News
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Staff College Update 30.11.2018
“It’s been an interesting week at Staff College, a mention by the Secretary of State, Matt Hancock, commentary in the news and the odd mention on social media. Many thanks to all of our alumni who have been sharing their stories and experiences too this week.
We felt it was an important moment to reflect on why we feel the work we do is so important, and what makes our approach so potent for the healthcare leaders that we support.
Founded within the NHS by the late Prof Aidan Halligan, Director of Education at UCLH in 2010, Aidan’s overwhelming belief was that in order to deliver the very best, and safest, care for patients required truly exceptional leadership, at all levels within the NHS. At the time he recognised that there was very little formal leadership development opportunities available for all NHS staff, and he sought to do something about it. Aidan looked outwardly to where others already had systemic approaches to developing their leaders in order to learn from them, but he recognised, as a doctor himself, that healthcare is a unique and complex environment, and for any development to work, it had to involve clinicians and those who understood its challenges.
As such, Aidan founded the NHS Staff College, bringing together a faculty of senior clinical leaders, who understood the unique context of the NHS, senior military leaders, who had spent their careers developing their junior officers, and leadership development experts from business and education. Working together, this diverse team drew on their significant leadership experience, bringing together learning from the different sectors in order to develop an innovative experiential approach to leadership development.
Aidan was clear in his vision, he wanted Staff College to develop programmes that would support individuals to have the courage to do the right thing on a difficult day. To start and sustain a movement where leaders took responsibility for themselves, their actions and their behaviours, who developed the environments in which their teams could thrive and where people would come first. He saw that to do this required a significant humility in those that came through, to open themselves up and to be prepared to develop a foundation of self-awareness through feedback from others, before developing the ability to manage the own behaviours in the moment, develop better relationships with others and ultimately lead others more effectively.
We set great store by gaining the trust of the organisations and individuals with whom we work. Understanding each organisation’s needs and pitching in at the right time with the right support contributes to developing this trust from the outset. By these means we stand a much better chance of achieving a genuine buy-in which is then followed up with ongoing support. We work to a similar methodology for individuals attending our courses. A Director of People recently described this as being unique in their experience and characterised it as a ‘By Your Side’ approach.
It would be fair to say that the stories of our members are a far more powerful testament to the experiential and personal approach we have to developing leadership than anything we could say.
Now in its third year as a national charity, our ‘By Your Side’ approach and the generous relationships we build with those that attend our programmes and the organisations that we support continues to make a difference. It’s a huge privilege to see Staff College going from strength to strength and we very much look forward to continuing the good work into 2019 and beyond.”
Charlie Brown
CEO, The Staff College: Leadership in Healthcare
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Aintree Clinical Leadership Development Programme
Delighted to deliver the final day of the Aintree University Hospital Clinical Leadership Development Programme for cohort 3 yesterday.
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Staff College at FMLM & BMJ Leaders in Healthcare Conference
Delighted to support the FMLM and BMJ last week at their “Leaders in Healthcare” Conference, talking about Staff College’s approach to developing effective leaders.
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Aidan Halligan Memorial Lecture Nov 2018
Many thanks to all who joined us for the Aidan Halligan Memorial ‘Expect the Unexpected Event’ – a late change following Sir Bruce Keogh’s recent injury. Sir Bruce will be delivering next year’s lecture instead and we will send details closer to the time.
For those that ventured out on a wet November evening, we had a thought-provoking evening thinking about asking better questions, and the questions we need to ask in order to develop a pool of strategic leaders for the NHS.
Particular thanks to Aidan’s daughters, Molly and Daisy, and son-in-law, Henry, who joined us for the evening.
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Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Matt Hancock, endorses Staff College at Leaders in Healthcare Conference
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Matt Hancock endorsed the work of Staff College last week at the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and British Medical Journal’s “Leaders in Healthcare” Conference in a speech about the need for leadership culture change within the NHS and importance of having the right leaders in place with the correct support.
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