A collaborative project delivered by the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Arden GEM has been shortlisted in the Best Employer for Diversity and Inclusion category and the Best Workplace for Learning and Development category.
Delivered to over 50 staff members at the Newcastle Hospitals the programme received overwhelmingly positive feedback with several participants successfully achieving promotions following completion.
Understanding the problem
Maximising our staff’s potential is a long-term ambition for the Newcastle Hospitals to develop and nurture an organisation that is vibrant and diverse at all levels, with improved representation at leadership levels.
Active, effectual leadership is key to this which is where Newcastle’s “Maximising Your Potential” Leadership Development offer comes in.
“Every NHS organisation is aware of how important colleagues are in our quest to deliver high quality patient care whilst ensuring our workforce feels safe, effective and respected”, explains Karen Pearce, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (People) at the Newcastle Hospitals.
“Yet we can only deliver truly compassionate care if our entire workforce feels valued and we know that sadly the reality is that many staff who identify as Black, Asian Minority Ethnic do not, finding it hard to progress in their careers with proportionally fewer staff achieving senior positions.”
Karen continues “At Newcastle we are committed to turning the tide by supporting BME colleagues in every aspect. We collaborated with NHS Arden and Gem CSU to deliver a bespoke leadership development programme to equip staff at pace with the tools they need to become sector leaders.
“Initially aiming for one cohort of 25 staff we were oversubscribed and commissioned two cohorts with over 50 members of staff participating across multiple directorates and staff groups within just eight months. A much larger throughput that wouldn’t have been possible without a bespoke offer.”
The programme
The Leadership Development Programme was designed to provide support and training for staff who would benefit from developing their skills further with the aim of creating a fair and equitable high-performance culture.
It allowed a ‘safe space’ for authentic conversations about lived experience, the development of leadership skills and shared learning.
In addition, Newcastle Hospitals has further developed ‘Maximising Your Coaching Potential’ into a tailored coaching offer funded by NHS Charities which will provide staff with a useful skill set as well as an accredited and recognised qualification – an ILM 3 Award in Effective Coaching.
This means that after completing the programme, delegates will also be offered the opportunity to join Newcastle’s coaching network, with the aim of increasing the diversity of coaches and allowing them to use their skills to coach other members of staff.
“Focusing on talent development and staff retention provides us with a superb opportunity to create sustainable inclusion whilst addressing the social, organisational and psychological barriers restricting BME colleagues from progressing,” added Karen.
“We’re delighted to have received positive feedback and we’ve already seen some participants attributing the skills and confidence they have gained through the programme to recent promotion.
“It’s great to find ourselves in a strong position to re-affirm the Trust’s commitment to improving representative leadership and to see how giving tailored advice to colleagues is helping to bridge the inequality gap.”
Mr Usman Malik, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at NHS Arden and Gem says: “We are delighted to work with Newcastle Hospitals on this hugely rewarding project.”
A blueprint for others
The success of the programme, including our internal offer has provided a ‘blue-print’ for other NHS organisations to follow and tailor to their needs. Our experience has been shared with colleagues and pilots have taken place ensuring such excellent practice can be enjoyed across the NHS.
Nursing Times Workforce Summit and Awards 2022
The Nursing Times Workforce Summit and Awards aims to bring together peers to tackle current workforce challenges as well as recognising best practice from organisations that have made a positive impact to the profession.
The awards recognise the brightest talent in workforce planning and highlights those making a difference in recruitment, staff retention, wellbeing and inclusion.
Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, taking place on Tuesday 22 November 2022 at the Hilton London Metropole.
