The examples below provide insight into how other Good or Outstanding rated services are succeeding in this area of inspection.
Use the filter to choose different types of examples or select based on related prompt.
Why ongoing learning is important for managers
Every manager is recommended to continue to develop themselves throughout their career. This blog looks at how the Learning and Organisational Development Manager at Alternative Futures Group Limited has continued to develop themselves to Degree level, whilst keeping up to date on latest good and best practice.
Care provider: Alternative Futures Group Limited
Date published: February 2023
Working with other registered managers within the same care group
In this two-minute audio clip from the Care Exchange podcast, Hayley Taylor talks about how different managers from across Avenues work closely together to share ideas and support one another via monthly meetings.
You can listen to the full podcast here. Access our whole Care Exchange series here.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: Avenues South East
Date published: January 2023
Increasing the number of Registered Managers supporting the service
Since the last inspection the provider had increased the number of managers responsible for the services under this registration, and there were now three registered managers.
Each of the registered managers had a sound understanding of their responsibilities and had ensured that CQC had been notified of any major events or changes.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Avenues South East
Date published: November 2022
How I plan for new leaders to support the future of the team
In this blog, we spoke to Debbie Davison, Registered Manager at Brampton Lodge about how she identifies and develops leaders in her team as part of her succession planning.
Care provider: Brampton Lodge
Date published: November 2022
Continuing to learn and develop as a leader
In this Blog, we hear from Sarah Wildon, registered manager of Able Living Care Services in Poynton, Cheshire East, about her career journey and how she has always embedded continual learning and development into her role.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: Able Living Care Services
Date published: October 2022
Why compassion matters in leadership
In this Blog, Sarah-Jane Dale, Chief Operating Officer, AOD and Director of Development, Skills for Care discusses what compassionate leadership is and how it benefits both leaders and teams.
Care provider: AOD
Date published: June 2022
Progressing a new starter into the registered manager role
In this two-minute audio clip from the Care Exchange podcast, Andrew Davies talks about how they developed and grew a colleague into the Registered Manage role and what duties they involve them in.
You can listen to the full podcast here. Access our whole Care Exchange series here.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: Right at Home Bournemouth and Poole
Date published: May 2022
Mentoring: a way for social care leaders to support each other
In this Blog, we spoke to Sophie Crowton, Registered Manager at Assist Care Group about her experiences of being a mentor through Skills for Care.
Care provider: Skills for Care
Date published: April 2022
My journey to becoming the youngest CQC registered manager
We spoke to Becky Coles who in 2020 became the youngest Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered manager in England. Becky discussed her career journey in social care from starting out doing work experience aged 15.
Read about Becky's journey here.
Care provider: Fairways
Date published: March 2022
Supervising managers
In this Blog, Caroline Coleman Director of Coleman Training, reflects on the fact that too few managers in adult social care receive the supervision they need and what employers can do about this.
Care provider: Colman Training
Date published: December 2021
Having a passion for care
In this two-minute audio clip from the Care Exchange podcast, Kate Terroni from the CQC talks about why having the right passion and values for care is most important for your frontline managers.
You can listen to the full podcast here. Access our whole Care Exchange series here.
Care provider: Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Date published: October 2021
Rising stars and encouraging people to be nominated for promotion
In line with their culture of continual learning, management consistently reviews staff members’ career goals and how to achieve them, prioritising recruiting from within the organisation.
Manor Community use HR tools and allow staff and clients to nominate individuals for promotion through Microsoft Teams and PerkBox to identify ‘risings stars’, as well as those who require extra support. The rising stars are then put on a ‘beam me up’ programme which includes intense training, mentoring with directors inside and outside of the organisation, and peer support groups.
By reflecting on different leadership styles throughout this training, and ensuring that managers can demonstrate how they embed Manor Community’s values within their work, Manor Community has been able to build a strong management team with seamless progression.
Manor Community also operates an extensive orientation programme for seniors and managers, tailored to each level of leadership development. They hold training and development records for senior staff, helping them identify learning and development needs. Manor Community also works with local colleges to source appropriate diploma training for leaders and management.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Manor Community
Date published: October 2021
Delegating to the team
In this three-minute audio clip from the Care Exchange podcast, Sue Anne Nnamani explains how she built up her staff team and provided autonomy to empower others.
You can listen to the full podcast here and access our latest episodes of The Care Exchange here.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Priscilla Wakefield House
Date published: December 2020
Using succession planning to promote careers in social care
I’ve been working within the adult social care sector for over three decades, progressing through various roles as a support worker, a team leader, onto training and development and now as a registered manager at Reach Learning Disability Care CIC. I know how it feels to progress through different roles, but from my experience, there remains a lack of clarity around career paths.
We need to ensure that we retain key skilled staff. As a smaller organisation, we often lose our most experienced staff members to other sectors, or they move to other care providers, who tend to be larger, with more structured tiers of management to progress into.
We’re planning to develop a progression plan for the people we recruit, which we plan to use during recruitment and the induction process. We hope it’ll help new staff understand the roles available to them and their journey through our organisation. It’s going to include details of the necessary skills and qualifications needed to get them to their desired role. The ambition is that it’ll show that a career in care is an attractive career prospect.
You can read the rest of the blog here.
Care provider: Reach Learning Disability Care CIC
Date published: March 2020
My journey to becoming a registered manager
My employer supported me to do the Level 3 Diploma to further develop my care and supervision skills. It also provided insight into legislation, the Mental Capacity Act and topics such as stroke management and dementia to broaden my knowledge on these subjects.
The transition into a deputy manager role was gradual as I was increasingly undertaking managerial tasks. My organisation could see I wanted to progress and the support I received enabled me to learn more about auditing, undertaking disciplinary procedures, staff appraisals etc.
I was also encouraged to get out there to network with others, including a local care partnership. This helped me to meet other providers and bring learning back into our organisation. It also enabled me to establish new relationships, and many of these have continued to be beneficial years later.
Care provider: Short Notice Care Services Ltd
Date published: June 2019
Developing and evaluating the managers and leaders
The provider had completed Personal Centred Dementia Care, Training Matters in Dementia Care (enabling them to provide training to all staff on Personal Centred Dementia Care through 36 reflective practice workshops) and Leadership Matters in Dementia Care.
The registered manager and provider kept up to date on any current national guidance and maintained their own professional development by attending regular training. The registered manager and deputy manager had completed the higher-level qualification, level five, in Care and Leadership Management.
Staff were asked to complete an annual manager's evaluation to give an honest opinion of the managers' role and performance, looking at attitude, decision-making, skills, knowledge and communication.
Comments in the recent evaluation included: "You always seem to know what to do without thinking about it, there’s rarely a question you don't know, you can pass on skills and are caring and fair to all - I couldn't ask for more brilliant manager and you’re always there for us with a listening ear. You’re not just a manager but one of the team".
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: Wisteria House Dementia Care Ltd
Date published: January 2019
How many leaders do you know who 'fess up' to their vulnerabilities?
In the world of social care, we need to develop organisational cultures in which people are willing to report medication errors, engage in reflective practice discussions where they can be open about how they’re not coping with a client’s challenging behaviour, and feel confident to whistle-blow when they observe bad management or care practice.
Our staff will not expose their own vulnerabilities if their managers aren’t confident to do the same - why should they? It’s a leadership imperative in the world of social care that we create values-based cultures in which the ability to demonstrate vulnerability is considered a virtue.
Read more from this blog here.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: Langdon disability charity
Date published: October 2018
Succession planning for your next registered manager is crucial
We view the importance of succession planning very highly. We understand that, at times, people can be promoted from one role to a higher level simply because they were good at the lower-level role. They can then go on to struggle in the higher role unless they’re supported and given the experiences and opportunities to learn the role progressively.
I understand the importance of equipping people properly with the skills to carry out their role effectively. It was this aspiring manager pilot by Skills for Care that encouraged me to support my deputy manager Lucy, a move that’s proved to be a great success as Lucy’s now been promoted again to the position of company manager. I could see that after a short period of being on the pilot, Lucy’s confidence was growing. She informed me that she was pleased to be able to help others who were on the pilot who didn’t have her experience.
During the six months, Lucy quickly picked up a lot of knowledge of the expectations of a registered manager. For example, what are the expectations of CQC in relation to the registered manager at each company? Simply put, they’re responsible for all the care and support delivered to the people they support, plus lots more, such as safe recruitment of staff and managing an effective workforce that delivers the highest quality of care and support. I believe that Lucy now has a greater understanding of all the responsibilities that go with the registered manager role.
Care provider: Wirral Independent Living and Learning (WILL)
Date published: June 2018
Driving improvement through skills development
The provider was committed to driving improvement through nurturing staff and developing their managerial and leadership skills. They introduced a leadership academy which ran three management development programmes suitable for beginners to more senior staff.
The academy is run by managers within the provider organisation and the registered manager was a trainer at this academy. Some of the successes from this programme have included one member of staff undergoing several promotions, eventually achieving a management position.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Becoming an expert
The registered manager was exceedingly knowledgeable about every aspect of the service. This included knowledge of people, relatives and staff. For example, a member of staff telephoned the office as they couldn’t find a person’s personal alarm. The registered manager listed a number of places the person was known to put the alarm.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Challenging and advocating on behalf of people
The registered manager wasn’t afraid to challenge other agencies or partners on behalf of the people who used the service where they felt necessary. For example, the service managed to secure funding for an adapted bed for a young person who used the service. The application had originally been refused as the bed was extremely expensive. However, this was challenged by the service, as the bed helped the individual to be independent and autonomous and this was felt to be hugely important in enabling the person’s self-reliance for the future. The challenge was successful, helping enable the young person to continue to live as independent a life as possible.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Developing in-house training skills
In addition to nursing and social care qualifications, the registered manager had obtained a teaching qualification so that she could provide flexible training to staff throughout the year, in addition to training provided by external training companies.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Supporting internal recruitment
Where staff are seeking progression, and apply for internal vacancies, all internal applicants are invited to attend a formal interview. Where an internal candidate is unsuccessful at interview, the member of staff is invited to attend a follow-up meeting where reasons are outlined and explained in great detail, and advice is given on how to achieve the progression they’re working towards.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: LDC Care Company Ltd
Date published: April 2018
Resilience training strengthens leadership skills
Leaders and managers working in domiciliary care can learn how to be a ‘walking, talking example of how to deal really well with people’, according to the project leader of a programme in people-management which has brought ‘impressive results’.
This project involved piloting a people-management programme incorporating tools for assessment, training, mentoring and coaching which viewed ‘good work’ and ‘resilience’ as key elements of personal wellbeing and effective stress management.
It demonstrated that by anchoring resilience and good work among the leaders at the frontline, self-assurance, confidence and leadership capability followed with surprising speed.
Click here to read the rest of this case study.
Care provider: Woodford Homecare & Support Services
Date published: December 2014