1. Sector led improvement
Rachel Reid – Locality Manager
(Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire)

2. Today we will……… Aim of workshop
Provide an opportunity to consider how, as employers in the sector, we can lead improvement and increase the capability of our workforce by creating Positive Workplace Cultures.
Note that many have already begun this journey and so this will be an opportunity to reflect on how well this is being embedded and identify future action.
Quality is not static – it must be constantly reviewed and adjusted.

3. Why Culture? Culture for Care
Positive workplace cultures are central to an organisation’s success or failure, and are never more important than when the service is providing people with care and support. Positive workplace cultures in social care not only address productivity and the health and wellbeing of staff, but also look to improve outcomes for those who need care and support services.
Negative cultures – contributory factors to the failings at Winterbourne and Mid staffs.
We also know that recruitment and retention are huge challenges for the whole sector.
DH tasked us to develop resources to support providers to consider maintain and adopt positive cultures.
With changes in the landscape ahead especially with the integration of H,SC and Housing we have an opportunity to ensure we are promoting positive workplace cultures that enable values based approaches, build resiliance in our workforce and provide quality care.

4. Culture for Care
What is Culture?
“Whilst we cannot ‘see’ our workplace culture and may be largely unaware of it, we can always see its impact”.
Culture for Care Toolkit – Feb 2015
Definitions from the sector – section 2 of the toolkit
In the social care sector – people who receive care and support experience the behaviour of care and support staff.
Positive behaviours = positive culture = good quality services

5. We all see things differently…..
We are all individuals and we see and experience things differently and whether we are providing, receiving, commssioning or regulating care and support our view about what good looks like will differ – its not an artistic illusion!

6. Culture for Care
What we see is how people are behaving and ultimately that influences how we feel.
What does ‘a positive workplace culture’ feel like?
Culture is what makes people feel ‘good’ about either receiving a service or working in a particular service or team.
Staff are always so kind to me….
Everyone is so friendly – nothing is too much trouble…..
I know I can trust the staff here…..
Everyone respects each other around here….
If staff can say all of these things then they will enjoy their jobs and behave positively
In a ‘people profession’ we experience peoples behaviour
This is where positive workplace cultures begin to flourish – building on your sucessful VBR approaches it is essential that the same VB approaches are displayed by everyone in the organisation whilst working within the policies and procedures set.

7. Organisational Values
The guiding principles that are most important to the employer. These principles are used to define the right and wrong ways of working and help to inform important decisions and choices
They help to set the culture and require a collective understanding to ensure staff embrace the chosen values and uphold them
Organisational values can include: being accountable; making a difference; delivering quality; being reliable; meeting deadlines; respecting company policy & rules, & respecting others
During this section I’m going to touch briefly on the values that will influence the culture of your organisation and then look at value-based recruitment as a place to start embedding these.
So, organisational values are the guiding principles that are most important to you as the employer about the way that you work – they can includes things like respecting others, being positive, being accountable – and the workforce having a collective understanding and agreement of these is key to ensure that everyone knows what’s expected of them and that they do the right things for the right reasons – not just because that was the way they were told to do something.
There are some useful resources on our website – all of these can be accessed via the link on the slide
These include top tips for employers on embedding values at all stages of recruitment and retention – from the initial selection phase through to induction, supervision & appraisal and leadership and management.
We also have some video case studies of employers talking about how they’ve invested in workplace values

8. Defining the values
In groups / pairs identify your top 3 behaviours for the workforce to ensure a positive workplace culture and good quality of care.

9. Sector led improvement
GROUP EXERCISE:
Top 3 behaviours for the workforce to ensure a positive workplace culture and good quality of care…….
SOCIAL CARE COMMITMENT EMPLOYEE STATEMENTS 
Work responsibly
Uphold dignity
Work co-operatively
Communicate effectively
Protect privacy
Continue to learn
Treat people fairly 1. 2. 3.

10. The employee commitment is a promise to:
Work responsibly
Uphold dignity
Work co-operatively
Communicate effectively

11. The employer commitment is a promise to:
Recruit staff who care
Make sure staff understand safety and quality standards
Help staff develop their skills
Take responsibility for how staff work
Supervise staff properly
Provide thorough induction training
Support staff to put their commitment into practice everyday

12. Culture for Care The Culture for Care toolkit
6 interactive sections
With so many questions along the journey to defining, maintaining and improving positive workplace cultures we have designed a toolkit to help employers and providers address these issues.
Visit:

13. Influences – What is workplace Culture?
Culture for Care
The Culture for Care toolkit
Hard copy – 3 sections….
SECTION 2:
Influences – What is workplace Culture?
Incl. Poster
SECTION 3:
How to develop and maintain a positive workplace culture
SECTION1:
Introduction and Business Case for Culture
SECTION1:
Introduction to the toolkit. Foreword from Norman Lamb and outline of the types of employers and providers who developed the toolkit.
The Business Case….
Key messages from national organisations – pertinent to this group is that the first key message from ADASS states: ‘where services are integrated, ADASS believes that positive workplace cultures can support the workforce to develop a common vision and shared values’.
SECTION 2:
Definitions from the sector – the way we do things around here
Some theoreticl models explained in breif – to highlight that there is no ‘one’ or ‘ultimate’ positive culture.
SECTION 3:
Delves into each aspect of cultural influences and elements giving a summary, scenario and signposting to further resources for each. Helps to open up convesations and start to identify what good about your culture – what should be held on to and what could be changed.

14. Culture for Care The Culture for Care toolkit
6 interactive sections online
Hardcopy version available –
Visit:

15. Taking a values-based approach – Recruitment
When interviewing prospective employees it is important to understand their values. Although you can train people to cover skills gaps, and you can help people gain experience, it's really hard to get people to change their values
Don’t assume prospective employees know about workplace values. Be clear about what is expected within the role. It’s important the workplace values match those of the individual
Moving on to value-based recruitment – we’re aware that too often, when recruiting, the focus is very much on the qualifications people hold and the previous experience they’ve had. While these are obviously important this approach can mean that people who may not have the right quals – but who do have the right values and who would be excellent carers – are overlooked
If someone starts who doesn’t perhaps have the level of knowledge you’re looking for – they can be trained and given experience on the job, but it’s a lot harder to change someone’s personality or mindset
Oxfordshire County Council has done a lot of work with some of their private and voluntary providers around this and they’ve found that once VBR was introduced, people who employers may have said no to in the past were offered positions – and people who would have previously been offered positions were found to be unsuitable
Also, by making your organisational values clear from the start the person can decide whether the organisation’s right for them as well – which will support retention in the longer term
So – how do you approach VBR?
It’s key to start embedding values from the very beginning so it’d be good practice to make your values clear in your job adverts. One employer I know of uses straplines such as ‘Would you like to make a difference’ and ‘Can you keep a promise?’ – it’s eye-catching and introduces the fact that at the heart of what they do is developing relationships of trust with the people they support so that people who apply for jobs with them are aware of that from the very start
Using interview questions that are based around your organisational values – and some employers have developed a behaviour framework and indicators that underpins their recruitment process – these questions might focus on someone’s past behaviours so you can identify – just to give an example – whether someone can work in a way which upholds a person’s dignity.
It could be that staff involved in the recruitment process are trained to ensure that they take on people who do embrace your workplace values
Your values need to be incorporated in your person specifications and job descriptions
Something else that is key is continually reviewing your recruitment process – has there been a positive impact on the organisation and the people you support – has the quality of care improved and are people staying in post for longer?

16. The values based recruitment toolkit
A toolkit to help you:
- Identify your values
- Embed your values
- Include values in your recruitment and selection
- Reinforce your values
- Include your values in sv, appraisal etc
- Ensure your values are embedded into your L&M
- Check your values
Seminars available to support you
Toolkit and seminars available on this link:
Something Skills for Care has to support you is our Value-Based Recruitment Toolkit which we were funded by the Department of Health to develop in 2013.
Again this can be accessed from the link on the slide

17. Come and see me at the Skills for Care stand!
Thankyou 
Come and see me at the Skills for Care stand!