The Registered Managers Programme

Transcription

1 The Registered Managers Programme Guidance on setting up a local Registered Managers Network

2 Welcome to this guidance note about setting up a local network for Registered Managers. We re pleased to see that you are considering setting up a network in your area and thank you for your interest. This note tells you about the support programme for Registered Managers; what starting and running a network might involve; how to go about it; what support you will receive from us; and what we will expect from you. About the Registered Managers Programme This is a national programme, supported by the Department of Health, to help Registered Managers in their roles as lead professionals in care home and home care settings. It is run by the National Skills Academy for Social Care in conjunction with a range of partners from across the social care sector. Registered Managers have a pivotal leadership role. The 2012 Social Care White Paper, Caring for our future, highlighted the particular impact that Registered Managers can have on people s experience of care and support. At the same time, it was acknowledged that Registered Managers can sometimes be isolated, and don t get the opportunities they need to network with, support, and learn from each other and the wider sector. This programme has therefore been set up to betterequip Registered Managers to meet the challenges they face; give them better access to information, guidance and advice; and provide more opportunities for networking and support. For more information about the programme, go to or contact the Skills Academy on About the Local Networks Fund The Local Networks Fund is part of the Registered Managers Programme. It is a fund, held by the National Skills Academy for Social Care, to which any Registered Manager who is a member of the Skills Academy, either individually or through their organisation, can apply. Up to 2000 per application is available, to help set up and run a local network. The fund is there to support activities such as obtaining venues/ refreshments for meetings, paying external speaker expenses, or obtaining reports and other materials that would be relevant and helpful to Registered Managers in their roles. There is an application form and process to follow: full guidelines and details can be found at or please call the Skills Academy on Applications are considered quarterly and reviewed against criteria laid out in the guidelines. What is a local network? A local network is a geographically-close group of Registered Managers (we would suggest within a maximum of a mile radius, although this may differ in different parts of the country), who would like to come together to share experiences and good practice, obtain information about new developments in social care, and learn from each other and external speakers, in order to build expertise, knowledge and leadership confidence. It is a safe space in which to discuss issues and share experience. Registered Managers can both give and receive support and being part of a network such as this also helps to validate their individual experiences. Setting up a local network: having an Organiser Firstly, we suggest having one person designated as the Organiser. This person should be a Registered Manager who is a Skills Academy member. They will take overall responsibility for setting up and running the network, although they should be supported by other network members. This will give them the flexibility to decide with fellow members what they d like to focus on. The Organiser s role is to ensure that the network runs smoothly, and that any discussions are focused and supportive, based on the aims of the network. The Organiser also needs to collate evidence from the network, over time, that the network is having an impact on its members practice and therefore on the experience of people who use care and support services, as this will be part of the feedback required at the end of the grant. Network Organisers will be offered the opportunity to attend training and networking events with the Skills Academy, to meet with other Organisers and external speakers and to share learning and good practice, e.g. around raising awareness of the network, getting new members and obtaining other sources of network funding.

3 Getting started Do some initial research and get help from others Often, you will know people in your area fellow Registered Managers who would be interested in coming together as a local network. At the same time, there may be existing networks that would like to strengthen their resources, so please contact them. If you re part of a large employer organisation and would like to link up with other Registered Managers locally who are part of the same organisation, get in touch with your HR Department and ask them for help. Or contact your local Care Provider Association, or Forum please contact the Skills Academy on or via membership@nsasocialcare.co.uk for details of associations in your area. Skills for Care local area officers may well be able to help go to and follow the regional links. If you re a home care provider and a member of the UK Homecare Association, contact them ( and they will be able to point you towards fellow UKHCA members in your area. If you work in residential care, try these organisations: English Community Care Association: My Home Life National Care Association National Care Forum Voluntary Organisations Disability Group Other sources of help: Association of Care Managers Think Local, Act Personal If you don t have any links, it s worth putting a note in your local paper that you re thinking of starting up a network, and asking people to get in touch with you and doing the same in local shops and GPs surgeries. Word will soon get round. Have an initial discussion Once you ve got a small group of Registered Managers who are willing to participate (it doesn t need to be more than five or six people), you re ready to talk about the desired structure and outcomes for the network. Have a planning meeting, outside work if you need to we d suggest lasting not more than one hour 90 minutes. Set an agenda and include issues like: discussion of your experiences and your ideas for the network what you d like to get out of the network the kinds of things you d like to know more about in relation to your role e.g. the inspection process, adult safeguarding and what s really a safeguarding issue, etc. Decide your aims, objectives and ground rules You don t need a long list here, but some clear aims and objectives for the network will be valuable, as it will need direction and a sense of what you re looking to achieve. It will help you to have the criteria for the Local Networks Fund to hand here go to to download them or contact the Skills Academy on One ground rule that would be helpful is confidentiality. The network is a safe space for people to discuss issues and experiences that have a direct bearing on them. So network members need to commit to not divulging anything outside the network meeting except with the express and written prior permission of other network members. It s also useful to have some broad ground rules in place around what happens at network meetings, e.g. on people not dominating the conversation, an expectation that everyone takes part and listens to others, etc. Agree some broad roles This may come down to the network Organiser in the early days, but it might be useful to identify if people would be willing to take on specific roles in the future, e.g. meeting venue sourcing and organisation, running the meetings and leading discussion, sourcing external speakers, writing up the learning and collating information around how the learning is being applied in practice. Make your application for funding If you do decide you want not only to set up a local network, but to apply for funding to help you get started or augment what you currently do, then the first step is to download the application form for the Local Networks Fund from along with the guidance notes. The form is simple to complete: you can work with the initial network members to fill it in, and then please return it (online or in hard copy) to the Skills Academy. Whatever the outcome of your application, we will let you know the position. If you don t obtain funding through the Local Networks Fund, please get back in touch with the Academy, as we will be able to advise you on other potential sources of funding. But do get funding in place before you start.

4 Once you re up and running Network contact details It will be helpful to for one person, probably the Organiser, to have contact names, work addresses, mobile phone numbers and addresses for all network members. We suggest setting up a written list or spreadsheet. If you want to share contact details, in order to comply with data protection requirements, you need to obtain the written consent of network members that they are happy for their details to be shared before sending out any information. More information on this is available through the Information Commissioner s Office, at Deciding a network programme for meetings Before you get going, we suggest having a basic plan in place of how you would like the network s programme to operate. For example, would you like one meeting a month over a period of six months to begin with? Would you like to have an external speaker at every other meeting? What topics would you want to cover at the meetings? How long would the meetings last (we would suggest not more than half a day if they re during the day, not more than two hours if they re in the evenings)? Finding venues Whilst some employers may have space available for network meetings, or some network members may be willing and able to have meetings in their own homes, it may be better to hire an external venue, not least because it gives network members a sense of having a separate, designated space. It s worth checking with your local Council about local community groups that may have rooms available, or about Church halls or meeting rooms that might be available. Other potential sources of venues will be local schools, FE Colleges or community education centres. It s worth asking about data projection and wi-fi facilities at different venues, as these may be helpful when having external speakers. Finding speakers Different networks will be interested in different topics, and there are lots of ways of reaching experts who would be happy to come and talk with you. Ask your local care association or Skills for Care officer (go to about local or regional speakers they will often be able to make contact for you. Local Independent Living Groups will also be able to help. And it s worth contacting CQC either at national or at local level: Inspectors are only too happy to come and talk with people on the ground, especially Registered Managers. Go to And the Skills Academy is always here to help go to or call Publicising the network Local papers, alongside social media and sector organisations, can all help here. It s worth putting a press release or a note in your local paper, especially if one of one of your network members has a good news story about what s happening in their service that they re happy to share in public. If you use them, think about Facebook and Twitter, although we would suggest using appropriate safeguards here around privacy settings. Care association newsletters and e-bulletins, employer e-bulletins and Skills for Care local newsletters are also good ways of spreading the news. Holding meetings When you ve decided where and when your first meeting will take place, send out the information to all your existing network members and other potential contacts, using the sources listed above in Publicising the network. At the first meeting, the Organiser or another network member needs to start off proceedings by introducing the local network and its purpose, how it started and the aim of the first meeting, so that people know what to expect and can offer feedback. An effective network will involve input, ideas and group involvement from all its members. We d suggest having a chair or moderator, to guide proceedings. Try to balance the meeting between formal discussion and informal talk. Make sure you explain to the network members present that input and involvement from them is important to make sure the meetings go well, such as the time for sharing, guest speakers and information exchange. It s an idea to start a meeting with a quick round of introductions invite everyone to say their name, where they re based and a bit about themselves and their role, if they would like to. People can also be asked to state any issues they would particularly value help and support with, if they would like to do so. This can be a good ice-breaker, but at the same time no-one is obliged to speak. What happens next will depend on the format of the meeting. You might want to break the meeting up into an initial discussion of key local issues; a guest speaker; discussion with the speaker; and agreeing the next topic. Or you could give the meeting over to a specific issue that a network member chooses to bring to the network, looking for potential solutions and learning that you can all take away. Your network will devise its own preferred way of working and this can be regularly reviewed with network members. Have a break halfway through the meeting even if ostensibly a break for refreshments, it s also actually a great opportunity for people to meet and network with each other. A good network Organiser/chair unobtrusively observes, listens, reflects back to the network and judges when to intervene. Issues such as one individual trying to dominate the conversation can be dealt with tactfully and if necessary, you can reiterate any ground rules.

5 Sharing information and resources You should make sure that any resources or reports that are mentioned at a network meeting are made available to network members, either by ing electronic copies or links, or sending hard copies (the network funding can cover this). If there are reports that you think should be available nationally, or you want to notify Registered Managers and others more generally about some good practice or innovative development locally, contact the Skills Academy at membership@nsasocialcare.co.uk and we can place it on the website or get in touch with other organisations with an interest in the field. What you can expect from the Skills Academy If the Skills Academy is supporting your network through the Local Networks Fund, we will support you in a number of ways, including: holding the designated funding for you so you don t need to set up separate bank accounts linking you with local and national speakers on a range of issues letting other Skills Academy members in your area know about your new network promoting your network on our website and to other Skills Academy members providing support and information on setting up and running your network promoting any learning, case studies or examples of innovation/good practice from your network you wish to see more widely disseminated providing opportunities for training, development and mutual support for network Organisers. What we will expect from you If the Skills Academy is supporting your network through the Local Networks Fund, we will expect: full receipts for any expenditure a half-yearly and annual report from you, setting out how the funding has been spent evidence of regular network activities evidence on how the network has supported learning and development amongst its members evidence of how that learning has been applied in the workplace; has changed workplace practice; and has benefited the care and support that service users obtain. The National Skills Academy for Social Care