Delivering the Future

Delivering the Future is NHSScotland’s principal programme for developing strategic clinical leaders from across the Scotland, for future roles at NHS Board regional and national levels. This highly successful national leadership development programme is now in it its sixth year and will begin recruiting to the seventh cohort in Summer 2011.

The programme aims to provide strong clinical leadership across professional and organisational boundaries focussed on service excellence, driving reform and delivering strategic change to improve the health and healthcare of Scotland. Delivering the Future helps develop future leaders who understand the context of the politics, policy and economics of health, and who think creatively and work collaboratively to overcome obstacles to the change process.

Each year 24 clinical leads from across NHSScotland’s National and Special Boards are recruited to form the Delivering the Future cohort. Applications are encouraged from senior posts in all professions, with a strategic focus and who aspire to future roles at Board level. The programme aims to be as inclusive as possible and has been designed to develop clinical leaders from a variety of settings.

There are nine residential events, held every six weeks throughout the cohort’s calendar. Each of the two-day master classes is designed around the Leadership Qualities Framework and will consist of a whole day event led by an expert in the field, followed by a facilitated action learning set. Each participant will have access to six 2-hour individual coaching sessions with their action learning facilitator over a twelve month period.

This programme offers an exciting opportunity to build clinical leadership capacity across NHS Scotland and ensure that we have clinical leaders who are prepared for future roles at Board, regional and national level. By nature it involves a high level of investment from the participants who will be expected to commit to all elements of the programme for its duration. The programme has been developed in the strong belief that an investment in clinical leadership is an investment in high quality healthcare and that it is essential to delivering the future in NHS Scotland.

Places on the programme are highly competitive so potential participants need to be clear about their commitment to the whole programme and have negotiated this locally. For application information contact your local OD Lead.

For more information contact Hazel Mackenzie -