View all badges
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Engaging with children and young people
Scottish Social Services Council
This Open Badge is available to anybody working in social services who has used our Engaging with Children and Young People eBook. To obtain the badge, you need to provide some evidence of what you have learned and how you used the app. -
#1 Keeping people who use services at the centre
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services make a significant contribution to shaping organisational culture and values. They set an example for staff in the way they lead and manage others, enabling workers to contribute, take initiative and gain new skills and confidence. Keeping people who use services and carers at the centre of planning, designing and delivering care and support is integral to an inclusive and participatory leadership approach. -
#2 Self-leadership, integrity and personal effectiveness
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services lead and manage others most effectively when their practice is informed by a strong and explicit value base. They understand the importance of self- leadership and are committed to their own personal and professional development. They recognise that leadership requires work on oneself as well as engagement with others. -
#3 Leading, managing and developing people
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services are responsible for leading, managing and developing workers as well as role-modelling participatory leadership across the organisation. In addition to their direct supervisory responsibilities, they indirectly influence how other staff are managed and supervised. This in turn impacts on how practitioners and support staff interact with people using services, families and carers. -
#4 Planning and resource management
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services are responsible for using resources effectively to achieve best possible outcomes. They plan for future needs, demands and changing expectations. They monitor and oversee current activity, intervening as necessary in response to changing factors in the internal or external environments. -
#5 Leading and managing across boundaries
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services work across professional and organisational boundaries. They recognise that collaborative gain is possible when people work together to achieve better outcomes for people using services and for unpaid/informal carers. They know that effective partnership working needs trust, respect and interdependence. Valuing different perspectives and working constructively with competing priorities requires skill, commitment and perseverance. -
#6 Managing risk and uncertainty
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services are involved in overseeing complex practice issues and dilemmas. They are concerned for the safety and wellbeing of those who use services, carers and staff. They understand the legislative context for protecting those who are at risk of harm. They are aware that people have the right to take risks and that leading a full life includes a degree of risk. -
#7 Leading and managing change
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services play a pivotal role as change agents within their organisation. Their influence is both downward and upward. They translate high level strategy and policy decisions into operational systems and procedures and provide feedback for senior managers about the impact of change. They support innovation at grassroots level, identifying new working practices which may be of value across the organisation and making senior management aware of these. -
#8 Quality assurance, improvement and performance management
Scottish Social Services Council
Middle managers in social services oversee the quality of care and support offered to people using services and their carers. They value outcomes that make a difference in people’s lives. They review and evaluate organisational performance at team and service level. They seek to include information that reflects personal outcomes in systems that measure performance and inform plans at all levels.