The Importance of Improving Knowledge

It is very important for me to continue to improve my knowledge and development as a leader and manager of a team it is my role and responsibility to lead the team, the organization I represent and the people I support, this way and can and be a role model for them to follow. In doing this I regularly attend training to update my knowledge so I can give the team feedback on what is new and the changes that will happen from them. I recently attended a PCP training with all my other colleagues that was run by the local council this training covers a lot around PCP and what the council would like to see more of within the brought and when meeting people we support metta outcome, as the training was so important I decided with my colleagues that the best way to feed this information to our staff team was to run several in-house training group around this subject. By updating my knowledge at every opportunity and using all the technology advancement along with new legislation and policies that are being introduced at all time I need to be able to function across all the professional board. It is very important to be a part of continuous professional development; however there are lots of barriers which can at times make it very hard to continue developing professionally.

One barrier I came up against recently was a staff member would always not turn up for certain training that was held outside the organization, when trying to find out the reason why I discover that the individual had lack communication skills and was afraid of speaking in large groups and felt that they could just continue with their current knowledge and skills that they have. That is just one of many scenarios of barriers that happen in professional development; on the other hand you have things like lack of resources, cute to budgets, which can impact on training which then makes it hard for professional development for individuals. Within my own settings my biggest barrier has been childcare issues where staff don’t want to develop their skills further because they feel it will have an impact on their personal life so will say when my kids gets older to avoid any current development in their professional life. As a manager and leader it is my duty of care and responsibility to undergo continuous professional development in other to be capable, competent, knowledgeable and skilful towards my role of responsibility. As a manager my role is not only self development but to assist others as well, especially those under my supervision such as staff, service users and their family members and even the organization I work for. Therefore in other to excel and perform well in my role or to display best practice I always take interest to update my knowledge towards the direction of quality care which usually appears through introduction or amendment of legislation, standard and policies.

For instance the code of practice which was initiated by the General Social Care Council is a benchmark I use within my role and direct those under my supervision to follow suit. As detailed in the code of practice I usually refer to it especially when doing staff supervision , regarding their responsibility to practice the same in their daily routine; I use that to assess myself for the best practice, ensuring that no one is abused, discriminating, disrespecting etc.

Another standard which I use as benchmark and very familiar is the Care Quality Commission essential standard of Quality and Safety which explicitly focuses on well-being of the people I support that they have control of their lives, this includes getting their consent and preference which must be regarded at all time. Again is the national Occupational Standards also explicitly spelt out style and direction for providing right leadership? For example when Mr MG wanted to go on a family holiday Australia for 6 weeks person-centred meeting was held and throughout the discussion and outcome he was an active participant, his preferences were taken on board, this is one way I used to evaluate approach against standards and benchmark, and l felt is very effective as it gives the individual control over his life and he was able to make decision for himself around his holiday given the right information. Reflective practice is very important learning process and it improve performance as it is the ability to reflect on what was done for the people I support ,or staff whether could be done in a different way to reduce any worrying , or what might have happened. It is very important to consider actions taken to accomplish particular issue. As a manager I must always reflect on my action and performance of each day, because I find it important and useful this helps me to improve my duty of care and responsibility and I am able to identify my strength and weakness.

As I often does that recently one of my client develop a pressure sore the doctor was called out to come and see him. Once the doctor saw him a referral was made to the DN Mr SM was in a lot of pain and was very agitated Mr SM is none verbal so he is unable to communicate the level of pain he is in verbally his face expression and body language is often use to detect his level of pain, Mr SM had got a grade 2 pressure sore and the DN was coming in each day to dress the wound, however Mr SM wound went to a grade 4 which I then discovered that the DN was not turning up every day to dress his wound and staff was not informing me when I was not at the house. This was turned into a safeguarding matter and I then had to reflect on my own and team input in regards to this matter.

Works Cited

1. Care Quality Commission. (2010). Essential standards of quality and safety.
2. General Social Care Council. (2010). The code of practice for social care workers.
3. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Review Press.
4. Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT Press.
5. Leitch, D., Harrison, L., & Claxton, G. (Eds.). (2017). Learning for life: How continuous education will keep us competitive in the global knowledge economy. John Wiley & Sons.
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7. National Occupational Standards for Leadership and Management. (2012).
8. Reynolds, M., & Vince, R. (Eds.). (2016). Organizing reflection. Routledge.
9. Schön, D. A. (2017). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge.
10. Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Crown Business.