Between January and March 2024, Partners in Care and Health (PCH) led a discovery project to uncover learning and development requirements for council based middle leaders. Against the backdrop of ongoing Covid recovery and Care Quality Commission local authority assessment, PCH identified the types of learning and development that strengthen the soft skills required as a modern middle manager, such as influencing a system and supporting a team through change.
PCH and IPC recognised the need to co-design the hub with council middle leaders and ADASS regional leads. This meant resources complemented local/regional learning and development arrangements and that middle leaders could easily access the hub at their own pace and in a way to suit their learning needs and styles.
To design and create the learning hub, IPC:
- Completed a desk based review to identify learning and development resources available nationally, regionally and locally aimed at middle leaders in adult social care, and also looked beyond adult social care to incorporate materials developed by health or the voluntary and community sector.
- Developed a database, capturing learning objectives of each resource, as well as key information such as cost, learning approach, duration and other information pertinent to the middle leader.
- Consulted and hosted engagement sessions with council middle leaders and ADASS regional leads to help IPC understand the credibility of each resource.
- Developed the structure and content of the learning hub.
The impact:
- Succession planning and talent pipelines matter to councils. The learning hub is seen as motivational, inspiring and a credible resource to support the career development of middle leaders.
- Given IPC’s rigorous desk based review of known learning resources, the hub has been praised for its innovation in identifying and providing easy access to eight key learning themes for the modern middle leader. These themes, together with the Nolan Principles and relevant professional standards, provide a framework for lifelong learning for middle leaders, to what is a complex and diverse set of job roles.
- Within the first month of launch, the learning hub received praise from the target audience as a helpful tool to support continuing professional development.
- IPC’s ability to design and develop the hub in just four months (given the urgent need identified by PCH) and to provide a fit for purpose learning resource for middle leaders is unique and valued in the sector according to the feedback.
Feedback:
“Thank you IPC colleagues for the partnership work with this. I am delighted with where we are and what we’ve achieved together.”
“Can I thank you for what is a really impressive piece of work.”
“I’m amazed that you got so much done in what was a relatively short contract! I’m very confident that it will be well received and valued by the sector.”
“Thanks all for your collective work on this and for your fantastic steer.”
“People are really complimentary about the work you have done and agree that it is a unique and impactful resource for the sector”.
The hub was co-produced with middle leaders and regional workforce leads who felt ‘listened to’ and could clearly identify how their feedback influenced the accessibility, design and content of the hub. This meant a middle leader could access methods to build learning and development into a middle leaders working week to strengthen the ‘learning habit’.
IPC was praised for:
- Providing practical, flexible support.
- Designing what is the only known, national learning hub for council middle leaders.
- Swift delivery in just four months.
- Providing a credible and unique resource.
- Deploying a project team who quickly developed trust and a psychological safe partnership with the PCH lead sponsor.
- Ensuring both parties felt able to challenge mutual thinking in a realistic and practical manner to achieve objectives.
