URGENT & EMERGENCY CARE
For the past two years the Leadership Centre, in collaboration with NHS England, has been providing Systems Leadership support to places across the country as part of the National A&E Improvement Programme. The support has involved working with NHS representatives and other stakeholders from local government and the voluntary care sector on local A&E Delivery Boards across England, developing more collaborative leadership to support improvements in Emergency Care performance.
Starting in 2017, nine localities were identified (Two from each NHS Region, along with a further pilot):
- North: Central Lancashire and North Merseyside
- Midlands and East: West Hertfordshire, North & East Hertfordshire and Nottingham (Pilot)
- South: East Kent and Cornwall
- London: Imperial and Barnet & Enfield.
Our focus has been on mobilising whole health systems to re-imagine the way they collectively work in service of their populations.
Teams of Leadership Centre Enablers have been working on the ground alongside clinical and non-clinical staff, politicians, officers and citizens in places to help strengthen relationships and trust amongst key individuals, as the starting point for improving leadership capacity.
The Leadership Centre support has enabled local leaders to obtain a clearer, common understanding of what the underlying complexities might be across A & E departments in England; to reveal and connect more of the interconnected system to itself, thereby deepening local understanding and relationships; and to create enough clarity to proceed to action whilst working on ever evolving issues.
Throughout, the Leadership Centre has worked closely with the Emergency Care Improvement Programme, to ensure we do not duplicate work or effort, and so that our respective programmes complement each other and add value to the places.
Our Collective Journey
The Leadership Centre’s approach is sharply different to the traditional approaches to supporting local health systems. We are not trying to ‘fix’ the local health economy, performance manage it or tell its leaders what to do. Instead, our approach is to collaboratively develop new ways of thinking, behaving, learning and working together, in the context of their locality, so local leaders build shared trust, meaning and action to nurture the transformational change they desire.
Our support has run alongside live programmes, so it is focused on building the capacity of systems leaders to work through the issues they are grappling with every day, and the relationships that underpin them.
We have periodically brought together those involved to share their learning and insight whilst developing a network of mutual support.
Our Learning and Impact
As time has gone on, and as outcomes have become more visible and established across the NHS, the emphasis has shifted to broader leadership development in Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) and Integrated Care Systems.
Throughout the two years there has been clear evidence of progress, including the development of common purpose across sector and professional boundaries, different behaviours, improved relationships and new working methods. This has been further recognised in CQC reports around the ‘well-led’ criterion.
Together with public policy journalist Richard Vize, the Leadership Centre has published initial findings and recommendations from the work in ‘Messages for National Leaders from the A & E Front Line’.
