Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to improve the management skills of senior leaders in the NHS; and what steps he plans to take to make further such improvements.

The NHS Leadership Academy was established in 2012 to build management and leadership capability and capacity across the National Health Service. It runs a number of programmes tailored to different development needs such as the Nye Bevan Programme for aspiring executive directors and the NHS Executive Fast Track, which improve the management skills of senior leaders in the NHS.

We invited Lord Rose to carry out a review of NHS leadership. His report (Better leadership for tomorrow) was published in July and made a number of recommendations to improve leadership across the NHS. Lord Rose recommended that leaders be offered ongoing career support and improved training that is aligned with national and local priorities. Lord Rose also said that the NHS should do more to attract top talent from outside the NHS. We accepted all of his recommendations in principle and we are working to ensure that they are implemented proportionately across the health service.