Kath Hennes - former leadership & management apprentice - City of Wolverhampton College

Kath Hennes – former leadership & management apprentice

17 Aug 2022

I have been part of the management team within a health and social care setting for the past five years and I wanted to complete the Level 5 in Management and Leadership in a Residential Care Setting in order to develop and enhance my knowledge, “said Kath Hennes, operations manager at Cartlidge House – part of the Accord Group – in Telford.  

Kath added: “It has been beneficial to me to look into precedents and the reasons behind the policies, procedures and legislation which is in place to support me within my role. 

The majority of my award was completed during Covid-19 whilst continuing to fulfil my role as operations managerwhilst ensuring that I kept my family safe. This brought with it a completely new way of working and every skill – both professionally and emotionally – was drawn on in order to be able to support my staff team and residents through the journey that Covid-19 took us all on.  Health and Social Care was impacted tremendously during Covid-19 and the impact on staff and residents alike was significant and for this reason, I chose to base my research project on Covid-19 and the impact on individuals. 

Whilst completing my Level 5 during this pandemic has been personally difficult at times, it enabled me to develop my understanding on particular aspects of the award in terms of risk assessments and personcentred care planning etc.  I have been able to gain a more robust understanding of the principles of managing a care service more so during a pandemic in terms of supporting staff, utilising communication techniques and developing joint working with other professionals. 

I hope now to be able to develop all of these skills in pursuing my role as operations manager and strive to become a Registered Manager in due course. 

I am thankful for the ongoing support offered to me whilst I completed my award and could not recommend both this qualification and City of Wolverhampton College enough.