Lincolnshire to offer new Mary Seacole programme

Lincolnshire is one of two early adoption sites in the East Midlands to have been successful in becoming a pilot/early implementer for the new Mary Seacole offer for local systems in the East Midlands. This will support the delivery of the Lincolnshire STP Organisational Development Strategy, and will be targeted initially at those leaders working in system-wide roles.

The National Leadership Academy has completely refreshed the Mary Seacole programme in response to wide stakeholder feedback to provide leadership development to first time and aspiring first time leaders across the NHS. Previously the programme was a 12 month postgraduate course that required a substantial academic load of around 600 hours plus a number of face to face workshops and learning sets, which delegates found very challenging in terms of time commitment.

The changes and benefits of the new the Seacole programme are:

• The core elements of the programme have been retained. The programme will have 12 units in total: seven on leadership, one on service improvement, and four brand new units on management fundamentals including recruitment and selection, appraisals, finance and HR.
• Reduced study time from 10-12 hours weekly to five and a more manageable workload to complete the programme. It will now take place over 6 months.
• Participants will now have to submit just one 2,000 word assignment at the end of the programme. Completion of the assignment, plus the online learning, attendance at three workshops and meaningful contribution to the online discussions lead to an NHS Leadership Academy Award in Healthcare Leadership.

Places will be funded through East Midlands Leadership Academy and Health Education England. For more information, please contact Jeanette Shepherd, Administration Team Leader (Lincolnshire), at jeanette.shepherd@nhs.net.