KSS Darzi Fellowship in Clinical Leadership

Matching Process Guidance for Sponsors

What is the recruitment process for Darzi Fellows?

(Please see our FAQs and related materials for background information on the KSS Darzi Fellowships)

HEE, in partnership with KSS Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and the KSS Leadership Collaborative (KSSLC) run a centralised recruitment process for our Darzi Fellows which can be summarised as follows:

  1. All recruitment materials are hosted on the KSS AHSN website
  2. Applicants will find the recruitment advert, job description, guidance and application form on this website
  3. At application stage, potential fellows are asked to submit both an application form and a short video of themselves delivering an ‘elevator pitch’
  4. Shortlisting will be conducted by a central team within the HEE/KSSAHSN/KSSLC partnership based on the application forms
  5. Should application numbers be high, ‘elevator pitch’ videos will be used for further shortlisting to achieve manageable numbers for the next stage
  6. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend a 1 day assessment centre (dates for these will be available in advance to ensure applicants can plan to attend). These assessment centres will be lead by a consultancy partner of KSSLC. Applicants will undergo a range of observed activities aimed at objectively measuring the potential of candidates to best make use of the fellowship opportunity. This is an important point as applicants do not have to be “the finished article” at the start of the process – however we need to be assured that they have the requisite potential and the means to make use of the development opportunities that it will afford them.
  7. LSBU will then vet each applicant to ensure they are the right fit for the programme and if required a further round of phone/skype interviews will be conducted by representatives of the HEE/KSSAHSN/KSSLC partnership.
  8. The final decision on which applicants have been successful will be made by a team from the HEE/KSSAHSN/KSSLC partnership: taking into account all information from the application form, ‘elevator pitch’ video, assessment centre feedback and (if required) interview.
  9. All applicants will then be informed of the outcome by the HEE/KSSAHSN/KSSLC partnership and feedback on performance will be available for all.
  10. The successful applicants will then need to be matched to projects.

Why is there a matching process?

Given the geography of the region, the centralised recruitment process and the diverse range of both Fellows and projects it is necessary to have more projects available than there are Fellows in order to ensure that there is sufficient choice of projects. Fellows will be motivated to choose a project based on a number of factors: the organisation, the sponsor, the clinical theme of the project, work/life balance, access to influence (i.e. does the project give them access to organisational, regional or national leaders) and the general set up of the work (e.g. is it a small/large team, is the work local/regional, is it largely office/home based, does it require lots of travel, is the team co-located or spread out) will all play a part in their choice as of course will an assessment of “can I contribute to this?” and “what could I get out of this?”.

This means then that there is no guarantee that shortlisted projects will ultimately attract a Fellow. Sponsors can increase their chances by encouraging suitable applicants from within their locality and networks.

On being offered a Fellowship, successful applicants (Fellows) will have access to the project descriptions of all of the available projects and will be asked to produce a shortlist of projects in order of preference. Our experience of the first cohort was that some Fellows indicated 2 or 3 projects, some indicated only 1 project, some indicated a large number of projects and some needed some coaching to arrive at a shortlist – all of this based on the factors outlined above. (Coaching is provided to Fellows throughout the matching process by the project lead, Dave Hearn.)

Once Fellows have a provisional shortlist they will receive some informal coaching around their choices - this can often expand the number of projects on their shortlist as experience has shown that Fellows tend to opt for what they know (especially if the project fits their clinical background) and discount projects they know less about. There is always a balance to strike:

  • Sometimes Fellows who take on a project in their area of clinical expertise (e.g. an oncology registrar working on an STP cancer pathway project) can hit the ground running and use their clinical background to great effect; however this could also mean that they miss out on opportunities to step out of their comfort zone, gain a different perspective and could represent a missed development opportunity.
  • Conversely sometimes Fellows who take on a project in an unfamiliar clinical area (e.g. a mental health nurse working on a project to transform district nursing services) can bring a fresh perspective, appreciative enquiry and learn to thrive outside of their comfort zone; however this could also mean that the project is too challenging and too far outside of the comfort zone

This also applies to other aspects of project choice such as type of organisation (e.g. moving from an NHS Trust to a CCG, County Council, Charity or Arms Length body) or remit (e.g. moving from a local service to working on a regional programme) – this is all very individual for each fellow and so the project team and potential sponsors need to support the Fellows in making an informed and well-thought out choice before embarking on a project.

What is the matching process?

With a finalised shortlist, the Fellows will be provided with the contact details of the relevant sponsors and will make contact to discuss the project with the sponsor. What form this takes is for Fellow and sponsor to arrange. Through this process Fellows may change or confirm their preferences, discount some projects or seek out other projects to add to their shortlist. Following this process, Fellows should arrive at a final shortlist of their first choice project, with back up projects in order of preference.

For sponsors, this may feel a little like they are being interviewed by their potential employee – this part of the process encourages Fellows to be active participants, seeking out the relevant information through appreciative enquiry and so fits with the ethos of the Fellowships. They are also selling themselves to you! Hopefully all sponsors will be able to speak with a number of Fellows and so formulate their own shortlist of preferred candidates.

Logistically, once this process is complete the HEE/KSSAHSN/KSSLC partnership will then map Fellows to projects:

  • A large proportion of the fellows will have indicated different projects as their first choices. In this case (where there is no competition) the sponsor will be informed of which Fellow has opted for their project and, subject to the Sponsor’s agreement, this arrangement will be confirmed to enable HR process to start, a Memorandum of Cooperation to be signed off and funding to be transferred and a start date agreed between Fellow and Sponsor.
  • It is likely that some projects will be the first choice project for 2 or more Fellows. In this case the sponsor will be asked to select their Fellow of choice. Then, subject to both Fellow and sponsor agreeing, this arrangement will be confirmed to enable HR process to start, a Memorandum of Cooperation to be signed off and funding to be transferred and a start date agreed between Fellow and Sponsor.
  • For a small number of Fellows this will mean that they are unable to secure their first choice, in which case they will pursue their second choice. If this is not available, they will need to pursue their third choice and so on. If a Fellow has a limited number of projects on their shortlist the chance is increased that they will run out of projects on their list. In this case they will receive additional coaching to re-look at those projects still available and will restart the process much like the ‘clearing’ process for University applications.

If you have any questions about this process, if you have any concerns/issues that arise during the process or if you have any other queries please contact Dave Hearn at or on 07885 202 440.