Received from: FDA
Congress believes that good management is fundamental to patient safety and a well-functioning NHS. As one of the world’s largest and most complex employers, the NHS depends on managers to provide leadership, ensure robust governance, manage resources and support the delivery of safe, innovative and efficient services.
Congress notes that effective managers develop staff, foster inclusive workplaces and ensure services meet public need. Working alongside clinical and non-clinical staff, they are essential to improving access to services, adopting new technologies and delivering high-quality care.
Congress recognises that NHS managers are working people in their own right. They share the same commitment to public service and face many of the same workplace challenges as colleagues. As part of an organised workforce, managers strengthen partnership working and industrial relations, benefiting all NHS staff.
Congress is concerned that repeated, poorly planned organisational change and disproportionate reductions in management capacity risk undermining NHS reform and productivity. Reductions in management capacity can shift essential operational responsibilities onto clinical teams and weaken services’ ability to improve.
Congress, therefore, calls on the General Council to:
i. recognise the vital contribution of managers to NHS services
ii. oppose restructuring that targets management capacity without evidence
iii. affirm that successful NHS reform requires strong management capability
iv. work with government to develop an equality-assessed, credible and fully resourced plan for NHS management
v. work with government to ensure sustained investment in NHS leadership and management capability to deliver safe, high-quality patient care.
FDA