It has been a new year to remember for Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC) after we became the first Mental Health Trust in the UK to be endorsed by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM).
The FMLM is a professional membership organisation with over 2,500 members from all medical career stages and specialities in health and healthcare in the UK.
SHSC has been working towards the accreditation for the past year.
Medical Director, Dr Mike Hunter said:
“Throughout the accreditation process many people have shown dedication and commitment carrying out a lot of work to ensure we meet the FMLM standards.
“This means that we have continued to improve the leadership and management competencies of our trainee, speciality, specialist and consultant psychiatrists, so that they can lead on improving and transforming our services to better help people with mental health difficulties and their families and carers.”
Dr Helen Crimlisk, Deputy Medical Director, added:
“Something like this doesn’t just happen overnight. We’ve been running workshops and development sessions, reviewing policies, improving appraisal and induction and promoting and supporting leadership opportunities for all our doctors.
“This has meant we have been able to support and promote good leadership and ultimately embed the FMLM standards for medical professionals as core.
“There are so many people to thank – their hard work and commitment made this possible. I would like to give a special mention to Specialty and Associate Specialist (SAS) Tutor, Dr Rosie Walwyn, Director of Medical Education, Dr Alex Pavlovic and Responsible Officer, Dr Sobhi Girgis. Trainees, Dr David Bishop who is a Royal College Leadership and Management Fellow and Dr Chris Kenworthy who is an HEE Future Leaders Fellow were also instrumental as were many others from the Medical Management and Medical Education teams.
“As the lead employer for all psychiatry trainees in South Yorkshire, we are also signed up to the FMLM Trainee Commitment. This will ensure trainees get a range of opportunities to develop leadership and management skills to fulfil their potential as medical leaders and ensure our service users are cared for in services which are well led by committed and skilled medical leaders.
“We are particularly pleased to have supported the Specialist and Specialty psychiatrists at SHSC, who are a really important part of our workforce. The standards for the HEE SAS Charter are already being met and we are delighted to have recently appointed Dr Louise Egan as our SAS Advocate. There is an active Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) programme and SHSC has recently supported the promotion of six specialty psychiatrists into new specialist posts recognising their additional skills. It is anticipated that the focus on leadership will provide further opportunities for SAS psychiatrists to take on leadership roles to continue improve mental health services in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.”
