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Explore the credibility gap in social care leadership, emphasizing good habits and effective approaches in support services. Discover ways to enhance engagement, leadership, and person-centered thinking in resource-constrained environments.
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Because they can get away with it • Finding an alternative is difficult, or people do not know what the alternative is, or they lack confidence to seek it • Because arguing back doesn’t change anything • Because the person helping puts the company’s needs first • Pot luck whether you get someone good on your case
Getting away with it • How are challenges received culturally? • Monitoring complaints and drawing out the learning from them? • Competency in relating to people with challenging behaviour?
Finding an alternative is too difficult • How much creativity is permitted in the front line? • Are people we support blamed if they challenge?
Arguing back: • What space is there for individual and collective voices? • How are expressed views made known to the most senior people in the organisation? • What external representation do people have?
Company more important: • Behaviour matches mission and values? Or are all mission and values statements par for the course? • What matters equally, or more, is whether good staff can see their own values mirrored in the organisation they work for • Mansell et al 2006: managers mostly involved in paperwork
Potluck? • Retention – motivational spiral, respect and continual personal development • Consistency of approach • Modellingbehaviour from leaders • Effective leadership in suggesting better ways to approach issues, attending to emotional demands of the work, offering constructive feedback and acting as a buffer and advocate against external pressures
Range of person centred approaches: • Person centred planning • Person centred thinking • Person centred active support • Positive behaviour support • Total communication • Intensive interaction
Good leadership underpins all person centred approaches • Good leadership applies person centred approaches to staff too, but also bears in mind who we are there to serve • Both positive and corrective feedback, coupled with good staff development practice
How can we produce predictable, good quality support at a time of resource constraint? • Active support • Person centred thinking • Development of “house style” • Peer expectation • Effective quality assurance systems
Engagement levels of people with learning disabilities are low in comparison to non disabled people • The more disabled people are, the less engaged they are, despite the cost of their support being higher • What are we going to do about this?
Every moment has potential (and, of course, staff support is already paid for) • Little and often • Graded assistance to ensure success • Maximising choice and control • Particularly important and beneficial for people with severe and profound learning disabilities
Habits • Seeking out the moment • Peer encouragement/coaching/ house style • Less reliance on the spoken word • Planning each shift to ensure engagement happens (positive rather than institutional structure) • Graded support
Less of: • Making people wait • Getting drawn to people who are more able • Negative expectations (“she simply can’t do that”) • Leaving things to chance
Person centred thinking • www.helensandersonassociates.co.uk
Culture change • Based on encouraging and reinforcing judgments based on assessment and collective observation • Primary role on information on preferences, habits, inclinations • Applies to staff too
Important to and important for • - What have we tried? • - What have we learnt? • - What are we pleased about? • - What are we unhappy about? • - What does all of this tell us about what we should do next?
Looking for opportunities for engagement • Person centred analysis • Founded on effective planning (and helping change and develop planning) • Positive view of risk • Good leadership • Optimistic discontent • Habit
….And checking to ensure that what’s supposed to be happening actually is
Spontaneous, person centred culture • Reinforced by good leadership • Reality checked at all stages • Allows learning when things go wrong Bob Tindall bob@bobtindall.com 07527234290