Breaking through barriers

Ade Adigun-Harris, assistant director of Clinical Services at Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and a participant in the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement’s Breaking Through programme, discusses the programme and why she felt it was needed.

At the 2008 NHS Employers conference in November, David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS in England, said he saw leadership as critical to delivering transformational change and that a lack of it was one of the biggest threats to the NHS meeting its future goals.
    
Nicholson said: "We're simply not delivering the numbers and quality of leaders that we need. We need to do something about that and we need to do it in an environment that is quite different from the past."
    
He also committed the NHS to a new style of leadership that involved engaging with patients and local communities. A style that isn’t just a case of pulling more leaders into high level jobs, but about connecting and representing the many communities across the UK.

Diverse employee base
Britain has many diverse communities and to serve them effectively, we need a diverse employee base that mirrors the population. Diversity should be a priority for both private and public sector organisations, and especially for the NHS.
    
People from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds make up 10 per cent of the general population in the UK. In the NHS 14.75 per cent of the workforce have a BME background but 2008 figures show that just 5 per cent of senior managers came from BME backgrounds and less than 1 per cent of CEOs.
    
My experience in the NHS mirrors that of a lot of people from BME backgrounds. I’ve been working in the NHS for the last 20 years, joining after getting a degree in textile design and technology. I wanted a structured, professional, career pathway in management and that’s what the NHS offered me. Since then, I’ve had experience of working in varied NHS organisations, in widely diverse roles, all of which I have enjoyed. For example I’ve worked as a Capital Services commissioner; in corporate services; commissioning mental health services; commissioning from both specialist and university teaching hospitals; and managing operational services.
    
Based on my wide experience of the NHS, I believe I was ready for a senior role in the NHS. I had a record of achievement in the varied posts and had the qualifications to boot. However, before the Breaking Through programme I feel I did not have access to support or know-how to make the step from where I was into a senior role.

Understanding potential
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement is working to actively address the reasons behind the lack of BME candidates in senior management roles within the health service. Its Breaking Through programme aims to support talented BME NHS professionals to release their talent and help them to achieve their potential as senior leaders. Throughout the programme the team from the NHS Institute work closely with all participants to understand what they need to move forward.
    
Breaking Through has been running for the last five years. It sets out an agenda for each of the participants but also allows individuals to lead their own development. It provides opportunities to design personal development plans based on clear and objective diagnostic tools and development activities that support career planning and progression. The programme also promotes the development of leadership skills and capabilities, as well as providing a platform for the issues facing BME staff in the NHS.

Top Talent
As a part of Breaking Through the Top Talent Programme was developed to provide comprehensive support to senior BME leaders, providing them with the skills to excel at Board level and fast track them to director level.
    
Personally, the Top Talent programme offered the opportunity to develop my skills and enable me to become a senior leader. The programme appreciates that competent, achievement focused people can come from a range of backgrounds and helps evolve each candidate into a senior leadership role.
    
The Top Talent programme lasts for 18 months. Participants take job opportunities at or near director level (depending on skills and past experience) and, in addition, also take part in an educational programme and gain access to coaching, mentoring and action learning sets.
    
The application process is by self-nomination and candidates go through an assessment process, which includes:

• Online testing – candidates take verbal, numerical and situational problem solving assessments
• Participation development centres – where candidates go through a series of activities designed to measure their behaviours against Leadership Qualities Framework competencies. All candidates, whether they are successful or not, are given in-depth feedback about their performance   

I found the process a tough and rigorous one, but one that, I believe, offered me a taste of the type of transformation to expect in the months to come.
    
Cambridge University Hospital Foundation Trust, where I was working before starting on the programme, has been supportive of my secondment opportunity. I started my placement in June 2008 at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as assistant director of Clinical Services, and have been working on service development involving theatres management and outpatients capacity improvement.

Benefits for the service
The NHS benefits hugely from the programme. It offers access to a wider, more diverse pool of senior managers, which in the future will help the NHS to meet the needs of the diverse community that is serves. Bringing in senior managers who can reflect these communities, the NHS will be better placed to serve them.
    
A valued workforce is more motivated and delivers better standards and services. It makes sense to nurture and support people already in the service. And it’s also true that individuals can better visualise their own career progression if they see people like themselves at senior level. The programme is committed to making the BME workforce feel it’s possible to reach the very highest levels.

Benefits for the individual
The key benefits of being on the programme are:

• Having the experience to work and feel the part of a senior role
• The educational programmes commissioned by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to support transformation
• High quality coaching

I know that these opportunities will stand me and other participants in good stead for the heights we want to reach as senior leaders in the NHS.

The NHS Institute supports the staff of the NHS and its partner organisations to transform health and healthcare through great improvement ideas, helping leaders to lead improvement and building improvement skills in the workforce.

For more information
Please visit www.institute.nhs.uk for further information on the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and its work.

For more information on the Breaking Through Programme and for information on how to apply, please visit: www.nhsleadtheway.co.uk/breakingthrough