Background

The NHS has long been calling for more autonomy from the centre and now every political party has recognised this is key to improvement. Lord Darzi's NHS Next Stage Review highlighted leadership as a core theme and made a number of specific proposals for identifying and developing strong leadership throughout the NHS.

As the Department of Health's Leadership Council starts to work through these issues, the challenge for NHS leaders is to rise to the agenda by making the most of existing freedoms to deliver for local people.

To support its members in responding to this agenda, the NHS Confederation is producing a series of papers and events to stimulate thinking on the future of NHS leadership.

The NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition, Local leadership: a national service, in Liverpool from 10-12 June, offered the opportunity to progress the discussion further.

Papers

The series consists of four papers, released in the run-up to the conference:

1. Reforming leadership development...again (now published)
2. Medical leadership (now published)
3. Leading innovation (now published)
4. Dealing with the downturn (now published)

The papers are designed to stimulate discussion and we look forward to hearing from members and others with their views on the issues covered. To comment, please visit the individual pages for each paper by clicking the links above.

Media

Steve Barnett spoke with Health Exec TV about the leadership challenges that the NHS faces and his role on the Leadership Council. Click here to watch the full interview.

Leadership videos

Videos have been released showcasing the work of three NHS Confederation members and demonstrate how good leadership in the NHS is making a difference to patients and the community.