Clinical Leadership Workshops for Healthcare Support Workers – Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) is a Mental Health and Learning Disability provider which employs around 7,500 members of staff across over 400 sites. It provides health and wellbeing services for the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria with a population of around 1.8 million people.
Creating a Fresh Focus
The organisation knew it needed a fresh focus on retention and experience. They were able to be part of cohort 1 of the People Promise Exemplar programme and focussed on a range of initiative spanning flexible working, stay conversations and reward & recognition. They understood that the retention and progression of their unregistered clinical staff was key and needed to be a focus.
The Clinical Leadership Workshops for Healthcare Support Workers (HCSWs) were introduced to empower and recognise HCSWs as leaders and the backbone of the NHS.
The issue addressed was the need for leadership development among HCSWs to ensure they could lead and enable outstanding teams with inspiration, compassion, and inclusivity. It was recognised that “leadership” comes in different forms and there was a need for this group to develop their skills and understanding around leadership to support culture change and enhanced patient care.
Developing Leadership
The initiative involved creating and developing a Leadership offer initially starting with a pilot group spanning 2 wards on a Mental Health inpatient site with learning being drawn, this then supported further growth into:
- Involving specialists across corporate services for co-delivery and planning.
- Ensuring the programmes were accessible and aligned with Trust values.
- Developing the Trust’s Connect programme and Flourish Leadership development programme.
- Embedding elements of the piloted scheme into the already well-established HCA Training week for new and pre-existing HCAs.
The initial initiative was part of the NHS People Promise Exemplar Programme, the initiative aimed to equip our HCA colleagues with knowledge and skills on leadership, civility, respect and self-awareness by completing the Jigsaw colours activity. The initiative explored self as leader and collective leadership, with a focus on ‘rank’ not being an integral part of effective leadership. The initiative also supported LSCFT colleagues to have a better understanding of the impact civility and respect can have on patient recovery and outputs.
The initial pilot was offered in person to both day staff and night staff, the night sessions were delivered 20:00-00:00 recognising that colleagues worked a range of shift patterns.
The Impact of Change
The initiatives have and continue to enhance leadership skills and support a culture of compassion and inclusivity within the organisation.
The feedback has been very positive, with participants appreciating the accessibility and practical nature of the workshops. The workshops continue to be highly attended and sought after, indicating their popularity and effectiveness.
Overall, the organisation saw and continues to see a significant improvement in their retention and levels of engagement because of their wider People Promise Exemplar work. The Model Health Data also shows that the HCAs are choosing to stay longer at LSCFT which is likely recognition to their focus on supporting the HCAs to grow and develop at LSCFT. There has also been a significant decline in the HCA Voluntary Turnover rate over the last 12 months.
Key Learnings
A new leadership offer has become business as usual at LSCFT which supports all colleagues to identify themselves as leaders.
1. Engage stakeholders early, ensure programmes are accessible and relevant to the staff’s needs, and integrate core values like compassion and inclusivity.
2. Collect and act on feedback to continuously improve the programmes.
3. Recognise the role of all colleagues – not just senior colleagues – in terms of leadership and setting culture.
Contact Information
For more information about this case study contact:
Kelly Morrison
People Promise Manager