Health officials this week unveiled plans to groom a 'cadre' of top managers and hinted at the damage done to training by past NHS reforms.

A pounds1m development programme for chief executives was launched by the NHS Executive yesterday as a survey revealed many feeling isolated and needing more support.

Managers' training has become 'patchy' and 'fragmented' during recent years, especially with the dismantling of regional human resources units, insiders believe.

The latest move is being seen in part as a bid to reaffirm values and bring chief executives 'back on board' a corporate NHS culture. 'As a general organisation, we don't have a coherent training system,' programme director Tessa Brooks told the Journal.

'We have to see ourselves as a catalyst within the service to raise development issues back up the agenda.'

The chief executive development programme was launched by NHS chief executive Alan Langlands this week as an independent arm's-length agency.

It will commission and support continuous career development for around 500 top managers, comparable to that available to doctors, nurses and paramedics, and tailored to individuals' needs.

Activities will include one-to-one coaching, mentoring, skills courses and opportunities to share best practice with colleagues in the public and private sectors. Some of this would be 'sponsored' by health authorities and trusts.

'Open space events' hosted by the NHS Executive board will ensure chief executives become 'more closely engaged with policy discussions at the centre'.

'Such an approach has not been attempted before and we hope it will be welcomed by chief executives,' Ms Brooks said.

She added: 'Top managers have, to date, been offered only fragmentary opportunities from the centre to learn and expand their skills. They are expected to perform to the highest standards in a challenging environment, yet little is known about them as a group.'

The CEDP will keep a national confidential database to build up a picture of the group and its needs as well as a register of training providers. Anonymised survey findings, revealed to the Journal this week, show some managers experiencing 'isolation', 'burn-out' and 'frustration' at lack of personal development.

Many chief executives want more external links, to share ideas and get wider experience.

Around two-thirds of chief executives responded just before publication of the government's white paper. Nearly half said its implementation was the main challenge facing them, with around a third citing issues of financial management and 'managing change'. Ms Brooks said the findings confirmed the need for a more 'eclectic' approach to developing leadership.

An information line will keep chief executives in touch with each other, with the programme acting also as a 'safe' haven from 'hostile' terrain. The CEDP will focus initially on newly appointed chief executives.

Deputy director of the Institute of Health Services Management Suzanne Tyler welcomed the initiative, saying she saw it more as an enabling scheme than a means of control.

Association of Healthcare Human Resources Management president Colin Pearson also backed the programme. The lack of information to date about the calibre of chief executives has been 'one of the consequences of the previous regime', he said.

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