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FMLM to set out the case for levelling-up ‘inconsistent’ leadership across the NHS at Health and Social Care Select Committee evidence session
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The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) will today tell members of the UK Parliament's Health and Social Care Select Committee that investment in the training and development of managers and leaders is vital if standards and patient safety across the NHS are to be improved.
As part of the Committee's inquiry into NHS leadership, performance and patient safety, FMLM Chief Executive, Professor Rich Withnall, will give oral evidence on Tuesday 16 April at 10am, where he will tell members that improving the standard of clinical leadership will save lives.
The session will explore the relationship between NHS leadership and patient safety, what 'good leadership' means in different contexts – including at ICS level, the cases for and against greater regulation of NHS leaders, how leadership can support improvements in the culture around 'speaking up', and how the NHS learns from patient safety incidents.
It will also look at the implementation of the recommendations from both the Kark and Messenger Reviews into NHS leadership and management, and the progress that has been made since their publication in 2019 and 2022 respectively.
As the home of clinical leadership in the UK, FMLM has been invited to give its views on the current situation and what needs to change to strengthen leadership, accountability, and patient safety.
Professor Withnall will make the case that a pan-NHS multidisciplinary professional body to provide and assure clinical leadership standards is needed to reduce 'inconsistent' quality of management and improve patient safety, and that ultimately "Effective clinical leadership saves lives and we need to let good, properly trained leaders lead."
The FMLM CEO will tell the Committee that with the NHS coping with some of the most difficult challenges it has ever seen, including ever-growing demand, poor infrastructure, years of below-average funding growth, and staffing shortages, health and care leaders are operating in a near-impossible environment, and face difficult choices at every turn.
With pressure on to deliver against performance metrics and meet severely stretched budgets, Professor Withnall will tell the Committee that much more must be done to support leaders as they seek to balance these priorities with patient safety, including consistent long-term funding, a streamlining of targets, and ring-fenced funding for consistent training and development.
The Committee will hear that while the Kark and Messenger Reviews shone a welcome spotlight on leadership, implementation of their recommendations has been slow, but must be delivered in full to help foster an inclusive, values-based environment of support, collaboration and continuing professional development across healthcare.
Other witnesses at the session will include General Sir Gordon Messenger, Leader at Review of Leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future, Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive at NHS Confederation, and Rebecca Hilsenrath, Chief Executive at Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Note to Editors
FMLM is the UK's professional home for clinical leadership. FMLM is a charity and a membership organisation of more than 2,600 medical and dental students, vocational trainees, SAS doctors, and qualified GP and Consultant colleagues up to Medical Director, Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer levels in England and the devolved NHS administrations.
Its primary objective is to raise the standard of patient care by improving healthcare leadership via support, development and advocacy. FMLM's evidence base and professional standards represent peer-reviewed 'best practice' for NHS and non-NHS healthcare delivery organisations.
Prof Rich Withnall, FMLM CEO, is one of the UK's most senior medical leaders. His career has included military service across multiple continents, advising the Government on national medical emergencies, and serving as an Honorary Surgeon to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. He is the RCGP's Chief Examiner and Medical Director for International Education & Training.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee is examining the relationship between leadership in the NHS and performance/productivity as well as patient safety. It will consider the findings of and implementation of recent reviews of NHS leadership, such as the Messenger (2022) and Kark (2019) reviews as they relate to patient safety, as well as topics including how effectively leadership supports whistleblowers and learning from patient safety issues.
The first session of this enquiry starts at 10am on Tuesday 16 April and is available to watch live on Parliamentlive.tv.