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Section 3 of 6
Pathway 4: Providing clarity

Providing clarity

The 4 capabilities shown as 4 sections in a circle. Capability 2 which is providing clarity, is highlighted.

Providing clarity as a practice leader

Providing clarity as a practice leader in children's services means ensuring that team members, stakeholders, and families clearly understand:  

  • goals 
  • expectations 
  • roles 
  • decision-making processes 
  • modelling transparency
  • focused direction in service delivery

Examples of how you can provide clarity

Strategic communication

Communicating the organisation's strategic vision ensures you align priorities with social care values, helping all staff understand how their roles contribute to broader objectives. Engaging with senior leaders, external partners, and stakeholders ensures you both: 

  • gather diverse input, address ambiguities 
  • align efforts to improve outcomes for children and families.

High-level decision-making 

Explaining the rationale behind strategic decisions ensures you help senior staff understand the context and implications for their teams and the service.

Collaborating consistently with multi-agency stakeholders ensures you confirm alignment on decisions and maintain a coordinated approach to collaborative efforts across services. 

Leadership roles and responsibilities 

Delegating strategic objectives ensures you assign clear responsibilities to senior managers, providing defined outcomes and timeframes to guide their leadership and team effectiveness.

Providing leadership resources ensures you equip senior staff with training, tools, and support to implement strategies and manage teams aligned with organisational priorities. 

Feedback and performance expectations 

Providing constructive feedback ensures you guide senior managers on strategic leadership and service delivery outcomes, offering clear direction on strengths and improvement areas.

Maintaining accessibility ensures you support senior managers by being available to address complex issues, building clarity and confidence in managing children's social care services.

Over to you

Spend 10 minutes exploring one of the following: 

  • How clearly do you communicate the strategic vision to ensure senior managers, and their teams understand their contributions to achieving the broader goals in children's social care? 
  • How effectively do you provide strategic feedback and support to senior managers, ensuring they can lead their teams and address complex or important issues? 

You can use the ‘Providing clarity as a practice leader’ section in your 4C leadership capability framework action plan for this activity.

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The resources have been developed by Frontline in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 30 January 2025
Last updated: 30 January 2025