Apply by Friday for Nye Bevan programme

NHS England is offering senior IT and information leaders the chance to take part in a leadership course designed to enable high-flying managers to “drive change” in the NHS.

In partnership with the NHS Leadership Academy, NHS England will provide support to 12 informatics specialists to join the Nye Bevan programme, designed for “courageous senior leaders” who can “drive change through the very highest levels of the healthcare system.”

NHS staff working at deputy or department head or deputy or chief information officer level can also apply for an £8,000 bursary to cover half of the cost of the 12 month programme.

The closing date for applications is Friday – 10 January – and the course begins on 27 January in Leeds.

The programme aims to help informatics leaders challenge the existing systems and find innovative ways of delivering better patient care. It leads to an NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Leadership.

The programme’s website says: “You will learn multidisciplinary skills from leading experts in international healthcare and leaders from some of the world’s most successful businesses, and forge the third party relationships that will play an ever more vital role in the NHS’s evolution.

“This intensive programme will give you the skills to powerfully lead culture change at a regional, national, and organisational level as an executive leader.”

The publication of promotional materials for the course has closely followed the publication by HSJ of the results of its first NHS technology survey, the initial research for which was conducted from the magazine’s stand at EHI Live 2013 in November.

The survey found that NHS leaders feel boards lack the IT knowledge required to achieve health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s ambition, set a year ago, of a ‘paperless’ NHS by 2018.

Some 74% of the 419 respondents felt that trusts lack the skills or market insight to by the right IT systems; and even more were concerned that it lacked the procurement expertise necessary to secure them.

Some 32% of respondents said there should be a programme to fast track IT literate managers into senior roles.

Nearly half of the respondents also acknowledged the need for chief clinical information officers in trusts, and said that appointing a CCIO to champion clinical engagement in IT was crucial to moving IT forward.