Being a registered manager is unlike anything else

At the end of 2018 Rebecca Heyes became a registered manager at GS Social Care. After 12 months in post, she looks back on her achievements and shares her vision for 2020.

Taking stock of the last 12 months

I’ve worked in care for eight years, moving from support worker, training and recruitment officer, care coordinator and deputy manager, before becoming a registered manager.

Being a registered manager is unlike anything else; you have lots of different hats to wear and you’re expected to know everything. The truth is I don’t know everything, but when I don’t know the answer to a question, I make it my mission to find out what it is.

I’ve been able to do this because of the support of my company owners and nominated individual. They give me the chance to offload and share ideas whenever I need to. Support from business owners is very important, with regular supervisions and feedback a must!

I also have a fantastic office team that cares very much for our service users and always endeavour to do what’s best for them.

This support has helped me to thoroughly enjoy learning and growing into my role over the past 12 months and I feel much more confident now. It was a busy year to say the least. I survived and passed my registration interview with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – when I was notified that my interview was successful, I allowed myself to think for the first time that I might actually be able to succeed in the registered manager role.

Then came the move to go paperless (weeks of scanning, archiving and shredding documents) and an office move (I love the new building).

To finish my first 12 months we had our CQC inspection. This proved to be a really positive end to the year as we were rated ’good’ across all five key questions and received excellent feedback.

Looking ahead to 2020

So, what will the next 12 months bring? To be honest, like many people who work in care I’m not really sure…but the thing that excites me most is being able to help and assist the people we support to achieve positive outcomes.

I also know that I want to build my confidence and skills in order to offer better support to my team and help them make their own decisions.

I know I have the support in place to do this. Alongside the support from my directors, colleagues and staff, peer support from other managers is the most beneficial source of support I have. Having other registered managers who you can contact for advice has been a saving grace at times. This is something I benefit from, and provide, as the chair of my local Registered Manager Network.

I’m also a member of Skills for Care. Membership has given me access to resources and discounted and, sometimes, even free training, specifically designed to assist registered managers. It’s unlike any other management resource as it’s specifically tailor-made for the social care sector.

After my first 12 months, my other commitment is to promote the role of registered managers, ensuring we all receive the recognition we deserve. I want to continue to spread good practice and share ideas with like-minded people in the sector.

Happy New Year!

Find out more

For further information around the support for registered managers, please visit www.skillsforcare.org.uk/registeredmanagers

Follow our campaign

You can keep up-to-date with our January campaign here where we’ll add newinformation, links to useful articles, blogs and resources to help you start 2020 positively. You can also follow the campaign onsocial media using #Your2020Vision.

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