Chapter 61 – Francis Gahan (D4SOP6)
Domain 4 Standard of Proficiency 6
Understand the importance of participation in performance management activities for effective service delivery.
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KEY TERMS Effective service delivery Performance management Activities
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Social care is … a profession that allows you to become the change that you want to see in the world. Those who become social care workers will often find their own happiness and fulfilment in caring for and supporting others. |
TASK 1
How can performance management activities influence the standard of support that social care workers provide for service users?
Introduction
Although performance management is a relatively new concept in the provision of social care in the Republic of Ireland, there is no doubting the benefits of such a process if carried out in the correct spirit and manner (Carbery 2013). Performance management is increasingly becoming central to unlocking the success of a social care organisation and in ensuring that the social care worker is best placed to provide effective support to those they care for. While descriptions of performance management derived from other sectors such as industry or economics might seem impersonal or unrelated to ‘caring’ work, there is value in applying this concept to social care practice, if the focus and intent of one’s work is to promote the wellbeing, empowerment and autonomy of those they support. It is well understood that such outcomes are best achieved through the medium of the relationship that is built and maintained between service user and social care worker. As such, performance management in social care work must focus on ensuring that the conduit through which the work is carried out (the relationship) is managed, maintained and positively reinforced. Logically, if the goal is to maintain fertile and fruitful relationships, the social care worker must ensure that they too are fit to support service users, willing to engage in self-care and supervisory support and eager to embrace the concept of performance management that will ultimately result in better outcomes for service users.
Performance Management
Armstrong (2014) describes performance management as the continuous process of developing the performance of human resources within an organisation. This, as Corbett (2016) suggests, requires the alignment of individual and team goals to the strategic aims of the organisation. Rostam (2020) also outlines the need for the continuous appraisal and development of individuals and teams within an organisation. He suggests that this must be carried out on a cyclical basis to allow for continuous communication, support leading to skills development and increased performance of staff members and organisational teams.
Performance management has evolved from an operational concern to one that plays a strategic role in the achievement and outcomes of an organisation. Thus ‘social care’ has adopted principles from performance management, with good reason. While the outcomes of manufacturing and commercial industries often differ greatly from the outcomes associated with social care work, there are many benefits to the adoption of the concept of performance management by the social care profession. However, it is essential that we take heed in applying such principles to ‘caring work’ to ensure that performance management is done in a manner that is both appropriate and beneficial to those we support, to social care workers themselves and to social care organisations. Performance management in social care should be seen as a more fluid and organic concept than in other sectors because the nature of social care work itself is ever-varying and ever-varied. There are numerous service types supporting service users with a multiplicity of human need and each individual service user will inevitably have unique personalities, strengths, limitations and needs.
Performance management is a career-long engagement that social care workers and organisations should use to ensure the best possible care is provided for those they support. It occurs even before a social care worker is employed by a social care agency. Before they secure employment with an organisation, they will most likely be interviewed for the position. This can be seen as the first step in the performance management process. Interview panel members will need to be satisfied that the potential employee holds the appropriate skill and knowledge levels to work in the organisation. They will also ascertain the interviewee’s level of desire to care for service users of the organisation and this will give some insight into the value systems and motivations of the individual.
While explicit performance indicators such as the level of training and experience of staff members needs to be managed to ensure that the skills and knowledge of a staff group are maximised, there are also implicit performance indicators that should be acknowledged and monitored through the performance management process. Implicit performance includes aspects of our practice with a service such as how we communicate and relate to others, how we feel and think about our work and what motivates us to care for others. The culture and norms of an organisation and the collective motivations of a team can affect these. These can in turn influence how individual social care workers consume knowledge and how social care workers work and think about the work they do. Therefore, it is a necessary part of performance management to ensure that the individual and team values and attitudes in an organisation are aligned with the core values and principles of social care work. This implies that those who manage the performance of social care workers must ensure that employees of a social care organisation practice in a non-judgemental, non-discriminatory and empowering manner.
Effective Service Delivery
Organised social care delivery and the outcomes associated with social care work are very different from those of manufacturing, economic and commercial organisations, which are usually concerned with generating financial profit. In education, practice placement allows students to apply theory to the work of social care and to hone their skills in the work. Such an opportunity also helps students to appreciate the true values of the work and the principles underlying social care practice, and to understand the desired outcomes of such work, thus instilling the meaning of effective service delivery in the social care student.
One way to gain an understanding of the meaning of effective service delivery in social care is to examine definitions associated with the work. Lalor and Share (2013) have interrogated a variety of definitions and while they consider that social care practice cannot easily be tied to one single, comprehensive definition, they provide common strands or factors which are central to all aspects of the profession. These include ‘shared life-spaces’, ‘support’, ‘protection’ and ‘advocacy’. Most notably, definitions of social care provide that the work is fundamentally based on a relationship that is built and maintained between service user and worker. Thus, the ‘relational’ aspects of the work must be considered essential to effective service provision.
Social care has traditionally been differentiated from other professions mainly by virtue of the centrality of the relational aspects of the work and the reliance on the relationship that is formed between the social care worker and service user(s) in achieving ‘desired outcomes’. Relationships are therefore seen as the crux of the work and essential to the achievement of positive outcomes for service users. Social care is about human development, knowledge of ‘the person’ and trust in relationship-based practice as the catalyst for human growth and healing. Therefore, performance management in the social care sector should be intrinsically concerned with both the individual’s and team’s ability to hold the relational aspect of service provision at the heart of their practice and to support service users in meeting their own goals, which are ultimately central to organisational outcomes. Building and maintaining relationships requires specific approaches, attributes, skills and value systems. Performance management activities provide an opportunity for support and advice in sustaining these principles.
Such principles are often inherent in the mission statements and vision of social care organisations and apparent in the principles and policies that guide the work. Organisational guidelines also set out the desired outcomes of the work that social care workers engage in every day. Organisational goals are included in the continuous support of staff and are central to evaluating, managing and supporting the performance of a staff team. Therefore, organisational policies will be in place to promote best practice and to ensure that all staff and service users are treated fairly and with dignity. These might include a dignity at work policy, supervision policy, complaints procedure policy and a staff appraisal policy.
Performance Management Activities in Social Care Practice
Social Care Ireland (2015) describes continuing professional development (CPD) as a process whereby social care workers continuously broaden their knowledge base, skills and expertise. By engaging in CPD activities social care workers ensure the maintenance of high standards of conduct and practice, which will ultimately lead to increased benefits for those who are supported and advocated for in the work. It is advisable that social care workers consult with and get feedback from their line managers and supervisors in deciding on CPD activities.
CORU provides that social care workers ‘must make sure that [their] knowledge, skills and performance are of a high quality, up to date and relevant to their practice’. Registrants are ‘required to maintain and develop professional competence by participating in continuing professional development’ (CORU 2013: 13). CPD is central to ensuring that standards of practice are maintained and social care workers who register with CORU must engage in 30 hours of CPD in each year of practice. They must also maintain a CPD portfolio of development activities that they have engaged in as part of professional performance development.
Such activities can include active engagement with supervision and mentoring, participation with a professional body or learning from online sources (see CORU 2020). In a sense CPD is about monitoring and maintaining one’s own standards of practice and while CORU has the authority to audit individual CPD portfolios, it is the responsibility of the social care worker to ensure that they engage in what might be coined ‘self performance management’ and to choose activities that will allow for their own continued development.
Supervision is another performance management activity that social care workers engage with during social care practice and social care educational programmes often provide in-depth theoretical training in the principles and practices of supervision in social care. Morrison asserts that ‘the overall aim of supervision is to promote best practice for clients by maintaining existing good practice and continuously striving to improve it’ (2003: 46). Furthermore, Hawkins and Shohet (2006) suggest that the importance of supervision in practice cannot be overestimated as it serves to support workers who are often involved in the complex and emotionally involved relational work of social care. Such work often requires much personal and emotional involvement and supervision provides the opportunity for the worker to be supported in overcoming challenges in practice, to flourish and develop through guidance, counselling and direction, as described by Page and Wosket (1994). Kadushin and Hawkins (2003) consider that supervision is involved with the examination of one’s effectiveness in practice and it requires the worker to evaluate issues such as professional strengths and limitations, personal effectiveness and even one’s personality. Supervision has three main functions, according to Morrison (2003): support, accountability and education. The table shows some practice examples of the functions of supervision and potential responses to such examples.
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Function |
Example |
Response Through Supervision |
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Support |
A social care worker in a residential child care setting discusses an incident when a child they had been supporting became extremely upset and began crying uncontrollably. The social care worker found this situation distressing as he knew that the child’s mother had recently died. The social care worker was unable to console the child at that moment. It also evoked memories of the loss of his own mother when he was a child. This added to the emotional response of the social care worker. |
The supervisor provides a quiet space for the social care worker to talk about the incident. They both discuss the incident and the supervisor provides feedback on the positive aspects of the social care worker’s actions during the incident. They discuss the emotional response of the social care worker to the incident and the impact that this has had on him. They may decide that counselling support is required for the social care worker to deal with any unresolved feelings associated with the death of his mother when he was a child. Support and advice is provided in relation to how the social care worker might manage a similar situation in future and support the child with their loss. |
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Accountability |
A new infection control policy has been introduced in a day care service for older people due to an outbreak of a dangerous virus in the community. The supervisor is tasked with ensuring that all employees in the day service are adhering to the policy. |
During supervision, the supervisor provides the social care worker with a copy of the infection control policy and discusses the practicalities of implementing such a policy. The supervisor enables the social care worker to ask questions and discuss any uncertainties about implementing the policy. They may review progress of this in following supervision sessions. |
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Function |
Example |
Response Through Supervision |
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Education |
A supervisor observes a new employee interaction with an older man with Down Syndrome who is non-verbal. The supervisor notices that the older man is trying to communicate that he wishes to have his lunch at a local restaurant. The social care worker misinterprets the man’s non-verbal communication and does not respond in a way that acknowledges the request of the service user. |
In supervision the supervisor spends time discussing the needs of the service user and his preference to eat out at a local restaurant. The social care worker is educated on the non-verbal communication of the older man and what such communication might represent for him. The supervisor may ask the social care worker to study the behavioural support plan of the older man to gain further knowledge. The service user may also wish to be involved in providing additional training for the social care worker and the supervisor may organise and support this training. The social care worker is encouraged to ask questions and a supportive atmosphere is provided. |
The Child and Family Support Agency, Tusla, contends that effective supervision practices should be at the core of organised support for children and families (Tusla/HSE 2013). It says that equal responsibility must be shared by the organisation, supervisor and supervisee to ensure proactive engagement with the process. Indeed, the need to ensure ongoing effectiveness and performance
Formal staff appraisal is also a mechanism by which social care organisations promote performance management. The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) provide that ‘each individual staff member’s performance is formally appraised, at least once a year’ (HIQA 2018: 67). Appraisal is a more formal process than supervision. It is a systematic review of the performance of a social care worker over a period of time – usually a year. It involves setting new goals, reviewing previous goals and evaluating the job role (Morrison 2003). It is also necessary to consider aspects of an individual’s performance during appraisal processes that have been positive and to identify areas of practice that require improvement. This allows both the social care worker and the organisation to record and monitor performance and this should be carried out in line with organisational goals and with the needs of service users in mind. It is advisable that performance management activities and appraisals be undertaken with reference to SCWRB’s Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers (2017) and Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics (2019), ensuring that any aspects of a social care worker’s practice requiring additional attention, support or training are addressed.
The Importance of Performance Management in Social Care
It is possible that through life experience and employment in other sectors, some people have come to see the process of performance management as a tool for addressing poor standards of work or a mechanism of control for organisations and managers to keep workers ‘in line’. This might have occurred due to a lack of understanding or application by former managers of such a concept in previous work situations. This is not a helpful way of framing performance management in social care. While performance management systems have become increasingly common in many sectors of employment, they are now a constant feature of social care practice in the Republic of Ireland.
However, in human service work, performance management should be considered a continuous process of reflection on the culture, norms and beliefs of an organisation and not a process through which organisations can maintain dominance and control over their workforce. Moreover, Handy (1999) suggests, performance management should be a mechanism by which we can continually review the traditions, values and work practices of our place of work.
Possible Outcomes for Effective Performance Management
- Clarify job roles, responsibilities and expectations
- Enhance individual and group productivity
- Develop employee capability and effectiveness through feedback and mentoring
- Align behaviours and values to organisational ethos and mission
- Improve communication between staff and management
- Improve outcomes for service users
- Promote self-care
On achieving the minimum educational standard of a Level 7 degree from an approved education provider (SCWRB 2017), graduates will have met a minimum standard of education, knowledge and skills which will allow them to register with CORU and to work safely and effectively in practice. The profession also requires that registrants engage in the process of CPD to ensure that social care workers continue to build on their own standards of practice and on those of the profession itself. Furthermore, caring work can often be challenging due to demands associated with emotion, relationships and dependency, and this can have consequences for social care workers such as occupational stress and even burnout. The importance of performance management also comes into play in supporting staff members to identify occupational stress and to address any issues that may be causing such difficulties.
While social care is a profession that can yield significant personal and moral reward, it also requires that social care workers be cognisant of its challenges and engage in reflective practice and self-care. This is also where performance management and supervision can be effective, providing the opportunity for staff to reflect on their practice, and identify training and development activities which will encourage professional development and self-care. A supportive and understanding work environment and team is essential to this process. Furthermore, an organisational culture that is non-judgemental and supportive of the development and wellbeing of its human resources is also crucial in managing and improving the performance of staff.
As considered earlier, those who write about and indeed those who have experienced social care work agree that the ‘relationship’ is central to the caring task and to the successful outcomes of the social care organisation (Howard & Lyons 2014; McHugh & Meenan 2013; McCann James et al. 2009; Hanlon 2009). Therefore, performance management in social care work must place considerable emphasis on ensuring that the conditions within a social care organisation allow for the growth and maintenance of effective relationships in supporting those in their care. Performance management activities allow for a space where a manager/supervisor can provide advice on how a social care worker might change or enhance their practice to develop or maintain their relationships with service users, other staff members and other professionals.
Education and training programmes in professional social care provide students with knowledge that will enable them to begin to understand the needs of those they will support in their career. This includes knowledge of principles of respect, empowerment, social justice, advocacy and non- discriminatory practice. Training and education also provides the opportunity for the development of practice skills and the application of the necessary attributes to the work through practice placement. These skills and attributes include communication and people skills, self-awareness, empathy, inter-agency collaboration and the ability to reflect on one’s work for personal and professional development and for one’s self-care. But there is a need to be ever aware throughout a person’s career of one’s performance in practice; one’s strengths and limitations. This is necessary so that social care workers can ensure that they are as effective as possible in supporting others to achieve their goals or to overcome problems in their lives.
While social care work is increasingly adopting principles of performance management for effective service delivery, this needs to be carried out in a manner that continues to hold the needs of the service user at the heart of service delivery. Social care workers care for a diverse range of service users who may be experiencing disadvantage, vulnerability or marginalisation, including people with a disability, people who are homeless, older persons, people with substance dependency and families experiencing difficulty. Organisations and individuals who continue to embrace principles of performance management should continue to believe in the relationship as the key determinant of effective service delivery and adapt performance management activities to support this.
The type of work engaged in by social care workers is, by its nature, extremely varied and in turn it requires a varied and broad range of skills, attributes and a considerable degree of knowledge to deliver effective support. This can be both a rewarding and a challenging experience for those who choose social care as a career. The choice of an individual to opt for such a vocation must be respected, rewarded, and supported. Therefore, it is necessary that organisations and social care workers who are driven to support others experiencing vulnerability, dysfunction or distress in their lives appreciate the importance of participation in performance management activities for effective service delivery, self-care and to help others meet their physical, emotional and social needs, achieve their goals and live fulfilled lives.
Tips for Practice Educators
Practice educators should provide information to students about the process of performance management in their organisation, the activities employed to manage performance of staff and the responsibilities of those involved. Such information might be in the form of a discussion or the provision of agency policy documentation and forms associated with recording and monitoring practice performance.
Practice educators can provide a discussion about the importance of performance management during supervision. It would be useful to carry out a ‘mock’ appraisal with the student during the latter stages of placement, using normal procedures and forms, and to support the student in identifying training and CPD opportunities to address their development needs at that point.
Practice educators should encourage the development of reflexivity and reflective practice in their students’ work. This can be done by encouraging the use of a reflective journal, which the student can use in reflecting on their own work performance during supervision meetings. The student should be supported in developing their critical thinking skills when reflecting on the work of the organisation and on their strengths and limitations as a social care worker.
References
Armstrong, M. (2014) Armstrong’s Handbook of Performance Management: An Evidence-Based Guide to Delivering High Performance (5th edn) London: Kogan Page.
Carbery, R. (ed.) (2013) Human Resource Management: A Concise Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Corbett, K. (2016) Performance Management in Irish Public and Private Sector Organisations: Moving Towards Multicultural Performance Management Practice. Dublin: Technological University Dublin. Available at <https://arrow.tudublin.ie/buschmarcon/162/> [accessed 1 March 2021].
CORU (2013) Framework for Registration Boards Continuing Professional Development Standard and Requirements. Dublin: Health and Social Care Professionals Council.
2017) Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers. Available at <https://www.coru.ie/files- education/scwrb-standards-of-proficiency-for-social-care-workers.pdf>.
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