Summary and Conclusion

This monograph outlines the process and results of development of a common educational programme at masters level in health and social care management, which was supported by the Erasmus Life Long Education project CareMan (Cul- ture and Care Management). The CareMan project brought together university partners actively involved in educating social and health care professionals in leadership and management at master’s level in Europe. The five partners of the consortium were Lahti University of Applied Sciences – Lahti UAS (administra- tive and academic coordinator, Finland), Charles University – CU (the Czech Republic), Edinburgh Napier University – ENU (Scotland), Hammeline University of Applied Sciences – HAMK (Finland), and University of Évora – UoE (Portugal). The objectives of the project were to achieve lower -level educational goals that included the development through education cultural and value -driven leadership, quality of care and quality management to effectively manage an integrated health and social care service. Through mapping the situation in the field and comparing curricula of all participating universities the overall aim was to develop a joint masters programme in social and healthcare management. After the detailed understanding of national and institutional specifics of each of the individual academic entities it was recognised that, due to a number of regulation issues, the original aim was not achievable. Following subsequent analytical work, it was decided to develop a set of three master’s level modules. At the end of the project it was intended that all created modules would be available virtually to the participating programmes and would contribute some added value to existing curricula. In the future these ready -to -use modules are intended to be taught in cooperation with the participating universities or as a separate module in each university. The chosen theoretical framework of the project that underpinned the devel- opment, management and evaluation of the inter -cultural educational provision relied on the combination of two learning theories – ‘cooperative collaborative and social learning’ and ’transformational’ (Mezirow, 2009). This theoretical framework helped to align with European collaborative policy and its application on all levels of implementation of the project.

Quality Management

The purpose of this chapter is to enable registered health and social care prac - titioners to assume a clinical and/or a professional leadership role in quality management in the health and social care sectors. The contents in this chap - ter will strengthen the management competences of practitioners working in these sectors, including critical thinking, critical reflection, problem solving and decision -making, thus improving the quality in health and social care services.

Intercultural Management

Globalization has increasingly brought permanent contact with people whose cultural background is different from what many would consider their ‘own’ culture. The area of intercultural management is of critical interest due to the impact of increased European and global migration, which has required health and social care leaders and managers to develop competency to respond to the diversity and changing needs of their workforce and service users. The communities within the European Union are now often characterised by significant diversity whether at cultural, social, or psychological levels. The purpose of this chapter is to enable health and social care practitioners to assume a clinical/ professional leadership role in quality intercultural management in the health and social care sector. This chapter will focus on developing health and social care practitioners’ knowledge and understanding in the area of intercultural management within contemporary health and social care organisations. It will focus on the critical application of knowledge to practice through the provision of underpinning knowledge, understanding and debates surrounding contemporary issues and practices in the areas of intercultural management. Many practitioners accessing this information may already work in the heath/social sector and this critical focus on intercultural and diversity management has the potential to improve the quality in health and social care services through the critical application to practice.