What is it like working in social care? People who work in the sector might say: it is a very rewarding career, I love my job, it can be a big challenge at times. Others would say they are overworked and underpaid or comment on staff shortages and the pressure this brings. Being a social care worker is extremely rewarding; making a positive change in the lives of others is something many people say is their primary reason for choosing to work in the sector.
Millions of Loving and Caring Acts
Have you ever wondered how many caring and loving acts happen across the social care sector every day? Currently, there are 1.5 million people working across social care, and so it is safe to say there are millions of positive, uplifting, supportive, loving, caring, and courageous acts happening every day – let us celebrate this fact. Social care rarely makes the news headlines for any positive reasons. When there is a serious failure in services, this is reported in mainstream media and although we do need to hear about these cases, work needs to be done to balance this by reporting by celebrating the amazing work of individuals in the sector.
Celebrating Social Care Every Day
Instead of creating monthly campaigns to celebrate social care, why don’t we make it our everyday practice to celebrate the millions of amazing people who work in the sector?
Every day across social care, small acts of kindness, care and love keep the heart of social care beating. Little things like sharing a smile, a gentle touch, the warmth of a hand. But social care is so much more than those small gestures. Every day there are extraordinary examples of outstanding care. Social care workers support people with disabilities to develop communication skills. They help people to live happy and fulfilled lives.
Can you imagine what it is like to support someone to have a voice and to be heard, maybe for the first time in their lives? Or to help a child who has been placed into a care home develop relationships with people they can trust. Life-changing things happen every day in social care settings across the world. Where would we be without our army of social care professionals? The work they do and the difference they make in the lives of so many is impossible to place a value on. How can you place value on acts of love and care?
Developing Effective Leaders
At Grey Matter Learning, we love to celebrate the fantastic work done in social care settings all over the UK every day, and it is our passion to help improve the quality of life for those who use the services and for everyone who works in the sector too.
Effective leadership is something we can support and already do. As a Skills for Care Centre of Excellence, we offer high-quality leadership and management training like: Lead to Succeed, Well-led, and the new Leading Change Improving Care course. All three courses are aimed at developing the skills of those in leadership positions so that they too can make a crucial difference themselves by offering their staff teams the support they need to stay working in the jobs they love, with people they love.
Read more about the leadership and management programmes Grey Matter Learning facilitates here.
