Having now just recently gone through a council review in my own department, I would have found it really useful to have somebody who I knew, who had the subject expertise and was there along with the person who was reviewing my department who was doing it in a generic manner. It would have been very good to have somebody to bounce ideas off and to feel I could talk with informally and know that they would be very positive and be helping me so yes I think it's a very good idea. I do think though that the time needs to be allocated from somewhere so that people are doing it properly and its not just seen as a paper exercise.
I mean I learned by seeing another department we all work in our own wee cocoons sometimes and you are not quite sure what goes on in another department and I did see things that I was able to pick up on, will put into my department in terms of the way my staff work together and the terms, the way we work as a team. Well I think in some ways I probably started to implement some of the ideas in terms of how I work with my own staff and how I encourage my own staff to actually contribute more to the department in terms of getting them and getting them to identify what they are needing to be doing in a professional capacity and what they are needing to look for in terms of in-service courses so it has helped me to sit down and talk with people.
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