Strategic Leadership Programme

This course is suitable for hospice leaders who want to make change happen and who wish to increase their personal and strategic leadership impact. This includes senior managers and clinicians as well as those who head up service delivery. 

The programme is only open to members of Hospice UK.

The Strategic Leadership Programme will enable you to develop and apply contemporary leadership skills with relevance to the challenges and uncertainties you and your hospice faces. It will help you to:

• clarify the role of hospices in the emerging world of integrated health and care systems
• forge new strategic partnerships and work collaboratively in creating new systems of care
• influence within your organisation and across your health and care system 
• engage others in improving care
• manage conflict well
• make change happen
• deal effectively with challenges
• hone your personal leadership skills 
• develop a systems and compassionate leadership approach 
• engage in a supportive network with the shared knowledge and skills to develop the local and national end of life landscape

The whole programme is delivered online to help you balance your development with your busy role. It emphasises building a learning community through a focus on working in pairs, threes and small groups. This enables participants to build deep and long-lasting professional relationships across the sector.

The programme takes place over seven months and comprises of:

• 15 training modules (equates to 54 hours)
• 3 small group action learning sets (equates to 9 hours)
• 3 x 1:1 coaching (equates to 3 hours)

The group sessions run over half days and whole days and the coaching sessions last for one hour each. 

Cohort 11 will take place from 22 October 2024 to 13 May 2025: View the dates for the 2024-25 cohort.

The programme is unique in its emphasis on the role of leadership in hospices. It focuses on understanding the health and care environment, leading in complex systems and developing high impact personal leadership skills. You will:

• learn about new concepts and theories
• participate in practical workshops
• engage in facilitated small group problem solving sessions

These experiences and the development they bring, will help you lead during a critical period of change and uncertainty across the sector. 

Learn more about the course content in our information pack.

The Westcott Group comprises highly experienced facilitators who combine extensive experience of leadership development with exceptional expertise in developing personal impact and a deep understanding of the health and care environment and end of life care policy.

They previously worked for many years at The King’s Fund, the NHS Leadership Academy and in senior leadership and policy roles in the public sector. They have designed and delivered thousands of development interventions for health and care leaders, organisations and systems and they are passionate about facilitating hospice leadership development.