The aim of IMPRESS is to provide the clinical leadership required to drive improvements across and beyond the traditional boundaries of primary and secondary care to achieve high quality integrated patient-centred care for the population with or at risk of respiratory disease. These pages will highlight some of the most recent resources available on leadership and clinical leadership specfically. They are not intended to be a comprehensive review.

July 2012 - NHS Change Model

NHS Change Model launched. Compendium of change  resources.  

May 2012

Leadership and engagement for improvement in the NHS: Together we can - New report from the  Kings Fund.

It demonstrates how leadership and relationship building across systems is necessary to improve integrated care.

It also makes the case for engaging staff, patients and boards Building on the work of The King's Fund's 2011 Leadership Commission, the 2012 review has taken evidence from a number of national and international experts. Their evidence makes a compelling case for leadership and engagement:

• organisations whose staff are engaged deliver a better patient experience, fewer errors and higher staff morale
• engaging patients in their care can ensure that care is more appropriate and improve outcomes
• increasing recognition of the importance of integrated care requires leaders to be effective across systems, both within and outside the NHS.

The authors argue that to make engagement a reality requires action at all levels, from the NHS Commissioning Board to the teams delivering care for patients. It also requires commitment to training and development of clinical staff in leadership skills from early in their careers. The unifying vision for every leader should be engaging for improvement with a clear focus on improving patient care and population health outcomes.

June 2011

Leadership: what will you commit to?

Helen Bevan, Director of Service Transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement  spoke to the respiratory clinical leads about contagious commitment.  What can we learn from the leaders of the great social movements that have been able to unite thousands of people around a common cause and ignite change at scale? How can we apply for of the same principles in our own organisations to unleash the creativity and energy of our own workforce and of patients and their families?   See  here and here  for  examples of her thinking. 

Clinical engagement in leadership

The NHS Institute has recently produced resources on enhancing clinical engagement and its impact on organisational performance.  It includes a useful review  of the international literature by Professor Chris Ham as well as a scale of engagement. The publication Engaging Doctors in Leadership: What we can learn from international experience and research evidence  describes how the scale was derived. Whllst it is aimed at acute sector managers, showing how to engage clinicians at all levels in the organisation, it is relevant for clinicians across sectors and at all levels. 

Respiratory leadership

National leads

In December 2009 joint National Clinical Directors for respiratory disease in England were appointed. Their role is to raise awareness of respiratory disease, and to oversee and steer the improvement of respiratory services in the NHS, with a particular focus on COPD, asthma, home oxygen and sleep apnoea. Professor Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer in the Department of Health and Dr Robert Winter, Chest Physician at Addenbrookes, and East of England SHA Medical Director, were appointed to these important roles.

The Lung Improvement Programme of NHS Improvement  aims to support clinical teams, commissioners, service managers and other key stakeholders deliver effective clinical practice through process improvement and redesign.

Regional Respiratory Clinical Leads

A full list of leads is available from the NHS Lung Improvement website here.  These are currently organised according to this map, but are joining to align with the new clusters: London; North (comprising of the North West, North East and Yorkshire & Humber SHA area); Midlands (West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England) and South (South West, South Central and South East Coast).