Retired Registered Managers Group

Richard Banks suggests a network of former managers of care homes...

Registered Managers hold the most important leadership role for adult care services.  How they do that job has a crucial effect on peoples experience of care and support. Registered Managers are the lead professional and set the quality of care that staff provide and expectations for skills knowledge and values. They turn the stated purpose and vision for the home into the reality of the lives of the people who live there.

The last few years have again shown that the quality and resilience of those managers has made the difference between adequate care and excellence.  

Registered Managers of course retire– taking with them their experience and hard learnt wisdom. We are concerned that the experience, knowledge and capacity of this group of people is insufficiently recognised and certainly underused. The idea of a network for retired managers started in My Home Life and was raised as part of a conversation between Professor Juliette Meyer and Richard Banks.  So, we began to think of how it might be possible to bring some of those retired managers together. We are clear that such a group should take complete control of what they do – so are avoiding setting any fixed plans. It will be for the people who join the group to decide what and how to operate.

After looking at various ways to do this we decided to set up a zoom-based interest group with u3a (University of the Third Age) who have been very helpful in thinking through this idea. U3a is a learning organisation with a truly remarkable range of interest groups. The u3a provides all sorts of mutual support for wellbeing but cannot provide any direct care or support provision.

As you may know u3a is based on local groups that are run by members and offer a wide range of learning groups including languages, creative writing and philosophy. What maybe new to you is that there is also a part of the u3a that has more than 50 different interest groups that meet entirely on Zoom.

https://u3asites.org.uk/trustu3a/groups (opens new window). 

It is this part of u3a that we thought might be a good place to start a group made up of retired Registered Managers.  Using a Zoom based group will allow people to take part across the UK and beyond -should there be interest then country or regional groups may of course be set up. Another advantage of doing this with u3a is that people will be able to access any of all the other interest groups that can be seen at https://u3asites.org.uk/trustu3a/groups (opens new window). Joining the zoom-based Trust u3a will cost £10 a year (or £5 if you are already a member of a local u3a)

As said, what this group might do is not yet decided and is thereto to be shaped by interested people.  It will be for the participants to decide what and how they want to progress.   We are a group of retired managers we do not have any set agenda or closely defined plan other than seeing how our combined experience might be shared and our own learning continued. We have discussed the possibilities and made the list that follows this note but this is only to illustrate some of the possible options for the group.

Information about this group is being circulated by My Home Life www.myhomelife.org.uk/, and Skills for Care www.skillsforcare.org.uk/ and Making Home Home www.makinghomehome.com   Please do pass on to retired managers and indeed those who have left social care that you know who may be interested.

To join the u3a interest group for ‘Retired Registered Managers’ 
Join the u3a Trust using  https://u3asites.org.uk/trustu3a/groups (opens new window)

You will then get a regular update of all the groups available.

By the end of October 2022, the interest group ‘Retired Registered Mangers’ will be on the list of available groups that you can join.

Apply to join that group. We will then set a date and time for the first meeting.

If you need any further information, please do contact Richard at richard@richardbanksassociates.co.uk.

Regards,

Liz Taylor

Harish Chavda

Janti Champaneri OBE

Pat Bailey

Richard Banks

Shrikant Honap

Some of the ways the Interest Group of Retired Registered Managers might choose to develop / operate we are sure there are others...

  • Continue to learn about developments in care and support.
  • To provide a link of benefit to us - sharing experiences - post retirement support network
  • Not lose the knowledge and experience wisdom that we have (and to acknowledge and celebrate that expertise)
  • To encourage local or neighbourhood programmes that seek to enable communities to take a role themselves in the co-production and planning of social care provision.  (u3a cannot provide any direct care or support provision).
  • Be able with support to contribute to local / regional learning programmes - for general public who are carers or thinking about aging issues plus perhaps education of staff and volunteers in social care/ community organisations 
  • Participate in wellbeing programmes / activity 
  • Act and respond to calls for research or consultation exercises (we notice that often reports seem to have ignored the experiences of social care staff and as a result have missed important issues)
  • Informal mentoring for Registered Managers
  • Advice on implementing change for improvement
  • Research development – with My Home Life to set up proposals for university-based research
  • Community research leaders – available to be recruited by researchers to gather information from people who use services
  • Local or community leaders and sources of information related to aging
  • Just to let off steam!