Year in review: 2023 highlights
2023 was a year of transformation, collaboration and leadership innovation for the NHS North West Leadership Academy (NHS NWLA).
Over the course of the year, more than 2,000 leaders from across the North West engaged with leadership development opportunities designed to build capability, confidence and leadership skills across health and care.
These opportunities were showcased throughout the year in the NHS NWLA’s Leader publications, highlighting support for areas including clinical fellowships, coaching cultures, workforce wellbeing and inclusive leadership.
Supporting a new, collaborative approach to leadership development, the NHS NWLA continued to work with the other regional Leadership Academies to deliver a portfolio of consistent leadership development offers and support for health and care leaders across all regions.
Working without the North West collaborative, the NHS NWLA have delivered 8 expert masterclasses and were joined by over 100 cross-sector leaders at each session to explore topics such as maximising the potential of our people, neurodiversity in the workplace, community leadership and leveraging opportunities for ICSs.
Watch back all of the recordings from this year’s programme.
Following testing with pilot sites, the Looking after your teams’ health and wellbeing guide was published in April 2023. Working collaboratively with the NHS England Health and Wellbeing team, the interactive guide was developed to support teams to build a healthy wellbeing culture through activities, helpful hints and an inspiration library.
The Lead Positive programme welcomed 100 aspirant Black, Asian and other ethnic minority leaders from across Greater Manchester. This bespoke development programme aimed to address the barriers in the talent pipeline and build confidence, capacity and the ability to influence positive change. This unique programme provided an opportunity for Trusts across GM to pilot a new approach in their organisation to address these barriers.
In Hyndburn, we have supported two successful cohorts of leaders through a bespoke system leadership development programme, in collaboration with the Hyndburn Way team. The programme supports the development of system leadership approaches and enhances participants’ ability to lead system change.
The NHS NWLA has been supporting the NHS Population Health and Health Equity Academy with their highly regarded 2023/24 programme up in Lancaster. This is an intense programme over 8 months which includes both theoretical frameworks and experiential learning, internationally renowned speakers including Cormac Russell and aims to foster authentic NHS leaders who understand population health, the importance of addressing inequality and the real benefits of community involvement and input.
Working closely with colleagues across the North West Healthcare Science Network, the NHS NWLA provided leadership development opportunities for healthcare science professionals, enabling some participants to access structured leadership development for the first time in their careers. This bespoke offer has included topics such as “Leadership vs. Management: what is the difference?” and “Understanding Self as a Leader”. The feedback received has shown the value and learning that colleagues have taken from these sessions and are able to implement in their day-to-day roles.
In July, the NHS NWLA welcomed back its popular Coaching and Mentoring Network Learning Events. The North West coaching and mentoring community joined us to enhance their knowledge, connect, share and learn with colleagues at two Network Learning Events, with a third to follow in early 2024. The day focused on providing CPD to enhance skills, effectiveness and overall practice.
“Thank you for the superb network event. It was great to link in with peers across the region and there was so much learning and great practice and principles to take away from the event.”
Network Learning Event Attendee
In September, the NHS NWLA’s annual Festival of Leadership returned. Joined by over 150 senior leaders, the day started with a keynote panel focused on leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future. Attendees then moved to a series of workshops to explore topics such as adaptive leadership, inclusion and collaboration.
Building on the success of the 2023 event, plans were already underway for another engaging and impactful programme in 2024.
As part of its continued commitment to supporting senior leaders across the North West, the Academy established both a new Chief Executive Network and Non-Executive Director Network. Following the successful first series of NED network events, which concluded in December 2023, plans were already in place for a further programme in 2024, alongside the launch of the new Chief Executive Network in February 2024.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedicated team at the NHS North West Leadership Academy, whose expertise and commitment continue to support leaders, teams and organisations across the region.
As 2023 drew to a close, the Academy encouraged leaders to invest in their ongoing development and leadership capabilities, building on the learning and opportunities available throughout the year.
You can keep up with the NHS NWLA’s activity on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The NHS NWLA also welcomed feedback, reflections and leadership stories from its members, get in touch to share your story.
Looking ahead, the NHS NWLA looked forward to continuing its work with leaders across the North West throughout 2024.