Applications for this programme have now closed. Keep checking this page for updates.
On this page, you will find information about the Mary Seacole Leadership programme for community pharmacy and the Health in Justice pharmacy workforce. We will provide you with an overview of the programme, frequently asked questions and testimonials from participants.
The Mary Seacole Leadership programme has funded places available for community pharmacy.
Background
The NHS Long Term Plan offers opportunities for pharmacy professionals to become more integrated into the wider NHS. The Mary Seacole Leadership programme will allow you to maximise your clinical leadership skills and help you to recognise your own personal value to healthcare. With investment from the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF), NHS England is working with the NHS Leadership Academy to offer the Mary Seacole Leadership programme to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacy and pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the Health in Justice workforce. Places on the programme are funded via the PhIF.
This NHS-led flagship programme is designed to develop your leadership and management skills to enable you to drive quality services in pharmacy and really make a difference to the health of the patients you see.
The Mary Seacole programme is a six-month long leadership development programme with cohorts in Leeds, London and Birmingham.
The programme will prepare you for the demands of leadership in the healthcare system today – and into the future. It will give you the theoretical knowledge and practical understanding needed to deliver inspiring leadership. During the programme, you will cover eight units of study on leadership fundamentals along with four further units that relate to core management skills.
The learning methods are a cutting-edge blend to keep you inspired and motivated via a flexible state-of-the-art virtual campus and face-to-face development. And to keep it all fresh and current, you’ve got the latest thinking from leading experts. At the end you’ll emerge from the programme with the professional skills to thrive in your leadership role, ready to play your part in building a more compassionate NHS.
You can find out more about the programme in the detailed applicant guide. This is available through the link below:
The profession of pharmacy is going through change with a vision for community pharmacy to become more integrated into the wider healthcare team with a key role in medicines optimisation. The idea of ‘something has changed - and what does this mean?’ runs throughout, and the programme will actively encourage you to consider what that change means for you, and how you might need to behave in the workplace to be a success.
Working through the programme will increase your self-awareness of how the changes you make can have an impact on colleagues in the NHS and the people you serve. It will help you recognise your own personal value to the healthcare of people and embed behaviours that improve the patient experience. Working as a team is now more important than ever before and you will learn how to enable others to be the best they can be in the workplace.
The programme has been developed for the wider NHS healthcare team.
To find out more reasons to apply, we’ve put together a handy document. You can download this below:
In the summer of 2018, we caught up with two pharmacy professionals who were working their way through the Mary Seacole Leadership Programme.
Shona Jubb joined as a pharmacy technician/dispensary manager in Derbyshire. Her story is one of rising to the challenge and getting over the initial feelings of intimidation and lack of confidence, to what difference being on the programme has made to her and her practice.
Mary Oaiya signed up to the programme as one of three main pharmacists in a practice in Essex. Mary's story sees her join the programme more by chance after a colleague recommended it. She talks of the difficulties in balancing study and a work life, but how it can be worth it.
Read their stories here.
Here are a selection of quotes from people who have also been on the programme.
"I found the course content to be very inspiring - I always viewed leadership as a facet of a management role. It is really thought-provoking to think everybody potentially has the ability to offer leadership by adopting different behaviours and changing their focus."
"Changed my whole perspective about leadership skills. It's all about how you look at it, and trying to be a leader rather than a manager.'
"Gave me insight and perspective about my whole philosophy of leadership. Empowering my team, setting direction and delegation."
"Equips future leaders with the skill and techniques to engage with person-centred healthcare provision and personal development."
