NHS leadership and management resources

6Cs Live

The 6Cs are the value base for Leading Change, Adding Value; a framework for nursing, midwifery and care staff. These values were one of the legacies created through ‘Compassion in Practice’, a three-year strategy that concluded in March 2016. The 6Cs are: Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage, Commitment. Information and resources are at https://www.england.nhs.uk/leadingchange/about/the-6cs/

The Department of Health & Social Care

The main Department of Health & Social Care website is: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care. Its policy section is at https://www.gov.uk/government/policies?keywords=&organisations%5B%5D=department-of-health-and-social-care and its publications are at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications and search in the Department of Health & Social Care category. For example, the NHS Constitution is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england . Older publications are now in its archive - for example the Department of Health’s paper published in 2009 on Inspiring Leaders: leadership for quality is at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/en/publicationsandstatistics/publications/publicationspolicyandguidance/dh_093395.

The King's Fund

An outstanding source of information and knowledge about healthcare. The King's Fund is an independent charity working to improve health and health care in England. 'We help to shape policy and practice through research and analysis; develop individuals, teams and organisations; promote understanding of the health and social care system; and bring people together to learn, share knowledge' - http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/. Some things of particular interest:

Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) and the NHS Career Framework

This website gives details of the simplified KSF: http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/retain-and-improve/managing-your-workforce/appraisals/simplified-ksf. This links in with the NHS career framework and the national qualifications framework. See https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/resources/nhs-career-framework.

Knowledge Hub

This has been set up by the Bodleian Healthcare Libraries in Oxford for the NHS Thames Valley and Wessex Leadership Academy (TVWLA). Most of the information and the resources on this excellent website are available for all - https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/tvw-knowledge-hub/home/

London Leadership Academy

London Leadership Academy's Leadership toolkits - a very good range covering Managing self, Leading and managing others, and Leading teams and change - http://www.londonleadingforhealth.nhs.uk/leadershiptoolkit

National Institute for Health Research - Health Services & Delivery Research

The HS&DR Programme aims ‘to produce rigorous and relevant evidence on the quality, access and organisation of health services, including costs and outcomes. The programme will enhance the strategic focus on research that matters to the NHS including research on implementation and a range of knowledge mobilisation initiatives. It will be keen to support ambitious evaluative research to improve health services.’ The website is https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-for-research-studies/funding-programmes/health-services-and-delivery-research/

There are some excellent publications on Managing Change in the NHS from the Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO):

NHS Choices

The NHS Choices website is http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx. It includes a comprehensive A-Z of conditions and treatments, Live well, Care and support, Health news, and Services near you - and much more. NHS Live Well is worth a look at - http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/Pages/Livewellhub.aspx

NHS Confederation

The NHS Confederation is the membership body for all organisations that commission and provide NHS services. ‘We are the only body to bring together and speak on behalf of the whole of the NHS’. Its website is http://www.nhsconfed.org/Pages/home.aspx (which is the place to read its latest news). It produces a wide range of helpful publications, and resources can be found at http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources.

NHS Digital (formerly The Health and Social Care Information Centre)

This is ‘the trusted national provider of high-quality information, data and IT systems for health and social care’. It provides high quality data to assist managers with decision making and therefore facilitate better care: https://digital.nhs.uk/

NHS Employers

NHS Employers has the vision to ‘be the authoritative voice of workforce leaders, experts in HR, negotiating fairly to get the best deal for patients’. Its website is http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Pages/Home.aspx . Latest news is at http://www.nhsemployers.org/news and there is a good selection of publications and other resources at http://www.nhsemployers.org/case-studies-and-resources.In addition there are links to further resources such as checklists, toolkits, case studies, and video and audio.

NHS England

NHS England's home page is http://www.england.nhs.uk/. Its latest news is at http://www.england.nhs.uk/news/. Resources are at http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/.

NHS Evidence (National Institute for Health and Care and Excellence)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. NICE was originally set up in 1999 as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, a special health authority, to reduce variation in the availability and quality of NHS treatments and care: http://www.nice.org.uk/

The NHS Evidence website is http://www.evidence.nhs.uk. NHS Evidence provides access to a comprehensive evidence base for everyone in health and social care who make decisions about treatments or the use of resources including clinicians, commissioners and service managers. NHS Evidence can help users identify the best evidence by sorting, sifting and prioritising information and awarding an accreditation mark to the most reliable sources of guidance.

The National Library for Health is now part of NHS Evidence, and eBooks, journals and databases are at https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/nhs-evidence-content/journals-and-databases. There are some resources relating to leadership, management, commissioning, and education and learning tools (if you can navigate your way round this site or put these words in the site’s search engine). Local case studies are at http://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/into-practice/local-practice-case-studies .

The Health management specialist collection which used to be part of the National Library for Health is now run by the King’s Fund - an excellent resource: see http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/ and for its library, see https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/consultancy-support/library-services and its database is at http://kingsfund.koha-ptfs.eu/ . The link to its Health Management and Policy Alert is http://kingsfund.blogs.com/health_management/

The NHS Five Year Forward View, and Next Steps

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ - Compulsory reading for everyone in the NHS, from Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of the NHS.

The NHS Healthcare Leadership Model

This was published in 2013 and can be downloaded from here: http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/resources/healthcare-leadership-model/ . It sets out the nine dimensions of leadership behaviour (with essential, proficient, strong and exemplary scales for each). There is a self-assessment tool to support the Healthcare Leadership Model for those working in the NHS - at http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/resources/healthcare-leadership-model/supporting-tools-resources/healthcare-leadership-model-self-assessment-tool/ .

NHS Horizons

The NHS Horizons team is a small specialist team within the Strategy and Innovation Directorate of NHS England. It supports leaders of change, teams and organisations to think differently about large-scale change, improve collaboration, and accelerate change. Its website is https://nhshorizons.passle.net/ and its home page has a very good collection of blogs. The sketchnotes section at http://horizonsnhs.com/sketchnotes/ has an excellent collection of visual resources. There is a really useful archive at http://horizonsnhs.com/category/archive/ (and also click on the archive heading of drop-down menu for the ‘about us’ tab to see various categories).

NHS Improvement

NHS Improvement supports ‘foundation trusts and NHS trusts to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable’ - https://improvement.nhs.uk/

Its resources are in its quality improvement section, and it wants ‘to help build the capacity and capability for improvement across the NHS. We'll provide advice and support on how to use quality improvement approaches and methodologies.’ This section is at https://improvement.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/quality-improvement/

A very good range of quality, service improvement and redesign (QSIR) tools are available from https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/quality-service-improvement-and-redesign-qsir-tools/

There is some interesting archive material from NHS Improving Quality here:

The NHS Change Model is particularly interesting - see https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/change-model-guide-v5.pdf . See also ‘Leading Large Scale Change: A Practical Guide’ at https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/practical-guide-large-scale-change-april-2018-smll.pdf

NHS Institute for Innovation & Improvement

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement closed in March 2013, but some material from it is still available - see http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/http://institute.nhs.uk. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a search engine in this site, so it is not easy to navigate. Some of its Productive Leader materials are at

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150401090957/http://www.institute.nhs.uk/quality_and_value/productivity_series/the_productive_series.html

Other useful products which are still available include:

  • High Impact Actions

The High Impact Actions for Nursing and Midwifery were developed following a ‘call for action’ which asked frontline staff to submit examples of high quality and cost effective care that, if adopted widely across the NHS, would make a transformational difference: https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2017/11/High-Impact-Actions-The-Essential-Collection.pdf

  • Improvement Leaders' Guides:

These are now all available on the NHS England website at https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub?s=Improvement+Leaders%27+Guides&order-by=relevance

  • General Improvement Skills

Seven guides introducing a range of improvement advice:

      • Improvement Knowledge and Skills
      • Process Mapping – Analysis and Redesign
      • Working with Groups
      • Involving Patients and Carers
      • Evaluating Improvement
      • Use of Technology to Improve Services
      • Sustainability and its Relationship with Spread and Adoption

e. g. https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/publication/improvement-leaders-guide-improvement-knowledge-and-skills-general-improvement-skills/

  • Improvement Leaders' Guides: Personal and Organisational Development.

Four guides focussing on the people and culture that make up an organisation and their impact on improvement - the people side of change:

      • Managing the Human Dimensions of Change
      • Redesigning Roles
      • Building and Nurturing an Improvement Culture
      • Leading Improvement

e. g. https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/publication/improvement-leaders-guide-leading-improvement-personal-and-organisational-development/

  • Improvement Leaders' Guides: Process and Systems Thinking.

Four guides based on the industrial models of processes, systems and flow:

      • Measuring for Improvement
      • Matching Capacity and Demand
      • Improving Flow
      • Working in Systems

e. g. https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/publication/improvement-leaders-guide-working-in-systems-process-and-systems-thinking/

NHS Leadership Academy

The NHS National Leadership main website is http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/ (and its YouTube Channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/NHSLeadershipAcademy). The section about the NHS Leadership Model is at http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/resources/healthcare-leadership-model/.

NHS Networks website

NHS Networks is an excellent free resource which provides a home for networks of all kinds; a way for people to link with others who share their interests, to join existing networks or start new ones; and to enable networks to connect in interesting new ways. See http://www.networks.nhs.uk/news, where there are news items.

In addition there is a resources section (which includes 10 Smart Guides to Engagement and the link to the YouTube channel (http://www.networks.nhs.uk/network-resources), a blog section at https://www.networks.nhs.uk/editors-blog/a-celebration-of-all-that2019s-great-about-plackard (including archive), forums at https://www.networks.nhs.uk/discussion, and events at https://www.networks.nhs.uk/events. And you can sign up for a very useful regular newsletter at http://www.networks.nhs.uk/@@register?newsletter=true.

NHS Research & Development

The NHS R&D Forum is a network for those involved in managing and supporting R&D in health and social care. Its aim is to improve the environment for research in health and social care by facilitating and encouraging sharing of best practice, and working with other organisations. www.rdforum.nhs.uk.

Oxford Health

Oxford Health has a good leadership website pointing to a range of learning resources:

Transformational change in the NHS

The Health Service Journal's interactive guide on how to achieve transformational change in the NHS: https://www.hsj.co.uk/home/change-challenge-interactive-guide-now-available/5083615.article

The links in this section have been tested and should still work, but this is a fast-changing world. If you find that any of the links do not work, or if you discover any new ones, or have any suggestions for additional resources, please email john.hunt@gmx.co.uk