Key informant interview guide – training and technical assistance experts

OMB Control No.: 0970-xxxx

Expiration Date: xx/xx/20xx

Length of time for interview: 90 minutes

INSTRUMENT 6: KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW GUIDE - TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE EXPERTS

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 90 minutes per response, including the time for a short introduction and completing the interview. This information collection is voluntary. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Urban Institute (Attn: Heather Sandstrom), 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037

Home Visiting Career Trajectories

Key Informant Interview Guide – Training and Technical Assistance Experts

Key Informant Name: Agency:

Title: Email/Phone Number:

NOTE: Before reading the text below, the interviewer will distribute two copies of a consent form (Attachment C). The consent form will include the OMB control number and expiration date. The interviewee will sign and return one copy to the interviewer, and can keep a copy for his or her own records.

Thank you for agreeing to speak with us today. My name is [NAME] and I’m [here with/on the line with] [NAME]. We’re from The Urban Institute, a policy research organization in Washington, DC. We have been funded through a collaborative effort between the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study about the state of the home visiting workforce, including home visitors’ characteristics, qualifications, and career pathways. Our conversation with you today will focus primarily on professional development opportunities for home visitors that currently exist, gaps that need to be filled, and strategies for enhancing existing professional development infrastructure that currently exists.

As part of this study, we are conducting key informant interviews with experts in the home visiting field. In a separate but related effort we are also collecting survey and qualitative data from home visiting staff throughout the U.S. to learn more about home visitors’ career trajectories and experiences working as a home visitor.

Over the next hour and a half, we will be asking you a series of questions designed to obtain in-depth information regarding the professional development system that supports early childhood home visiting.

Please note to know that this interview is voluntary; you can refuse to speak with us and there will be no consequences for declining. You can also stop the interview at any time. We have a series of questions to guide our discussion; you may not know the answer to every question, and that is fine. There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers. If there are any questions that you don’t feel knowledgeable about or don’t feel comfortable answering, just let us know and we will move on.

The information we gather during our interviews will be used in memos to OPRE and HRSA, and will inform a final report that captures findings from all components of this study. Importantly, the information we gather today will be kept private to the extent permitted by law and none of what you share with us will be linked to you in any way, without your prior permission. We’ll take notes during our discussion, but if it’s okay with you, we would also like to record this interview.

Do you have any questions? Do we have your consent to proceed with our interview? Do we have your permission to record?

Before we begin, let me provide you with a brief ‘roadmap’ of what we’ll cover during the interview. We’ll start with a few questions about your background and your experience with home visiting. We will then discuss your perspectives on training and professional development opportunities for home visiting staff, and gaps that exist. And lastly, we will get your views on to how best to support home visiting staff and strategies for ensuring thoughtful on-boarding, strong retention, and home visitor supports that are essential to strengthening the home visiting workforce. We will wrap up with any additional thoughts you have on related topics we haven’t covered.

Does this sound all right to you? Do you have any questions?

Great, let’s begin.

1. Interviewee Background

Let’s start with a few background questions about you.

1. Please tell us a bit about your current role at [ORGANIZATION], your professional background, and your work related to the professional development, TA and/or training of home visitors.

2. Existing Professional Development Resources and Opportunities

Next, we’d like to discuss what types of training and professional development resources and opportunities exist today for home visitors –including pre-service opportunities for future home visitors and in-service opportunities for newly hired and experienced home visitors.

2. To begin, can you describe for us the background that newly hired home visitors have that would qualify them for the job (e.g., education, experience, interests, core competencies and model specific requirements)?

1. Would you say this background typically prepares them for the role? Why or why not?

2. What strengths do you see among the home visitors you interact with?

3. How well does the existing system prepare individuals interested in becoming home visitors?

4. Where do you see gaps between the knowledge, skills, and abilities that most new home visitors have and what they need to perform the job well?

3. How about home visitor supervisors? [REPEAT PROBES FOR QUESTION 2]

4. Recognizing that the field of home visiting is diverse, what is your understanding of the training that home visiting staff typically receive upon being hired?

1. What are some examples of best practices?

2. How do you think on-boarding trainings could be improved?

5. Let’s talk a bit about on-the-job training as well. What is your knowledge of in-service trainings typically offered to home visitors? Is this model or agency-specific?

   1. What are some examples of best practices you’re aware of?

   2. How do you think on-the-job training could be improved?

6. Overall, what are your thoughts regarding the current state of the professional development system for early childhood home visiting?

   1. What professional development offerings are you aware of—either nationally or locally in your area?

   2. Is it easy to access appropriate and relevant trainings?

   3. For whom are they designed?

   4. What are the strengths and limitations of current offerings?

For example:

• Model-specific trainings

• University-based trainings (including degrees and certifications)

• State training and technical assistance

• Federal technical assistance

• In-service professional development (i.e., supports for home visitors within an agency)

• Trainings supported by a national organization (i.e., Ounce of Prevention; Zero to Three)

• Other types of trainings and technical assistance (such as topic or content specific trainings?)

7. Are there any innovative approaches to professional development being developed or implemented that you would highlight? Who offers these trainings and where?

[If interviewee is involved in designing or delivering training resources or technical assistance]

8. Please tell us about trainings [your organization] has designed or facilitates:

1. What population does your training aim to serve?

2. How have the trainings evolved over time?

3. Opportunities for Improvement

9. How well do available resources support:

1. New home visitors and supervisors going through initial training?

2. Home visitors and supervisors already in the field to keep their skills strong and relevant? To minimize potential stressors and help promote retention and job satisfaction?

1. Are there particular areas or topics where you think professional development needs to be strengthened?

4. Challenges and Looking Forward

11. What challenges exist in designing professional development and technical assistance opportunities for home visitors?

12. How about delivering them?

13. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for how to overcome these challenges?

14. Do you think professional development activities should be standardized across organizations to help promote minimum knowledge, skills, and attitudes?

1. If so, how do you think the field could move toward standardization (e.g. something like CME or CEU that medical and social work professionals are required to get to maintain licensure)?

15. As a field, how can we better create a pipeline of qualified home visitors?

Probe for issues beyond professional development, such as compensation and professionalizing the field.

5. Wrap Up

16. Thank you so much for sharing all that you have with us today. Are there any issues we haven’t discussed that you think are important for us to understand related to the professional development of home visitors?

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Home Visiting Career Trajectories OMB Supporting Documents: Key Informant Interview Guide – Training and Technical Assistance Experts