1. London Care and Support Forum 4th December2014
The National Skills Academy for Social Care Leadership, Registered Managers and the Skills Academy
Terri Myers
National Skills Academy for Social Care
London Care and Support Forum
4th December2014

2. Skills for Care.....
As many of you will know the NSA and Skills for Care merged in June. There is masses of information on the SfC website, including information about the new CQC inspection guidelines:
and the Care Act
Act.aspx

3. What is Leadership?
‘Leadership is entirely different . It is associated with taking an organisation into the future, finding opportunities that are coming at it faster and faster and successfully exploiting those opportunities. Leadership is about vision, about people buying in, about empowerment and, most of all about producing successful change. Leadership is not about attributes, it’s about behaviour. And in an ever-faster-moving world, leadership is increasingly needed from more and more people, no matter where they are in a hierarchy. The notion that a few extraordinary people at the top can provide all the leadership needed today is ridiculous and it’s a recipe for failure.’
Dr John P Kotter- Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Havard Business School and Chief of Innovation at Kotter International

4. Introduction: the role of the Skills Academy around leadership
“The sector needs high-quality leadership at all levels...[it] is essential to the delivery of all the proposals in this White Paper.”
Caring for our future: reforming care and support, July 2012
“[Social Care] lacks confidence. As a result it is timid in its vision and ambition for how adult social care services can be delivered.”
Social Care: A Review. Dame Denise Platt, 2007
“There is a unique culture within social care....Social care is often positioned ‘in the shadows’. This is disempowering [and] has the effect of reducing confidence and stifling innovation.”
Feedback from Skills Academy consultation on Leadership Strategy for Adult Social Care, 2012

5. The role of the Skills Academy: Leading on leadership in social care
Specific remit to improve leadership and
commissioning, and to support Registered Managers
Employer-led: but as well as employers we also reach training providers, local authorities and other commissioners, alongside individuals
Covering adult social care but also working with
health and children’s services
Membership body for individuals and organisations
One of the largest membership bodies in the sector
Leadership guidance and programmes for all levels Endorsement for high quality training providers
Backed by Department of Health

6. Leadership: What we think it is
Not just about authority at the top of organisations
It’s a practical understanding – and awareness – about how you do what you do, and the impact on others
So it’s about behaviours, and taking responsibility for them
And it’s everyone’s business – people working at all levels in social care
“People do not experience our values, they experience our behaviours.”
Bill Mumford, CEO, MacIntyre

7. The Leadership Qualities Framework
Guide to what good leadership looks like
Describes what good leadership looks like
in different settings and situations
Defines good leadership for people at
different levels:
Front-line Staff
Front-line Leaders
Operational Leaders
Strategic Leaders
Basis in values and behaviours that follow on from them
Grounded in everyday practice and written in plain English, so accessible to everyone
Applicable in integrated services

8. The Leadership Qualities Framework: how it works
Based on structure of NHS Leadership Framework
Groups behaviours into seven areas, called Dimensions
Five Dimensions relate to areas in which all social care professionals need to demonstrate leadership
Two apply specifically to senior staff
Each Dimension has four elements
The LQF takes each element and gives a short description of what quality leadership looks like at different levels

9. The Leadership Qualities Framework: how it can help in driving quality
Essential tool for small, medium and large employers to measure and strengthen leadership capacity
Also for micro-providers, user-led organisations, and service users who commission services
For commissioners and regulators to use as a guide/quality indicator
Use for recruitment, performance management, appraisal and CPD
Mapped to CQC Essential Standards
Online self-assessments for benchmarking: 360° feedback: organisational assessment

10. The background - a support programme for Registered Managers
National survey
Facilitated by Care Quality Commission, sent to all Registered Managers in England
c responses – about 10% of total
Context: Registered Managers as lead professionals in care homes and home care
Context: leadership role of Registered Managers, and importance of leadership generally, acknowledged in White Paper Caring for our future
Context: growing recognition of, and concerns around, increasing complexity and frequent isolation

11. Key findings from Everyday Excellence: Need for networks, recognition, support

12. Outcome: Support Programme for Registered Managers
The programme launched March 2013
Aims to reduce isolation, better-equip
Registered Managers for their role,
strengthen leadership confidence
Expert online and phone advice on HR, legal and professional issues
Online information and resources
Membership group/community of practice
within the Skills Academy
Funding for local networks, workshops and
action learning sets
‘Bottom-up’ approach – working with local groups, employers and care associations

13. New Handbook for Registered Manager Members
Hardback copy now only offered to Registered Manager Members. Designed to be the ‘go to’ guide for managers.
Covers: Social Care Values, Personalised Care, Quality
Information, Resources, Teams and Partners, Buildings, Health and Wellbeing Safeguarding and Regulation and Inspection
Sign up on the RM section of our website and get a hardback as part of your member benefits:

14. Membership for Registered Managers
The Registered Managers’ Programme is intended to further equip Registered Managers to meet the challenges you face on a daily basis. The main aims of the programme are to:
Help reduce isolation
Better-equip Registered Managers for their role
Strengthen leadership confidence.

15. Sign up and you will receive free access to:
Expert online and phone advice on HR, legal and professional issues
Online information and resources
A membership group/community of practice within the Skills Academy (over 60 networks exist at present)
Funding for local networks, workshops and action learning sets
A hard back copy of The Social Care Manager’s Handbook
Our mentoring scheme: a highly valuable learning opportunity providing 1-1 confidential support from a trained volunteer mentor.
Membership costs just £35 per year with the option of discounts (buy nine and get your tenth free) for organisations who choose to sign-up multiple managers.
For more information
Website:

16. New Mentoring Scheme for Registered Manager Members
Free, highly valuable learning opportunity for RM members
1-1 confidential support from a trained volunteer mentor
Chance to get a fresh perspective and insight in a neutral setting
Good for your CV and CPD
Sign up on the RM section of our website: 16

17. Are you interested in setting up a network?
If so there is up to £1500 available. For further details, including an details of how to apply go here:
managers-local-networks

18. Leadership Development Programmes for people at all levels
Graduate Scheme
Front-Line Leaders
Lead to Succeed/Inspiring Leaders
Emerging Leaders
BAME Leaders Programme
Commissioning Now
New Directors of Adult Social Services/ Extended Services
Top Leaders
Building Community Capacity

19. What you can do to strengthen leadership: Come together in a new social care landscape
Practice leadership - networks and forums of support, e.g. for Registered Managers Collaborative leadership - links with commissioners – health, social care, individual Community leadership - links with and for community groups and micro-employers: focus on assets and social capital

20. Employer engagement and celebrating leadership in social care
Membership events Employer engagement events Employer engagement: competitions and awards Employer engagement: e-bulletins Employer engagement: promotion and media/social media coverage Employer engagement: direct meetings Employer engagement: Endorsement

21. What leaders can do to make social care excellent: recognise and celebrate: stand up for the contribution of social care
Social care as key driver of local economies Social care as growth sector Social care as local employer Social care as community hub/link Social care as source of innovation Social care as source of good news stories for local media/MPs/ Councils/Health and Wellbeing Boards Social care staff as people to be celebrated

22. Summary: You can make leadership part of what you do every day
Leadership is about behaviours: taking responsibility for your own practice and addressing poor practice elsewhere
It follows that leadership can support great service quality, embedding it as everyone’s business
You can use the Leadership Qualities Framework and Leadership Starts with Me to instil and embed leadership behaviours which actively promote quality
There are lots of other free online tools and techniques to help you
There are resources for Registered Managers as part of the new support programme
You can embody what good leadership behaviours look like right here, right now
You can instil a high quality culture through celebrating great social care

23. Everyone has a part to play: Leadership starts with all of us.
Because everyone can do something about changing what they do and how they do it.
So everyone can be a leader to some degree.
Everyone can have a go, and everyone can make a difference.
And everyone can be a force for change and a force for good.

24. terri.myers @nsasocialcare.co.uk
Finally...
Thank you