2 Years in the Making: Building Relationships Between the NHS North West Leadership Academy and Two Manchester Trusts
Teresa Hopley, the Head of Talent, Leadership and Organisational Development Consultancy (TLODC) at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Foundation Trust and Stockport Foundation Trust, has dedicated her career to fostering a culture of compassionate leadership within the NHS. As she approaches retirement, she reflects on her journey, the challenges of leading in a dual-trust environment, and the invaluable role of the NHS North West Leadership Academy in supporting leadership development.
Teresa’s NHS journey
Teresa’s journey in the NHS started in 1990 as a graduate trainee on the GMTS scheme shortly before securing a permanent NHS role as a Personnel Officer in a London-based trust. Teresa eventually moved back North to Greater Manchester, where she worked across various Manchester Hospitals in HR roles progressing to become an Assistant Director of HR at Stockport. In 2007 Teresa moved into a career in NHS service improvement until 2018, when she became an OD Practitioner starting a journey that would lead to her current position of Head of Talent, Leadership and Organisational Development Consultancy at Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Foundation Trust and Stockport Foundation Trust.
According to Teresa, there are distinct cultures in every NHS organisation, even though they are all part of the NHS.
“Working in 2 or 3 of those Greater Manchester Trusts I have seen that there are different elements of good and bad culture in every organisation. We therefore need to make sure we keep nurturing the cultures we want, and that we look after our staff, because at the end of the day our staff are the most important asset we have to deliver effective patient care.”
During her time in service improvement and OD, Teresa completed several Leadership Development programmes run by the NHS Leadership Academy, giving her a strong sense of the benefits of investing in leadership learning.
“During my journey within the NHS, I have had responsibilities for staff on and off, ranging from small to medium teams all within HR. Showing leadership qualities and using leadership skills has always been crucial to getting results through others.
Even before I became involved in the leadership development field, I always thought it was important for leaders to be compassionate and inclusive, and I have always tried to be compassionate and inclusive. It is very important to be person-centred and treat people as individuals.”
Resources that enable compassionate leadership
Looking After Your Team’s Health and Wellbeing Guide
This has been designed to help you and your team(s) explore what being a part of a healthy team means for different individuals.
Wellbeing and Attendance Management Policy Implementation Toolkit
Encourage a more holistic approach to sickness and absence management in your organisation that focuses on person-centred support.
Building culture in NHS Trusts
One of the unique aspects of Teresa’s role is leading the leadership and organisational development agenda across two independent trusts. Despite their close collaboration, each has its own culture, demographics, and operational challenges. Balancing the needs of both requires a tailored approach, ensuring that leadership development initiatives resonate within each setting.
“Our Trusts’ priorities are to attract the best talent and, once they are in post, to ensure their development. We want people to be high performing and ensure that people stay with us or recommend us as an employer.
We work with our leaders to help maximise their potential and progression. We also acknowledge that everyone is a leader, not just those who manage staff but also those who influence.
In the organisational development part of our portfolio, we work with teams and leaders that are struggling and try to help them move forward and think and work differently.”
Capacity has been a challenge for Teresa and her team, as they work across two organisations. Teresa recalls that there are times when they needed to “nuance information to the individual trust”, although their primary focus is “to work collaboratively across the two organisations, sharing best practice wherever possible”.
“I won’t lie, it’s challenging working for 2 organisations. But when new ways of working or new initiatives are implemented, it’s a real sense of achievement.”
A recent milestone in the trust’s shared commitment has been the implementation of refreshed values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence (CARE). Teresa sees these values as foundational in shaping a culture that supports workforce retention, staff wellbeing, and leadership effectiveness.
“Towards the end of last year, we undertook a piece of work to refresh our values and behaviours. We are trying to build a culture across both organisations where people are compassionate and civil to each other, where we take ownership for our actions and behaviours, where inclusivity is seen as positive, and where staff can develop and flourish into the best versions of themselves supported by effective leaders.“
Teresa says both trusts have invested heavily in the ‘Civility Saves Lives’ programme, whose early benefits are being realised and reinforced by elements of their staff survey results.
“We are encouraging people to complete on training because we are a learning organisation. We want to hold people to account for what they do and for behaviours that go against our values but we want to do this in a compassionate and kind way without making people feel hopeless.“
Teresa also mentions that they pay close attention to what the staff survey is saying and take action accordingly.
“For example, the staff survey told us that the quality of our appraisals fell below expectations. So, we have just reviewed and overhauled our appraisal process, which is to be accompanied by some bespoke training for impactful appraisals, which focuses on how to cascade and set SMART objectives. This had been commissioned via the NHS North West Leadership Academy’s procurement framework.”
Maximising the NHS North West Leadership Academy membership
When Teresa took on her current role two years ago, both trusts were paying NHS North West Leadership Academy membership fees. While there was some utilisation of the membership, this changed significantly, thanks to Teresa’s collaboration with Suzanne Douglas, Senior System Lead for Greater Manchester.
“Our relationship with the NHS North West Leadership Academy has transformed over the last two years, and we have focused on ensuring we maximise the value of our membership and return on investment. For example, across both trusts, we have maximised the executive coaching use.“
“Working closely with Suzanne has been crucial in maximising our value for money. She has been brilliant at showing us how to make the most of what is available and has also signposted us to other resources in the system, such as the DO OD conference, where we can get additional support.”
What does ‘Senior System Lead’ mean?
Senior System Leads are dedicated representatives at the NHS North West Leadership Academy who support member organisations in each of the North West systems: Lancashire and South Cumbria, Cheshire and Merseyside, and Greater Manchester.
They serve as allies and trusted partners to NWLA members, offering a listening ear to help shape bespoke development offers and interventions.
Click here to learn more and find out who the Senior System Lead is for your organisation.
Through their regular catch-ups, Teresa and Suzanne have been able to explore and implement various leadership development opportunities.
“We’re developing new offers within the organisation which we’re trying to co-produce with our leaders. We have just created a new leadership improvement programme within one of our trusts called ‘Leading with Impact’. We have worked very closely with Suzanne because the NHS North West Leadership Academy assisted us to procure an element of this through its framework, this has given us access to some quality facilitators without a capacity draining tender process.”
The trusts have also embraced the NHS North West Leadership Academy’s Coaching and Mentoring Hub, enabling staff to access valuable coaching and mentoring opportunities. Moreover, they have developed in-house coaches through an apprenticeship scheme, further embedding a culture of continuous learning and leadership development.
“We’ve got a number of people taking up an apprenticeship to become qualified coaches. We now have the Coaching and Mentoring Hub alongside our own coaches, and we have access to the executive coaching. So, it complements all the different levels of coaching asks and I’m really pleased with that. We’ve also registered our coaches on the Coaching and Mentoring Hub so they can obtain access to the CPD and networking events the NHS North West Leadership Academy runs.”
“The other thing we have done this year is reach out to Kelly Woods from NHS North West Leadership Academy who has agreed to deliver some career coaching for us.”
Other resources and support for coaching and mentoring
Coaching and Mentoring Lunch and Learn Sessions
Sharpen your coaching skills and catch up on all the discussions with these recordings.
Mentor Development Programme
Delivered throughout the year, this programme is designed to create mentors with the skills and confidence needed to guide and develop others with practical tools.
Discover the upcoming cohorts here.
A strong foundation for the future
In 2025, Teresa will step away from her role, but she is confident that the strong relationship between her trusts and the NHS North West Leadership Academy will continue to flourish.
“Obviously there’s only one Suzanne, but I would recommend other organisations reach out and work closely with their Senior System Lead. Nurturing the relationship and having regular catch ups with Suzanne has been very helpful. We have had some really valuable conversations where we’ve had time to just explore what is possible.”
Looking ahead, Teresa hopes to see the NHS North West Leadership Academy play an even greater role in regional organisational development and culture forums.
“I would love to see the NHS North West Leadership Academy more involved in Greater Manchester and Organisational Development spaces. There is so much potential there, and I think other organisations would really benefit from understanding what is on offer.“
As she moves into retirement, Teresa takes pride in the strides her trusts have made in leadership development, culture, and staff engagement. Her legacy is one of commitment, collaboration, and an unwavering belief in the power of compassionate leadership.
“I don’t think any organisation has quite cracked the perfect culture, but I am very happy with the legacies I am leaving, and I can put my hand on my heart and say that growing the relationship with the NHS North West Leadership Academy is one of them. My successor has a background in talent management and I will be connecting her to Suzanne so I think that relationship between the Trusts and the NHS North West Leadership Academy will continue to flourish.”