Closing the Loop: The Trainer’s Role in Social Care Quality Assurance
- changefactor
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
Closing the Loop is one of those buss phrases you often hear in social care quality assuring, albeit necessary. Closing the loop — following through on actions, checking impact, and evidencing change — is essential.
Trainers play a strong, active role in this. We are not just content deliverers. We are facilitators of real-world change.
Closing the Loop: More Than Good Intentions
As a trainer as well as being a skilled presenter and group learning facilitator, I am knowledgeable and passionate. Therefore, when I deliver training, the energy in the room rises. Participants are motivated, with some transformation, so I expect them to go back to practice, inquire, and sometimes challenge.
New ideas are shared. Participants leave motivated.
But without closing the loop:
Good ideas drift away
Practice improvements stall
QA processes show repeat issues
According to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984), real learning only happens when reflection, application, and review take place. Training must deliberately feed into this cycle, not by chance.
Trainers as Change Agents
As trainers, we need boldness, sensitivity, and confidence. We must:
Set clear, actionable learning goals
Support participants to apply learning back at work
Follow up or encourage follow-up
Embed reflection and accountability into the learning process
We facilitate change, but we must also stay involved in that change.
Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) reminds us that education should be a practice of freedom, not just giving information but enabling critical action. Trainers must support learners to act, reflect, and improve the systems they work in.
Dealing with the Perceived Threat
Those I train will tell you, I send them right back to practice to stir things up, it should never be business as usual, or I have failed. However, I have witnessed how encouraging participants, to quote directly from the training, can cause discomfort. I often send foster carers back with questions and enquire about how things work, and this is not always readily received by colleagues, leaving some professionals feeling challenged or undermined.
We must reframe this.
Quoting trainers:
Shows that carers are reflecting on their learning
Strengthens evidence for QA audits and Ofsted inspections
Aligns practice to shared standards, not personal views
We can normalise this approach by:
Telling participants that quoting is good professional practice
Preparing supervising workers to expect it
Framing quotes as signs of engagement, not defiance
Change is rarely comfortable; two key things happen: the meeting of differences, which can lead to conflict, and the need for negotiation to reach a resolution. Additionally, this can sometimes mean that someone is giving up something. The aim is to achieve a win-win, but this requires skilful framing because where power is in play, some always come out on top. Lewin’s Change Model (1951) teaches that "unfreezing" current habits is necessary before growth. Discomfort is often the first step toward better practice.
Practical Actions for Trainers
To strengthen closing the loop:
End every session with 2–3 key messages learners can quote confidently
Provide clear handouts referencing sources and legislation
Encourage managers and supervisors to ask in supervision: "What have you applied from training?"
Provide evaluations of the training, with pertinent and unresolved practice issues clearly outlined
Follow up with services to review the impact of the training over time
Model quoting sources yourself when delivering sessions
Final Thoughts
Training that stops at the door of the classroom changes nothing.
Training that supports, follows through, and closes the loop strengthens practice, improves outcomes for children and families, and drives up the quality of social care.
It requires boldness. It requires sensitivity. It requires confidence.
But most of all, it requires commitment to real change — even when that change feels uncomfortable.
Training is not just about delivering content.
It’s about facilitating change — and that means closing the loop.
As trainers in social care, we must:
Support participants to apply learning - that means going back to base and applying even with the resistance of others
Encourage them to quote training in practice - even if that means saying' Vivienne said you can quote her! '
Follow through to check for real-world change - Asking how it went?
This can feel uncomfortable. Quoting trainers directly can seem like a challenge to others. But it's a sign of professional growth and strong reflective practice.
Change demands boldness, sensitivity, and confidence — from trainers and participants alike.
I’ve shared more thoughts here on how trainers can actively support quality assurance, close the loop, and deal with the perceived threat of direct practice quoting:
Let’s make sure our training leads to real, measurable improvement — not just good intentions.
By Vivienne Williams
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