A third of healthcare managers are considered ‘ineffective’ by their staff, according to a report published today by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
However, this figure rises to almost half (43%) at senior management levels.
According to the CMI, ineffective leadership is due to a lack of investment in management and leadership development. The report also questions the promotion of clinicians into management roles without adequate training and support.
CMI chief executive Ann Francke said: “The way we train and recruit health sector managers needs to change. This report shows too many health and social care managers are ineffective, resulting in a lack of employee engagement, poor service and low patient satisfaction.”
But Dean Royles, chief executive of NHS Employers said that managers are the most “unappreciated” of all NHS staff, calling for more to be spent on the training and development of managers.
He said: “[Managers] are caught between the demands and aspirations of their staff and the constant pressure of targets and service improvements, while often trying to give the best direct care to their patients.
“Yet they continue to cope with increasing demands on services and have delivered improvements in staff engagement and reduced sickness absence. It is an incredibly complex agenda they have to navigate and I agree that we need to spend more of our resources on their training and development and to value them more for their incredible service.”
