Leadership Champions
The Leadership Champions Programme
Background
Organisational change doesn’t just happen, it needs a group of people who believe in the change and are willing to invest in it. These people should, ideally, hold positions of influence within the organisation concerned so that the changes actually become embedded in organisation practice. Following a series of high profile scandals which indicted clinical leadership as failing patients in the NHS and the more positive clinical leadership aspirations contained in the Darzi Report (2008), the Kent Surrey and Sussex (KSS) Deanery established a Leadership Champions programme in 2009.
A key element of the KSS Champions Programme was that of establishing partnership working between clinical leaders and managerial leaders in each Trust. Each Trust therefore appointed two Champions, one a senior clinician, the other a senior manager. The aim of the programme was that alongside a series of Development Days, the Champions would implement a Trust based change management project or initiative which would positively impact on patient care and safety. By working together, both focusing on patient-centeredness, it is hoped to achieve more and lasting innovations within their Trust.
Participants in the Leadership Champions programme should:
- Understand what clinical leadership is and how it can improve patient care and safety in the context of their organisation,
- Facilitate the implementation of the leadership elements in the curricula for all doctors at all training levels in the Trust using the local faculty groups,
- Implement an assessment strategy for the Leadership competencies which will include the training of educational and clinical supervisors,
- Support the professional development of those interested in taking on clinical leadership roles in the locality,
- Share in and contribute to Deanery-wide development of good practice in clinical leadership.