Guidance for use

Every social care organisation, whether large or small, should make sure that all new staff members have an induction to prepare them for their new role. A good induction can help you settle well and become more effective in your role faster. The importance of making sure you have a thorough and well-structured introduction to your new management role cannot be underestimated.

A good induction will help you:

• integrate effectively into the organisation and develop positive working relationships
• know what is expected of you and what support you can expect from others
• familiarise yourself with your new working environment and the information you need to know to do your job safely and successfully
• know where the organisation ‘is at’, where it has come from and where it wants to be.

You and your employer are both responsible for making sure your introduction to your new role is as effective as possible. Following your appointment, you should arrange an early discussion with your employer/manager about your induction and your learning and development needs for this period. This is particularly important if you are taking on a new role in your existing organisation as it will help you tailor the induction to meet your individual needs.

There are some key areas which should be included in any induction to support orientation, these are:

• understanding the organisation in which you work
• understanding your role in the organisation
• getting to know your team
• getting to know the people who use your service and their carers
• getting to know the other professionals you work with.

You should also be supported and have the opportunity to develop your leadership and management skills across the breadth of your responsibilities as well as expertise related to your service area.

The Statutory Guidance for service providers and responsible individuals on meeting service standard regulations for: care home services; domiciliary support services; secure accommodation services; and residential family centre services (Regulation 36) states service providers should:

‘Ensure they have an induction programme that equips all new staff to be confident in their roles and practice and enables them to make a positive contribution to the well-being of individuals using the service’.

The implementation of this Induction Framework will help you meet this requirement.

The All Wales Induction Framework for Social Care Managers (Induction Framework) is a set of standards taken from the content of the Level 5 Leadership and Management of Health and Social Care qualification.

It sets out knowledge and practice which should be demonstrated over time, by social care managers who are new to their role.

There are two parts to the Induction Framework:

Part 1 - Generic section applicable to all social care managers

The generic section applicable to all social care managers cover the breadth of responsibilities for the leadership and management of social care services, including; person/child centred practice, effective team performance, quality of service delivery, professional practice, safeguarding and health and safety. These sections should be completed by all social care managers who are new to their role.

Part 2 - Service specific sections

The service specific sections cover a wide range of areas such as dementia or children who are looked after, you should select the section/s here which most closely align with your new role e.g. a manager working in a residential child care setting would select Section 7: Lead and manage service provision for children and young people who are looked after, depending on their role, they may also select Section 9: Lead and manage support for reducing restrictive practices through positive approaches for behaviour support.

A manager of independent advocacy services would select Section 19: Lead and manage advocacy services.

Social care managers who are new to post

It should be completed by all social care managers who are new to post as a general induction to their role. If you are an experienced or qualified manager, we would expect you to already have some evidence of knowledge and practice through completion of your qualification or through prior employment, whereas some of you may have less experience or be taking your qualification at the same time. We recommend completion within 12 months of start date in a new role for all managers, this will provide an opportunity to embed your learning in practice and update knowledge of legislative frameworks, evidence informed practice and specialist areas.

Specific managers

For some specific managers, completion will be set as a ‘training requirement’ between the point of registration and renewal of registration. Required qualifications are needed to register as a social care manager; where you do not hold one of these but hold an alternative which meets agreed essential criteria, completion of the Induction Framework can be used as a ‘top up’ if you wish to register with Social Care Wales either:

• for the first time or;
• to move to a different part of the Register.

If you wish to use this route to register, you will need to submit an application to the registration team. If the application is successful, you should complete the Induction Framework within the first 12 months of your registration, and must provide evidence of this as part of your renewal of registration.

We have developed a range of case studies to help you understand how the Induction Framework can be used for registration as a social care manager if you do not hold one of the required qualifications.

The framework is now ‘live’ (since September 2021). This is for those who are starting their role as social care managers and for those who need to use it if it has been set as a ‘training requirement’ for renewal of registration.

You should complete all of the generic sections and any service specific sections appropriate to your role. These should be agreed with your employer. If the Induction Framework has been set as a ‘training requirement’ for renewal of registration as a social care manager, we will recommend the most appropriate service specific section/s for your role.

Where possible, as a manager new to your role, you should be allocated a mentor and/or coach who can provide objective advice and guidance, constructive feedback and help you grow and develop.

The progress logs cover all the sections in the framework, these should be used to note evidence drawn on to confirm achievement of the induction standard e.g. qualification completion, supervision, records, observation of practice or witness testimonies.

Signing off progress logs

Each section of the progress logs should be dated and signed by you and the person who has made the judgement that each induction standard has been achieved.

The person making the judgement that the induction standards have been achieved must:

• have a working knowledge of the induction standards they are judging
• be occupationally competent in the area for which they are making a judgement
• be familiar with your practice.

This could be a range of different people e.g. the Responsible Individual, an allocated mentor, a practice development lead or another manager overseeing your work.

Signing off completion certificate

Wherever possible, the certificate of completion should be signed off by the Responsible Individual and you, the manager who has undertaken it. The Responsible Individual must be able to provide assurance of a robust process which has confirmed you have met the induction standards. They do not need to sign off evidence of each standard in the progress logs, but they should sign off the overall completion certificate.

There may be some instances where it is not possible for the Responsible Individual to sign off completion of the Induction Framework e.g. small organisations where the Responsible Individual is the same person as the manager. In these cases, the certificate of completion should be signed off by someone inside or outside of the organisation who meets the criteria for making judgement about the induction standards. The person should be a professional you have known in a professional capacity whilst completing the Induction Framework and they must not be related to or have any personal relationship with you in any way.

The certificate of completion only needs to be submitted to Social Care Wales if it being used as a ‘training requirement’ for the renewal of registration.

The Statutory Guidance for service providers and responsible individuals on meeting service standard regulations for: Care home services; Domiciliary support services; Secure accommodation services; and Residential family centre services (Regulations 66 – 68) clarifies the role of the Responsible Individual in ensuring that any registered manager appointed has appropriate knowledge, skills and competence to manage the service safely in accordance with the regulations and are supported to gain skills for professional development which will support them in their role. It is therefore important that they take responsibility for making sure managers are appropriately supported to complete the Induction Framework and can provide assurance that the induction standards have been met.

As the Induction Framework is made up of an agreed set of standards for social care managers, it can also be used as a tool to support you if you hold older qualifications or need to upskill/update your practice. It may also be used to inform appraisal processes both for employers to check competence and to ensure you are provided with the right support to develop the knowledge and skills needed for your role. We have a CPD toolkit which could help you think about this.

All registered managers must complete 90 hours of continuing professional development CPD (previously known as PRTL) every 3 years in order to renew their registration. Completion of the Induction Framework can be used towards this – just keep a note of any learning undertaken and record on your SCWonline account.

The Qualification Specification for the Level 5 Leadership and Management of Health and Social Care Services has a unit for each of the sections. We have taken the learning outcomes from each unit and used these as the standards.

Within the units, each learning outcome has a set of assessment criteria linked to it, whilst we would not expect any managers to be taken through each of these in detail, they will give you an idea of the types of knowledge and behaviours you would expect to have evidence of. There are examples of completed progress logs for you to see how this may look.

There are a range of other resources to help you complete this Induction Framework.

If you have a question or if you can't find what you are looking for get in touch with us.