Be Inspired! Shirley Ayres Consulting

What is the greatest challenge confronting managers and leaders in the care sector? Possibly it is finding the time to attend management and leadership training at one of the numerous actual and “virtual” leadership academies established in recent years. 

Are the huge resources now being devoted to leadership and management training really making a difference to the quality of services being delivered? So many organisations are now involved in management and leadership training it would be difficult to calculate the total expenditure to date. But a crucial question remains – what quality indicators are in place to ensure that the rate of return justifies the current investment? How do we distinguish excellence from mediocrity, is there a relationship between star ratings and leadership, are leadership and management really the same?    

Paradoxically it is the law of unintended consequences which becomes apparent when there is a lack of focus and joined up thinking across the care sector especially within the critical area of leadership.   

Leaders and managers have a vital role in improving services especially in the critical area of developing and supporting staff to deliver a world class care service. But do we really need quite so many leadership academies, leadership programmes, new projects and initiatives?  Apart from the obvious cost and resource implications I believe that we now need to invest in qualitative research which demonstrates whether this investment is really making an impact on the front line. What makes an effective manager? Do effective managers attract and retain more highly qualified staff? Is the quality of management reflected in the experiences of people who use services?

There are a large number of different types of management and leadership programmes both accredited and non accredited, provided in-house or externally. Many programmes have identified outcomes which lead to nationally recognized awards such as DMS, MBA, MPA, RMA, and PQAASW. Some programmes seem more concerned with inputs (number of lectures delivered) and outputs (how many people attended). How is the aim of becoming a more effective manager translated into practice? With the growth in e-Learning and blended learning the plethora of toolkits and audits freely available is it too controversial to suggest that existing managers should already be able to evidence their competence in the key areas of management and leadership?

However, with everyone from SCIE, ID&EA, the Kings Fund, Open University, ADCS, CWDC, and Skills for Care offering or developing management programmes and Action Learning Sets there is the potential for considerable confusion for employers or students. How can employers identify the most appropriate and cost effective training available? Government targets and public expectations require managers to have a sophisticated set of skills and knowledge which will deliver quality services across an increasingly complex landscape which includes personalisation and direct payments.

In September we will be publishing an independent (and brief) guide to help you make sense of what is available in the area of leadership and management development. Keep in touch by signing up for our free monthly eLetter. In the meantime if you have any questions, comments or contributions please contact us.

You may also wish to refer to our jargon busters section for further explanations of acronyms etc and navigating the social care landscape to understand the different roles and purpose of the organizations listed above.

Tags: care sector, development, dms, education, effective critical area, leadership, leadership academies, management, mba, mpa, pqaasw, research, toolkits, training

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Charitable giving and receiving is big business, millions of pounds are spent on social work services – how do we know whether we are providing and receiving value for money? How can social work evidence the difference made in terms of the quality of people’s lives and the costs to society of not supporting vulnerable people in crisis? 

You may have noticed that there are a number of “new kids on the block” shaking up the care sector. With an increasing emphasis upon services being delivered by the third sector there has been real growth in the number of social enterprises providing services. Social enterprises are profit-making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need.  Rather than maximising shareholder value their main aim is to generate profit to further their social and environmental goals. Well known examples of social enterprises include Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen, The Big Issue, the Eden Project, the Co-op Bank and fair-trade coffee company Cafedirect.

Recent government data suggests that there are more than 55,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of £27bn. Social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees, and contribute £8.4billion per year to the UK economy. The social enterprise movement is inclusive and extremely diverse, encompassing organisations such as development trusts, community enterprises, co-operatives, housing associations, ‘social firms’ and leisure trusts, among others. These businesses are operating across an incredibly wide range of industries and sectors from health and social care, to renewable energy, recycling and fair trade.

Social enterprise is a business model which offers the prospect of a greater equity of economic power and a more sustainable society – by combining market efficiency with social and environmental justice. Do social enterprises offer a future model for the delivery of social work services? Find out more by visiting http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk

You may have noticed the term “philanthropy capital” has now entered the lexicon of care terminology and ask what this has to do with social work? In the ever changing social care landscape the influence of these new players should not be underestimated. A major player is New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) which was established by former executives of Goldman Sachs to analyze the effectiveness of charitable giving for wealthy donors.

Their influence and impact could have a wider social benefit since arguably most people have an interest in ensuring that social care resources are used wisely and effectively to ensure the maximum return (however that is measured).

However, there are some fundamental and important questions about the funding of social care which do need to be addressed urgently. Finite resources, increased demands and expectations are coupled with a blurring of the boundaries between what should be provided as a matter of right and entitlement funded by the state and what is the role of the third sector. Is it right that we should be relying upon philanthropic capitalism to fund the gaps in core services?

A recent report by NPC highlighted the fact that the public give more in donations to a Devon-based donkey sanctuary than to the major charities campaigning to prevent violence and abuse against women.  The headline grabbing figures contrasted the £17 million combined income of Refuge, The Women’s Aid Federation and Eaves Housing for Women with the £20 million received by the Donkey Sanctuary in 2006.There is a wider issue about the large number of charities all seemingly covering the same ground. NPC is calling for government action to tackle violence against women and is urging donors to give their support.

The 200 largest charities providing services for abused women or campaigning to prevent abuse have a combined annual income of £97 million. Out of these who is the most worthy recipient of a donation? Is it right that charities have been forced to become so competitive? For example; can you identify the point of significant difference between the top five children’s charities?  And when a major charity claims to be stamping out child abuse what role does this suggest for social workers in local authorities?

Maybe the public assume that the government fund the services dealing with domestic abuse, sexual violence, forced marriage, trafficking and honour crimes, which the NPC estimates cost society £40 billion a year. That is a very high cost which will have a significant legacy which inevitably impacts upon social services.

The importance of making services, however they are delivered, open, transparent, accountable is a major challenge for us all. Strangely enough no one individual, organization or government department has all the answers and the wisdom and knowledge contained in the social work profession should certainly be making a louder contribution to the debate.

NPC publish a number of useful tools including “measuring your results”  which can be downloaded from www.philanthropycapital.org

A new class of corporate philanthropists would have us believe charity is post-political. Far from it Source Tristram Hunt The Guardian, Thursday April 17 2008

Ask any New York head-hunter and they will tell you the talent has moved uptown. At the other end of Manhattan, far removed from the investment banks of Wall Street or the media conglomerates of mid-town, the bright young things are heading straight to Harlem to get a foot in the door at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or Google.org, CGI stands at the forefront of the latest trend in wealthy giving: philanthrocapitalism. A fashionable form of high-value charity that has now crossed the Atlantic and started to catch on among London’s more socially minded plutocrats. Indeed, with the appointment of the multimillionaire philanthropist Jennifer Moses as special adviser to the prime minister, the approach has made its way into the highest reaches of government. Yet, as a timely pamphlet by philanthropy guru Michael Edwards warns, the grandiose claims of philanthrocapitalism can both overplay its results and mask its more nefarious effects.

Follow article link

Tags: charitable giving, philanthropy, public accountability, social enterprise, Social Work

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The Mental Capacity Act (2005) came into effect from April 2007 in England. The Act provides a statutory framework to empower and protect vulnerable people who are not able to make their own decisions. The provisions of the Act directly affect a great many people. The training of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHP), and Best Interest Assessors (BIA) and the new role of Responsible Clinician have particular relevance for social work.

We have drawn together a number of useful resources and weblinks relating to the Mental Capacity Act. Please feel free to post and share other useful resources and guidance.

The Care Services Improvement Programme (CSIP) have a dedicated website to disseminate further information as it becomes available. Training materials are to be developed and CSIP will be jointly hosting road shows to share  more detailed information. There are a number of useful resources to download from this site including a best practice tool to help statutory services assess their state of readiness for the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs has published the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice (302 pages) which can be downloaded from the DCA website 

The Code of Practice for the Mental Capacity Act was formally issued by the Lord Chancellor on 23 April 2007. It provides guidance and information on how the Act will work on a day to day basis for anyone who works with or cares for people who lack capacity, including family, friends and unpaid carers. Certain groups of people are legally required to have regard to the Code when acting or making decisions on behalf of people who lack capacity.

Robert Brown, Visiting Fellow and Keith Brown, Director of the Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work at Bournemouth University have published a paper on the Impact of Recent Changes in Mental Health Law and their Implications for Workforce Development which can be downloaded here. Brown and Brown Mental Health Law 2008.doc (173.50 kb)

More detailed information is contained in The Social Workers Guide to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Brown B and Barber P (2008) published by Learning Matters.

If you work with people who use services and carers a free learning pack has been published by embrace learning which contains learning points and useful facts about the Mental Capacity Act. which can be downloaded here. Embrace Mental Capacity Act Learning Pack.pdf (143.83 kb)

Embrace Learning also offer a useful free online self-appraisal tool. which will assess your own skills and knowledge in respect of the Mental Capacity Act.

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Despite the billions of pounds spent on social care and the increasing number of organizations charged with responsibility for improving standards in care you may be surprised to know that we do not have an independent think tank dedicated to promoting and guarding the values of social care.

The Prime Minister launched the nationwide government consultation on how adult social care should be funded at the King’s Fund, an independent charitable foundation working for better health, especially in London. www.kingsfund.org.uk

Concern has often been expressed about the lack of leadership in social care. Just imagine how powerful and inspiring an independent voice for social care could be with a remit similar to the Kings Fund. The problem at the moment is a lack of joined up thinking across the care sector which leads to considerable duplication of resources, research and policy initiatives. This is compounded by the, what some may suggest, is the artificial division into adults and children’s services. Add in the quangos, sector skills councils, education sector, private companies, charities, social enterprises and philanthropy capital and there are a large number of potentially competing and conflicting interest’s to be addressed along with an interesting power dynamic.

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An independently funded social care foundation which is not subject to political whim or favour would be a powerful unifying voice for social care. With the capacity to undertake and publish original research, provide objective analysis and foster innovation this really could start to build a world class workforce. Building understanding, capacity and leadership is essential and we could make a start by amalgamating the proliferating National Centres for Leadership.

With thanks to the Kings Fund for what I believe should be the underlying values for the Social Care Foundation : independence, integrity, relevance, quality, partnership and promoting social justice. The Social Care Foundation could be a major and significant resource for social care available to people working in and receiving care services.

Who would like to endow the first one million pounds to make this vision a reality?

In the meantime I commend closer examination of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA) who are working to remove barriers to social progress. www.rsa.org.uk

For more than 200 years, the RSA has provided a platform for leading public thinkers. thought-leaders and practitioners to explore some of the biggest challenges facing society. That tradition lives on in their diverse and challenging free events programme.  The distinguished and diverse roll call of speakers has recently featured, amongst others, Kofi Annan, Wangari Maathai, Al Gore, Simon Duffy and Jeffrey Sachs.

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Despite the billions of pounds spent on social care and the increasing number of organizations charged with responsibility for improving standards in care you may be surprised to know that we do not have an independent think tank dedicated to promoting and guarding the values of social care.

The Prime Minister launched the nationwide government consultation on how adult social care should be funded at the King’s Fund, an independent charitable foundation working for better health, especially in London. www.kingsfund.org.uk

Concern has often been expressed about the lack of leadership in social care.

Tags: barriers to social justice, be inspired, independent voice, independent voice for socal care, kings fund, rsa, social care foundation, think tanks

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Tags:barriers to social justice, be inspired, independent voice, independent voice for socal care, kings fund, rsa, social care foundation, think tanks
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