The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world and delivers care and treatment to more than a million people every 24 hours. It impacts everyone’s lives and employs over 1.3 million people across more than 350 different careers.

The NHS delivers amazing care to patients every single day. But there are times when we fall short and services aren’t what we want them to be – and that has to change.

Excellent leadership and management are key to delivering that change. We need our colleagues to have the right skills, the right support and the right accountabilities.

That is why NHS Chief Executive, Amanda Pritchard has announced a programme to transform NHS leadership and management over the next 2 years.

The programme responds to reviews of leadership including the Messenger Review (2022) and Kark Review (2019), and supports the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan by investing in the professional development of leaders and managers.

Leaders and managers shape the culture, experience and outcomes across the service for patients and our staff. So this programme won’t be optional; it will be an essential expectation of all leaders and managers, whether clinical or operational.

This programme is being overseen by Navina Evans, Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer, while Sam Allen, Chief Executive of North East and North Cumbria ICB has been tasked with supporting NHS England’s team to deliver the programme.

What we want the programme to achieve

The aims of the NHS Management and Leadership Programme are to make sure:

• NHS leaders and managers at all levels meet the standards and competencies our staff and patients expect of them
• all leaders and managers have access to professional development and support to meet the expected standards and competencies
• the NHS attracts, develops and retains the best talent
• the public has increased confidence in NHS leaders and managers, who feel a continued sense of pride in their profession

How we will make the programme a reality

The programme has 3 workstreams which will set the right standards, improve our development offer, and nurture and deploy talent across the NHS.

Workstream 1: Set the right standards for our leaders and managers

NHS England will introduce a new Management and Leadership Framework to create greater parity with clinical and other professions and consistency at all levels of management and leadership. The framework is being developed now and implementation is expected to start in summer 2025.

The framework will comprise:

• a code of practice to set out the values and behaviours expected of all leaders and managers in the NHS and social care
• the professional standards that leaders and managers must demonstrate
• the competencies which underpin the standards and outline the specific skills, knowledge and abilities individuals need to perform effectively at each level

Workstream 2: Develop our leadership and management 

It’s not enough to set out the right standards for leaders and managers – they need quality-assured support and training along the way too. That’s why we will set out:

• a new accredited leadership and management development curriculum which will describe the requirements for delivering high quality training and development
• refreshed leadership development programmes which update current Leadership Academy programmes against the new standards

Workstream 3: Talent support and career development

We need to improve how we attract, identify, mobilise and retain talent and high potential at all levels in the NHS. We will do this by:

• strengthening the talent pipeline for chair, non-executive director, chief executive and executive roles. This will include the Aspiring Chief Executive programme and interventions to attract new talent, and to better identify and develop existing non-executive directors through the redesigned Aspiring Chair Programme, starting in spring 2025
• support senior leaders to work in the most challenged systems by identifying existing talent and current barriers to deployment at pace, with a longer-term plan to ensure the most experienced and effective leaders are identified and supported to take on these roles, and we’ll set out this plan in spring 2025