related government services.

• helps to navigate the complex network of human services quickly and easily, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in over 150 languages.

211’s customer satisfaction tool showed that:

• 82% are Very  Satisfied with 211

• 88% would call 211 again

• 86% of callers followed up on the referrals provided

• 87% feel they are better prepared

2016 Survey Results http://211Ontario.ca

Recording Information and Referral

There is an expression, “If you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen.” That may be true if you don’t record your information and referral activities and that isn’t to your advantage. Service Coordination in the form of referrals in and out of your program is a significant factor in MTCU’s rating of your LBS service provision. In fact, to meet your LBS Service Quality, Service Coordination targets, 50% of your exited learners need to have had either a referral in from or a referral out to an education, training, employment or other community resource.

MTCU tracks our referrals through what gets recorded in EOIS-CaMS.

We need to place “referral in” and “referral out” information in the EOIS-CaMS learner plans (service plans), as well as in our hard copy learner files. When a learner first registers with us, they are asked how they were referred to our program. This information is recorded on the Employment Ontario Participant Registration – LBS form and entered into the EOIS-CaMS database along with other initial data. Not all referral options are counted in the calculation of our Service Coordination, in Report 64.  For example, the following three Referred-in options are not counted:

• EO – Literacy and Basic Skills Service Provider

• Informal Word-of-Mouth/Media Referral

• No Response

Outgoing referrals are entered into EOIS-CaMS as sub-goals of the learner plan (service plan) whenever they occur: at intake, throughout the training or at exit. As in the referrals-in, not all Referred-Out selections in EOIS-CaMS are included in the calculations for Service Coordination. For specific referral options that are included in this calculation, refer to Employment Ontario Information System (EOIS) Case Management System Service Provider User Guide: Reporting by logging into myEOIS.

An up-to-date learner plan is a good place to track these referrals. This practice also provides learners with a broader view of their plans and the supports they need in order to help them to reach their goals.

In CaMS, we also input our monthly Information and Referral statistics under two headings:

• Resource and Information for Information Sessions provided to various audiences

• Participation for referrals to other LBS programs or other services

Questions and Activities for Reflection

1. Think of a past or present learner, or another person you know that faces challenges that could stop him or her from moving ahead. Which of the 15 supports mentioned might help this person address his/her challenges?

2. Look over the list of 15 supports again. Do you know where and how you would refer a client/learner to each of these supports? If you are unsure, do some research. Talk to others at your agency or in your community who are knowledgeable about community resources; check the Internet, newspaper or phone book, or use the 211 telephone helpline or 211Ontario.ca.

3. Take some time to review your agency’s client/learner needs determination process. Compare it to the steps listed under LBS Practitioner Responsibilities. (If your agency doesn’t yet have a formalized process, just use the list of Responsibilities.) Which step or steps in the process do you think might need to be strengthened? What could your agency do to strengthen this area?

4. How are you presently keeping track of your information and referrals? How do you ensure that they are recorded monthly in EOIS-CaMS?

5. How do you track referrals out to other programs and services?