In the last two months the news has been dominated by visions and rhetoric of leadership as a result of the annual round of party political conferences in the UK and the presidential elections in the USA where American citizens will go to the polls and elect not only a leader for their country but one who will influence politics on the world stage. Leadership is widely researched, written and spoken about with ongoing debate about whether leaders are born or made.

Leadership is as hot a topic in health and social care as it is in any other sector. As I’ve written before the outcomes of government enquiry reports into failures in practice have all identified a lack of or poor quality leadership as being at the heart of these failures which led to the abuse of children, young people and adults. The clear message from all these reports is that the sector must improve the quality of care for individuals and a central way to achieve this is through developing high quality leaders.

On 1st November the National Skills Academy for Social Care launched the National Leadership Qualities Framework (LQF) for adult social care.

Research has identified that effective leadership requires the right values, skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. The Leadership Qualities Framework quantifies what good leadership ‘looks like’ at different levels within an organisation and has been designed to both support leadership development and as a mechanism for assessing their effectiveness in practice.
The Leadership Qualities Framework looks at, in a clear and accessible way, seven dimensions – demonstrating personal qualities; working with others; managing services; improving services; setting direction; creating the vision and delivering the strategy. It describes the qualities of a successful leader and relates these specifically to health and social care.
For managers currently undertaking the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care the Leadership Qualities Framework along with the publication of the Nelson Thornes Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care textbook will be essential reading as both will enable them to learn and provide evidence towards achieving the qualification.

To find out more about the Leadership Qualities Framework go to:
www.nsasocialcare.co.uk