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New NHS MBA revealed as Hunt hails ‘outstanding’ leaders

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has hailed the ‘outstanding leaders’ existing in NHS staff, announcing several new initiatives to boost the leaders of the future in his keynote address to this year’s NHS Providers conference.

In a speech focusing on three strands – leadership, morale and flexible working – Hunt emphasised the ‘lifeblood’ of the NHS, its staff, by launching a new nursing apprenticeship to help people enter nursing more quickly.

Hunt’s other announcements included a new NHS MBA, including a part-time option for practicing clinicians, and a new £1m ‘GP+’ initiative to encourage retiring GPs to stay in practice and share their skills with the next generation of doctors.

“Nurses are the lifeblood of our NHS, but the routes to a nursing degree currently shut out some of the most caring, compassionate staff in our country,” Hunt said as he announced the new nursing apprenticeship.

“I want those who already work with patients to be able to move into the jobs they really want and I know for many, this means becoming a nurse. Not everyone wants to take time off to study full-time at university so by creating hundreds of new apprentice nurses, we can help healthcare assistants and others reach their potential as a fully trained nurse.”

Leadership

Hunt set out his desire to change the lack of diversity and clinical experience of managers currently operating in NHS hospitals, lamenting the growth in the NHS of a ‘non-clinician manager class’ since the 1980s. Currently only 54% of NHS hospital CEOs are clinicians compared to 94% in Sweden, with only 46% of CEOs women and a mere 2% of a BME background.

This led to Hunt announcing that from this year the NHS Leadership Academy will send 30 clinicians to gain management skills, along with a new partnership with universities to deliver a new NHS MBA starting from September 2017. The MBA will be available part-time in order to enable practicing doctors to participate.

Morale

While Hunt acknowledged that doctors are the highest paid NHS staff, he said the NHS must take care of its lower paid staff, saying that morale has a direct effect on care standards and clinical engagement.

Hunt has asked Health Education England (HEE) and the British Medical Association (BMA) to explore whether a modern 'firm' structure would get better outcomes for patients, with pilot schemes set to launch across the country.

The health secretary also announced a new skills escalator to enable apprentices to follow a skilled route in registered nursing, saying that the escalator will help “smash the glass ceiling” that currently exists in NHS practice.

Hunt confirmed that the Department of Education has approved the degree level apprenticeship standard due to start next year for the NHS’ new nursing associate role, and that he has written to the chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to assist with professional regulation.

He also sought to reassure critics that the new nursing associate role is not meant to replace registered nurses, “but to support them”.

Flexible working

Finally, the NHS should place a new focus on ‘e-rostering’ in order to counter the inflexibility and rigid 12-hour days that has led to a proliferation of expensive agency outsourcing, Hunt said.

‘E-rostering’ was recently recommended by Lord Carter, non-executive director of NHS Improvement, as part of his report into hospital efficiency. He also announced a new best practice sharing initiative, along with a £1m ‘GP+’ scheme to encourage retiring doctors to remain in practice and share their experience with training GPs.

Hunt concluded his address by tying together his new initiatives, emphasising their aim to motivate and empower NHS staff. He hoped that the NHS would be able to reach the ideal set by the story of a Mayo Clinic cleaner who was asked what he was doing. “I save lives,” the cleaner replied.