Reflective_Account_Unit_1

Reflective Account for Unit 1.1 Having worked at P R for a number of years and starting from the position of support worker right up to Home Manager I had gained a lot of knowledge about the service users, but not quite enough experience with staff. Through all these role transitions I developed different management styles. When I was a senior it was very easy for me to use clinical supervisions with staff as I had enough time to work alongside them. At that time I learnt that it is good to strive for perfection but be prepared to tolerate failure in order to encourage innovation. When I became a Deputy, my Manager then started to send me on management workshops and training. These were quite helpful and helped me to explore different kinds of management styles and skills. It also helped with my communication and helped to improve my working relationships with other staff who I normally would not get along with. I also learnt to behave in a professional manner at all times and it helped build on teamwork. I also learnt that management is about stimulating and implementing change, encouraging innovation in order to make improvements. When I had just been appointed Home Manager the company requested us to change the service users support plans. This was to individualize their support plans and put them in the language the service user understood e.g. if the person is non-verbal to make up a support plan with pictures or diagrams that that individual could understand. This was quite a huge task and responsibility for me as a new manager. The company set up a training course on how we were to implement this. The managers and deputy managers were the first to go on this course and then the rest of the staff. After I attended training I gave feed back to my staff in the team meeting the training I had attended and what it was about. I then told the staff they would all go on this training so that we could work as a team on developing these support plans. I also said we had been given a deadline and we had to work within that timescale. All the staff was quite excited to be involved in this transition. We have only five residents so I gave each staff member a section to work on. I advised my staff to sit with the service users in their residents meeting and let them know what were planning to do and to involve them in setting this up as this was their support plan and their file. When all the staff had attended the training I arranged supervisions. This was so I could discuss with staff on what they could do and how we would gather all the relevant information. We put an action plan in place with tasks to be completed and how to get resources and when to feedback. I also encouraged staff to get information from families, day centres as long as confidentiality was maintained and the service user in agreement. I also set up brainstorming sessions on one particular service user’s diet to make the task exciting. This also made me realize how much the staff understood this diet and it was also a chance for to identify staff that needed training as this is a very complicated diet. I also reminded my staff that everything that we were doing should meet CQC requirements and Social Care Standards. I also decided to complete one support plan for my staff to use as an example. When I completed this I showed it to my line manager when they came to complete a Reg10 Visit. My manager had a look at it and suggested that I needed to add on more information and to make sure that all the information collated with the Health Files and Risk Assessments. She also supported me in liaising with another Home Manager who was more experienced than me to go and have a look at their files so that I could understand what it is that was exactly required. This was good and I felt supported it also helped me with my confidence and that I could now pass on correct information to my staff to work with. At that time I learnt that it is good to strive for perfection but be prepared to tolerate failure in order to encourage innovation. In all this I learnt about time management and how to manage staff time. I also learnt how to identify training needs. It was a challenge in the sense that there was staff that required constant supervision and prompting. It was good experience and it helped me develop my communication and management skills. I also learnt how important it was to listen and be a good role model to my staff by not just asking them to do this on their own but to also give an example on how it was to be done. It was good that all the staff were involved because it also improved self esteem for certain staff who did not think what they did or contributed was not good enough. This brainstorming sessions improved staff communication and helped with team building.