Observations of NHS leadership behaviours during COVID-19 | Original Thinking Podcast

On this podcast, Professor Naomi Chambers discuses her observations of NHS leadership behaviours during COVID-19.

Naomi’s wide range of teaching, advisory and research interests include healthcare leadership, organisation culture, diversity and inclusion, board governance, clinicians in management, health care commissioning, health policy and management in Europe, primary care, patient and public involvement, emergency planning, e-health and clinical costing. Her publications and media profile reflect this breadth of interests.

Naomi is currently co-director of Leadership & Management in the Higher Specialist Healthcare Scientist Training (HSST) Programme. Previous teaching roles have included programme director for the Nye Bevan executive programme for aspiring NHS board directors, university lead for NHS Leadership Academy programmes, and Director of Executive Education. Outward facing roles have included President of the European Health Management Association and vice chair of NHS North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Two recent research projects have involved leading a team investigating changes in board level leadership in hospitals in England following the publication of the Francis Report into the failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Hospital Foundation Trust (completed 2018) and the evaluation of the content, applications and impacts of the NHS well-led framework on behalf of CQC and NHSI (completed 2020). Current projects include research for a book on organising care round patients to be published by Manchester University Press, a study on long serving NHS CEOs on what makes them tick and what keeps them going, and women’s experiences of urogynaecology services.

Drawing from her research, teaching and advisory experience, Naomi has an ongoing working relationship with a number of NHS boards and senior leadership teams supporting them to develop to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s health and care systems. She is also in close collaborative contact with colleagues working in national regulatory and oversight bodies, and with independent policy organisations such as the Kings Fund, Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation.

Forthcoming and recent publications:

Chambers N & Taylor J (2021:forthcoming) Organising Care Round Patients Manchester University Press

Sheaff R, Morando V, Chambers N, Exworthy M, Mahon A, Byng R, Mannion R ( 2020) Managerial workarounds in three European DRG systems Journal of Health Organization and Management https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-10-2019-0295

Snelling I, Benson L, Chambers N (2019) How trainee hospital doctors lead work-based projects Leadership in Health Services 33 (1) 85-100 DOI: 10.1108/LHS-12-2018-0064

Chambers N, Smith J, Proudlove N, Thorlby R, Kendrick H, Mannion R (2019) Roles and behaviours of diligent and dynamic healthcare boards Health Services Management Research . https://doi.org/10.1177/0951484819887507.

Chambers N and Exworthy M (2019) How to survive as an NHS chief executive Health Service Journal 17 June https://www.hsj.co.uk/leadership/how-to-survive-as-an-nhs-chief-executive/7025324.article#commentsJump

Smith J and Chambers N (2019) Mid Staffordshire: A case study of failed governance and leadership? Political Quarterly 14 June 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12698

Hosted by Jim Pendrill, AMBS’ Research Communications Lead.