Management body calls for greater investment in leadership development
A third of senior managers in health and social care are considered ineffective by their staff – and senior managers are the worst – according to a damning survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
The CMI’s survey, of around 4,500 employees in the sector, found that lower than average levels of investment in management and leadership development were hindering managers from performing to the best of their ability. At senior management level, the proportion of managers deemed to be ineffective rose to almost half (43 per cent).
The report found that average investment in management development was £1,075 per year, compared to a cross-sector average of £1,414. Managers were most likely to receive on-the-job training or internal development, but found this least effective, according to the survey.
Greater investment in management skills and support would help to increase organisational performance in a third of health and social care employers, said the CMI, and improve staff performance in a quarter.
The research also revealed that managers with a clinical background were more likely to have a better understanding of how their organisation worked, but were not as strong in ‘soft’ management skills such as communication or responding to feedback.
The CMI’s report comes at a difficult time for the NHS and other health and social care employers, who have faced criticism for creating a culture of poor management. Earlier this year, an inquiry by Robert Francis looked into poor standards of care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which ultimately led to a number of unnecessary deaths.
However, there were some more positive results to come out of the report. For example, employee engagement in the health and social care sector was broadly similar to that in other sectors, with 54 per cent of respondents reporting they were highly engaged (compared to 57 per cent across all sectors).
Commenting on the findings, CMI’s chief executive Ann Francke said: “Bad management has damaging consequences in any sector. But in the health sector more than anywhere else, strong management and leadership is critical.”
Dean Royles, chief executive of the NHS Employers organisation, said that senior mangers in the NHS had a “complex agenda” to deal with, but agreed with the CMI’s recommendations for greater investment in training and development.
“Managers in the NHS are probably the most under appreciated staff in the workforce. This year has seen their numbers cut by thousands, a massive reorganisation, a pay freeze and constant media pressure following the review into Mid Staffordshire,” he said.
“Yet they continue to cope with increasing demands on services and have delivered improvements in staff engagement and reduced sickness absence. It is an incredibly complex agenda they have to navigate and I agree that we need to spend more of our resources on their training and development and to value them more for their incredible service.”