ICS, STP, ICP, MCP... the NHS isn’t short of new acronyms, but underneath it all the opportunities and challenges are familiar – how do we lead and work differently across a system and with communities, to deliver health and wellbeing?
This is something Prospect have been helping West Lancashire’s system of GPs, commissioners, NHS providers and local government partners to grapple with.
Since June 2018, partners were keen to approach this differently – by thinking about culture, leadership, trust and behaviours from the very beginning. Following workshops facilitated by Prospect to identify the priority leadership behaviours that partners felt were vital, Prospect undertook a system leadership diagnostic with over 20 senior system leaders, through interviews and surveys, to understand the ‘current state’ and to develop agreements about ways of working together going forwards.
Our team, which has included Donna Bradshaw, Jackie Barringer, Richard Woods, Sonia Cabrillo and Catherine Barber-Brown, has worked with partners to produce narrative, vision, principles, values and behaviours. Feedback has been that combining ‘task’ and ‘leadership’ together is building a stronger and more committed team.
