Evaluation for the EMLeaders Programme

This clinical leadership training programme was developed in response to Emergency Department workforce challenges caused by low workforce retention in Emergency Medicine and increasing levels of attrition within Emergency Medicine Training. Challenges are compounded by an increasingly aging patient population, presenting with ever-more complex co-morbidities. Health Education England, NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine recognised the challenges facing the ED workforce and made recommendations within the 2017 Securing the Future Workforce for Emergency Departments in England strategy. The recommendation relating to this piece of work is that:

‘From April 2018, we will invest in a leadership/personal development training programme for every emergency medicine trainee in England to help reduce attrition and improve the support for trainees in this intense and pressurised specialty. The offer of training support will increase in breadth and complexity as people progress through their training to prepare them for becoming consultants.’

Since August 2018, a National Steering Group, including stakeholders and members of HEE and RCEM, has been working to finalise the delivery aspects of the Clinical Leadership Programme. The Steering Group reports jointly to the Emergency Medicine Training Standards Committee (TSC) and the Securing the Future Workforce Steering Group. The TSC undertook an initial mapping exercise of existing delivery and future ideas, which will be contextualised by the upcoming RCEM curriculum 2020, and provided by Schools of Emergency Medicine in England who will decide the best route to deploy training for their own region using a multi-method of delivery. The finalised content structure of the programme is currently a work in progress and will rely on outcomes from the evaluation method. The NHS Leadership Academy and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management will provide support to national and local RCEM faculty in terms of training methodology and structural advice. They will also support certain elements of delivery.

Two roles have been developed to assist in delivery of the EM Leaders Programme. The first is the School Leadership Lead, who is intended to develop aspects of the Leadership Programme and is responsible for delivery for both trainees and train the trainers for their school. The second is the School Leadership fellow, who would be providing trainee representation and feedback into the programme.

Central to this large-scale pilot project will be a process of continuous evaluation, standard setting, quality monitoring, benefits realisation and recalibration (where necessary).