Good leadership in care homes can make a huge difference

Social care is changing as never before, and people at senior levels in social care are facing an unprecedented range of challenges, whether they sit in the public, private or not-for-profit sectors.

At the , we believe that good leadership makes a significant difference to the lives of care home users, communities, organisations and the staff who work in them.

Supporting the development of senior managers is crucial to ensuring leadership of current social care agendas and future transformation of the sector.

What’s more, we know that the sector believes this too.

In a pan-sector survey, ‘Who Cares’, commissioned by the Skills Academy and published in February 2012, 94 per cent of respondents linked the quality of leadership with the quality of care, and 93 per cent wanted to see more investment in leadership development.

What is good leadership in care homes? The starting point for the Skills Academy is that leadership is not only about the authority shown at the top of organisations. Rather, it is grounded in a practical understanding – and awareness – about how you do what you do. So it’s about everyday behaviours, and taking responsibility for them.

As Bill Mumford, chief executive of MacIntyre, a Skills Academy member, says: “People do not experience our values; they experience our behaviours”.

And it follows that it’s everyone’s business: leadership is for everyone working at all levels in social care, whatever their job title.

In the leadership strategy that we are developing for the social care sector on behalf of the Department of Health, we give this view practical and systematic expression, using a Leadership Qualities Framework to identify and describe leadership behaviours for people working at all levels in the sector, from front-line staff to strategic leaders.

Research carried out by the Work Foundation for the Skills Academy looked at what made outstanding leadership in social care.

The research found:

• Social care leaders had a vision that extended beyond their own organisation. Whilst they had clear organisational goals, their ultimate legacy ambition tended to focus on wider societal issues, which in turn required a much broader outlook

• The passion of social care leaders for making a difference was almost tangible. It was expressed more vigorously and consistently than in other sectors: the social cause was compelling and inspiring

• There was a stronger desire to inspire others with the same passion, alongside an appreciation that many people working in social care were driven by similar values and motivations

• Collaboration between organisations was seen as essential. Although tensions surfaced about how to collaborate in a competitive market, leaders in social care had a stronger sense of the need for partnerships and the value of sharing power because of the benefits that accrued to the service user

The National Skills Academy for Social Care’s Top Leaders Programme

The Skills Academy has developed a new, flexible and responsive programme for people in senior level positions in social care, designed to focus on the specific issues facing chief executives and directors, and bringing people together from across the sector to develop their practice, build peer networks across health, social care and allied sectors, and benefit individuals and organisations alike.

With funding from the Department of Health, the first programme started in May.

The programme is designed to address sector-specific challenges of senior leadership roles, and to examine the policy and practice issues inherent to social care leadership as well as implications for collective leadership.

It enables both experienced and new senior leaders to discuss the leadership challenges that they are facing, and the particular demands placed on them.

The programme is based around four one-day combined masterclasses and workshops and three action learning sets, which look to embed reflective practice. Over and above this, key partners and thought leaders from across and beyond the social care sector take part to stimulate thoughts and ideas.

The Skills Academy is launching its Leadership Strategy, and the Leadership Qualities Framework, in the wake of the publication of the Social Care Reform White Paper later this year.

The Skills Academy was commissioned by the Department of Health to produce the first Leadership Qualities Framework (LQF) to be developed for all staff within the adult social care workforce.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Skills Academy or the Top Leaders Programme, please email debbie.sorkin@nsasocialcare.co.uk.

Image: Debbie Sorkin, head of membership and engagement, National Skills Academy for Social Care