Working in an operational leadership role in the NHS is tough right now-really tough. These are the people in charge of the day-to-day running of our healthcare organisations. The very real and valid concerns about waiting times, quality risks or staff dissatisfaction make their way to the desk of an ops person. That’s where the buck often stops. The same can be said about any ongoing discussions around patient outcomes, operational processes or staff planning. They all eventually make their way into an ops person’s inbox.
The problem here is the scale of the challenges that the NHS is confronted by, combined with its organisational complexity. This makes it incredibly difficult for any ops manager, no matter how hard they try, to deliver the results they’d like to. All of which means they’re heading into work most days, knowing they’re again going to be told that something they’re in charge of simply isn’t good enough.
It takes a certain type of resilience to face up to that on a near daily basis, maintaining your energy, passion and enthusiasm for improving staff and patient outcomes and avoiding being ground down by one challenge after another. Yet your typical ops manager somehow finds a way to do this, sometimes at a cost to their own health and wellbeing.
However, no matter how resilient they are, these people still need advice and support from time to time. And that’s where Proud2bOps comes in; an organisation that I’ve been delighted to work with for the past 18 months.
Proud2bOps is a professional network for NHS ops managers. It was established in 2017 by Emma Challans-Rasool, Founder and Director. Noting that no such network existed for senior ops leaders in the NHS, Emma simply set about creating one of her own, aimed at ops managers to support their career journeys. It now boasts almost 2000 members and strong networks in all the NHS regions. Proudb2Ops is also planning further connection and development for ops managers and leaders across the whole of the UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A valuable source of support
Over the past year, the things that have amazed me about Proud2bOps are how effective it is at sharing insights and best practice; its scale and reach; and the energy and drive among its members.
Plenty of examples of innovation and best practice exist across the NHS but they’re rarely shared effectively across a region, let alone nationally – so that’s great to see. And bearing in mind it’s still only seven years old, the network’s current size and rapid growth is testament to all of Emma’s incredibly hard work. Emma refers to it as a social movement, more than a network and where socio and technical development ignite. What we know today is that it’s already greater than the sum of its parts.
Finally, the buzz that you sense in the room at one of their events (whether virtual or face-to-face) is incredible. Many of the attendees will go on to lead entire healthcare organisations so seeing their drive, passion and commitment to learn (which remains undimmed by their daily tribulations) is heartening and refreshing. This is what we want to see; leaders curiously craving best practice, looking for what they can adapt or adopt in their own organisation.
Last year, we signed up for a 12-month partnership with Proud2bOps and will shortly be renewing for a further year. That means a second year of running learning and development events and webinars with ops managers from across the NHS, focusing on some of their most pressing issues.
It’s a renewal that I’m particularly pleased about. That’s partly because I started my career as an operational manager in the NHS but also because I’ve now seen firsthand the valuable support that the network gives its members.
A lonely existence
The interesting thing about the operational community is that, unlike so many other parts of the NHS (think clinicians, finance, HR or other technical specialists), it has no professional body to support it and no accredited, regulated skills framework. That can make it quite a lonely existence. The Proud2bOps vision is to be ‘the’ recognised professional operational network for ops managers and leaders through energising, connecting and developing operational managers and leaders across the country and beyond. Proud2bOps pride itself on providing and sustaining a safe, supportive space and simply by being there, to support, guide and bring energy back in to ops.
When I was in NHS ops myself, working through my national management training scheme, I remember being well supported and provided with plenty of development opportunities. However, with the course complete, that support dwindled to virtually nothing once I was in post. Emma had a very similar experience and when in a very senior ops leadership role, sharply found that it was an even more lonely place to be in and based on her other networks and relationships, nothing was in place or accessible for ops beyond the four walls of her own hospital.
Emma also found little or no operational management development opportunities, access to training and learning from others. It sonly came in existence if something went wrong, 18-week management, PTL training and so on. Where there was sharing, Emma found that these, largely sat in written up case studies, which often lacked the operational voice and rather provided a corporate reflection of impact.
Emma soon found that, ops managers want to be with their tribe, people like them and therefore this was a call to action for Emma to create, both for herself and others.
We’ve both since said how much we would have appreciated having the support of a network like this at that stage of our careers. It would have provided a much-needed antidote to the fatigue that you inevitably experience when working in a highly pressurised ops environment.
I first met Emma a few years ago through my work at KPMG with Midlands healthcare organisations. We felt there was a good cultural and values-driven fit between KPMG and Proud2bOps, with both sides keen to share knowledge and experiences and to do whatever we could to help NHS operational leaders deliver better clinical outcomes for patients. That’s what prompted us to create this partnership.
I’m glad we did – because, as well as helping the network’s members, we’ve found this incredibly valuable ourselves. The insights that we glean from the community help us be more efficient in our work. And, like me, many of my KPMG colleagues have an NHS ops background so these events are a great chance for us to reconnect with that community. That perhaps helps explain why I’m always over-subscribed when it comes to asking for volunteers to help staff our latest events!
It’s a hugely exciting thing to be part of – and I can’t wait to see what our second year brings.
