Wirral University Teaching Hospital’s Blueprint for Success with NHS North West Leadership Academy

Wirral University Teaching Hospital’s Blueprint for Success with NHS North West Leadership Academy

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) provides a comprehensive range of acute care services, with a workforce of 6,800 serving a population of about 400,000 people across Wirral, and the wider Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales footprint. Wirral University Teaching Hospital (WUTH) has developed a comprehensive in-house leadership development framework known as the Leadership For All Framework aimed at setting the organisational expectations and standards for leadership practice at all levels.

Leadership Qualities Framework

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s leadership qualities framework is based on the principle that anyone can be a leader, leadership for all! Which is underpinned by the hospital’s values and aligned with both the national leadership framework and the North West region’s system leadership approach.

The framework is designed to develop leaders at different levels through the following Talent Development programmes:

• Leading Self
• Leading Teams
• Leading Services
• Leading Organisations
• Leading Systems

The framework outlines leadership expectations across various levels of the organisation, ensuring a structured approach to leadership development.

The framework and subsequent programmes form part of the organisation’s talent management approach “Harnessing Talent”, which sets out a diverse range of opportunities for growth current and future talent at WUTH, this includes:

Support from NHS North West Leadership Academy

NHS North West Leadership Academy (NWLA) has been a key partner in Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s leadership initiatives, offering a range of support services:

Senior System Leads

The NHS NWLA’s Senior System Leads are dedicated representatives who support member organisations in each of the 3 North West systems.

They serve as allies and trusted partners to NWLA members, offering a listening ear to help shape bespoke development offers and interventions.

Via the NWLA membership comes access to the NWLA’s procurement frameworks, giving the opportunity to work with the Senior System Leads as expert commissioners and alongside some of the best leadership development providers to bring leadership visions to life.

Each Senior System Lead also possesses detailed knowledge of the NWLA’s leadership development offerings and can assist member organisations in integrating these core offerings into their existing OD structures.

“Dawn Nisbet, Senior System Lead, for the NHS North West Leadership Academy has been a fantastic resource, talking through our ideas and plans with us and helping us to think; Have you thought about this? Have you considered that?

The NHS North West Leadership Academy, through our membership and through Dawn, has helped us to make connections with various providers that we would not have otherwise had access to.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

Procurement Support

The NWLA has provided significant procurement support to WUTH, streamlining the process of accessing high-quality leadership development services.

“The procurement has been a real godsend, it freed up time that we would have spent sourcing good quality providers and then embarking upon the procurement process to commission them. We have utilised the NHS North West Leadership Academy’s frameworks knowing we were getting quality. Also, Dawn really helped facilitate those conversations with the providers, aligned to our specific development needs. This helped expedite the support and ensure best value.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

Access to Expert Facilitators

The NWLA has provided WUTH with access to expert facilitators who have played a key role in delivering leadership development programs. Notably, Sue Mortlock, who has, brought valuable expertise to guide senior leadership development.

“Sue has supported delivery on two of our leadership programmes, she’s been a great facilitator, of our Leading Organisation Programme and also our Leading System Programme. Sue was highlighted by Dawn Nisbet and that’s been a great connection.”

Annie Roberts, Organisational Development Practitioner

“The feedback that we’ve had from both of those groups is that Sue provided great quality support, she really is very experienced and she brings that into the learning space, enabling some really great learning experiences.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

Facilitators have helped design and implement effective programs for executives and senior leaders. Their involvement has enhanced the quality and impact of WUTH’s leadership initiatives.

“The Leading System Programme for our executive team development has been funded completely through our NHS North West Leadership Academy membership. We started that last year and we’re continuing with it this year. It’s been great value for money based on our membership fee.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

Executive Coaching and Coaching

NHS NWLA has provided executive coaching for WUTH’s senior leaders, offering expert, external coaching through bespoke connections.

“We’ve been able to tap into the executive coaching through our membership with the NHS North West Leadership Academy. I think one thing that’s been really generous and extremely supportive, in terms of our membership, is we had a major incident last year that our Trust was the lead in response for, this was extremely challenging within our organisation and as part of our membership we were offered additional coaching places for senior leaders, which was really supportive and really timely for us.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

The NWLA has also supported WUTH with coaching leaders in non-executive roles through the Coaching and Mentoring Hub. This is an inclusive offering available to all professions within the NHS and social care, irrespective of pay grade, and clinical and non-clinical roles.

“One of the things we do for senior leaders across the trust is promote the NHS North West Leadership Academy coaching hub. We’ve got several individuals who are accessing coaches, particularly our senior leaders who are on the Leading Organisation Programme. This has been more beneficial for them than accessing internal coaching, as they’re able to reach out across the region and, select somebody impartial whose experience matches their own, which is quite important”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

Currently, there are five senior leaders from WUTH accessing coaching via the Coaching and Mentoring Hub and two WUTH staff have registered as coaches and mentors. Through the membership WUTH also access the academy coaching and mentoring resources and CPD events for their pool of internal coaches and mentors.

Communications and Broader Leadership Development

WUTH integrates NHS NWLA’s opportunities into its internal communication efforts. A quarterly leadership bulletin, distributed to around 400 staff members (leadership programmes alumni), includes a dedicated section highlighting NHS NWLA webinars, coaching opportunities, and other resources. This helps ensure that the wider workforce is informed about available leadership development initiatives. This includes courses like the Edward Jenner Program, which is tailored for individuals with no formal line management responsibilities.

“We have a quarterly leadership bulletin that goes out and there is a designated section that we use to promote specific offers from the NHS North West Leadership Academy. That section of the Bulletin always goes down well. The one I sent out this morning focused on one of the NWLA webinars that is coming up and the upcoming coaching supervision events.”

Annie Roberts, Organisational Development Practitioner

Impact

The partnership between Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NHS North West Leadership Academy has significantly strengthened leadership development across the hospital. NHS NWLA’s expertise, resources, and procurement support have allowed WUTH to create a structured, values-driven leadership framework while providing access to critical services such as executive coaching, facilitation, and system leadership development. This collaboration has proven particularly beneficial for senior leadership development and during times of crisis, contributing to a well-rounded and effective leadership culture within the organisation.

“We found our NHS North West Leadership Academy membership really valuable, both the support that we’ve received, and also that Senior System Lead sense checking and making the connections between what’s available through our membership and what we’re already doing.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

The Trust’s Leadership Qualities Framework has received praise from international consulting firm Deloitte, who commented in their recent report:

“The Trust has developed an excellent programme of leadership development aimed at all levels of staff, from leading self through to leading organisation, supported by leadership qualities, framework, outlining expectations of leaders, with the level of consistency and roles and responsibility as increased.”

Deloitte

In the 2023 Staff Survey WUTH has seen some improvement in their staff survey scores against the previous year in domains like:

• Line management
• We are always learning
• Development
• Appraisals

WUTH is expecting to see further improvement for more recent leadership and talent activities in the 2024 Staff Survey

Next Steps

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is committed to continuing its journey of developing leadership and talent within the organisation.

“Our ambition is that all staff have access to or are accessing leadership development to support them and springboard their talent.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

It is specifically looking to expand its coaching and mentoring operation with the NHS North West Leadership Academy.

“The NHS North West Leadership Academy have offered us access to the Coaching and Mentoring Hub; enabling us to have the system which will facilitate our in house coaching and mentoring relationships. Freeing up valuable time to focus on coaching CPD and supervision.”

Hayley Rigby, Deputy Chief People Officer

WUTH and the NWLA will continue to work closely to foster leadership excellence and talent within the organisation.