LHC IM&T Assessment Tool – LISA

The Local Health Community Informatics Strategic Assessment tool (LISA) has been designed to provide Primary Care Trust and Local Health Community leaders with a means of determining their collective preparedness to deliver informatics-enabled service improvements. It is a means of helping PCT Chief Executives deliver against their accountability for informatics across the local health community – an accountability reinforced in the NHS Operating Framework 2009/10.

The tool consists of a spreadsheet-based checklist against which organisations can rate themselves, identifying areas of strength and weakness and so enabling them to plan and take corrective actions as necessary.

The tool comes with a guide to help in its completion together with a set of examples of 'evidence' that would help in assessing current capability.

Institute of Healthcare Management – in-service management training

In-service management training is available to individuals already employed in the NHS. The Institute of Healthcare Managements "Managing Health & Social Care Programme" is a flexible in-service programme of management training, leading to NVQ Level 4 and 5.

For people coming into management from backgrounds with little specific management training, whether administrative, clinical or social care, the IHM’s practical and flexible management training course, the "Certificate in Managing in Health and Social Care" (CertMHSC), is particularly useful. This qualification is for:

• First line managers wishing to dramatically develop or consolidate their management skills
• Clinicians moving into operational management for the first time
• Senior managers wishing to update their skills
• Other formal healthcare management courses are also available. Many of these have been validated by the IHM and most enable full membership.

For further information on these courses, contact the IHM on 020 7620 1030 or e-mail: enquiries@ihm.org.uk

NHS Live

Supported by the NHS Institute, NHS Live regional seminars provide training and development opportunities of a high standard of excellence and professionalism. They strengthen the capability of frontline NHS staff to innovate and support the radical re-thinking of services. The seminars also provide the opportunity for members to network with our frontline innovators and share learning, knowledge and experience.

Those particularly useful for developing leadership skills include:

• Finance for non-finance managers
• Aspire to inspire - making the most of your professional and personal goals

In addition, NHS Live hosts or is involved with national and regional events designed to explore and simulate innovation healthcare. These bring together innovators from within and outside the NHS and provide access to the latest tools and techniques as well as networking and collaboration opportunities.

The NHS Live growing online project database of frontline innovation and improvement projects is searchable by keyword and region and provides NHS Live members with: 

• a source of potential solutions to issues they are facing
• an opportunity to promote and share their ideas, knowledge and experience
• inspiration from other frontline NHS staff to innovate
• an easy to access means for them to engage with the NHS Institute and its products. 

Join NHS Live online. 

National School of Government

The National School of Government is supported by a core faculty of over 400 expert associates, plus think-tank of 50 top academics called the Sunningdale Institute, business school partners and a network of public service leaders. The School works closely with the corporate centre, government departments and all of the leading learning institutions in the wider public and third sectors. Demonstrating the level of support for the School, the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Gus O'Donnell, has identified it as 'the first port of call for the development of leaders'. 

The National School of Government offers leaders programmes and courses in:

• Management and business skills for the public sector
• Strategic leadership 
• Specific areas incl managing equality and diversity and project and programme management 

Plus publications, books and resources you can download or order online.

The King’s Fund

The King's Fund seeks to understand how the health system in England can be improved. Using that insight, we work with individuals and organisations to shape policy, transform services and bring about behaviour change. 

Resources include: 

• research reports and white papers
• conferences and seminars.

For leaders in particular, they offer: 

• Consultancy
• Support to PCT Boards under WCC
• Specific leadership development programmes for executive women, transformational leadership, nurse leaders, specialist registrars and more. 

Nuffield Centre

The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, led by Dr Nancy Gerein, is an academic unit of the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences at the University of Leeds. For 30 years, the Centre has been a major international resource for education, research and technical assistance in health and development. 

The Nuffield Centre offers a postgraduate Masters degree in Health Management, Planning and Policy. The Masters in Health Management, Planning and Policy provides a multi-disciplinary, critically analytical and practice-based approach to the main challenges and issues in management, planning and policy which face the providers of health and health-related services in low-middle income countries. The programme is designed for all health professionals, planners and managers working in, or having responsibility for, the management of health care in institutional or community settings in low-middle income countries. The Nuffield Centre has been teaching this course for over 20 years, and has established a large alumni network of health managers and planners holding senior positions around the world. Nuffield also offers a Masters in Hospital Management. 

Centre for Innovation in Health Management

Part of Leeds University, the Centre for Innovation in Health Management offers programmes in 2009 for NHS London, Yorkshire and Humber and the North West Academy that are tackling the quantum leap from Director to CEO, and what it takes to lead a successful NHS Trust that does the best it can for users, carers and communities, in a changing context, with multiple external and internal demands.

The Centre offers prototype programmes that are based on a set of Design Principles for Effective Leadership. These Design Principles will help managers to commission effective leadership programmes for their own organisation. Programmes for effective leadership offered by the Centre include:

• Leading with Peers – a programme for leaders working across a health economy.
• Power in Organisations – a two-day organisational workshop to bring to the surface the power issues that affect leadership at the top, middle and bottom of organisations. 
• Public Sector Simulation - a two-day simulation of distributed leadership in the public sector. 
• Leading in Commissioning – a programme for public, voluntary and community sector leaders of commissioning.
• IMPACT – a programme for community leaders.

Plus many documents to download about best leadership practice within healthcare – for instance, Practice Based Commissioning. 

Improvement Leaders' Guides

These fifteen short Improvement Leaders' Guides are for anyone who wants to improve some part of their service in terms of patient safety, experience or outcomes.

They are not in-depth textbooks but collections of advice from those experienced in healthcare improvement and the tools and techniques they have found useful.

Leadership Framework developed by NHS Lincolnshire

The Leadership Framework booklet describes in detail what excellent leadership behaviour looks and feels like and why it’s so important. Reading this booklet will help you to be clear what leadership looks like at differing levels within the organisation and you will understand what skills you need in your current role and also what you need to do to develop into new roles.

Informatics Graduate Management Training Scheme

In 2007, a collaborative informatics training scheme was initiated between three SHAs in partnership with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, The Information Centre, NHS Connecting for Health and the University of Central Lancashire. The national NHS graduate management training scheme now includes an informatics stream - to apply or for more information visit the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme website.

Government IT Academy

The Government IT Academy provides access to training opportunities, courses and secondments in Government IT. Lunchtime seminars, workshops and short courses address the non-IT skills needed in management roles. For example, a 5-day executive managers' workshop focuses on key delivery areas such as vision, strategy, risk management, knowledge and communication. Other sessions address topics such as "delivery through suppliers", " IT-enabled policy delivery" and "managing delivery: realising business benefits".

The Academy is at the heart of the Government IT Profession, a member-based organisation for IT professionals across the UK.

Health Knowledge

The Health Knowledge website presents a suite of training modules developed to support and develop the knowledge and skills of not only the information workforce but also anyone who aims to use information to inform decision making in the NHS.

International resources

• Insead
• Hope Exchange Programme (Note that individuals and organisations are strongly advised to email leadership@institute.nhs.uk before applying.)
• HIT Paris Congress