Section 5 of 6
Pathway 2: Expanding capacity
Pathway 2: Expanding capacity
Expanding capacity
Expanding capacity as a middle manager
A middle manager expanding capacity enables continuous improvement, supports team growth, prioritises development, makes well-evidenced decisions, and drives positive outcomes for children and families.
Ways you could expand capacity
Resilience and wellbeing
Embedding a culture of resilience at all levels acknowledges staff wellbeing, enables focus on children and families, and builds the ability to recover from challenges. Recognising the effect of social work on staff wellbeing, you proactively manage risks, embedding resilience to support your team’s long-term health and effectiveness.
Impacting organisational culture
Proactively embracing new experiences creates a learning culture where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth, encouraging your team’s development through coaching and feedback. Acknowledging gaps in your team’s skills and knowledge allows you to manage them with targeted training and support, ensuring staff are equipped to meet role demands.
Innovation
Encouraging staff creativity involves them in service development and new ideas, creating a collaborative, innovative environment. Trying innovative approaches which incorporate lived experience strengthens collaboration and encourages effective solutions.
Leading change
Leading others through change helps support your team during critical periods, advocating for your area of work while identifying challenges that may affect children and families. Supporting your team through uncertainty enables you to address interdependencies, navigate change effectively and ensure no negative effect on children and families.
Over to you
Spend five minutes reflecting on one of the following questions.
- How do you balance the needs of your team with organisational goals? Are there areas where this balance feels challenging?
- In what ways could expanding your leadership capacity improve team performance and service delivery and what support do you need to achieve this?
You can use the ‘Expanding capacity as a middle manager’ section in your 4C leadership capability framework action plan for this activity.
The resources have been developed by
Frontline
in collaboration with
DfE.
Published: 30 January 2025
Last updated: 30 January 2025
Published: 30 January 2025
Last updated: 30 January 2025