The massive challenges facing social care providers were the focus of intensive learning and development sessions at Swanton’s Managers Workshop this autumn.
Leaders from across Swanton services took part in the two-day event, where they discussed many difficulties and then worked together to find solutions and potential.
Learning and Development Manager Kat Walsh said it was vital to identify, explore and resolve challenges through honest conversations.
The result was an inspiring event that helped managers build resilience and confidence and to lean on the support of their peers and senior leadership.
Kat, pictured below, said: “The Managers Workshop was the perfect opportunity for us to face challenges and internal tensions head-on to resolve them.
“The social care landscape is incredibly tough, and we want to support our managers in every way we can.
“Our Chief Operating Officer, Tom Pick, began by talking about the Health and Care sector and demonstrating how well we are doing, despite the current climate.
“Then we delved deeper into our internal tensions and set out some mini breakouts to give managers the opportunities to talk about what’s happening on the shop floor in Swanton services across the UK.”
Senior leaders and department heads joined each mini break out to listen to what the managers needed to say. The groups explored how to work through the tensions and put plans in place to work together more seamlessly in the future.
Kat added: “We want to ensure we deliver a flawless finish where all the cogs turn together.
“Managers were encouraged to openly and confidently develop solutions to create what we labelled ‘Potentials’.
“In fact, we called the workshop ‘Tensions to Potentials’ for these reasons and explored themes including recruitment, development, growth, system changes, daily pressures and retention.
“The feedback we’ve received from our managers has been terrific, and the accomplishments we made as a group on the day were fantastic.
“This difficult but vital work will mean even better outcomes for the people we support and our teams as we move forward together.”
