Unit 1: Information, Advice or Guidance – Principles and Practice
Values, attitudes and behaviours
One of the most important factors in maintaining a client-centred service is for advisors to be aware of their own pre-conceptions, values and bias.
Advisors should work towards enabling a client to reach their full potential and not make judgements based upon their own pre-conceived ideas. It is human nature to make value judgements when we meet new people and these judgements should not affect the way one perceives a client’s ability and consequently the type and amount of support given.
Jennifer Kidd* noted four ways individuals may mis-read initial contact with a client:
- By assuming that an articulate and seemingly confident person will be seeking an advanced course/ or career, whilst the less articulate are considered to be less interested and less able
- By attaching considerable importance to the way a client looks
- By not acknowledging that the situation of seeking advice and information may unnerve some people – it can be wrong to judge a person’s initial behaviour as a characteristic of personality
- By being influence by “stereotyping” of various religious, or ethnic groups, social class
*(adapted from a Staff Development Resource Pack for Pre-entry Guidance; SWAP, South East Scotland Access Consortium 1991) Kidd J, Assessment in Action
Self-Reflection Activities
These self-reflection activities have been created to make you comfortable when preparing to deliver information, advice or guidance. Providing IAG can be challenging because of the many topics, opinions and questions that may arise. But the skills, values and attitudes it develops are essential and highly rewarding for advisors. Reflecting on personal feelings about communities and society before providing IAG, can greatly enhance practice.
When delivering IAG to clients, we are often presented with a variety of topics which we may find controversial, feel very passionate about, or find difficult to explore. They may relate to our own faith, beliefs and experiences. Thinking about which topics we find controversial and may lie outside of your comfort zone in advance, can make talking to our clients easier.
Everyone has unconscious bias, stereotypes we hold about groups of people but of which we may be unaware. Learn more about unconscious discrimination and test yours.
Think about a client and consider what judgmental and stereotypical connotations could be made regarding their:
- Age: too old, too young
- Appearance: casual vs formal
- Accent: Northern, Southern
- Postcode/area: Affluent estate, area of deprivation, supported accommodation
- Criminal background: No previous convictions, spent conviction or currently on a rehabilitation order
- Pronoun: He/him/his: used for someone who says they identify as male or masculine. She/her/hers: used for someone who says they identify as female or feminine. They/them/theirs: used for someone who doesn’t particularly identify with neither female nor male pronouns. These pronouns are generally regarded as gender-neutral and are used in the singular form.
A Riddle About Bias: This story – called the surgeon’s dilemma – is often used to demonstrate the way that unconscious bias works. Read the riddle below, give yourself some time to answer for yourself before reading past the paragraph.
Mikaela Wapman (CAS’14) and Deborah Belle
“A father and his son are involved in a horrific car crash and the man died at the scene. But when the child arrived at the hospital and was rushed into the operating theatre, the surgeon pulled away and said: “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son”.
How can this be?
Have you worked it out yet?
The Answer
In research conducted by Mikaela Wapman (CAS’14) and Deborah Belle, a College of Arts & Sciences psychology professor many people presented with the riddle tended to overlook the possibility that the surgeon in the riddle is female and is therefore the boys mum.