Team managers given chance to hone frontline management skills

Team managers across Wales are being offered the opportunity to undertake sponsored training to develop their frontline management skills. The Team Manager Development Programme, which is made up of three modules and takes about a year to complete, is the first of its kind in the UK.

It covers areas including how to develop critical thinking skills to make better management decisions, improving practice quality and managing the performance of individuals in teams.

It was developed after a series of UK-wide serious case reviews and government audits identified the team manager as playing a pivotal role in cases. The first course began in north Wales in May, another will start in Cardiff in September and there are plans to offer it in west Wales.

Local authorities, who are signed up to an agreement that allows those doing the course to be released to attend lectures, can also sponsor senior practitioners to do the training. The Social Services Improvement Agency commissioned Oxford Brookes University to develop the course in consultation with ADSS Cmyru and the Care Council for Wales.

For more information contact cathryn.thomas@wlga.gov.uk