Clinical psychologist Claire Corbridge brainstorming examples of how to deliver integration at a Going Viral session. Photograph: Southern health foundation trust Southern health NHS foundation trust is one of the largest mental health and learning disability trusts in England. It has a staff of 9,000 working across 150 sites, spanning five counties and was created following the merger of Hampshire partnership NHS foundation trust and Hampshire community healthcare NHS trust in 2011.
A key challenge for the new trust was how to ensure that everybody felt part of the same organisation and shared the same values, behaviours and goals. Part of the solution was its Going Viral leadership development programme which, since its launch in June last year, has coached, developed and supported 550 staff. Another 240 will join the programme this autumn.
Richard House, interim head of leadership and management development, says Going Viral has its roots in the trust's organisational and people development strategies which define the attitudes, values and behaviours expected from its workforce in achieving its core aims. He says: "The NHS Constitution goes some way towards doing that but it isn't specific about behavioural expectations."
The Going Viral programme has three modules that tie in with the trust's core objectives – how to redesign services to improve quality and provide better value for money; how to integrate health and social care with partners and how to provide better outcomes and experiences for patients. The course, which takes place over six months, is delivered in nine-and-a-half day sessions. The learning groups are deliberately made up of staff from different departments so they can develop together.
House says the programme is different from others because it does not select employees according to their NHS banding, but by the amount of influence and responsibility they have. He says: "We have tried to include people, not by their pay band or whether they have management responsibility, but by how influential they are in their multi-disciplinary team. For example, a consultant physician who is only responsible for him or herself."
The programme was introduced before the publication this February of the damning Francis report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS foundation trust.
That report identified how an "insidious negative culture" and "disengagement from managerial and leadership responsibilities" contributed to Mid Staffs' failings. Going Viral, says House, is confronting those leadership challenges identified by Francis.
He says: "I think people feel more listened to and empowered and involved in the processes and realise what is expected of them. It's been transformational for people. One medic said to me 'I wanted to hate the programme and went in with that attitude; but I realise now it was one of the best learning opportunities I have ever had.'"
Health Education England and other trusts from around the country have already taken an interest in Going Viral. The trust, which has its headquarters in Southampton, is organising an open event for later this autumn about the leadership programme and how it fits into its organisational development work. House says: "This is too important not to share with others – to enable them to take on this grand scale change."
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