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Managers

Leadership learning pathway for managers in Scotland’s social services.

As a manager, your leadership skills can make a real difference to the service you deliver, the outcomes people who use your service achieve and, where appropriate, the wider community. Your leadership will have an impact on the vision and ethos of the organisation and play an important role in empowering others to develop and use their own leadership skills.

Social care operates in an increasingly complex, challenging and changing environment. Working effectively in partnership can help provide best value and improved outcomes for people who use our services. The need for effective leadership of these collaborations is important. As a manager it is an area that you may wish to develop further.

Read the strategy Enhancing leadership capability: The strategy for enhancing the leadership capability of Scotland’s social services: Delivery plan 2017-2020. You can find out more about what good leadership looks like in Scotland’s social services by reading the Enabling leadership research and the leadership logic model which shows how good leadership contributes to positive outcomes.

Plan your pathway

Before getting started, take some time to think about what you want to achieve by developing your leadership skills and how you would like to develop as a leader. We've provided some questions to help you plan your pathway.

Resources to develop your leadership capabilities

The six leadership capabilities in the boxes below show the different elements that make up effective leadership in social services. Find a range of learning resources to develop your skills.

Use the organisational capabilities to assist you to develop an enabling and learning culture to support leadership at all levels within your team.

 

Capabilities

Capabilities Positive plans for the way ahead Finding different ways of thinking and doing Recognising, exercising and improving your own leadership Leading in partnership and taking others with you Supporting others to be the best they can be Enabling people to develop and use their leadership capacity Guidance on how the organisational capabilities of the Continuous Learning Framework and other resources can support the development of a leadership learning culture

Leadership for Integration programme

A programme of leadership learning offered by NES, the RCGP in Scotland and the SSSC. Read more about ‘You as a collaborative leader’ and ‘Collaborative leadership in practice.'

Middle Manager Leadership Learning Framework

We have developed a framework to support middle managers with their leadership learning.

Read more

Chief Social Work Officer Qualification

Scotland’s most senior social workers can embark upon a postgraduate qualification for Chief Social Work Officers.

Read more

Developing Senior Systems Leadership (DSSL) is specialist development programme that aims to develop community of senior systems leaders from Social Care, Social Work and Health (including statutory, third, voluntary and independent sectors) with Director level or equivalent senior leadership capability.

To find out more: Developing Senior System Leadership (leadingtochange.scot)

learning log

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