Course Outline
Practice Leadership (PL)
To ensure that staff work together as an effective team, good leadership is required. Given that people providing direct support need to be working consistently and to the agenda of the people they serve team leaders need to be able to support the development of staff knowledge and skills and to provide ongoing motivation and direction. We call this ‘practice leadership’ to distinguish it from the broader sense of management and leadership found in any organisation to emphasise its focus on the quality of life of the individual served. (Mansell & Beadle Brown 2012).
The importance of visible and accessible practice-based leadership in developing positive behaviour support approaches and reducing restrictive practices cannot be overstated. This course identifies the key skills required of practice leaders and the activities they should be engaged in. It differentiates ‘management’ from ‘leadership’ and emphasises that if managers are unable to fulfil leadership functions, then that gap must be filled by somebody else.
Following this training participants will be able to describe the key skills and activities associated with effective PL and be familiar with a number of models and tools to measure their effectiveness and plan for development where needed
Value Base
This session describes the values which underpin good quality, person centred planning and action. The emphasis is on a proactive model of adult care with a focus on quality of life and wellbeing interventions rather than reactive approaches. Evidence shows that such an approach nurtures capable environments within which needs are better understood and met. A natural corollary of this is reductions in restrictive practices and behaviour that challenges. The role of the practice leader in espousing firm values based on human rights, person centred planning and social inclusion, modelling them in practice and where necessary defending against compromise are discussed in this session. Winterbourne View 2011, Whorlton Hall 2019, are used as case studies to highlight what happens when organisations lack values led practice leadership.
Management Versus Leadership
This session teases out the differences between management and leadership. Participants will learn about the potential conflicts between the demands of the roles of manager and practice leader. We pick up on themes described in Deveau and Gill’s framework for thinking about frontline management / leadership in learning disabilities to facilitate participant discussion and learning.
Characteristics of Practice Leadership and Practice Leaders
Participants will look at a working definition of ‘Practice Leadership’. Research which identifies the personal characteristics and actions of successful leaders is also discussed as well as keys skills associated with practice leadership.
Practice Leadership – ‘Guiding’ and ‘Showing the Way’
This session focuses on the nuts and bolts of what practice leaders do. Participants will leave with an understanding that it’s not just coaching staff, it’s about communicating clear and consistent messages about values, expectations, and effective performance management. Participants will look at the role as operationalised by United Response which identifies two categories of activities which need to be undertaken. The first is ‘Guiding’ which is providing direct guidance and organising available resources to enable effective and individual support; and the second ‘Showing the Way’ – Providing clear and relevant service expectations.