Shared Leadership for Change (BME)

Angela Knight Jackson is already working on a BME project

Shared Leadership for Change (BME) aims to help multi-organisational teams working to improve the quality of health services for black and minority ethnic groups.

Leadership development has traditionally been focused on the needs of individuals. While important, this only addresses a portion of the cultural challenges in healthcare that often impede long-lasting improvements.

The Health Foundation recognises that teamwork is of paramount importance and each member of a team brings a unique set of skills and responsibilities. To really achieve lasting improvements in healthcare it is important for the team to develop as a whole.

Patient care often involves staff from different organisations. Through Shared Leadership for Change we are working with multi-organisational or multi-disciplinary teams (including social services and voluntary sector organisations) so the leadership development opportunities offered reflect the reality of working in healthcare.

What are we doing?

We launched a scheme, Improving the Quality of Care for People from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Groups, in March 2007.

The scheme is aimed at multi-organisational teams working to improve the quality of healthcare for BME groups. We’re supporting six outstanding teams to become more effective in their work and to improve mainstream health services.

We‘re focusing on this area because research shows that there are large inequalities in health outcomes throughout the UK and many people from BME groups are particularly disadvantaged. In some areas these inequalities are widening, which presents a challenge to the quality of healthcare in the UK that must be addressed.

What’s more, the UK is more ethnically diverse than ever before – almost 10% of the population are of BME origin and there are now areas where over 50% of the population are from BME groups. In addition, ethnic minorities are expected to account for 73% of projected population growth. So, any improvement in the quality of care for BME groups has the potential to have a positive impact on a large, and growing, proportion of the population.

Benefits for teams 

Teams in the Shared Leadership Initiative have spoken of how their work with a leadership development consultant has encouraged greater confidence in the value of team-working. They have described improved flexibility within the teams. For some it has helped them overcome organisational or cultural barriers in the systems.