Leadership through Education for Excellent Patient Care (LEEP)

Great healthcare needs great leaders. The role of NHS professionals as leaders, within the context of the future multi-disciplinary team, has never been more important.

The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) 2017 survey showed that 97 per cent of trainees agreed that leadership was important but only 50 per cent felt that their own training was adequate to implement change. LEEP aims to address this learning need.

What is LEEP?

LEEP is a cross-disciplinary and multi-professional programme which aims to promote leadership development and collaborative working across the healthcare system.

LEEP incorporates three perspectives in leadership:

Perspective 1

Focusing on developing self, behavioural 'human' factors and value-based compassionate leadership.

Perspective 2

  • Developing team skills, promoting psychological and cultural safety.
  • Enhancing quality improvement knowledge and application.

Perspective 3

Developing system literacy, working through the challenges faced by staff in the 21st Century NHS.

Who is LEEP aimed at?

LEEP is designed for all healthcare professionals at any stage of their career, to develop leadership behaviours and build on experiences, to deliver high quality care in the NHS.

The principles are universal and diversity within the sessions enhances the learning process. Local Allied Healthcare Profession (AHP) policy determines what funding / time can be invested, per AHP, in the LEEP programme.  

Who can apply to LEEP?

Applications are open to all NHS staff regardless of seniority. All participants will be asked to focus on the development and delivery of a specific quality improvement project that will outlast the period of the taught programme.

What are the benefits of undertaking a LEEP course?

Participants gain experience in leadership values, behaviours and develop leadership experience to support excellent delivery of patient care in the NHS, through a Continuing Professional Development (CPD)-certified course.

How is LEEP delivered?

LEEP can be delivered virtually via MS Teams or in person. HEE can provide support in setting up an online course, including how to manage break out rooms.

LEEP’s objectives

  1. Core principles – provide knowledge and understanding of leadership and management core principles.
  2. Quality improvement (QI) skills – embed QI strategies into daily practice.
  3. Systems leadership – develop team skills with focus on equality, diversity and inclusivity. Understand systems leadership, complexity and 'wicked' issues.
  4. Authentic leadership – increase self-awareness and importance of personal values and behaviours, to lead authentically with empathy, flexibility and emotional resilience.

How does LEEP work?

LEEP provides a multi-dimensional approach to development over the course of four modules (webinars). This layered programme uses the principles of spiral learning which allows individuals to continually revisit leadership development alongside their career.

These four modules are interactive with teaching on general principles and learning through sharing experiences:

Module one

LEEP 1 covers leadership values, reflection on our own style, the differences between a leader and manager and the culture and behaviours of compassionate and collaborative leadership.

Intended learning outcomes – by the end of this session, learners will be able to:

1. become familiar with different leadership concepts

2. gain an understanding of values, culture and system-wide innovation in leadership to support the delivery of 21st Century healthcare

3. develop and identify their leadership style

4. describe the difference between leadership and management

5. gain an understanding of what makes a ‘successful’ leader.

Module two

LEEP 2 reflects on working in teams. It covers the principles of effective teams, personality types, including working to our strengths, and creating a safe environment (psychological safety).

Intended learning outcomes – by the end of this session, learners will be able to:

1. build on the leadership styles learning from module one to understand how they work within a team

2. recognise the facets of what makes a ‘successful’ team

3. gain an understanding on how ‘teaming’ works

4. describe the difference between trust and psychological safety

5. gain an insight into human factors and how this affects teams.

Module three

LEEP 3 provides the tools and techniques for delegates to deliver their own Quality Improvement Project (QUIPP). It includes the differences between QUIPPs and audit and critique by stepping back.

Intended learning outcomes – by the end of this session, learners will be able to:

1. understand the difference of Audit vs Quality Improvement (QI) vs Research

2. understand the principles of QI and the importance of why (the purpose)

3. complete a Force Field Analysis, where the positive / negative forces to the current status quo are reviewed and quantified – opportunities where the forces can be altered to provide a favourable outcome are identified

4. understand the principles of change management to make a positive difference

5. undertake a step back approach on QI projects; where the project is described, look at the barriers and resources required and how the outcome will be evaluated.

Module four

LEEP 4 should be undertaken after participating in a QI projects, as it looks at our experience and approaches to dealing with the complexity of change and ‘wicked’ issues using systems leadership.

Intended learning outcomes – by the end of this session, learners will be able to:

1. explore values, culture and system-wide innovation in leadership design and delivery of 21st Century healthcare

2. understand when a situation is simplex (composed of a single element) or complex, how to manage complex situation and the steps to avoid chaos

3. understand the principles of systems leadership – learn to roll with resistance and find ways to enable change by looking at building relationships with the community, having insight into a complex system and using collaborative leadership skills

4. understand the key behaviours that lead to change in system leadership.

Key contact

Please email us LEEP@hee.nhs.uk with any questions.

How to book / what are the forthcoming training dates?

Please find out more / book through your local Medical Education Department at your trust. If not available locally you can book centrally via BOOK HERE