Search skillsforcare.org.uk

Skills for Care
Top

Through membership we support managers to develop best practice and knowledge, keep up-to-date with sector developments and share ideas with like-minded peers.

For £35 per year, you can become a member of our growing community of registered managers and gain access to exclusive resources to support your role and your service.


Membership benefits

  • printed copy of our Social care manager’s handbook
  • an exclusive monthly newsletter, including practical information and guidance
  • access to Good and Outstanding care guide: Single Assessment Framework version and 34 Quality Statement Recommendation checklists
  • an exclusive annual resource when you renew your membership
  • offers and discounts on courses, and other benefits from our endorsed providers of learning and development
  • the chance to train to become a mentor, or receive mentoring
  • discounts on key resources, programmes and events
  • a membership certificate and logo
  • access to further resources and guidance. 

A recent survey of our registered manager members looked at the benefits of membership and 97% of respondents would recommend membership to others. Take a look at all the findings from our survey

Become a member    Member login area

 

Membership isn’t just about the fantastic resources our managers have received, it’s about creating a shared identity and status around the role of the registered manager.

Nigel Taylor
Head of Learning and Development, Care Tech

 

Bulk membership 

When you invest in your managers you’re investing in them, their service, their staff and the quality of care they provide. Social care employers, organisations and commissioners regularly buy membership in bulk on behalf of their registered managers. 

We can offer a 10% discount on all purchases for 10 managers or more.

Email membership@skillsforcare.org.uk to find out more bulk membership.

 

1. A printed copy of our Social care manager’s handbook

  • The handbook is a comprehensive guide to key aspects of the registered manager role, set out in sections mapped against our Manager Induction Standards and the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care, plus an additional section on digital leadership, skills and technology. Each section covers a particular area of the work of a registered manager, providing information, guidance and practical tips to support you in your day-to-day work.

The handbook is particularly useful for new managers, as are the guidance and toolkits available. Colleagues need to feel valued and have access to flexible support networks and resources.

Melanie Holloway, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
Metropolitan Thames Valley Homes

 

2. Exclusive monthly newsletter

  • Each month our newsletter brings you information, guidance and updates from Skills for Care, other organisations supporting the adult social care sector, and other registered managers. 

3. Good and outstanding care guide (Single Assessment Framework version)

  • Members receive exclusive access to this comprehensive online guide about CQC inspection co-produced with The Outstanding Society. Each section explains how to prepare your service to evidence what you do around the 34 Quality Statements, backed-up with practical checklists to strengthen your quality assurance.

4. Exclusive annual resource when you renew your membership

  • Every year the membership team produces a new resource exclusively for our renewing members. The resource for 2024/25 renewing members is a hard copy of ‘A positive culture toolkit for adult social care.’
  • Previous renewal resources have included ‘Compassionate Leadership’ by Professor Michael West CBE, the third edition of the 'Good and outstanding care' guide, and ‘An introduction to working with partners – a practical guide for social care managers.’

5. Offers and discounts, and other benefits from our endorsed learning providers

  • Discounts and other offers on national and local learning and development courses, both online and face-to-face, provided by high quality training providers who we have endorsed.  

6. The chance to train to become a mentor, or receive mentoring

  • Our mentorship offer gives members who would like to develop their skills and support their peers as a mentor, the opportunity to join one of our mentoring workshops. Members are then given the opportunity to mentor another member.
  • Members who wish to be mentored and receive advice and guidance about their current issues and development journey can request to take part, after which we will look to pair them with one of our mentors. 

7. Discounts on key resources, programmes and events

  • Members receive discounts on a range of resources and events, including discounts on a variety of items in our bookshop. (These discounts are variable and subject to Skills for Care’s wider work activity.)

8. A membership certificate and logo

  • Members can demonstrate their membership status, and their commitment to developing their knowledge and best practice, with our hard copy certificate, sent out to all new members alongside the Social care managers handbook. Members are also welcome to use our membership logo on their email and letters, to let other professionals know they are one of our valued registered manager members and part of a professional community of practice.

9. Further resources and guidance

  • A regularly-refreshed selection of guidance, templates and planning resources shared by our partner Quality Compliance Systems (QCS).

All members renewing their membership from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 will receive a hard copy of ‘A positive culture toolkit for adult social care’.

The toolkit aims to support you at different stages of your workplace culture journey to establish, maintain and improve your workplace culture so that it’s inclusive, compassionate and collaborative.

Workplace culture is the character and personality of your workplace and what makes your workplace unique, special and individual. Positive cultures take time to build and conscious effort to maintain.

No matter what size of employer, the toolkit will help explain what a positive workplace culture is and how you can develop, maintain, and where needed, change an existing culture.

Among other topics, the book looks at

  • How to understand what a positive workplace culture looks like
  • How to make improvements in the areas of a positive workplace culture which have been shown to have the greatest impact on the quality of care and services and on innovation and improvement.
  • How to challenge and change an existing unhealthy, inappropriate or unhelpful culture

Throughout the toolkit, checklists, practical activities and resources will help you analyse the culture of your service and identify actions to improve this.

Registered managers need the support of other registered managers.

Marlene Kelly, Registered Manager
Auburn Mere Care Home

 

Looking for a mentor?

By becoming a registered manager member, you have exclusive access to our bank of qualified mentors. You’ll be matched with another member who has been trained as a mentor, based on the areas of development you're looking for.

For more information, please email membership@skillsforcare.org.uk


 

Join our growing group of mentors

Our members have the opportunity to learn and practice skills in mentoring. They can choose to join our growing group of existing mentors who provide peer-to-peer support for other members.

We ask all members interested in joining our group of mentors to take part in one of our mentoring workshops, to learn concepts, skills and techniques around mentoring best practice. We run these workshops three times a year, both for our new mentors and as an opportunity for members to train and hone existing skills in mentoring.


 

Free mentoring workshops for registered manager members

Wednesday 19 February 2025 | 10:00 - 16:00 | More information coming soon...

N.B. your membership number will be requested when booking to allow us to confirm proof of current membership – this can be found on your certificate, or on your membership page of our web portal.

Our mentors attend training to help them develop skills in mentoring, including techniques for questioning, listening and providing feedback, before being paired with a member to help them confront challenges and develop in their role.

I have found my mentoring sessions with my mentor very beneficial. We have discussed many topics, but I was particularly interested in developing a better system for governance. I have already adopted some of the tips my mentor shared for some audits I was not already doing and will be implementing these. I have also devised a matrix so that audit and compliance folders can be easily found and identified by staff. I particularly liked her suggestion for reviewing all audits every six months to identify any recurring themes and to ensure that any action plans raised have been carried through. We have also prepared information to display for all staff on the location of isolators for all utilities in the event of an emergency and senior management not being in the building.

June Stephenson, Director and Registered Manager
Orchard House Care Home Scarborough.