Thom Lafferty, Chief Executive at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust welcomed more than 70 colleagues from the ICB and ICS partner organisations.
The ESLP and ADDS brings together health and social care colleagues, working at mid and senior management level, to support them in their career aspirations and open up more opportunities to progress to a more senior level. They are recognised as having the potential and desire to become a future senior/system leader.
There was lots of praise for the programme participants for their commitment, hard work and dedication over the past 12 months, as they shared their leadership development journeys with their peers and other attendees during some round table discussions.
Participants also heard from two guest speakers. Our ICB Chair Paul Burstow spoke about how he was keen to continue to champion the importance of working across systems and beyond – noting how ADDS and ESLP had given participants the opportunity to build connections and relationships they should continue to maintain. Tom Simons of NHS England talked about the importance in his personal journey of people who supported him, invested in his personal development and why he wanted (and continues) to support others on their journey. He also reflected on how the ADDS had progressed since being involved in its inception when he was Chief People Officer at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust.
Keeley Cooper, Associate Director of People Services at the ICB and ESLP participant, said: “I came away from the event feeling very uplifted. It was a great way to end a really good development programme.”
ADDS participant Mary Smith, Deputy Director of Ops (CYP) at Hertfordshire Community Trust, commented: “It was a fabulous day to look back on where we started a year ago and share what has changed in our thinking and approaches to leadership in a complex system.”
The ESLP is open to mid-level managers from partner organisations looking to develop their skills and confidence to lead services across a wider system. As well as formal learning the programme provides hands-on experiential learning, coaching skills, system leader mentoring and group reflective practice.
The ADDS is open to senior leaders from across the ICS and offers challenging and stretching system leadership development opportunities. The scheme aims to prepare individuals to progress from operational to strategic leadership.