Context NHS leaders and managers can get a bad press. Blame for delays, waste and inefficiency in the health service tends to be laid firmly at their door, often without any real attempt to understand the pressures and constraints facing them. So it was refreshing in late 2021 to see then Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, commission General Sir Gordon Messenger to conduct an England-wide review of health and social care leadership and management, acknowledge the excellence of many leaders and managers in the NHS, as well as the strain under which they operate.

The fact that management and leadership are each receiving the same level of attention from the review is also encouraging. In recent years, the importance of good management has been somewhat forgotten in the policy debate at the expense of a focus on leadership. Given that the NHS employs over 30,000 managers, it is important this imbalance is addressed.

Following research undertaken within my role at The Health Foundation into NHS Leadership and Management practice, I was seconded to support Gordon Messenger in the review as a clinical advisor in the review team.

Within the period of the review, the team used agile working methodologies to conduct fast paced quantitative and qualitative data gathering, and subsequent iterative policy development. The final published report was accepted in full by both NHS England and DHSC and is now scoping implementation phases.

Within this presentation, I will discuss some of the key lessons from both the review process itself and also the research and subsequent recommendations of the report.