Welcome to our summer Leadership Dispatch. We hope everyone has had the opportunity to take a break and enjoy some of the classic British weather that has been on offer.

The South East Leadership Academy are leading by example and have prioritised taking some much needed rest in August. When we are not forgetting tent poles, getting lost in Wales and cultivating our rogue tomato plants, we have been busily preparing our Autumn offering ready for September. We have a fantastic programme of events coming up including a new modular interactive masterclass series, Leading Transformation in 2021.  This masterclass series covers the key concepts, skills and mindsets needed to drive collaboration, partnership and health and care improvement.

We have an array of virtual leadership events coming up in September, including espressos focussing on:

• Developing your skills as a leader: Conversations to Build Resilience
• Looking after the wellbeing of your staff: Supporting Your People When Noticing Burnout, Bringing a Team Back Together to Reset, Renew & Refocus, Supporting Your People to Return to Work Post-Burnout
• Exploring the impact of trauma through the lens of inclusion: Understanding Trauma in Healthcare – What leaders need to know about how to support their staff and themselves
• Developing yourself: The Art of being Brilliant

We still have spaces available on our inclusion leadership espresso series focussing on LGBTQ+ identities, mental health, privilege, minority stress and intersectionality and Trans inclusion, providing you with a safe space to discuss and explore these topics.

Below you will also find links to our coaching and mentoring and safe space offers as well as other regional and national offers.

As part of our own continued development we are reviewing our Leadership Academy and People.nhs.uk websites to gain an understanding on what experience it has for the end user. We have recently developed a range of accessible learning offers across the regions and nationally, including webinars and bite-size learning and we would like to hear your thoughts on these and how we can develop this further to better meet your needs. The confidential survey should take no more than five minutes to complete.

Moving forward, you can expect to receive our Leadership Dispatch at the beginning of each month and members of our team will be introducing themselves as we move through the year.

We love hearing from you and connecting across our region so please do get in touch if you have any questions or curiosities.

Jessamy Done (she/her), Leadership Development Senior Manager 
NHS South East Leadership Academy

Regional Offers

Leadership Espressos: Supporting Our Leaders

Conversations to Build Resilience

These are unprecedented times. We are juggling work and personal lives that are more disruptive, stressful, and ever changing with often increasing demands. This session is for anyone who wants to know how to manage sensitive conversations to support their teams and colleagues when working under pressure.

• 1 Sept. 09:30 – 11:00. Find out more.
• 6 Oct. 09:30 – 11:00. Find out more.

Supporting Your People when Noticing Burnout, 7 Sept. 9:30 – 11:00

Do you suspect someone in your team is burning out? It can be hard to know what to do. This session is for staff who are concerned that their teams are working through times of extreme pressure. Individuals who want to know how to better understand their people in such circumstances and what they can do to support them effectively.

Making Every Conversation Count, 13 Sept. 10:00 – 12:00

Our teams are experiencing heightened levels of stress, pressure and ambiguity and can sometimes struggle to hold impactful and meaningful conversations, especially in the virtual world. This espresso will introduce Line Managers to the benefits and simple and practical techniques of coaching style conversations to better support and develop their staff.

Leading Hybrid Teams, 14 Sept. 10:00 – 11:30

The emerging extent of flexible and remote working is largely an uncharted territory in the NHS, in which there will be pitfalls we wish to avoid and also huge opportunities to improve the way we work together. This session provides protected ‘headspace’ and ‘thinking time’ for busy managers to consider thought-provoking ideas, share views, discuss issues with colleagues, reflect, learn and ask questions.

Understanding Trauma in Healthcare

This session is for leaders who would like to understand what trauma looks like and how it can impact your staff and yourself. You will be invited to share experiences and commit to an action to take back into your workplace to apply your learning in a tangible way. This session will support you as a line manager to signpost staff to appropriate resources and services.

• 15 Sept. 14:00 – 15:30 Find out more.
• 22 Sept. 14:00 – 15:30 Find out more.

Bringing a Team Back Together to Reset, Renew & Refocus, 16 Sept. 10:30 – 12:00

As we find our new normal and navigate to reset, renew and refocus after a challenging year, perhaps being redeployed or working on COVID-related projects, this leadership espresso will help you focus on re-engaging and empowering your teams, re-contracting and the fundamentals of a high performing team.

Sustaining a Good Team Culture, 16 Sept. 10 – 12:00

This session will focus on exploring how managers can continue to cultivate a good team culture. It has been developed to provide practical tips and tools for helping teams to process and explore their experiences in order to move forward positively together, including how to design and run a processing or time-out session with your team.

Supporting your people to return to work post-burnout, 29 Sept. 09:30 – 11:00

We have seen increasing levels of absences in teams due to illness/stress/anxiety/depression and burnout. The question is now how can we best support our staff to return to work? Explore factors that influence an individual’s ability to return to work, identify aspects of the job that could be adjusted and learn strategies to prevent a relapse.

Challenging Conversations, 30 Sept. 14:00 – 15:30

We will look at the key factors of challenging conversations, what makes them challenging, what holds us back and what can help us. You will be learning and sharing your examples and tips with others in similar situations to help support each other.

Leadership Espresso: The Art of Being Brilliant

This session is open to colleagues, clinical and non-clinical, those who have an interest in leadership and those in a leadership or management role across the South East region. Using cutting-edge research, without the big words and replacing them with simple, do-able principles that are applicable at work and home, this session will help you shine by reconnecting you with you.

• 20 Sept. 09:30 – 11:30 Find out more.
• 11 Oct. 12:00 – 14:00 Find out more.

Rising Stronger From Mental Health To Mental Wealth

This session is absolutely not about challenging you to up your game or work harder, it’s about nudging you to remember who you are at your best. That’s not only good for you, it creates positive ripples that impact on your family, your team and patients. Bouncing back is one thing, bouncing forward is quite another.

• 17 Nov. 9:30 – 11:30. Find out more.
• 24 Nov. 14:00 – 16:00. Find out more.

Leadership Espressos – Inclusion Series

This is a series of leadership espressos focusing on LGBTQ identities and mental health. These sessions will allow participants to gain insight and skills in assessing and addressing the needs of LGBTQ staff, including:

• LGBTQ Identities and Mental Health: 7 Oct. 9.30 – 11:00 Find out more.
• Privilege, Minority Stress and intersectionality: 14 Oct. 15:00 – 16.30. Find out more.
• Trans inclusion: 21 Oct. 12pm – 13:30. Find out more.

Primary Care Masterclasses

Challenging Conversations, 12 Oct. 10:00 – 11:30 (Primary Care only)

We will look at the key factors of challenging conversations, what makes them challenging, what holds us back and what can help us. You will be learning and sharing your examples and tips with others in similar situations to help support each other.

Facilitated Learning Sets for PCN Managers, 23 Sept. 13:00 – 16:30 (Hampshire & Isle of Wight only)

This session is an opportunity for you to come together in a facilitated learning space to enable you to explore the complex issues facing PCN Managers. You will have the opportunity to work with a small group of peers to build trust, explore ways forward and draw on practical advice.

Leading Transformation in 2021 Programme for System Leaders

Designed to support leaders to meet the specific challenges of leading transformation in 2021, this bitesize programme will introduce you to big ideas, equip you with practical tools and offer access to a peer learning and support community. With five solution-focused bitesize learning sessions, including ‘Making a positive difference without the resources, authority and clarity you need!‘, ‘Managing big personalities and their competing agendas‘ and ‘Practical tools for managing the work‘, this programme offers a flexible, blended approach of in-person sessions and self-directed application to develop your skills.

1:1 Support for Leaders

Safe Space Conversation Sessions for Senior Clinical Leaders

This offer will provide senior clinical leaders time out to talk, to gain support, learning and development through a crucial period of heightened demand on individuals and the healthcare services. Aimed at executive and deputy Medical and Nursing Directors, Heads of Midwifery and AHPs (and their deputies), Senior Clinical Leaders of teams or services, and clinical divisional directors or equivalent.

Bitesize Coaching – book your 45-minute session

An opportunity for those working on the frontline and/or responsible for teams who are currently working under pressure to work with an experienced coach. This one-off session can help you process experiences, develop coping skills or explore strategies to navigate challenging circumstances.

Graduate Management Training Scheme (GMTS)

This coming September will see our largest cohort of GMTS trainees starting in the SE region ever. Click here for further details on GMTS. In the lead up to September, we are running a number of programme and placement manager training events, see details below.

Calling all GMTS Alumni

We are currently reviewing our understanding of GMTS Alumni in the region, whether they trained in the South East, or moved to the area after completion, in order to understand how we can better support our trainees both during their time on GMTS as well as their early years post completion. If you are GMTS Alumni please complete a short survey which will take no more than a minute or two to complete.

GMTS Maximising Opportunities

We are currently reviewing our understanding of GMTS Alumni in the region, whether they trained in the South East, or moved to the area after completion, in order to understand how we can better support our trainees both during their time on GMTS as well as their early years post completion. If you are GMTS Alumni please complete a short survey which will take no more than a minute or two to complete.

National and Partner Offers

Leading for Systems Change

This new national offer provided place-based support for Integrated Care Systems (ICS), to build collaborative system-wide leadership. This offer will provide practical, place-based support to help build collaborative leadership thinking across all areas, building understanding and expertise regarding what it means to work at a system level and to encourage new ways of working.

Regional Leadership for Personalised Care programme, apply by 15 Sept.

This place-based programme is open to teams and individuals from NHS, councils and the voluntary sector, bringing local leaders together to make a difference.

Celebrating South Asian Heritage Month event, 19 Aug.10:30 – 15:30

This event will focus on the main themes of the South Asian Heritage Month which this year are ‘celebrate, commemorate and educate with partners from the public sector and speakers from South Asian Backgrounds and from the NHS.

NHS England upcoming virtual events

• How to have safe and effective wellbeing conversations – national training programme, 1 Sept.  9:30am – 1:00pm – find out more.
• Talking Systems – Organisations as living systems, 2 Sept. 4:00pm – 5:00pm – find out more.
• Pride in the NHS Week and NHS Virtual Pride, 6 – 10 Sept. 10:00am – 7:00pm – find out more.

For more virtual events please visit: NHS England and NHS Improvement Online Events

NHS Elect upcoming webinars

NHS Elect is a national membership organisation run by experienced NHS colleagues that provides development, coaching and support in a number of areas, including Leadership and Organisational Development.

South East Leadership Academy has entered into a strategic partnership with NHS Elect to increase the access to leadership development opportunities for NHS staff in the South East region. The events are free of charge and available to Organisations in the South East who hold an NHS Elect membership. To find out if your organisation holds a membership, please visit NHS Elect – Current members.

Current courses include:

• Measurement for improvement – 24 Aug.
• The Window of Tolerance 15 Sept.
• Lean thinking methodology and more…

For more information about these webinars and a full list of development opportunities from NHS Elect please visit: NHS Elect – Online Courses or contact [email protected].

#ProjectM

Shaped by on-going feedback and conversations had with managers throughout the NHS – #ProjectM is a suite of resources, tools and guides to help our NHS managers lead through COVID-19 and beyond. A community of practice will provide a safe, collaborative space for colleagues to get peer-to-peer support, alongside our award-winning health and wellbeing offers.

#ProjectM Mentorship

In the spirit of support and collaboration #ProjectM mentorship has launched. This is mentorship but not as you know it! This means getting involved is quick and easy and doesn’t require registration. #ProjectM mentorship is based on harnessing social media (starting with Twitter) to enable the #ProjectM community to self-organise. This means you can share your skills and experience by letting the #ProjectM community know you are happy to be a mentor, or you would like to be mentored by adding a Twibbon to your Twitter profile picture.

Executive Suite

A comprehensive suite of supportive offers and resources for senior and executive leaders in health and care. They are designed to support you to remain a resilient leader, continue to thrive in your role, and set cultures that value the importance of health and wellbeing. The offers are open to all executive leaders across health and care in England. 

Spotlight on: Reflective Spaces – forthcoming sessions for all ICS Leads and Chairs; Accountable Officers, Chairs and Executives/Governing Body Members from CCGs.

Leadership Dispatch sign up

By submitting this form you agree to receive the Leadership Dispatch with information about current leadership development programmes and events offered by the South East Leadership Academy, regional and national NHS organisations.

Contact

For Regional Offers: [email protected]

For National and Partner Offers – Please follow the link in the offer you are interested in and contact organisers directly.