RCN Clinical Leadership Programme

Excellent clinical leadership is recognised as fundamental to the provision of high quality care and creating a culture of innovation and support in the workplace. The RCN’s Clinical Leadership Programme aims to work in partnership with organisations to develop health and social care practitioners to meet the challenges of a changing workforce and health care system.

The RCN’s Clinical Leadership Programme aims to:

enhance productivity, quality and safety in health and social care settings
invest in current and future leaders
initiate positive, sustainable change.

Who is it for?

The Clinical Leadership Programme is a multidisciplinary programme designed for health and social care organisations interested in investing in the development of clinical leaders. Participants from Agenda for Change bands 6 and 7 (or equivalent) are ideally positioned to benefit from the programme.

The programme is delivered under licence. The annual licence allows the organisation to deliver the programme for up to 24 participants, continued one-to-one support from the RCN’s Learning and Development Consultancy Service and attend up to two master classes per year.

Participating organisations must first nominate someone to be the programme’s local facilitator. The facilitator attends the Facilitator Development Programme and delivers the Clinical Leadership Programme to clinical leaders from their organisation.

Programme outline

The RCN’s Clinical Leadership Programme is delivered in five modules over 12 months.

Preparatory module.
Module one: culture and context.
Module two: developing self as leader.
Module three: quality and safety.
Module four: team working.

The programme uses a blended approach to learning to ensure that the participant’s learning is strongly linked to their day-to-day reality of service delivery. These include experiential learning, work-based learning and e-learning methods.