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Aspiring Manager’s Workshop Case Study: Daniel Dutton (Me)

November 9, 2018 by Dan

Just a quick post to let you know I recently finished my Aspiring Manager’s Program in Leadership and Management and Skills for Care have published a case study of me.

You can check it out here:

https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Leadership-and-management/Registered-managers/aspiring-managers-case-study-daniel-dutton.pdf

For the record, I can thoroughly recommend the training.

Dan

How To Answer All NVQ/Diploma Questions in 3 Simple Steps

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018 by Dan

Tackling an NVQ question may seem daunting to some, so in this post I will explain a very simple formula (the same one that I use) when formulating an answer. It’s a very simple and effective process that uses three easy steps to make answering any question a piece of cake.

So, here’s a question from elsewhere on my website that I will use as an example and explain how I developed my answer:

Explain how an individual’s background can influence the way they communicate

STEP 1: Turn the question around

The first step (and also the first line of the answer) is to flip the question itself around into a statement, using pretty much the same wording. In this example, I used:

The background of an individual will have a big influence on how they communicate.

but I could just as easily have used:

The way an individual communicates can be influenced to a large extent by their personal background.

or:

An individual’s background can have a great bearing on the way that they communicate.

See what I did there? I’ve got my first sentence and I didn’t really have to think about it!

STEP 2: Make a list

Next, it is a good idea to make a short bullet-point list of all the information you wish to convey in your answer. In the example, we are looking at things in a person’s background that may influence how they communicate today. So, my bullet list may look like this:

Cultural
Upbringing
Abuse
Education/literacy
First language

STEP 3: Flesh out your answer

Using the list you made in step two, pad out your answer loosely sticking to the rule of one bullet point per paragraph (in my example, I have put Upbringing and Abuse in the same paragraph to make four paragraphs using the five bullet points).

In some cultures, eye contact is viewed as impolite or disrespectful in certain situations, such as between a father and daughter or a professor and student. Similarly, some cultures display emotion and feeling in their communication whilst others are more subdued.
An individual who has been brought up in a close, loving family with lots of affectionate touching may naturally hug everyone they meet, even when it would be considered socially inappropriate, whilst an individual that has been abused in the past may be timid or cower away from people in close proximity to them.
Education (or a lack thereof) can limit an individual’s ability to communicate. They may not be able to read or write and may have a limited vocabulary with which to express themselves.
If an individual is from a different country, their knowledge of the English language could be limited, making it difficult for them to communicate their needs.

Be sure to include specific examples in your answers. For example rather than just saying education can influence communication, flesh out you answer with examples such as illiteracy or limited vocabulary.

And that’s it. Job done!

Using this simple formula you should find it much easier to answer any question thrown at you.

Good luck 🙂

Aspiring Manager’s Pilot: What It Is & What I Have Learnt From It

March 15, 2018 by Dan

Last year, I was nominated by my company to enroll on a course called the Aspiring Managers Pilot.

I was told that it was funded by the government and run by Skills for Care in an effort to ensure that the next generation of managers in the health and social care sector were prepared and well-trained for the challenges of the role. I would also receive high-quality training which would give me a sound foundation should decide to pursue my Level 5 Diploma in the future.

I’m a keen learner and always interested in working on my personal and professional development. As I’d almost completed my Level 3 Diploma, I was looking for something to work towards during 2017/2018 and this seemed to fit the bill.

I applied and was accepted. I started in October 2017 and am now about halfway through the year-long course. Below is a list of the components of the course and my thoughts about them (in bold).

Preliminary Face-to-Face Event in Oct 17: Meet and Greet for tutors and students, introduction to the course. Great way to kick off the course and meet everyone.
Learning Record: Reflection account to be filled in every month as well as separate reflections on specific parts of the course. Great way to think about what you’ve done and stay focused.
Lead to Succeed Course: 5-day Leadership Course (not 5 consecutive days, 1 day per month over 5 months). Fantastic course delivered by Coleman Training & Consultancy. Topics are:
- Leaders & Managers
- Developing a Positive Culture
- Effective Supervision
- Leading & Managing the Process of Change
- Leading & Managing the Inspection Process
Manager Induction Standards: A giant folder packed with information and a lot of questions to answer. The industry-standard for managers. Fantastic information and very thought-provoking questions that inspire to do some research. It is a lot of work to plough through and you have to do it in your own time with very little support but well worth it.
Experience Tour: You are assigned a “buddy” who is another student on the course and you visit each other’s workplace to learn from one another (just an hour or two and you arrange the visits between yourselves). It was interesting to see how other providers in health and social care work, however mine and my buddy’s workplaces are completely different so they were difficult to compare – I work in supported living and she works in a nursing home.
Mid-Point Meeting: Meet up with cohorts and Skills for Care to chat about progress and do a little reflection and learning. Quite useful to catch up with everyone and discuss our learning.
Online Forum: Participate in a Linked-In group with other students (nationwide). No-one really contributed to this and some had technical issues so it wasn’t useful at all.
Attend Registered Manager’s Meeting: Regular meetings for registered managers in your local area. I never knew these existed and think they are a great idea. The one I went to had an interesting talk from a couple of CQC inspectors. Also good for networking and keeping up to date with the industry.
Monthly Supervisions with Line Manager: I tried to keep up with this (we usually have quarterly supervisions) but once a month is a bit too frequent, I feel.

And that’s it. There will be an end-point meeting in September to finish.

I can highly recommend this course for anyone wishing to climb the ladder of management in the health and social care sector should they decide to re-run it in the future (after all, the one I am doing is just the pilot).