Our next Compassionate Leadership in Practice programme (CLIP) starts soon. Our head of clinical information Lisa Fox is encouraging colleagues from any area to consider applying. If you can demonstrate how you incorporate our four pillars in your day-to-day role and how you deliver outstanding compassionate care to your colleagues and patients, then get your expression of interest in ASAP.

Our aim is to have leaders who have courage to do things differently, can work across boundaries, are innovative and take ownership of their work. They'll want to challenge themselves and their teams, take pride in their work and see the importance of developing one culture of care – for colleagues and patients.

CLIP (Compassionate Leadership in Practice), is our leadership development programme here at CHFT designed to support these aims. 

The first three groups who have completed CLIP have given us excellent feedback about the content, delivery and relevance of the programme, which is delivered by Healthskills, a company who specialise in developing leadership programmes within health and care settings. 

Lisa (pictured far right at her last session in April) said "The programme was an excellent opportunity to connect with colleagues across the trust in a supportive environment to discuss the challenges of compassionate leadership. It provided a framework to learn more about management and leadership with the added bonus of making some friends out of people I had previously just seen as colleagues.  

"I would recommend this to anyone, clinical or non-clinical, who has reached that point in their career where they are leading teams or services and find themselves at the end of the day wondering whether the decisions they made were the right ones and how tomorrow could be better.

"The tools we were given helped me see new ways of dealing with some of our more thorny issues. The jobs we all do have the potential to be incredibly rewarding, but we can also find ourselves exhausted by it. The programme helped me use the tools and resources to have better days and better relationships. 

"It also taught us how to be compassionate leaders in relation to those we lead but it also encouraged more self-compassion, enabling us to recognise how we continue to support each other as we look towards the excellent delivery of patient care".

What doe the CLIP programme involve?

The programme consists of a series of four Masterclasses in leadership theories and tools; together with a 360 degree assessment; coaching and learning sets which use your problem-solving abilities to work together on common issues.

It further develops the principles of our four pillars and is delivered across three years.

• Year one: Focuses on the masterclasses delivered by Healthskills. For this first year you will be mentored by a previous CLIP graduate or Execective team member.
• Year two: You'll work on a trustwide project focused on compassionate care, whilst also developing your own coaching and mentoring skills. You will also coach and mentor a colleague who is on year one of their programme.
• Year three: Consolidate your learning in Action Learning Sets, Alumni projects and the opportunity to coach and mentor colleagues from across the Trust.

If you are interested all you need to do is submit an expression of interest which should be no more than 1000 words or a three minute video/presentation covering:

• How you incorporate the four pillars into your day to day work
• How you display compassionate care to both colleagues and patients
• Your values as a Leader and how you understand the impact of your behaviour on others
• You should also include a supporting statement from a colleague and your Manager telling us why they support your application in no more than 500 words.

This programme is open to all colleagues across the Trust and we are particularly keen to ensure that we have a wide, diverse pool of candidates!

Dates and more information and how to apply:

• Closing date for expressions of interest (see above): Thursday 2nd August
• Panel interviews will be held in August (we'll contact colleagues individually once an expression of interest has been received.
• Year one of the programme (masterclasses and leadership theory) - sessions run between 7th September – 20th November  
• Panel members: Ruth Mason, an Executive team member, a nurse, a medical representative and a community representative
• Any questions, please contact Ruth Mason (on leave until Monday 23rd) on HRI 5007 or mobile: 07786 250892.