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Choice Care Group Prepares Star Staff For Promotion
Specialist care provider Choice Care Group is making the most of its in-house talent by launching a new programme to train staff as managers for its homes.
Choice has launched the scheme to support the future management needs of the 39 residential care homes it runs for adults with learning disabilities, mental disorders and other complex needs across Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Gloucestershire.
A group of six deputy managers and assistant managers – selected for training after interview by Tracy Lanes, Choice’s Director of Operations, and an Area Director – began the first Management Development Programme (MDP) in July. It will end in December this year, with the second MDP beginning in January 2011. Each course will be limited to six places.
The program has been designed by senior Choice managers, who are running the 11 workshops that make up the MDP, to cover all the essential skills home managers need.
The workshops are backed up by a workbook for managers in the homes where the trainees are based, which identifies management tasks that trainees carry out in a controlled way and a specific number of times. The manager scores performance and provides written feedback on areas for development.
Tracy said: “It is vital that our homes are managed by individuals that not only have good leadership and management skills but also have high level skills and experience of working with people who display behaviours that challenge.
“A manager needs to be able to draw on previous experience and to find creative solutions to problems and to be a role model, a teacher and a mentor to junior staff.
“We have found that the best way to ensure our managers have all of these skills is to train our own staff well and to internally promote those who are capable to develop into excellent managers. Internal promotion reduces staff turnover and ensures we have home-grown, competent people we know and trust managing our homes.
“I am very excited about running this programme and developing staff further as this helps to ensure our services are very well managed and to retain our current 100% good and excellent Care Quality Commission ratings.”
For more information, please call 0845 815 9860.
