Professional Development Principles

Outcome 1: Understand principles of professional development

Explain the importance of continually improving knowledge and practice

The nature of the health and social care is not static, systems, principles, guidance and legislation are continuously evolving and changing. For a provider to be able to deliver the best possible service to clients and staff. As the manager, you must be able to adapt quickly and be 'ahead of the game'. This involves keeping up to date with everything that is newly implemented in health and social care.

Managers need to be aware of changes in existing legislation or incoming legislation, current best practice, CQC regulations, NICE guidelines and how these may potentially affect the business.

When I keep myself up to date with this information, it allows me to pass it on to others and to be a helpful resource to staff and those around me by teaching and passing it on. I feel it is necessary to continually learn and develop new skills, because it enables me as an individual to progress, it enables me as a manager to bring new experiences and ideas, which benefits the company, the clients and the staff team.

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Analyse potential barriers to professional development

There are many potential barriers to Professional Development. Personal issues can impact such as family commitments and the work/life balance. Being able to balance the commitments of work and family life is very difficult and takes careful managing. Financial considerations, both personal and organisational, can be a barrier. Due to the current government austerity drive, there is a squeeze on health and social care budgets.

This makes it harder for my employer to send and provide external training courses for staff and me. There can also organisational barriers in that a line manager or above may not want you to succeed because they may be worried about their position. Sometimes staffing issues can also impact on Personal Development. In the past, I and the team have had to pick up a lot of overtime due to staff sickness and holidays. This extra workload can impact on my development because I tend to have fewer days off and work more hours, leading to tiredness and poor time management.

Compare the use of different sources and systems of support for professional development

Source Pros Cons

Books and Literature

• Very informative, Easily accessible in most areas and possibly accessible for free in a library
• Information can become outdated
• Books are easily damaged or vandalised,
• Costs can be very expensive

Internet

• Quick, easily accessible and wide range of information
• Too much information, need to know the right questions when searching, not always reliable

Training Courses

• Hands on and share knowledge
• Making sure you implement the knowledge.
• The organisation may not be willing to finance the training.

Formal Support

• Regular appraisals can identify areas that you need to develop and train in
• Both parties need to commit to the process.
• Not all staff are open and honest about the support they need.

Informal support

• Getting information and support from peers/mentors and colleagues
• The information may be subjective/misread by the giver. The giver may also be misleading you for personal reasons.

Supervisions

• Structured and focused. The agenda is agreed and discussed
• Within the organisation it can be very difficult to organise regular supervisions due to staffing levels.
• Sometimes it's difficult to have a meaningful discussion

On-line literature

• Up to date and relevant, what you need to know about the latest legislation
• May become outdated for a short while if legislation or regulations change.

Management

• Wealth of knowledge and can be a mentor.
• Should be current with the newest industry news
• May not be willing to pass on information due to personal reasons.
• May not be performing their own Personal Development and not up to date with current practices.

Explain factors to consider when selecting opportunities and activities for keeping knowledge and practice up to date

Factors to consider are: Is the training relevant to the job role, for example if you are carer then you are required to attend training that concerns how to provide care for the service users and to understand illness such as dementia and Parkinson's. In comparison to training for budget and finance for a deputy and home manger job role. Is it cost effective and practicable; can you afford to pay staff if they have a day off to attend the training?

Ensuring the day is convenient for all staff would be impossible as there would have to be more than one day session so that all staff can attend. Will it benefit me and my continuous personal development (CPD) Will it benefit the team and ultimately the service users

Do I have the time/money/resources to complete?

Is this training course the best I can find or would another training provider deliver more effective training? There are various factors to consider when selecting opportunities and activities for keeping knowledge and practice up to date which are stated above. Ultimately updating your knowledge is vital and is certainly an on-going process for all the team as one cannot seem to know everything. Some may understand it better than others this provides a chance for them to discuss it together so others can understand it in a simpler way.

But the above factor such as time and budget could have an effect for this. For example, smaller business may not have funding for further training for the staff such as QCF. Staff maybe very interested in furthering their knowledge and are willing for this to have a chance for career progression however this limits them, and only option is to do it privately. Some can and cannot afford to do this.

Outcome 2: Be able to prioritise goals and targets for own professional development Evaluate own knowledge and performance against standards and benchmarks

There are industry standards set by CQC, Skills for Care and others that I haveto benchmark myself and my management against. My goal is to be a registered manager and to do that I have looked on the CQC website to see what it entails. It states that I have to be working towards a Level 5 QCF, I currently hold a level 3 QCF so I enrolled onto this course to bridge the skill gap. I regularly check the Key Lines of Enquiries (KLOE's) as set out by the CQC and I am working towards meeting them ready for an impending inspection.

Prioritise development goals and targets to meet expected standards

Outcome 3: Be able to prepare a professional development plan

Outcome 4: Be able to improve performance through reflective practice