Peripatetic/ Operations/ Regional Managers and Operations Director - what's the difference?

Managerial roles on top of managerial roles - but what do they all mean? Liam gives us the lo-down in this blog post.

Peripatetic (travelling from place to place for short periods) (Home) Manager

This is a home manager level role for homes without a manager or experiencing difficulties where coaching is needed (for the home manager) or for extra support.

The CQC can fine homes without a registered manager so this role is important to provide continuity/direction for the home in the absence of a permanent home manager.

By definition then it is an experienced home manager role. These managers rarely become the registered manager, as it's usually support provided for a few weeks/months.

Read more

• What is the difference between a residential home and a nursing home?

• What are the differences between a Home Manager, a General Manager and a Registered Manager?

• Should I work for an employer or through an agency as a Home Manager?

• Should I look for jobs managing small care homes or large ones?

Operations Managers / Regional Managers / Regional Directors

This is a senior management role overseeing home managers, usually for a region but it could for a speciality e.g. all elderly services.

Sometimes the term “operational managers” refers to someone acting as a peripatetic manager (just to confuse things!).

You can usually tell by the salary level. Organisations vary as to how much executive authority the operational / regional manager or director has.

This varies from setting budgets and strategy, with a line straight into the CEO to a narrower level of influence within a more corporate style, larger organisation.

Operations Directors

Operation Directors cover all of operations with budget setting responsibility, strategy, resource allocation etc and will be responsible to the CEO and board (if they have one.)

They are often responsible for overall CQC ratings, agency spend, clinical management and accountable regarding safeguarding, reporting on incidents and anything else relevant to the successful running of care homes.

What is significant is that all these roles have organisational responsibility but not CQC defined levels of responsibility (unless they become the “nominated individual”.

This would often be taken by the Operations Director but in some instances, it will be the CEO).

This means the registered manager is accountable to the CQC AND the organisation whereas these individuals mentioned above are often ONLY accountable to the organisation. (This can create conflicts / be interesting to navigate!)