Over the Christmas and new year break we bring you a round-up of the best articles from our Leadership, Commissioning and Innovation and Efficiency channels. In this focus on leadership, we highlight a selection of best practice articles from 2014. Among them, Anushta Sivananthan, medical director of Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Foundation Trust, discusses if ‘zero harm’ is achievable for mental health, while Roger Kline explains how the lack of leadership diversity is compromising patient care.

Illustration showing building blocks

NO FOR REUSE

Accountability

‘Race discrimination is a serious risk to patient experience’

Roger Kline writes about growing amount of evidence that shows little progress is being made on improving diversity at the top of the NHS – and this is compromising patient care.

Is ‘zero harm’ achievable for mental health?

Anushta Sivananthan, medical director of Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Foundation Trust, sets out how the trust is responding to new patient safety challenges to mental health services following the Francis, Keogh and Berwick reports.

How to protect the ‘second victim’ of adverse events

More needs to be done to address psychological trauma among care givers, as shown by a new analysis of suicide among clinicians involved in incidents and investigations, urge Rajan Madhok and colleagues.

From the front line up: Lessons from a whole hospital transformation

A whole hospital transformation at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust offers a unique insight into how patient care and staff morale can be boosted while meeting financial targets, say Tim Guyler and colleagues.

Julie Moore: words of advice to my younger self

The chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust turns back the clock to tell her younger self about the received wisdom she will encounter throughout her NHS career.

More best of 2014 in: