Report: Messages from the frontline – event on leadership and the Care Act
Care Act leadership needs to be about co-production, not command and control. Leaders should be willing to take risks, and to step back and share their power with people who use services. They shouldn’t simply consult on how decisions are taken.
That’s one of the conclusions that came out of a recent roundtable event, hosted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Valuable contributions came from people who use services and carers, who had a chance to give their views on leadership, and how this needs to change if the Care Act is to improve people’s lives. A report, detailing the conversations and suggestions made, is published today by SCIE.
The roundtable event concluded that leaders need to be good at achieving strategic and cultural change. Delegates felt that it is good leadership that makes the difference to people’s lives – not just developments like pooled budgets or better IT systems.
The Care Act is the most ambitious set of reforms to care and support services since Beveridge Report (1946), and will require skilled, resilient and committed leadership at all levels of the health and social care system. This roundtable explored the kind of leadership we need to make the Care Act a success.
SCIE’s Chair, Lord Michael Bichard, says: “This was a fascinating event because it explored how leadership needs to change if the ambitions of the Care Act are to be delivered. We need, for example, to move from a leadership model, where people think that their organisation is the only thing that matters, to a leadership model that understands the importance of wider outcomes – and in particular the outcomes for people who use our services. Leaders need to be prepared to cede some power to users and to realise that their primary task is to make good things happen.”
Here are three of the key themes that emerged:
- Leaders need to be authentic about who they are and the values they hold
- Leaders need to know when to ‘step back’. Leadership is about co-production, not command and control
- Leaders need to realise that, in order to improve outcomes, learning will have to take place across the whole system.
The roundtable event brought together key players in care and support, including people who use services, carers, commissioners, workforce development leads, care providers and policy makers.
