New national head of NHS talent management appointed
Posted 22nd March 2017, NHS Leadership Academy announcing
Martin Hancock to take on the role.

Mindful nation UK
Report by the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG)
The Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group was set up to: • review the scientific evidence and current best practice in mindfulness training • develop policy recommendations for government, based on these findings • provide a forum for discussion in Parliament for the role of mindfulness and its implementation in public policy

Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View (online view)
March 2017
Direct link to PDF
Executive Summary
The Five Year Forward View was published in 2014, this report looks at what’s been achieved in England over the past three years, and looks forward to 2019 and what can be implemented, with reflection on fact that “next year the NHS turns 70”.
Chapter 8 looks specifically at “Strengthening our workforce”
Excerpts: “The national leadership bodies will take action to implement the next steps of the ‘Developing People, Improving Care’ framework for improving leadership and improvement capabilities across the health and care system, with a particular focus on systems working, building improvement skills for staff at all levels, and compassionate inclusive leadership. The framework set out a number of immediate actions in 2017/18, including making available support for systems leadership development to each STP footprint, developing the role of local leadership academies, launching a system-wide programme to address discrimination against staff with protected characteristics, supporting organisations to improve talent management, and establishing a national support function for senior leaders. We are also developing specific improvement capability programmes for boards and executive teams and for primary care practitioners, and CQC and NHS Improvement are jointly creating a single ‘Well-Led’ Framework.”
“The NHS will become a better and more inclusive employer by making full use of the talents of its diverse staff and the communities it serves. On workforce race equality, over the next two years trusts are expected to show year-on-year improvements in closing the gap between white and BME staff being appointed from shortlisting, and reduce the level of BME staff being bullied by colleagues. The programme to improve the employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities will be expanded. And in 2018/19 over four-fifths of trusts, CCGs and national NHS leadership bodies will have set their baseline measurement for the new Workforce Disability Equality Standard and set out their first year action plan. The NHS will work actively with Government to safeguard and secure the contribution made by international nurses, doctors and other staff as the Brexit negotiations proceed.”
“By 2018/19, the CQUIN incentive payment will be paid to NHS providers that improve the health and wellbeing of their staff by 5% (on a 2015/16 baseline), as measured by the staff survey.” See ref  NHS staff health & wellbeing: CQUIN Supplementary guidance and  The King’s Fund blog post by Marcus Powell on March 23rd ,  A mixed bag of results from the NHS Staff Survey: “the NHS should regard the Staff Survey as an annual report on the quality of leadership within the service”.

Sending shockwaves through the NHS?
Ben Collin’s blog post, The King’s Fund , 24th March 2017
Ben sees a role for system leadership as 6-10 Sustainability and Transformation Plans are set to become Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs) or accountable care systems ending the purchaser-provider split, but the methods by which they will be held to account are still unclear as well as questions on patient choice. See also HSJ’s  First nine ‘accountable care systems’ revealed (March 31st 2017)

Sustainability and Transformation Plan Questionnaire Report
Faculty of Public Health
The UK Faculty of Public Health (FPH) undertook a survey of directors of public health (DPHs) to look at the public health aspects of STPs in England, early in 2017. An outline report was presented to the FPH Board in February 2017. This report presents more detailed findings.

NHS Women on Boards: 50:50 by 2020
Sealy, R (Prof)
Published by University of Exeter Business School in conjunction with NHS Employers and NHS Improvement.
Executive Summary and full breakdown of demographic data from 452 organisations, including arm’s-length bodies (ALBs), NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups, analyzed regionally, by type of board role, and service type. Includes narratives from
– Kathy McLean, Executive Medical Director, NHS Improvement
-Alison Hill, Non-Executive Director, Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust
-Clare Panniker, Chief Executive Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Excerpt from report’s conclusion and recommendations;
This report has endeavoured to start the collection of a complete and longitudinal dataset on the board composition of NHS trust, ALB and CCG boards in England, with a view to contributing to the overall aim to achieve gender-balanced boards – 50:50 by 2020. We need an additional 500 female-held board seats by 2020. If we use the EU Commission’s definition of gender parity of at least 40 per cent of each sex on each board, then there are still 209 boards that do not meet that target. Given the gender split of the NHS’s workforce, if we use our own definition of between 45-55 per cent of each sex, then there are almost 300 organisations who need to pay attention to their gender composition. The scale of the task is stretching but doable: 1-2 more women per board. However, there is a real imbalance in certain roles. While we have a very high percentage of chief nurses, we need more specific research and data on why there is a dearth of women in other roles, (particularly chief financial officers and medical directors). Are women applying and not getting jobs, or are they not applying? If not, do we have a supply problem, or is it a demand problem? Where we know we don’t have a supply problem in terms of availability of competent women eg for non-executive director positions, what is not attractive and/or what is not being recognised? A very helpful meeting was convened in January 2017 with all the major search firms operating in the NHS, and a number of actions were agreed: In addition, it is incumbent on board chairs to insist that they get top-quality female candidates from their search firm or other sources, providing a broad search covering private, public and tertiary sectors.
Footnotes  include several key references .
The standard voluntary code of conduct for executive search firms

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould
Guardian Healthcare Network – news from the NHS Frontline
Monday 27th March 2017
Blog opinion post (anon) regarding a shift in leadership characteristics needed, away from business skills to softer skills encompassing staff engagement and partnership working.
Excerpt: ” The NHS cannot afford to lose a swath of senior managers. Many of these people could develop the skills we need, we just need to help them to do so. After all, we require doctors and nurses to refresh their skills regularly, revalidating their qualifications; and these days, the disciplines of management and leadership are changing just as fast as medical practice”.

A Masters degree to grow hospice leadership
For information about the Hospice Leadership and Management module at Cass Business School (part of City University London ), and how to apply for a £4k Hospice UK bursary, see the Leadership and Management Development pages of the Hospice UK website.

Visibility Generates Trust: Walking the talk as an inclusive leader
Bobbie Petford of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust on the value of  staff networks  as for example  lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) staff networks. Excerpt: “Successful staff networks need sponsorship from the organisation’s executive team and adequate resourcing. They also work best where reciprocal participation, accountability and co-production involves members, the organisation and the public. The benefits for all concerned are shared expertise, critical friendship, and improved staff wellbeing and patient care.”

Second podcast on inclusive leadership in the NHS
3rd April 2017
Jackie Daniel, Chiief executive, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) talks about the  practical side of inclusive leadership.

19 in-depth interviews with ward leaders and modern matrons – how do they perceive their leadership role and lead improvements in the quality of care ?
Tensions within management roles in healthcare organisations
Nursing Management Vol 24, Issue 1 (Mar 2017): page 31.
Scott A and Timmons S

Does leadership style of modern matrons contribute to safer and more effective clinical services?
Nursing Management 2017 Vol 24: Issue 1 , p21 -25
Hill, B
(Reflections from a Matron for airway, ear, nose and throat, and reconstructive plastic surgery, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust)

New book: The essentials of nursing leadership
Authors : Ruth Taylor and  Brian Webster-Henderson
Sage Publishing
Key features include (taken from Publishers website for the book):

• Real life focus, grounded in everyday practice, with lots of case studies and examples to help students see how theory relates to practice
• Activities to help students reflect about their own practice, and about themselves as leaders
• Video interviews with nurse leaders and students on the companion website
• Further reading and links to journal articles in both the book and the companion website help students delve deeper and prepare for assessments.
• 

Staying for the long haul? Thinking about retaining talent earlier on as part of talent management
Meaningful interviewing for retention
Nursing Management;  Vol 48. Issue 3      Mar 2017): p7.
Widman, K et al

Technical Guidance for the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)
March 2017
Prepared by Dr Habib Naqvi, Roger Kline, and Saba Razaq
This document updates both the March 2016 version of the Technical Guidance for the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard, and the July 2015 Supplementary Technical Guidance: Clinical Commissioning Groups and the Workforce Race Equality Standard.
Want the literature ? To assist the development of good practice the WRES Implementation Team has undertaken a significant amount of work (field work and literature search) to identify the shared characteristics of effective interventions against each of the WRES indicator and across organisations as a whole – looking at good practice in the private sector, other parts of the public sector, and within the NHS itself. The results of this  work will be shared from spring 2017 and should further assist organisations’ WRES action plans, which in turn will be evidence-based.

BMJ Leader – Volume 1, Issue 1
Welcome editorial from Stephen Powis and James Mountford

How expert mentoring can pave the way to successful leadership
Laura Holliday Teaching associate. School of health sciences, University of Nottingham
Paula Dawson Assistant professor. School of health sciences, University of Nottingham
Carol Hall Associate professor. School of health sciences, University of Nottingham
Nursing Children and Young People, April 2017, Vol 29, issue 3 pp20-22
Excerpt from abstract: “A pioneering module developed at the University of Nottingham brings together nurses at the top of the profession with those on the threshold of careers in nursing children”

Equipping future doctors: incorporating management and leadership into medical curriculums in the United Kingdom
Sonsale, A and Bharamgoudar, R  Affiliated to
¹  Franklin-Wilkins Building, King’s College London, London, UK.
²  Imperial College London Business School, London, UK.
Perspectives on medical education6.2 (April 2017): 71-75.

Shared leadership and group identification in healthcare: The leadership beliefs of clinicians working in interprofessional teams
Forsyth, C and Mason, B
Journal of interprofessional care31.3 (May 2017): 291-299.
Excerpt from abstract: “An online survey was responded to by 229 healthcare workers from community interprofessional teams in mental health settings across the East of England”. Professionals responding to survey were psychiatric nurses, clinical psychologists, consultant psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and social workers. The authors “predicted that psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists would report greater agreement with shared and distributed leadership  when compared with consultant psychiatrists”, the latter have been found in their literature review “to work in a directive manner and view leadership as a prominent part of their role in teams”. “The current study reaffirms previous research that has demonstrated it is possible for clinicians to hold strong dual identifications with their teams and professions in situations when the level of professional threat is low.”

Future leaders course prepares nurses for the top
Jones-Berry, S
Nursing Standard. April 2017, Vol 31, issue 33, 12-13
11 nurses were selected for the master’s level course for deputy chief nurses ( launched at London South Bank University) .The course is a collaboration between NHS Improvement (NHSI) and Health Education England and aims to prepare participants to move up to chief nurse roles within 12-18 months. Although there will be fewer director of nursing posts as organisations merge the course participants think their futures may lie in becoming directors for sites within organisations as health and social care organisations merge. A fresh intake is confirmed for the course running from April to October 2017.NHS Improvement (NHSI) says there are 15 places available in the new cohort for the aspiring nurse directors’ course, and 15 places on the aspiring deputy nurse directors’ course.

Leadership and the everyday practice of Consultant Radiographers in the UK: Transformational ideals and the generation of self-efficacy
Booth L, Henwood S, and  Miller PK.
Radiography (Lond). 2017 May;23(2):125-129
Excerpt from abstract : “Using a qualitative-thematic approach, the leadership-related experiences of a purposive sample of six participating Consultant Radiographers are explored, alongside the systems through which they evaluated how successful they had been as leaders.”

Ambition London Toolkit 
Skills for Health  released this toolkit on 4th April 2017
This toolkit aims to ensure that a standardised high quality information advice and guidance is available for people who are looking to join the health and care sector.