Social services manager

Description

Social services managers have the responsibility for strategic and operational leadership and management of staff teams and resources within and or across social services. They are responsible for the implementation of legislation and policies relating to, for example, decisions about vulnerable people. They promote social work and social care values and ethics, equality and diversity, and relevant codes guiding practice. They are responsible for liaising with other professionals in criminal justice, education and health. They can be responsible for contributing to local and national policy development.

Other titles

The following job titles also refer to social services manager:

health and social care service manager
social care manager
social services team manager
elderly homes manager
social and care services manager
adult social services manager
older adults social services manager
manager of social service
frontline manager
residential home manager
policy manager
social care team manager
care service manager
social services team leader
social services co-ordinator
social and community services manager
children’s social services manager
social services delivery manager

Minimum qualifications

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as social services manager. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

  • the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
  • the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
  • the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Social services manager is a Skill level 4 occupation.

Social services manager career path

Similar occupations

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to social services manager.

child day care centre manager
elderly home manager
public housing manager
rescue centre manager
youth centre manager

Long term prospects

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of social services manager. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of social services manager with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

Essential knowledge and skills

Essential knowledge

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of social services manager.

Business management principles: Principles governing business management methods such as strategy planning, methods of efficient production, people and resources coordination.
Customer service: Processes and principles related to the customer, client, service user and to personal services; these may include procedures to evaluate customer’s or service user’s satisfaction.
Legal requirements in the social sector: The prescribed legislative and regulatory requirements in the social sector.
Social sciences: The development and characteristics of sociological, anthropological, psychological, political, and social policy theories.
Psychology: The human behaviour and performance with individual differences in ability, personality, interests, learning, and motivation.
Social justice: The development and principles of human rights and social justice and the way they should be applied on a case by case basis.

Essential skills and competences

These skills are necessary for the role of social services manager.

Implement marketing strategies: Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.
Monitor regulations in social services: Monitor and analyse regulations, policies and changes in these regulations in order to assess how they impact social work and services.
Perform risk analysis: Identify and assess factors that may jeopardise the success of a project or threaten the organisation’s functioning. Implement procedures to avoid or minimise their impact.
Manage government funding: Monitor the budget received through government funding, and ensure there are enough resources to cover the costs and expenses of the organisation or project.
Involve service users and carers in care planning: Evaluate the needs of individuals in relation to their care, involve families or carers in supporting the development and implementation of support plans. Ensure review and monitoring of these plans.
Work within communities: Establish social projects aimed at community development and active citizen participation.
Apply quality standards in social services: Apply quality stardards in social services while upholding social work values and principles.
Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
Evaluate social work program’s impact: Gather data to allow the assessment of the impact of a program on a community.
Apply change management: Manage development within an organisation by anticipating changes and making managerial decisions to ensure that the members involved are as less disturbed as possible.
Contribute to protecting individuals from harm: Use established processes and procedures to challenge and report dangerous, abusive, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice, bringing any such behaviour to the attention of the employer or the appropriate authority.
Deliver social services in diverse cultural communities: Deliver services which are mindful of different cultural and language traditions, showing respect and validation for communities and being consistent with policies regarding human rights and equality and diversity.
Demonstrate leadership in social service cases: Take the lead in the practical handling of social work cases and activities.
Communicate professionally with colleagues in other fields: Communicate professionally and cooperate with members of the other professions in the health and social services sector.
Follow health and safety precautions in social care practices: Ensure hygienic work practice, respecting the safety of the environment at day care, residential care settings and care at home.
Promote social change: Promote changes in relationships between individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities by taking into consideration and coping with unpredictable changes, at the micro, macro and mezzo level.
Establish daily priorities: Establish daily priorities for staff personnel. Effectively deal with multi-task workload.

Advocate for social service users: Speak for and on behalf of service users, using communicative skills and knowledge of relevant fields to assist those less advantaged.
Prevent social problems: Develop, define and implement actions that can prevent social problems, striving for the enhancement of the quality of life for all citizens.
Use person-centred planning: Use person-centred planning (PCP) and implement the delivery of social services in order to determine what the service users and their caregivers want, and how the services can support this.
Show intercultural awareness: Show sensibility towards cultural differences by taking actions which facilitate positive interaction between international organisations, between groups or individuals of different cultures, and to promote integration in a community.
Perform public relations: Perform public relations (PR) by managing the spread of information between an individual or an organisation and the public.
Set organisational policies: Participate in setting organisational policies that cover issues such as participant eligibility, program requirements, and program benefits for the service users.
Assess social service users’ situation: Assess the social situation of service users situation balancing curiosity and respect in the dialogue, considering their families, organisations and communities and the associated risks and identifying the needs and resources, in order to meet physical, emotional and social needs.
Handle conflicts: Mediate in conflicts and tense situations by acting between parties, such as service users, important others like families, and institutions, striving to effect an agreement, reconciliate, and resolve problems.
Relate empathetically: Recognise, understand and share emotions and insights experienced by another.
Listen actively: Give attention to what other people say, patiently understand points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times; able to listen carefully the needs of customers, clients, passengers, service users or others, and provide solutions accordingly.
Manage social crisis: Identify, respond and motivate individuals in social crisis situations, in a timely manner, making use of all resources.
Manage ethical issues within social services: Apply social work ethical principles to guide practice and manage complex ethical issues, dilemmas and conflicts in accordance to occupational conduct, the ontology and the code of ethics of the social services occupations, engaging in ethical decision making by applying standards of national and – as applicable – international codes of ethics or statements of principles.
Review social service plan: Review social service plans, taking service users’ views and preferences into account. Follow up on the plan, assessing the quantity and quality of services provided.
Apply decision making within social work: Take decisions when called for, staying within the limits of granted authority and considering the input from the service user and other caregivers.
Adhere to organisational guidelines: Adhere to organisational or department specific standards and guidelines. Understand the motives of the organisation and the common agreements and act accordingly.
Apply holistic approach within social services: Consider the social service user in any situation, recognising the connections between micro-dimension, meso-dimension, and macro-dimension of social problems, social development and social policies.
Work in a multicultural environment in health care: Interact, relate and communicate with individuals from a variety of different cultures, when working in a healthcare environment.
Address problems critically: Identify the strengths and weaknesses of various abstract, rational concepts, such as issues, opinions, and approaches related to a specific problematic situation in order to formulate solutions and alternative methods of tackling the situation.
Apply socially just working principles: Work in accordance with management and organisational principles and values focusing on human rights and social justice.
Promote inclusion: Promote inclusion in health care and social services and respect diversity of beliefs, culture, values and preferences, keeping in mind the importance of equality and diversity issues.
Maintain records of work with service users: Maintain accurate, concise, up-to-date and timely records of the work with service users while complying with legislation and policies related to privacy and security.
Manage fundraising activities: Initiate fundraising activities managing the place, teams involved, causes and budgets.
Promote social awareness: Promote the understanding of dynamics of social relationships between individuals, groups, and communities. Promote the importance of human rights, and positive social interaction, and the inclusion of social awareness in education.
Provide safeguarding to individuals: Help vulnerable individuals assess risks and make informed choices by proving information on indicators of abuse, measures to avoid abuse and steps to take in the case of suspected abuse.
Report on social development: Report results and conclusions on society’s social development in an intelligible way, presenting these orally and in written form to a range of audiences from non-experts to experts.
Undertake continuous professional development in social work: Undertake continuous professional development (CPD) to continuously update and develop knowledge, skills and competences within one`s scope of practice in social work.
Carry out social work research: Initiate and design research to assess social problems and evaluate social work interventions. Use statistical sources to connect the individual data with more aggregated categories and interpret data relating to the social context.
Consider economic criteria in decision making: Develop proposals and take appropriate decisions taking into account economic criteria.
Manage budgets for social services programs: Plan and administer budgets in social services, covering programmes, equipment and support services.
Build business relationships: Establish a positive, long-term relationship between organisations and interested third parties such as suppliers, distributors, shareholders and other stakeholders in order to inform them of the organisation and its objectives.
Advocate for others: Deliver arguments in favour of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy, to benefit another person.
Evaluate staff performance in social work: Evaluate the work of staff and volunteers to ensure that programs are of appropriate quality and that resources are used effectively.
Communicate with social service users: Use verbal, non-verbal, written, and electronic communication. Pay attention to the specific social service users’ needs, characteristics, abilities, preferences, age, developmental stage, and culture.
Cooperate at inter-professional level: Cooperate with people in other sectors in relation to social service work.
Accept own accountability: Accept accountability for one`s own professional activities and recognise the limits of one`s own scope of practice and competencies.
Influence policy makers on social service issues: Inform and advise policy makers by explaining and interpreting the needs of the citizens to enhance social service programs and policies.
Manage stress in organisation: Cope with sources of stress and cross-pressure in one’s own professional life, such as occupational, managerial, institutional and personal stress, and help others do the same so as to promote the well-being of your colleagues and avoid burn-out.
Analyse community needs: Identify and respond to specific social problems in a community, delineating the extent of the problem and outline the level of resources required to address it and identifying the existing community assets and resources that are available to address the problem.
Comply with legislation in social services: Act according to policy and legal requirements in providing social services.
Build helping relationship with social service users: Develop a collaborative helping relationship, addressing any ruptures or strains in the relationship, fostering bonding and gaining service users` trust and cooperation through empathic listening, caring, warmth and authenticity.

Optional knowledge and skills

Optional knowledge

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of social services manager. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Impact of social contexts on health: The social and cultural contexts of individuals` behaviours, and the impact on their health within their social and cultural context.
Government policy implementation: The procedures related to the application of government policies at all levels of public administration.
Organisational policies: The policies to achieve set of goals and targets regarding the development and maintenance of an organisation.
Law enforcement: The different organisations involved in law enforcement, as well as the laws and regulations in law enforcement procedures.
Government social security programmes: The different areas of social security provided by the government, the different rights which citizens have, which benefits are available, the rules which regulate social security and the different situations in which they apply.
Geriatrics: Geriatrics is a medical specialty mentioned in the EU Directive 2005/36/EC.
Financial management: The field of finance that concerns the practical process analysis and tools for designating financial resources. It encompasses the structure of businesses, the investment sources, and the value increase of corporations due to managerial decision-making.
Disability care: The specific methods and practices used in providing care to people with physical, intellectual and learning disabilities.
Pollution legislation: Be familiar with European and National legislation regarding the risk of pollution.
Older adults’ needs: The physical, mental, and social needs of frail, older adults.
Corporate social responsibility: The handling or managing of business processes in a responsible and ethical manner considering the economic responsibility towards shareholders as equally important as the responsibility towards environmental and social stakeholders.
Project management: Understand project management and the activities which comprise this area. Know the variables implied in project management such as time, resources, requirements, deadlines, and responding to unexpected events.
Budgetary principles: Principles of estimating and planning of forecasts for business activity, compile regular budget and reports.
Pollution prevention: The processes used to prevent pollution: precautions to pollution of the environment, procedures to counter pollution and associated equipment, and possible measures to protect the environment.
Accounting techniques: The techniques of recording and summarising business and financial transactions and analysing, verifying, and reporting the results.
Personnel management: The methodologies and procedures involved in the hiring and development of employees in order to ensure value for the organisation, as well as personnel needs, benefits, conflict resolution and ensuring a positive corporate climate.
Health care system: The structure and function of health care services.
Flood remediation equipment: The operation of the necessary tools and equipment used in flood damage and remediation activities, such as pumping flooded properties.
Adolescent psychological development: Understand the developments and the development needs of children and young persons, observing the behaviour and the attachment relationships in order to detect developmental delay.
Pedagogy: The discipline that concerns the theory and practice of education including the various instructional methods for educating individuals or groups.
Social security law: Legislation concerning the protection of individuals and the provision of aid and benefits, such as health insurance benefits, unemployment benefits, welfare programs and other government-provided social security.
Palliative care: The methods of pain relief and quality of life improvement for the patients with serious illnesses.
First response: The procedures of pre-hospital care for medical emergencies, such as first aid, resuscitation techniques, legal and ethical issues, patient assessment, trauma emergencies.
Child protection: Framework of legislation and practice meant to prevent and protect children from abuse and harm
Public housing legislation: The regulations and legislation concerning the construction, maintenance and allocation of public housing facilities.
Strategies for handling cases of elder abuse: The range of strategies and approaches utilised in the identification, termination, and prevention of instances of elder abuse. This incudes understanding of the methods and procedures used to recognise instances of elder abuse, the legal implications of abusive behaviour; and possible intervention and rehabilitation activities.
Company policies: The set of rules that govern the activity of a company.
Communication principles: The set of commonly shared principles in regards with communication such as active listening, establish rapport, adjusting the register, and respecting the intervention of others.

Optional skills and competences

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of social services manager. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Create solutions to problems: Solve problems which arise in planning, prioritising, organising, directing/facilitating action and evaluating performance. Use systematic processes of collecting, analysing, and synthesising information to evaluate current practice and generate new understandings about practice.
Manage children’s problems: Promote the prevention, early detection, and management of children`s problems, focusing on developmental delays and disorders, behavioural problems, functional disabilities, social stresses, mental disorders including depression, and anxiety disorders.
Apply conflict management: Take ownership of the handling of all complaints and disputes showing empathy and understanding to achieve resolution. To be fully aware of all Social Responsibility protocols and procedures, and to be able to deal with a problem gambling situation in a professional manner with maturity and empathy.
Prepare exercise session: Prepare equipment and facilities for the session ensuring compliance with industry and national guidelines for normal operating procedures. Plan timings and sequences for the session.
Represent the organisation: Act as representative of the institution, company or organisation to the outside world.
Maintain relations with local representatives: Maintain good relations with representatives of the local scientific, economic and civil society.
Manage budgets: Plan, monitor and report on the budget.
Protect client interests: Protect the interests and needs of a client by taking necessary actions, and researching all possibilities, to ensure that the client obtains their favoured outcome.
Tend to elderly people: Help elderly people in their physical, mental, and social needs.
Liaise with local authorities: Maintain the liaison and exchange of information with regional or local authorities.
Assess the development of youth: Evaluate the different aspects of development needs of children and young people.
Build community relations: Establish affectionate and long-lasting relationships with local communities, e.g. by organising special programms for kindergarden, schools and for dissabled and older people, raising awareness and receiving community appreciation in return.
Meet standards of practice in social services: Practice social care and social work in a lawful, safe and effective way according to standards.
Support social service users in skills management: Provide support to individuals in determining the skills they need in they everyday lives and help them in their skills development.
Apply problem solving in social service: Systematically apply a step-by-step problem-solving process in providing social services.
Establish collaborative relations: Establish a connection between organisations or individuals which may benefit from communicating with one another in order to facilitate an enduring positive collaborative relationship between both parties.
Communicate on the youth’s well-being: Communicate on the youth’s behaviour and welfare with parents, schools and other people in charge of the youth’s upbringing and education.
Advise on safety improvements: Provide relevant recommendations following the conclusion of an investigation; ensure that recommendations are duly considered and where appropriate acted upon.
Organise operations of residential care services: Plan and monitor the implementation of establishment procedures by operations staff, ensuring the proper and efficient operation of the facility for elderly care in relation to cleaning and laundry services, cooking and meals services and any other medical and nursing services required.
Ensure information transparency: Ensure that required or requested information is provided clearly and completely, in a manner which does not explicitly withhold information, to the public or requesting parties.
Maintain logbooks: Maintain the required logbooks according to practice and in established formats.
Manage emergency procedures: React quickly in case of emergency and set planned emergency procedures in motion.
Manage health and safety standards: Oversee all personnel and processes to comply with health, safety and hygiene standards. Communicate and support alignment of these requirements with the company’s health and safety programmes.
Recruit employees: Hire new employees by scoping the job role, advertising, performing interviews and selecting staff in line with company policy and legislation.
Ensure public safety and security: Implement the relevant procedures, strategies and use the proper equipment to promote local or national security activities for the protection of data, people, institutions, and property.
Conduct interview in social service: Induce clients, colleagues, executives, or public officials to talk fully, freely, and truthfully, so as to explore the interviewee`s experiences, attitudes, and opinions.
Oversee quality control: Monitor and assure the quality of the provided goods or services by overseeing that all the factors of the production meet quality requirements. Supervise product inspection and testing.
Maintain relationships with government agencies: Establish and maintain cordial working relationships with peers in different governmental agencies.
Plan social service process: Plan the social service process, defining the objective and considering the methods of implementation, identifying and accessing available resources, such as time, budget, personnel and defining indicators to evaluate the outcome.
Recruit personnel: Carry out assessment and recruitment of personnel for the production.
Plan allocation of space: Plan best allocation and utilisation of space and resources, or re-organise current premises.
Organise facility activities: Design and promote activities to meet customer demand and generate revenue.
Ensure equipment availability: Ensure that the necessary equipment is provided, ready and available for use before start of procedures.
Educate on emergency management: Educate communities, organisations, or individuals on risk management and emergency response, such as how to develop and implement prevention and reaction strategies, and educate on emergency policies specific to the risks applicable to that area or organisation.
Implement care programmes for children: Perform activities with children according to their physical, emotional, intellectual and social needs by using appropriate tools and equipment that facilitate interaction and learning activities.
Apply strategic thinking: Apply generation and effective application of business insights and possible opportunities, in order to achieve competitive business advantage on a long-term basis.
Manage personnel: Hire and train employees to increase their value to the organisation. This includes a range of human resources activity, developing and implementing policies and processes to create an employee-supportive work environment.
Investigate social security applications: Investigate the eligibility of citizens applying for social security benefits by examining documents, interviewing the citizen, and researching the related legislation.
Coordinate care: Coordinate care for patient groups, being able to manage a number of patients within a given amount of time and provide optimum health services.
Communicate with others who are significant to service users: Actively involve others who are significant to service users, communicating with them appropriately and taking their roles into account.
Apply foreign languages in social services: Communicate with social service users and social services providers in foreign languages, according to their needs.
Manage administrative systems: Ensure administrative systems, processes and databases are efficient and well managed and give the sound basis to work together with the administrative officer/staff/professional.
Apply person-centred care: Treat individuals as partners in planning, developing and assessing care, to make sure it is appropriate for their needs. Put them and their caregivers at the heart of all decisions.
Respond to enquiries: Respond to enquiries and requests for information from other organisations and members of the public.
Assist social service users with physical disabilities: Help service users with mobility problems and other physical disabilities such as incontinence, assisting in the use and care of aids and personal equipment.
Promote the safeguarding of young people: Understand safeguarding and what should be done in cases of actual or potential harm or abuse.
Contribute to the safeguarding of children: Understand, apply and follow safeguarding principles, engage professionally with children and work within the boundaries of personal responsibilities.
Liaise with colleagues: Liaise with fellow colleagues to ensure common understanding on work related affairs and agree on the necessary compromises the parties might need to face. Negotiate compromises between parties as to ensure that work in general run efficiently towards the achievement of the objectives.
Identify security threats: Identify security threats during investigations, inspections, or patrols, and perform the necessary actions to minimise or neutralise the threat.
Support children’s wellbeing: Provide an environment that supports and values children and helps them to manage their own feelings and relationships with others.
Schedule shifts: Plan staff time and shifts to reflect the demands of the business.
Delegate activities: Delegate activities and tasks to others according to the ability, level of preparation, competence and legal scope of practice. Make sure that people understand what they should do and when they should do it.
Ensure cross-department cooperation: Guarantee communication and cooperation with all the entities and teams in a given organisation, according to the company strategy.
Evaluate older adults’ ability to take care of themselves: Assess the condition of an older patient and decide if he or she needs assistance in taking care of him- or herself to eat or to bathe and in meeting his/hers social and psychological needs.
Communicate with youth: Use verbal and non-verbal communication and communicate through writing, electronic means, or drawing. Adapt your communication to children and young people`s age, needs, characteristics, abilities, preferences, and culture.
Develop a pedagogical concept: Develop a specific concept that describes the educational principles on which the organisation is based, and the values and behaviour patterns it advocates.
Ensure compliance with policies: Ensure compliance with legislation and company procedures in respect of health and safety in the workplace and public areas. Ensure awareness and compliance with all company policies in relation to health and safety and equal opportunities in the workplace.
Test safety strategies: Test policies and strategies related to risk and safety management and procedures, such as testing evacuation plans, safety equipment, and carrying out drills.
Develop professional network: Reach out to and meet up with people in a professional context. Find common ground and use your contacts for mutual benefit. Keep track of the people in your personal professional network and stay up to date on their activities.
Communicate by use of interpretation in social services: Communicate through the help of an interpreter to facilitate verbal communication and cultural mediation.
Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
Present reports: Display results, statistics and conclusions to an audience in a transparent and straightforward way.
Apply organisational techniques: Employ a set of organisational techniques and procedures which facilitate the achievement of the goals set. Use these resources efficiently and sustainably, and show flexibility when required.
Provide improvement strategies: Identify root causes of problems and submit proposals for effective and long-term solutions.
Develop social security programmes: Develop programmes and policies which aim to protect citizens and grant them rights, such as unemployment and family benefits, as well as to prevent their misuse of government-provided aid.
Manage health and safety: Manage the overall health, safety and sustainability policies and their application on an organisation wide scale.
Analyse goal progress: Analyse the steps which have been taken in order to reach the organisation’s goals in order to assess the progress which has been made, the feasibility of the goals, and to ensure the goals can be met according to deadlines.
Report pollution incidents: Examine the extent of the damage and consequences when an incident causes pollution, and report it to the relevant institution following pollution reporting procedures.
Coordinate rescue missions: Coordinate rescue missions during the event of a disaster or during an accident, ensure that all possible methods are being used to ensure the safety of the people being rescued, and that the search is as efficient and thorough as possible.
Manage accounts: Manage the accounts and financial activities of an organisation, supervising that all the documents are correctly maintained, that all the information and calculations are correct, and that proper decisions are being made.
Train employees: Lead and guide employees through a process in which they are taught the necessary skills for the perspective job. Organise activities aimed at introducing the work and systems or improving the performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings.
Maintain the trust of service users: Establish and maintain the trust and confidence of the client, communicating in an appropriate, open, accurate and straightforward way and being honest and reliable.
Maintain relations with children’s parents: Inform children`s parents of the activities planned, program`s expectations and children`s individual progress.
Ensure law application: Ensure the laws are followed, and where they are broken, that the correct measures are taken to ensure compliance to the law and law enforcement.
Advise on social security benefits: Advise citizens on government-regulated benefits they are eligible for, such as unemployment benefits, family benefits, and other social security benefits.
Manage government policy implementation: Manage the operations of the implementation of new government policies or changes in existing policies on a national or regional level as well as the staff involved in the implementation procedure.
Supervise children: Keep the children under supervision for a certain period of time, ensuring their safety at all times.
Develop contingency plans for emergencies: Compose procedures outlining specific actions to be taken in the event of an emergency, taking into account all the risks and dangers that could be involved, ensuring that the plans comply with safety legislation and represent the safest course of action.
Coordinate with other emergency services: Coordinate the firefighters’ work with the activities of the emergency medical services and of the police.

ISCO group and title

1344 – Social welfare managers

 

 


 

 

References
  1. Social services manager – ESCO
Last updated on August 8, 2022