Supporting the Support Structure

摘要

Changes to legislation can have significant and immediate impact upon the delivery and development of service provision. This will often call for a countrywide requirement for a specific set of skills and experience to be in situ as a priority. The Care Act, which brings together a number of existing laws, and introduces new duties to local authorities to ensure that wellbeing, dignity and choice are at the heart of health and social care provision, is one such case.Every local authority in the country is grappling with the scale and implications of the Act and so excellent interim programme managers, with previous experience across adult social care and health, have been in high demand. Many of our clients either do not have the spare capacity to respond or the necessary skills within their permanent work force. In these circumstances, we are seen as a partner able to provide a flexible resource and secure additional capacity for focused periods of time with the brief to deliver a tightly defined set of outcomes. The addition of expert interims to a workforce can also provide additional benefits: 1. They can provide an independent view or play devil's advocate without any anxiety about impacting their long term career 2. They can challenge current thinking and assist in quality assuring the options appraisal process 3. They bring wide ranging experience from a number of clients to the benefit of their current client 4. The best interim managers will facilitate a transfer of skills leaving the client's permanent staff better able to deliver this sort of work themselves in the future.