The role of co-ordinator is one that will involve you in supporting all the users of the course in your authority.  As you roll the course out, and make a team of supervisors to help you, you will need to develop your role and create a structure to support those supervisors, to keep up with developments and keep the quality of the learning experience for trainees high.  Most importantly, you should consider what will happen if you leave your current job, for whatever reason, and cannot continue to act as co-ordinator for Frontline, and be prepared for that eventuality.  Here are some key steps that you can take to ensure a robust support network

• Save our emails to you as we go through the course – if you need copies we can supply generic advice for each and any module’s work if you need it.  Just ask.

• Copy the pieces of advice in those emails that you feel are relevant into your Experience Bank once you have access to your control panel.

• Add your own advice and key points from your own communications with supervisors to the Experience Bank and keep reviewing it

• When you have a number of supervisors, hold a short induction and/or support sessions to discuss their role, any anxieties and difficulties and practice giving feedback. You can find some suggested sessions on this site.

• Get into the habit of feeding back your views to each supervisor when you issue a certificate for their trainee – both on the work of the trainee and their work as a supervisor.

• Create an online or offline way of communicating with your supervisors on a regular basis.

• Make sure they have opportunities to raise issues and questions with you.

• Once your rollout has progressed to having several strong supervisors, consider stepping back from regular supervision yourself and concentrating on supporting supervisors and troubleshooting, taking on any trainees whose supervisor leaves or falls sick.

• Consider picking one or two supervisors who could take on your role should you need to relinquish it.  Brief them about your role regularly, get them to deputise when you are on holiday.

  Opening the Book 2006