Health

To be good or outstanding, you need to be well led


Man talking in group therapy session






In adult social care, the importance of good leadership makes a real difference to teams.
Photograph: Caiaimage/Rafal Rodzoch/Getty Images/Caiaimage

“Are you well led?” is just one of the five questions that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) asks of all care services. It defines “well led” as the leadership, management and governance of the organisation to make sure it’s providing high-quality care that’s based around your individual needs, that it encourages learning and innovation, and that it promotes an open and fair culture”.

Care services have the managers, leaders and governance to meet and exceed CQC regulations, so how can this be achieved across adult social care?

Skills for Care’s Good and Outstanding Care guide reveals that the 74% of services that achieved good and outstanding rankings for being well led have qualified leaders and managers with the right values and dedication to provide high-quality care and support.

“Good leadership in health and social care is the foundation for the sustainment of safe, effective and compassionate services for the most vulnerable people in our communities,” says Skills for Care.

Managers’ commitment to quality assurance is ingrained in the day-to-day running of their services. They identify areas of improvement and more importantly, have the ability and resources to take appropriate action to ensure that their services continue to have the right culture, values, support and investment to continually improve.

And it’s true. You can spot a good leader from miles away – the people they support are happy and involved in every aspect of their care, and staff are inspired and motivated to do the best job they can. So, what support is available for managers to ensure their staff are well-led?

The importance of good and outstanding leadership and management in adult social care services is summed up by Skills for Care’s CEO, Sharon Allen: “A well-trained workforce that’s guided and supported by competent, effective leaders and managers makes a real difference to the lives of people we serve across our sector.

“We’re placing leadership at the very heart of social-care thinking and driving development of our leaders through our programmes and resources, so we can meet the significant challenges of today and tomorrow.”

One of Skills for Care’s most popular leadership programmes is the “Well-led programme”, aimed at managers of all adult social care services, in particular registered managers. Its main focus is on learning and how to apply best practice that delivers well-led services that are good and outstanding.

One manager who really understands the benefits of the leadership programme is Tamara Brown, registered service manager at Saint John of God Hospitaller Services, a national charity helping people to lead fulfilling lives.

Brown completed Skills for Care’s Well-led programme in April 2018, following a routine CQC inspection in February 2017 where the overall rating of her service was “requires improvement”. She felt that she needed support to improve this rating.

“Following the Well-led programme, our recent CQC inspection came back ‘good’ across all areas,” she says. “Prior to this we had ‘requires improvement’ throughout. This programme was a massive inspiration to myself and my team and I do feel that attending it encouraged a culture change for my service and enabled me to work and support a stronger team, of whom I am very proud to be a part of.”

Managers and leaders are essential in developing a motivated, confident and caring workforce that is both highly skilled, and, most importantly, valued by all those needing care and support. They lead by example and make their staff feel motivated, empowered and confident.

Brown has found that her confidence improved dramatically after undertaking the programme and meeting other managers with similar concerns and issues was really useful and has provided her with a support network moving forward.

“Knowing that all managers face similar aspects of concern and being able to discuss this and listen to how they incorporate change to resolve concerns was inspiring to me and helped me lead and guide a stronger staff team,” she says.

The Well-led programme has been developed in partnership with registered managers familiar with the day-to-day challenges of leading a care team. Made up of a series of practical workshops, the programme explores live issues, challenges and practical examples of well-led services.

Brown concludes: “I personally feel that all managers should attend this programme, as it will develop their own personal skills to look at their job role, encourage identified skills within the team, and build on these together. I feel that I am now a better role model as a manager.”

Find out more about Skills for Care’s Well-led programme at
skillsforcare.org.uk/well-led and download the ‘Good and outstanding’ guide at skillsforcare.org.uk/GO



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