A joint campaign has been launched to raise the status of the care home manager, with its backers saying the manager needs to be recognised as a lead professional alongside other similar caring roles, though it does not appear to be calling for higher pay nor for mandatory registration. Will this help raise the manager's profile or should we be looking at mandatory registration again? What do people think?
For managers to be called "professionals" they need an appropriate qualification. I'm not being critical or 'owt, just how it works. I'm all up for raising the profile, and most of the home managers I've worked with are fantastic - but what are the similar roles that you're referring to?
*Insert Shirack's stance that social work is not a profession*
'He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master' - HST.
That is a good point asking which "similar roles" I mean. I should have been more specific. I meant vis-a-vis social workers, doctors or nurses. As in no nurse or doctor will ever say "I'm just a nurse or I'm just a doctor," but I think there may be a tendency for care home managers to look down upon their role and say exactly that - "I'm just a care home manager" - and as a result may bow down to these professionals and do what these professionals may ask regarding a resident even if they feel their requests are silly.
"For Managers to be professionals, they need an appropriate qualification"
Says who? Don't mean to be adversarial...but lets explore that. What do we mean by professional? Any definition of 'professional' that I look at never makes reference to qualifications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional
To me, a professional is someone who meets all the criteria laid out in the definition in the above link and therefore many home care managers and even many of the care staff that they manage are very entitled to the wear the 'professional' badge.
The status of the care home Manager indeed needs to be raised. Most do an incredible job and more than meet the definition of 'professional'. I personally have long put them on a par with doctors, nurses, etc...
Someone please explain the 'qualifications' idea being linked to 'proffesional' status.
Something I have never believed in.....
Let me explain a small point. If a NQSW has so much problem getting work as a NQSW or SW position after 3 years of study and a care home manager has 10+ years of work experience in social care who is the more 'proffesional' or 'qualified'?
Why is it that I may have worked in a range of different social care settings for the past 11 years and still only made the cut for Senior support worker once and have been looked over for Managerial positions due to no 'qualifications'.
Care home managers are a very important role (there are some damn good ones out there) but to say that they are not proffesionals demeans the role. Often they have more work than the average SW but as they do not have a SW degree can be pigeon holed as non proffessional.
In my opinion, if someone has a professional accreditation, in whatever guise, then I consider this to be important in my perception of their ability to do a job. I am fully aware that a peice of paper does not necessarily mean that they can do the job on a day-to-day basis, but there is a certain standard which must be maintained - and one way of doing this is through gaining qualifications.
A qualification doesn't mean a degree or a masters. It could be NVQs or anything - but it shows a willingness on the part of the individual to put in additional time to develop their skills.
@ JBD who is commenting on being overlooked for management posts - have you ever considered doing additional training, or do you expect to be offered a job based only on experience? If you've been trying to get a promotion for 11 years and having little success, you should really take a look at why you're being overlooked, and do something about it.
There has to be a way of having a marker, some way of saying "you make the grade". That's what qualifications are, FFS.
Rainbowarch:Says who? Don't mean to be adversarial...but lets explore that.
God damn, that sentence makes me livid.
Its a good point asking Care providers and care homemangers are working closely but what about nurses and doctors are they all working together in a partnership. As well are they keeping the clients choice?
I might be silly asking this question to myself and others?
Gosh... bit of a strong reaction?
You are right.. it IS just your opinion. Thankfully most define 'professional' as per the dictionary / wikipedia and do not see qualifications as the indication that one has a right to be deemed a professional.
Putting aside the fact there is now a Registered Managers qualification, I have always thought that years ago when this was not in place, RM's deserved to be called professional for their specialism and expertise in their particular field.
So back to the original point... Yes, RM's should be called professional if they deliver the goods..whether they hold one GSCE or have a plethora of masters degrees.
Rainbowarch:Gosh... bit of a strong reaction? You are right.. it IS just your opinion. Thankfully most define 'professional' as per the dictionary / wikipedia and do not see qualifications as the indication that one has a right to be deemed a professional. Putting aside the fact there is now a Registered Managers qualification, I have always thought that years ago when this was not in place, RM's deserved to be called professional for their specialism and expertise in their particular field. So back to the original point... Yes, RM's should be called professional if they deliver the goods..whether they hold one GSCE or have a plethora of masters degrees.
Holy hole in the donut, Batman! Golly! Jeepers! Etc etc. I read your previous post in my head and it reminded me immediately of the kind of approach taken by the mediators in South Park, hence the reposte. If this reference means nothing to you, ignore it and move on.
Qualifications do not necessarily make a professional, but they help to identify those who have put additional time and effort into developing their skills (this could be anything from NVQ Level 1 to a PhD), as opposed to the managers who have worked their way up from ground level and have been working it out as they go. As I said previously, there have to be markers of progress.
As with so many discussions on here, generalisations pervade - I don't have the time or willingness to pull them apart. Just know that I am fully aware that we are talking in very flimsy terms, and that an RM I met with yesterday and put this discussion to was pleased that it was happening. She wanted the recognition. Incidentally, she has also done additional training & qualifications to help her to do her job better.
We at the National Skills Academy for Social Care are pleased that this campaign launch has started such an important debate. This is an issue that has very much come from the ground up - care managers have themselves told us about their experiences. Registered care managers are crucial to the delivery of good quality care, and the sector needs to find a way of recognising and maximising their contribution. In order to respond to this need for recognition, national care organisations need to take the initiative, hence our involvement alongside the National Care Forum and others.
As you may be aware, the National Skills Academy is developing a Leadership Strategy that will support the delivery of reforms to be announced in the White Paper next year. To make this national process relevant to care managers, we would like to invite interested parties to a forum to further explore the important contribution of registered managers and changes needed to give them a stronger voice, and access to better support.
Keep an eye on our website www.nsasocialcare.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @NSASocialCare for further updates.
Nope! I totally disagree. No doubt there are a few professionals who do take the job seriously but my experience of "Care Managers" is to say the least abysmal!.
Just because they can sit, study and pass their NVQ 3/4/5 does not make them competent people to carryout the roll!
You have to have that "Caring Ability" built into your personality, which today is strangely lacking, all the authorities want to do it make-up the numbers.
Do like other countries do "Personality Profile Checks" before anyone is allowed to lord it over the less vulnerable...!
It scares the living daylights out of me, some who I have come in contact with, and it is soon to be my turn as I retire soon that I mighty come within their domaine... "Heaven Forbid".
Hopefully this debate will help push forward the 'big society' challenge; the issue of 'value' and 'status' in our society of all people who work within the residential care secor. I have raised this for debate in an article to be published on the DFE website shortly in their new residential care newsletter 'In-House'.