Aspiring Leaders

If you’ve found this page, you might be just starting out on your leadership journey – or you might be curious about leadership and looking for a place to start. We have collated leadership programmes that might support your development, resources for you to read/watch/listen to in your own time and other opportunities. We will update this regularly and hope this will be a useful aid as you progress along your leadership journey.

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Programmes

These programmes offer opportunities across social work, social care and health for aspiring, new and emerging leaders. Click on the link below to explore what they each offer.

Learn more about Programmes

Leadership Bites – an answer to a known appetite? | Leading to Change (for social work, social care and health)
New Horizons | Career Development | Leading To Change | NHS Scotland (for social work, social care and health)
Leadership in Practice Scotland | Turas | Learn (for all health and care professions)
Developing Your Confidence as a Leader (for social work, social care and health; the link will help you find out more and be notified when courses are available)
NHS Scotland Management Training Scheme (for NHS Boards)
An Introduction to Leading with Kindness and Compassion in Health and Social Care | Leading To Change (a King’s Fund course open to all in health and care)
Leading Well for Staff Health and Wellbeing in the NHS | Leading To Change (a King’s Fund course designed for NHS leaders but open and may be relevant for social care, voluntary and community sectors).
Digital Health and Care Leadership Programme | Leading To Change (for all health and care professions)

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Resources

These resources are suggestions for you to use as you like. We have added suggested time commitments where relevant to help you plan your learning. We hope these offer bite-sized opportunities for self-paced development at a time which suits you.

Learn more about Resources

The Leading to Change podcast channel offers the opportunity to listen to leadership stories from across the sectors, including alumni from leadership programmes sharing their experience and reflections to help potential future applicants. You can listen on Spotify or watch on Vimeo.
We have blogs from leaders at all levels across the sectors – you can filter these by sector and topic to find inspiring stories, lessons learned and potential role models.
Leadership Links Webinar Recording: Taking control of your career – How to think and talk about your next career steps | Leading to Change (watch: 40-minute webinar with accompanying checklist)
Reflect and Connect Pack: Leadership 101: Role Modelling Starts with Self | Leading to Change (read: PowerPoint slides with links to three 10-minute videos and opportunities for reflection and further learning)
Leaders and managers | Turas | Learn (the equality and diversity zone on Turas has information for leaders and managers across health and social care, including links to resources about mental health, disability, bias and inclusive workplaces)
Conscious Inclusion learning session | Turas | Learn (watch: 45-minute webinar which introduces the key concepts and theories of bias and some tips to combat it)
Cultural humility | Turas | Learn (this resource has been designed to support the development of positive cultural humility values, attitudes and behaviours in the health and social care workforce in Scotland. The resource recommends allowing 1 hour, 45 minutes total, but the content is in three units and you can dip in and out for your own learning at your own time.)
Page 1 of Leadership Collection | Iriss (resources from The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services about Leadership)
SSSC 23 Things Leadership – Activities to support your leadership development in social and health services (information for social workers across Scotland – 23 concepts to explore with accompanying prompts for reflection)

Recruitment Guidance

If you’re an aspiring leader, that might mean you’re considering applying for new roles. The following resources might help you prepare and practice:

Learn more about Recruitment Guidance

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Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities

Mentoring and coaching opportunities will vary across sectors and locations. It’s definitely worth researching what opportunities might be available for you or considering asking someone you admire to be an informal mentor. Where we find more formal opportunities, we will list them here and indicate who they are offered to.

Find out more about Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities

Social Work Professional Support Service (SWPSS) | BASW (offers free and independent coaching for social workers and social work students across the UK)
SSSC Mentoring guidance.pdf (guidance produced by the Scottish Social Services Council and partners which aims to promote good practice in peer mentoring)
Coaching and mentoring | Factsheets | CIPD (definitions and further information about the benefits of coaching and mentoring from the CIPD)
Coaching and Mentoring | Turas | Learn (information, resources and support on coaching and mentoring through the Turas Learn platform)