Who’s In Charge?

When I was CEO, I enjoyed visiting the services and in almost 25 years, I spoke to hundreds of staff. One of the biggest complaints I heard time after time was that when some of their colleagues committed poor practice, no action was taken leaving them feeling demoralised and, in some cases, contemplating leaving.

Staff complain about rules but in most cases they like to know how to practice correctly and safely. Policies & Procedures along with Codes of Conduct, etc. provide this knowledge, but regardless of how comprehensive these documents are, fairness can only be achieved if Team Leaders/Senior Carers, etc. who supervise staff, appropriately manage those who do not adhere to these requirements.

This is a true story that I heard on a podcast, unrelated to health and social care, but demonstrates how important maintaining rules are. It was about a man who took his son to football practice on Saturdays. He didn’t know much about football and one Saturday when he arrived the person who normally refereed the match had been delayed. The players were getting impatient, so some of the parents convinced him to referee the match.

It was chaos. Some of the players were fowling opposing players completely unchallenged by him, resulting in players getting frustrated because of his lack of knowledge of football rules. When the guy who normally refereed finally arrived, multiple players were sitting on the ground injured, and most of the players were frustrated because opposing players had broken the rules unchallenged. The players were aware that the man who agreed to act as referee knew very little about football and thought it would be a great match with him refereeing. But it wasn’t. His lack of knowledge and skills resulted in injustice, frustration, and injuries. What should have been an enjoyable football match ended up being a shambles, and the players were delighted when the guy who normally refereed returned and fairness was restored. The man who stood in temporarily said it was a horrendous experience.

This example demonstrates the risks of a person supervising staff in a care service with little/no knowledge of the rules and how to uphold them. The consequences are feelings of injustice and frustration amongst capable and dependable staff, along with the risk of them resigning. In addition to which, service users could suffer harm because of poor practice.