Mentoring and Support
Mentoring
Mentoring is invaluable. With the focus on learning from each situation that you meet, the opportunity to reflect on such situations in a safe environment together with someone who has been there and knows the ropes, is vital for your learning and future success.
We will assist you in finding someone to whom you can relate and from whom you can learn. This mentor might be your own chief executive or another third party who is removed from your particular area of health economy and is truly independent of your work situation. You need to choose a mentor who can listen empathetically as a guide, rather than a problem solver, and be willing to take risks, in terms of honestly expressing what they see in your approach that needs to be changed or improved. Above all, they should gain personal satisfaction from assisting and seeing others succeed.
A successful mentor will help you to:
- provide clarity when faced with complexity, promote reflective self-awareness, encourage informed decision-making
- assist career planning
- prevent burn-out by addressing potentially demoralising frustrations
- put issues into perspective
- develop political astuteness
Learning Account
Your individual learning account really puts you in control of tailoring your development - you can choose any development opportunity that increases your NHS awareness or your effectiveness in your role. Opportunities taken in the past include personal skills development, coaching and conferences.
NHS Leadership Qualities Framework – 360 degree feedback
Free access to this 360° tool will assist and enhance your continual development. Available online, you’re encouraged to use the tool prior to moving into another role post-Gateway. You can choose to get feedback from any one of a pool of trained senior managers. This review should be undertaken before you move into your second role in the NHS to give you a benchmark of how you have performed.
As with most middle to senior manager roles you will be expected to:
- manage people, resources and budgets
- work with clinical colleagues and cross-functional teams to improve service delivery
- consult with patients and the public
- develop the capacity and capability of the NHS workforce
- focus on how the NHS can modernise to meet patients' needs.
Network of Support
On a day-to-day basis your main contact will, of course, be your employing organisation, your line manager and chief executive.
And thanks to the ongoing success and longevity of the programme, there are now many ex-participants willing to offer buddying to help your transition into the NHS. Added to that, each strategic health authority has leadership leads who are also very interested in the development of Gateway participants and will want to include successful participants in their local leadership development strategy.
The Gateway team are also at your disposal: Theresa Lang, Gateway Programme Coordinator, is your vital point of contact for queries and updates. Programme Lead Claire Maguire will be monitoring your progress and development to ensure that David Nicholson, the NHS Chief Executive, is kept up to date with the success of the programme.