Does professional identity impact on the credibility of leaders of integrated health and social care services?

Longshaw, CA

Abstract

The last two decades has seen a range of government reforms that have involved major changes in the provision of health and social care. The drive towards integration continues with the recent publication of The Health Care Bill (2021). This research has been conducted in an integrated children and young people service but is relevant to any integrated health and social care public sector service model.
The services in this research are provided through area based multi-professional teams consisting of Health, Social Care and Learning and Development professionals. When the service was initially established all Service and Team Leaders had to have a registered professional qualification. This research explores through a mixed methods approach whether professional identity influences the credibility of leaders working in integrated services.
Using a Mixed Methods Convergent design, data was collected and analysed from a stratified sample of (n=116) questionnaires and (n=25) semi-structured interviews, generating themes that informed the findings.
The research found that Leaders managing multi-agency services do not have to be professionally qualified to gain credibility, it is a leader’s qualities and behaviours that gain them credibility when leading multi-professional teams in an integrated service.
This research will assist and inform recruitment and selection processes of future service and team leaders working in integrated services.
Several recommendations for future practice emerged from the research. These include the recommendation that if a non-professionally qualified service or team leader is appointed, arrangements must be in place to give presence to the professional voice at an operational, strategic and executive level. A further recommendation is to ensure that multi-professional staff receive continual training and development, to enable them to understand the different leadership qualities brought by non-professional and professional leaders so as to improve a leader’s self-belief and credibility.

Citation

Longshaw, C. Does professional identity impact on the credibility of leaders of integrated health and social care services?. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 12, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 12, 2022
• Award Date: May 31, 2022