E, L&D leads change at Imperial

On 1 st October 2007, St Mary’s NHS Trust and Hammersmith NHS Trust merged creating the trust with the largest financial turnover in the country. This was phase one of two, the second being the integration with Imperial College Faculty of Medicine to create Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

With just under 10,000 staff now employed by the new organisation we face a challenging, yet exciting time ahead. Education, Learning & Development (E,L&D) is now at the forefront of the changes ahead. In these unsettling times of change, we turn to our leaders to inspire and motivate us and to steer the organisation in the right direction and make the merger a success as well as becoming a ‘world class’ organisation.

The focus therefore of the E,L&D team is currently to provide outstanding provision of leadership and management training at all levels. We have done this by putting in place a “First Line Management Development Programme” for staff at bands 5 and 6, focusing on the theory of management and building confidence to put this into practice. This is run in conjunction with City of Westminster College and is ILM accredited. It covers the basic management skills such as delegation, team working, one to ones and HR issues.

For the middle managers in the organisation, bands 7-8B, we have the “Effective Managers Development Programme” which consolidates prior knowledge and builds on the practical elements of management at a more senior level. Using a blend of internal expertise and external specialists, this programme covers a variety of topics including HR, leadership, negotiation and finance as well as an e-learning element. We are currently seeking accreditation for this programme, again through ILM.

The Lane 4 Leadership Development Programme is specifically for those staff at a very senior level who have been identified by the executive team as potential leaders and change facilitators. The programme is run through interactive workshops and 1-2-1 coaching sessions. It largely focuses on negotiation skills, peer support, networking and building relationships.

All of this is underpinned by a strong coaching culture being developed for all managers and staff, supported by peer coaching sessions.

We are also focusing on supporting lower banded staff with career development and literacy and numeracy skills as well as the “Learning For Work Community Recruitment Training Programme” scheme which as well as the above, also recruits local people into the organisation and supports them through the selection and interview process and into vacant posts.

Following the merger there are the obvious alignment issues with regards to structures, policies, procedures and provision of training. This provides the team with many multifaceted challenges to meet the demands of a new emerging organisation.

Amanda McEvoy is associate director of Education & Learning at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust