The principles of leadership and management for adult social care

This introductory three-week course from The King’s Fund is for anyone working in or interested in health and social care in its broadest sense, regardless of experience or role. It’s designed to introduce you to some of the foundations of leadership, kindness, and compassion. You’ll explore why these qualities matter now more than ever, and how to develop your personal practice of kind and compassionate leadership.

We offer leadership development opportunities, resources and support for health and care staff across the South East from all backgrounds and experience levels who want to help create a more capable, compassionate and inclusive healthcare system.

We enable staff to fulfil their potential within their roles and our approach is bespoke, inclusive and collaborative. Through our bitesize learning offers, coaching and mentoring, local and national programmes we can help you develop the knowledge, skills, expertise, attitudes and behaviours to support the next steps in your personal leadership journey.

This course aims to provide you with the skills and knowledge to lead, organise and motivate teams. This qualification is ideal if you have management responsibilities, but no formal training, and are serious about developing your abilities. It’s particularly suited to practising team leaders seeking to move up to the next level of management, and managers who lead people through organisational change, budget cuts or other pressures.

The Lead Practitioner in Adult Care will guide and inspire team members to make positive differences in someone’s life when they are faced with physical, practical, social, emotional, psychological, or intellectual challenges. They will have achieved a level of self-development to be recognised as a lead practitioner within the care team, contributing to, promoting, and sustaining a values-based culture at an operational level.

This apprenticeship is suitable for: Adult Care Workers who work in residential or nursing homes, domiciliary care, day centres, a person’s own home, or some clinical healthcare settings

This Leadership and Management course looks at the foundational skills needed to be a successful manager and leader. It could be that you’ve suddenly found yourself in a position of responsibility, or in charge of a team or running a department, or it could be that you’re in a planned stage of your career and are ready to develop or improve your leadership skills and qualities. This course is suitable for anyone wishing to learn more tools and information to succeed in a leadership or management role.

Develop your confidence

Overcome challenges

Get insight

Get ahead

The responsibilities of leaders and managers in adult social care can not be underestimated. You need a range of skills, knowledge and qualities to be successful, and you need the ability to draw off these at different times in different situations. In this module, you’ll start to explore some of those abilities and plan your next steps to leading and managing good and outstanding adult social care services.

This qualification is for first line managers seeking to broaden skills, knowledge and behaviours in a more flexible and practical way related to today’s leadership and management practices.

Managers must develop and evolve their practice to respond to the challenges they and their employees face. The Management Essentials course develops the essential management skills to align managing and leading by using a practical and effective model that everyone can understand.

This course focuses on a range of topics, including what managers do, what skills they require, and how you can develop as a manager.

This knowledge-based qualification ensures that the learner can demonstrate understanding of the principles of leadership and management in adult care services.

RM12 is a practical, year-long programme designed for registered managers, deputies, and aspiring leaders in adult social care. With just three hours each month, this supportive and structured course gives you space to reflect, grow, and lead with confidence. Each monthly session explores a key leadership theme, from supervision & goal setting to effective communication & conflict resolution, all grounded in your real-world experience.

What you’ll gain:

• Practical leadership tools you can apply straight away
• Greater self-awareness and resilience
• A supportive peer network of fellow managers
• Insight into real-life leadership challenges and solutions
• Lasting skills to reduce staff turnover and improve team culture

Session delivery:

• One session per month: Each interactive session takes place online from 09:30am – 12:30pm
• Small cohort: Maximum of 20 participants per programme to support meaningful discussion and connection
• Ongoing reflection: After each session, you’ll apply what you’ve learned in your workplace and share reflections with the group.

Equivalent to an A-level, this is an essential course for Team Leaders and Supervisors. Each of the nine units has a knowledge element where you will learn about management models and theories, which you will then apply to your workplace for the Skills units, to create a portfolio of evidence or presentations with assignments.

The Skills for Care podcast series ‘The care exchange’ celebrates the role of managers in social care.

What is the difference between leadership and management?

Stephen Covey says: “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”