Progressing PCNs: The Greater Manchester leadership development programme

Supporting Greater Manchester’s primary care networks (PCNs) and their leadership teams to develop their impact and strategy.
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Commissioned by the Greater Manchester Primary Care Provider Board, the Greater Manchester leadership development programme has supported PCNs and their leadership teams to develop their strategy and impact by applying new approaches to PCN leadership. This leadership offer was delivered by the NHS Confederation to create the necessary space, processes, and peer networks needed to consciously create the conditions required to advance the PCN model for care in 2024 and beyond.

If your organisation is interested in finding out more about the NHS Confederation’s bespoke leadership development programmes, please contact Louise Wheeler to arrange a conversation. 

About the programme

The programme was designed for PCN clinical directors (or a clinician identified as their potential successor) alongside the PCN manager (or equivalent) who were in positions where they could influence and implement change within their PCN and at neighbourhood level.

It was an applied development programme for senior leaders of Greater Manchester PCNs and consisted of four face-to-face sessions with embedded action learning sets, as well as four short online sessions, running over five months (September 2023 – February 2024).  

The programme aimed to help leaders build on and refine their leadership strengths, create a support structure during winter pressures, and build a stronger, networked PCN community across Manchester. It sought to support and challenge leaders to explore issues such as the purpose of and opportunities for PCN senior leaders.

Real-life learning and a case study approach allowed focus on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’ of leadership experiences. Adopting a ‘leaders teaching leaders’ approach, there was a strong emphasis on learning from each and from highly experienced PCN leaders within the NHS Confederation’s member network to support innovation and practical leadership development. 

Greater Manchester leadership programme cohort

Here's what our commissioners had to say:

“This programme delivered a much-needed support and leadership development pathway for our senior Greater Manchester PCN leaders. Through a balance of practical, peer, and expert learning, leaders have contributed to a stronger, networked PCN leadership community within localities and across Greater Manchester. This in turn created a support structure for managing winter pressures in 2023/24, as it developed participants’ resilience, leadership confidence, motivation, and job satisfaction to lead the progression of the PCN model. We have received positive feedback about improved working relationships between practices and their PCN networks, demonstrating the effectiveness of this style of applied leadership development.”

Rob Bellingham, Chief Officer for Commissioning and Population Health, NHS Greater Manchester

"We co-designed the leadership programme with the NHS Confederation to strengthen individual and collective leadership across Greater Manchester's PCNs. By having the PCN Clinical Director and Manager attend together, we deepened their understanding of themselves as leaders, how they lead their teams and what that means when leading within a system. Participants explored their transformational leadership strengths, honed strategic skills, and shared learning with each other. The programme has been a huge success, with many participants relaying how they feel more able to fulfil their leadership role. The programme has also heightened their awareness of the PCN's role within the community, inspiring many to pursue deeper system leadership skills in the future."

Lisa Stack, Programme Director, Greater Manchester Primary Care Provider Board 

  • Working together as a Greater Manchester leadership cohort, the group collectively developed and applied new approaches to their PCN leadership. By participating in the programme, leaders:

    • developed and refined skills in strategic PCN leadership
    • explored personal transformational leadership strengths, development areas and impact within their PCNs
    • enhanced critical thinking skills regarding leadership, psychological safety and approaches to collaboration and conflict
    • learned to explore the PCN team context from multiple perspectives to enable strategic decision making
    • shared learning and innovative practice with participants and within their PCNs
    • strengthened their connections within the PCN leadership community across all Greater Manchester locations.  

  • Each in-person session focussed on key leadership capabilities to be applied back in participants’ PCNs. These included:

    • foundations for PCN leadership
    • leadership styles and flexibility
    • collaboration and navigating conflict
    • working locally with communities.

    Due to the programme’s success and high engagement levels, a consolidation day was held in April 2024. This day focussed on exploring the components of successful PCN strategic planning and equipping leaders with approaches for planning and working in uncertainty. Various insight tools were provided, including a self-assessment personality preference questionnaire, a leadership 360 and a team diagnostic tool. These offered: 

    • a 360-feedback report profile highlighting personal strengths and areas for development
    • links to recommended development exercises based on report outcomes
    • a detailed PCN analysis of the team’s signature strengths and challenges
    • a list of team development needs identified by the team.

  • To effectively measure the success and impact of the programme, leaders participated in an externally-delivered evaluation process. Overall, participants indicated significant positive outcomes, with key improvements seen in self-awareness, leadership skills and conflict management abilities. The majority of participants (90 per cent) reported that all leadership learning objectives were strongly met or met. The programme’s diverse learning methods, including workshops, group discussions and case studies were well received, with participants valuing these for personal and professional development. 
     

    Key highlights from the evaluation:

    • The median score for ‘how likely it is that you would recommend this programme to a friend or colleague’ on a scale of zero to ten was eight out of ten.
    • Post-programme and pre-programme ratings showed that all 12 learning outcomes demonstrated statistically significant improvements in self-reported measures. 
    • Ninety per cent of participants agreed that the programme enabled them to develop and refine their skills in strategic primary care leadership.
    • Qualitative feedback indicated participants noted an increased ability to apply programme knowledge to leadership styles, confidence building and managing changes effectively. 

    Beyond evaluating whether learning outcomes have been met, the broader impact on primary care leaders’ confidence, motivation, resilience and job satisfaction was also explored. Ninety per cent of participants agreed that the programme had improved their confidence, motivation, job satisfaction and resilience. This individual development is impactful at a system level — a large proportion of PCNs in Greater Manchester participated. Therefore, this investment in PCN leadership should contribute significantly to achieving the Greater Manchester blueprint.

Here's what our participants had to say:

“The highlights of the programme were the personality profiles and receiving feedback from colleagues as this has helped me to appreciate my strengths and areas to focus on. As a result of the programme, our PCN is working towards moving the practice to a total triage system which is a massive change for everyone. The programme has given me the confidence and tools to help support this. Overall, I feel  able to appreciate different perspectives more and have heightened confidence when tackling difficult situations”.  

Dr Huma Ghauri, Co-clinical Director, Ardwick and Longsight PCN 

“It was was an invaluable opportunity to connect, share and learn from our fellow PCN colleagues. Alongside a structured programme which provided an evidence framework to support our leadership journeys, we were provided with toolkits to understand our leadership styles, areas we may develop and most importantly, the environment for this to happen. In SWAN PCN, we have been able to implement learning from the programme to create a much clearer communications and engagement strategy which has helped to improve working relationships between practices and the network”.  

Dr Nikesh Vallabh, Clinical Director, SWAN PCN 

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