Erasmus plus Unlocking Freedom through Education Project (KA2) Transnational (TN) Project Meeting Minutes Date of meeting: 26 and 27 May 2016 Meeting Location: Kehitysvammaisten Palvelusäätiö (KVPS), Pinninkatu 51, 33100 Tampere, Finland. Participants: Auli Leiniö (Presenting), Bernie Grummell (Maynooth University), McGrath (DFI), Charlotte Huber (Centre de la Gabrielle (CdG)), Debbie Kelleher (Stewarts Care), Emer Murphy (Stewarts Care), Steli Peteva (ICSS), Vili Ananieva (ICSS), Petra Tihonen (KVPS), Toni Gleeson (DFI), Taija Halme (KVPS). Apologies: Alexandre Ploye (Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC)), Camilla Fitzsimons (Maynooth University). Minute taker: McGrath. Aims of the meeting To provide an opportunity for partners to share their learning and get advice from one another. To update one another on project activities. To get feedback and support where problems relating to the project activities arise. To plan and prepare for future project activities. To review minutes of the first Steering Committee meeting and catch up on actions outstanding. To review partner understanding of and reporting on contractual and financial regulations. Issues discussed The meeting was opened by who spoke on behalf of the group and thanked Kirsi Konola (Director of Development Activities at KVPS) and her team for their hospitality. updated the team on developments within DFI since the departure of Louise McCann. has set up an internal monitoring group within DFI. This is to ensure that the learning from the project is shared throughout the organisation as widely as possible. In addition, DFI has a broad staff base who work directly in the areas of congregated settings, independent living, disability policy and community development education and training. With this in mind the internal monitoring group will facilitate a mix of staff to support the project during its lifetime. Recognising the need to maintain stability of project
management and administration, will remain as Lead throughout. Toni Gleeson was recognised as being in attendance and having a strong background in adult education and training which will be of support at this stage of the project. Minutes of previous meeting, matters arising Minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and actions discussed. Intellectual Output (IO) 5 and 6 Presentation given by Taija This is how I manage. It was recognised as a transferable tool to other partner countries. The role of municipalities within partner countries was discussed and compared. The delivery of service provision and funding within partner countries was discussed and compared. Ratification of UNCRPD discussed. Common experiences for all countries were identified: Gap in service provision at key life stages when moving from e.g. child to adult service provision. Impact of tendering. Lower economic funding. Capacity of community to support the transition of people with disabilities from congregated settings discussed. In general it was recognised that there is a comparable lack of capacity across all partner countries with a need for direction from the NGO sector to inform on good practice models across areas of medical but also social supports. Presentation delivered by Auli gave a presentation on her experience in moving from institution to community based living. Intellectual Output 7 This IO is still at the development stages. General Discussion: The overall flow and relationship between IO 5, 6, 7 was discussed. The work of each, and between partners in terms of consequences and relationships was named as crucial to monitor and report on accurately. Currently they re all happening independently with very different experiences in each partner country. It was recognised that from the beginning there s been confusion in how IO 7 names the development of a Train the Trainer Programme so that people with disabilities can cofacilitate training delivered in output 6 and output 7. It was agreed that this should read as output 5 and output 6. It was recognised that Ireland and Finland will be delivering training to mainstream. Bulgaria will be delivering to people with disabilities for people in transition. The national context of each partner country was discussed in dept. Day 2 Financial Update and reporting to National Funders (Léargas) outlined the financial reporting mechanisms which were initially proposed for use by partners. These templates were focused on ensuring that partners had a system of monitoring their actual and unit expenditure for the duration of the project along with keeping adequate logs of time spent on the project by staff. Léargas have since presented to DFI two reporting templates. Firstly, a financial monitoring excel document personalised for each partner has been developed. This was circulated to all partners. This document reflects the online mobility tool DFI will be required to 2
complete at the end of the project. Secondly a word document project Progress Report, as previously circulated by in March was discussed. This word document is focused mainly on the content of the project, as well as facilitating updates on any challenges in regard to finance or individual Intellectual Output deadlines. Finally, Léargas request the Gantt chart to be updated as an appendix to the Progress Report also. Intellectual Output 1 Steli delivered a presentation on IO 1: - Desk research has been completed with Ireland, Bulgaria and support from Finland. - A questionnaire of training needs analysis (TNA) was developed and circulated to 12 people in each country together. They found there is a huge similarity between the skills development and the need for further development in Stewarts Care and ICSS. - The big challenge will be identifying how to respond to these needs during the training. - In total, 24 people with disabilities have been informed on forthcoming training, with clarification given on possible roles. It is valuable to note that supportive staff within the services want to participate to support trainees and even to participate themselves. Parents have also been informed. Intellectual Output 2 In follow up to the update on IO 1, Steli outlined next steps for IO1 and links to IO 2. Ireland has put results in excel and know what s next, Bulgaria will do the same and they will analysis the results. While not everything will be covered in training, the salient points from the TNA will be captured. An appendix can be included to provide additional information and for other service providers to avail of. Intellectual Output 3 gave an update on the involvement of UPEC to date. At the last TN Meeting UPEC informed that the proposal IO3 was no longer feasible due to staff departures. has been working with Alexander from UPEC and Charlotte from CdG to develop an alternative proposal. Most recently Stewarts Care and Maynooth who would be directly involved in the revised proposal have given their support to it. Intellectual Output 9 Currently this IO is in phase 1: Collate and gather literature - till January 2017. From Feb till June 2017 Steli will write a national reports. Partners from Bulgaria, Ireland and Finland gave short presentations on the situation of Decongregation and Adult Education for people with disabilities in their countries. Partner discussion identified a framework and main issues of the process of DI and adult education of people with disabilities in the partner s countries. Project Management and Administration Bernie and Petra met separately as the Quality and Evaluation Committee to discuss a draft strategy developed by. Based on the discussions of partners, this draft strategy was revised to reflect a consideration of the national context of partner organisations and use of the Most Significant Change (MSC) as a technique of monitoring the impact of partner work within IO. Use of 5 critical questions throughout the evaluation of the project was also discussed. s been reviewing the project as a whole and still unpacking the outstanding elements of work from Louise s departure. As a part of this, discussion was had in regard to the Conflict and Escalating Strategy and Communications and Exploitation Strategy, no 3
activity has taken place in this regard since the last TN Meeting. Discussion was had on the Learning /Teaching / Training Activity (LTT) outlined in the initial project application entitled Blended mobility of higher education students. The application names IO4 when the actual IO relevant was IO3. This IO is no longer relevant and this LTT needs to be redeveloped. Discussion was held on what would be an appropriate and viable alternative LTT to develop. The final version of the Project logo as agreed to by a majority of partners was discussed. The new facebook page as launched by was discussed. Sharepoint and its use for partners was discussed. The system of online sharing of resources through sharepoint has proven too weighty for the needs of the project at this stage. Dropbox was identified as a more user friendly easy to access online support. Taija distributed certificates of attendance for all attendees. Decisions made Partners agreed to identify centre points of learning. Partners recognised the real need to find an appropriate effective way to collect and share training developed and delivered in each partner country. DFI templates for financial and timesheet reporting remain a recommended tool for use by partners from DFI. However, it was agreed that partners would take their own responsibility for maintaining a record of real versus unit costs for the project and for their own staff time allocated to the project, aside from Bulgaria who find the Irish template useful and will continue to use it. Partners emphasised their commitment to reporting on any required areas of finance, project content and timeline as identified by Léargas. will develop a project steering group of key partner staff relevant to the financial monitoring. Project partners will continue keep all of their receipts/invoices/boarding passes etc. Partners committed to completing the survey pending circulation by, to provide an update on three key areas of project monitoring including 1. Finance, 2. Project Content and Planning and 3. Project timeframe. Partners present gave their full support to the continued participation of UPEC on the Project. will research what s been done in regard to the Conflict and Escalating Strategy and Communications and Exploitation Strategy and update parterns at indivdual skype / telecall meetings in June. Partners have agreed to share the total cost of host catering fees including lunch and tea/coffee breaks. DFI will frontload the cost of the fees and distribute invoices to each partner at the end of the project. Dropbox will be developed for use by partners unless the costs are significantly prohibitive. Sharepoint will remain an option if the amount of project activity requires that level of online support. An alternate LTT was agreed on, to focus on the revised IO3 proposal. To-do list Action (WHAT) Hard copy of attendance certificates from 2 nd Transnational Meeting in Paris to be circulated to all Responsible (WHO) Charlotte Deadline (WHEN) Comm ent 4
partners. Evidence of the Promotion of the Project to be circulated to DFI. Outstanding Strategies and Plans to be reviewed. Actions to be talked through with relevant partners and update to all to be circulated. MSC form developed to fil out after focus group meetings to ask a few questions and write in English and circulated to all partners, to use and return to on a regular basis in line with other reporting deadlines. Report on training needs methodology to be circulated to DFI. Each partner to meet via skype / telephone with DFI in the week of 20 June. Dates of availability to be circulated to DFI. Recirculate the new financial template for partners including explanation comment for columns. The Irish template will be populated to provide an example to partners when completing the report. Deadlines for financial reporting to be included in the Gantt Chart and recirculated to all partners. Establishment of financial sub group. Staff from partner organisations will meet with in person in Ireland / via skype. Re-emburse cost of catering to partner organisations who hosted TN Meeting 2 and 3 (CdG and KVPS). Flag estimated cost for partners to hold from project management budget. Circulate email acknolwedment of proposed approach from Léargas. All Partners Petra Steli All Partners & ongoing. 25 July 27 June 10 June 10 June 10 June 15 July 15 July Updating of the KA2 Project Face book Page. All Partners 15 July Dropbox to be reviewed as an option for use by all partners and access details circulated unless the costs are significantly prohibitive. 10 June Progress report circulated to all partners. 10 June Evaluation survey circulated to all partners. 10 June Confirmed attendees planning to attend the next TN meeting. All Partners to 02 September Evaluation of this meeting circulated. 10 June Feedback evaluation of this meeting. All partners Review understanding of TTL within CdG and feedback Charlotte to. Develop alternative TTL for consideration and approval 25 July by Léargas. Quality and Evaluation Committee to meet and redraft strategy based on map of evaluation sketched at this meeting., Petra, Bernie, Camilla 25 July 5
Develop revised TTL proposal and circulate to partners 15 July and Léargas for consideration. Next meeting Date Location Purpose 10 and 11 November 2016 ICSS, Sofia, Bulgaria Transnational Project Meeting 4 6