Health Management and Policy Alert

Leading public services through Covid-19

National Leadership Centre -
The National Leadership Centre (NLC) supported the Government’s response to Covid-19 by acting as the conduit between Central Government and the NLC’s network of public service leaders. As part of this, the NLC ran a quantitative survey with public service leaders from March to June 2020. The NLC also commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct qualitative research with their network, which ran from July 2020 to March 2021. This report brings together findings from both strands of research.

• Report
• National Leadership Centre - publications

Building strong integrated care systems everywhere: ICS implementation guidance on effective clinical and care professional leadership

NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) - 

This guidance supports the development of distributed clinical and care professional leadership across integrated care systems (ICSs). It describes ‘what good looks like’ in this regard, based on an extensive engagement exercise involving over 2,000 clinical and care professional leaders from across the country, led by a multiprofessional steering group.

• Guidelines
• More detail

Clinical and care professional leadership in integrated care systems

NHS Confederation -
This report was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement, to inform its guidance to support embedding system-wide clinical and professional leadership in all integrated care systems.

• Report
• NHS England guidance: building strong integrated care systems everywhere
• NHS Confederation - publications

Strengthening NHS board diversity

NHS Confederation -
An independent taskforce asked to examine the diversity of healthcare leadership has said that NHS organisations can create a "sustainable pipeline" of senior leaders that properly reflect the diversity of their staff and communities by refreshing their processes for appointing chairs and non-executive directors (NEDs). The report, based on the feedback of taskforce members including NHS chairs, NEDs and chief executives, found that while there are pockets of innovation, the current NHS appointment process for NEDs would benefit from a standard, more transparent procedure.

• Report
• NHS Confederation - news

Developing place-based partnerships: the foundation of effective integrated care systems.

The King's Fund - 
This report considers the potential of place-based partnerships to improve population health and truly support integrated care, and highlights principles to guide their development and the support they might need from regional and national leaders. The King’s Fund reviewed existing evidence and experience on place-based working, explored the development of place-based partnerships within three systems and undertook targeted engagement with local leaders from ICSs, local authorities and voluntary and community sector organisations. This research highlights the potential role of place-based partnerships in improving health and wellbeing and illustrates how these opportunities can be realised.

• Report

Setting up a voluntary buddying scheme

NHS Providers - 

Building on breakout discussions from NHS Providers' online events, the governor team and non-executive directors at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust explain how they introduced a governor to a non-executive director (NED) buddying scheme and its benefits.

• Briefing
• More detail

How might leadership roles evolve in integrated health and care systems?

Social Care Institute for Excellence - 

This report for the NHS Leadership Academy explores some of the implications of the Long Term Plan and its supporting plans on leadership within local health and care systems, the roles that may emerge over time, and what knowledge, skills and support leaders need in the future. The report provides an overview of research carried out to better understand how leadership roles are changing in the health and social care sector, especially in collaborative and integrated health and care systems.

• Report
• More detail

Stories from social care leadership: progress amid pestilence and penury

The King's Fund -
This report contains interviews from across the social care sector to explore where leadership lies and what might be done to improve it.

• Report
• The King's Fund - publications

The courage to be kind: reflecting on the role of kindness in the healthcare response to COVID-19

Carnegie UK Trust - 
This report draws on a series of reflective conversations, conducted between April and September 2020 with five medics working in different parts of NHS Scotland. The conversations reflected on what can be achieved when united by a common purpose, and when work is underpinned by relationships and collaboration. But alongside the opportunities presented by changes in practice and a renewed focus on wellbeing, there was concern that this may be lost amidst a focus on remobilising and ‘getting back to normal’.

• Report
• Summary

The future of integrated care in England

NHS Confederation - 
With the Government expected to introduce new primary legislation affecting the NHS over the coming year, NHS leaders have set out the factors they believe should be central to a new framework for integrated care systems (ICSs) in this report summarising feedback from a six-month engagement process. The report argues that joint working across health and care should be embedded in law and encouraged through a new statutory duty for all providers, commissioners and other partners in local systems.

• Report
• Press release