Ongoing learning and development is important for social care leaders at all levels. Skills for Care looks at some of the recently redesigned continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities and leadership programmes available for leaders in social care.
Leading Change Improving Care
Strong leaders are at the heart of ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ care. This national development programme is for new and experienced managers in adult social care, and takes a practical look at how to influence and implement the necessary changes to meet current and future challenges and service needs in health and social care.
This is so important with the ever-changing landscape of how care is delivered, and the changing wants and needs for care and support.
The programme has a real focus around leading, managing and building resilience for change, plus developing effective leadership skills; coaching and developing teams, and improving your own personal effectiveness.
The topics are covered across the five interactive modules of the programme.
Lead to Succeed
Being a good leader involves a wide range of skills and behaviours – from managing people to building workplace culture to leading teams through challenging times.
Lead to Succeed is a practical learning programme aimed at aspiring managers and deputies in adult social care services, helping them to develop into further leadership roles.
The programme aims to help people learn from their day-to-day experiences and think about how they can do things differently or get better at recognising what they do well.
The programme is delivered through five interactive modules and has a focus on successful behaviours for leaders and managers; developing a positive culture; effective supervision; leading and managing the process of change, and leading and managing the inspection process.
Unlike undertaking formal qualifications, which can often feel like a solitary process, Lead to Succeed connects aspiring managers with their peers.
Well-led
Being ‘Well-led’ is one of the measures which the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assesses during inspection.
CQC describe being ‘Well-led’ as: “the leadership, management and governance of the organisation assures the delivery of high-quality and person-centred care, supports learning and innovation, and promotes an open and fair culture”.
The Well-led programme is underpinned by models of leadership that can be practically applied to deliver change and promote best practice. It was designed to enable leaders to deliver care in line with the expectations of a ‘Well-led’ service.
It was developed in partnership with managers who are familiar with the day-to-day challenges of leading a care team. The programme covers topics including understanding what well-led looks like in a care setting; leadership strategies and techniques and how these can be used to transform services and improve the quality of care; developing confidence and skills in leading complex and challenging circumstances; developing goals, and learning from the experience of others.
Understanding Performance Management
Managing people and performance is a key part of many leaders’ work. As a leader and manager you can have a huge impact on people’s job satisfaction, productivity and career development.
This module aims to support managers to explore the performance management cycle, and recognise that people perform differently. It looks at how to utilise tools and techniques to support different people in different ways.
Topics covered include managing and retaining high-performing staff; having difficult conversations; role modelling, coaching and mentoring, and disciplinary and grievance processes.
Understanding Self-management Skills
As a leader it’s also important to know how to manage yourself to deliver your best outcomes for you and your team
This module is aimed to support managers to tackle isolation, manage time, build resilience, and ensure wellbeing.
It covers techniques and tools which can support managers to self-manage and understand when and how behaviours can influence and impact on others.
Understanding Workplace Culture
Developing a positive workplace culture is a really important part of your role as a leader.
Culture is something that can be hard to explain, but can definitely be felt. That’s why it’s important that leaders understand what culture means and their role in creating a positive one.
The Understanding Workplace Culture module helps managers to explore the critical links between vision, values, and culture – providing practical support to influence change and develop the culture of their service.
You can find out more about positive workplace culture in Skills for Care’s upcoming campaign, ‘Developing a positive workplace culture’ which will be running across their website, social media and other channels throughout June and July.
