• Coaching and mentoring

      We aim to promote coaching and mentoring as key to improved care delivery, and to improve access to high quality coaches for people working at all levels.

      Coaching and mentoring are highly effective, complementary ways to raise the quality and impact of management and leadership.

    • Our national coaching register is now live

      • Members receive a 20% discount on fees
      Find a coach
      • Overview
      • How it works
      • How you benefit
      • Fees

      • Overview

        Key points  

        Careers in adult social care can be both challenging and rewarding. A coach or mentor can help to give guidance and support as challenges are faced, assisting staff in negotiating challenging situations with increased confidence.

        Coaching and mentoring can help individuals:

        • develop greater self-confidence and increased motivation, through assisting with increased self-reflection and understanding
        • focus on key personal development aims and objectives
        • develop key managerial competencies, such as using strategic thinking, problem solving and influencing skills, and how to begin to apply these in the workplace
        • understand the complex structure of the social care system. Coaches and mentors can also increase organisational knowledge through sharing their understanding and experiences.
        • gain invaluable advice on career progression and advancement, and guidance on the importance of building professional networks

        Who coaching and mentoring is for

         

        Individuals who want:

        • Increased self awareness, motivation and enthusiasm
        • To prioritise their work
        • Improved confidence and more effective time management
         

        Employers who want:

        • Staff to meet business goals and targets
        • More quality and impact from managers and leaders
        • To support and develop staff 
         

      • How it works

        Both coaching and mentoring differ from counselling in that their primary focus is not to resolve personal problems or issues of personal well-being in a therapeutic way.

        Coaching focuses on specific developmental or change issues with defined goals. It enables you to identify ways forward and improve your performance through structured sessions, often over a short time scale.  

        Mentoring is generally more informal and is often provided by more experienced colleagues, leaders or peers. It can be more wide ranging in its focus with longer-term relationships.

        Find out how you benefit 

        What your coach or mentor will do

        Your coach (or mentor) will work to enable you to define your priority issues, set clear goals and identify actions. They will do this by using techniques such as careful listening and skilful questioning.

        Your coach is not there to give you advice but will challenge your thinking, ask questions that deepen your own perceptions and create the space for you to ‘advise yourself’.

        If you do not have any top priorities - but want to talk around issues or get advice on, for example, specific technical matters - then coaching may not be so effective.

        How long the sessions last

        Coaching is normally carried out over an agreed number of sessions, typically four to six sessions of 1.5 or 2 hours.

        Who your coach will be

        Coaches will usually be independent professional people, working outside your organisation, that make a charge for coaching sessions.

        See fees 

         

        Coaches don’t need to have detailed knowledge of your work sector or context - so you could choose a coach with little social-care experience if you wanted. Or you might prefer to choose someone with a strong background in this field.  

        Some coaches offer telephone coaching and this is often used as an add-on to face-to-face coaching.

        You can find out more from:

         

      • How you benefit

        Many people working in adult social care want support through coaching and mentoring. The demand for coaching has increased as the challenges and complexities of adult social care managers’ roles have changed and developed over the last few years. 

        Coaching will particularly help individuals with specific issues, problems or skills that they want to address – such as goals and outcomes that they want to achieve.

        These will normally be work related, but there is often a strong overlap between these and other non-work issues. Typical topics people bring to coaching include:

        • Meeting key business objectives
        • Key personal objectives
        • Stalled or slow projects
        • Stress/time issues
        • Team or organisational development issues
        • A significant issue or problem
        • Skills or capabilities they would like to develop
        • Relationships they would like to strengthen.

      • Fees

        What your coach will charge All coaches on the Skills Academy register have agreed to charge a flat fee of £375 per two-hour session plus travel. We are pleased to be able to offer a reduced fee of £300 for members of the Skills Academy. For coaches not on our register, the cost varies.

        What your coach will charge

        It is probably true to say that the commercial world expects to pay more for coaching than the public or third sectors.

        Importantly, there is not necessarily a direct correlation between cost and quality - and you may find some poor expensive coaches and some good cheaper ones.

        Think carefully about how much you and/or your organisation can afford, and want, to pay.  Ask about discounts for the social care sector (since many coaches will want to break into this market now) and for booking a series of sessions.  

        When you will be coached

        It is up to you to arrange times that suit you both.

        Agreeing what's involved

        Once you choose a coach, it is important to be clear about the contract between you.

        • What do the costs include eg VAT ?
        • Who pays if the coach travels to you?
        • How long are sessions?
        • What happens if you want to cancel?
        • What complaints or dispute process will operate?

        Make sure, also, that you review your sessions. A good coach should ask you for feedback at the end of, and during, sessions.

        If you are not happy with how it’s going, tell the coach and review how useful the sessions and coach are. You may even decide to change your coach or to try different coaches at different times of your career or for different issues.

    • Coaching and Mentoring

    • The coaching made me sit down and really think about how I could improve and do better, how I could resolve problems and what I want to do in the future.

      Coachee on the coaching programme | TBC