How a mental health care provider lifted manager confidence from 76% to 94%
A UK mental health and social care provider raised average manager confidence from 76% to 94% with World Class Manager®, the CPD-accredited management development programme. The result comes from 1,185 matched start and end ratings from 194 managers between 2021 and 2026, and 92% of those managers ended their modules more confident than they began.
The challenge: what mental health care managers said at the start
Ward and service managers in mental health care balance clinical demands, staffing pressure and team wellbeing. When they joined, managers described their three greatest challenges in their own words. The most common were time and prioritisation (24%), communication (22%) and motivating and engaging the team (20%), coded from 239 managers’ answers.
What the organisation did
Between 2021 and 2026, 370 managers took part in World Class Manager®, the CPD-accredited management development programme from the Global Growth Institute. Managers worked through online modules, answered reflection questions in their own words and committed to actions with their own teams. Start and end ratings could be matched for 14 modules.
Manager confidence, start to end of each module
Results: manager confidence rose from 76% to 94%
Average confidence rose by 18 points, from 76% at the start of each module to 94% at the end. Across all World Class Manager® managers the rise is 23 points (71% to 94%). 92% of managers in this organisation ended their modules more confident than they began. The biggest gains came in these modules:
| Module | Start | End | Rise (points) | Matched ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engaging Your People | 72% | 97% | +25 | 66 |
| Developing Me, Developing My Team | 71% | 96% | +25 | 66 |
| Great Goal Setting | 71% | 95% | +24 | 142 |
What mental health care managers said about the impact
In their own words, from the programme’s reflection and review questions. Verbatim and unedited, original spelling kept, shortened only where marked.
I have become a better listener, encouraging my team to provide me with constructive feedback. I have become more of a leader to my team rather than a manager…
Since completing the course I am more mindful of how I go into meetings, the impact of my emotions on myself and on others, and the importance of team morale and getting everyone engaged and involved.
This has helped improve communication within the team and has encouraged staff to take greater ownership of their responsibilities.
Better conversations with my team, ensuring everyone feels empowered to speak up.
I can now make meetings more effective and I can manage my time much better.
How the results were measured
At the start of each module, every manager rated themselves on the module’s core skill. At the end of the module, they rated their confidence again. Both ratings are shown as a percentage of the top of the scale (1 to 5, or 1 to 10), matched for the same manager and module, and averaged across 1,185 matched pairs from 194 managers. Challenges are coded from managers’ own words. All figures are self-reported: they show how managers rate themselves, not business outcomes. The organisation is anonymised and shown by sector and region only.
Frequently asked questions
Does management training improve manager confidence in mental health care?
In this mental health care organisation it did. Average manager confidence rose from 76% at the start of each World Class Manager® module to 94% at the end, across 1,185 matched ratings from 194 managers (2021 to 2026). 92% of those managers ended their modules more confident than they began.
Which management skills improved most?
The largest rises were in Engaging Your People (72% to 97%); Developing Me, Developing My Team (71% to 96%); Great Goal Setting (71% to 95%).
What challenges did managers in mental health care face?
In their own words at the start of the programme, managers most often named time and prioritisation (24%), communication (22%) and motivating and engaging the team (20%) as their greatest challenges.
How is the confidence score measured?
At the start of each module, every manager rates themselves on the module’s core skill. At the end of the module, they rate their confidence again. Both ratings are turned into a percentage of the top of the scale, matched for the same manager and module, and averaged. The score is self-reported: it shows how managers rate themselves, not business outcomes.
Are these results typical?
Yes. Across all 177 organisations in the matched data (28,460 ratings from 3,397 managers), average confidence rose from 71% to 94%. Every one of the 35 organisations with 15 or more managers in the matched data saw a rise, of between 16 and 34 points.
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