Recommendation F214: Shared training
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
A leadership staff college or training system, whether centralised or regional, should be created to: provide common professional training in management and leadership to potential senior staff; promote healthcare leadership and management as a profession; administer an accreditation scheme to enhance eligibility for consideration for such roles; promote and research best leadership practice in healthcare.
In brief (written by this site)
In commentary published in February 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England reported that work remained ongoing, with plans to introduce a nationally consistent training delivery model once a curriculum is finalised, after which leadership and management offers will be refreshed in line with that curriculum (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). Earlier, in May 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team found that the recommendation had been clearly implemented (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Accepted.
The NHS Leadership Academy, supported by NHS England, fills this role. It has developed a leadership model for the NHS and a suite of development programmes, tools and interventions to support a change in culture in NHS leadership through a national network of local delivery partners. It researches and champions the professionalisation of leadership.
The Academy provides a suite of career-long, academically accredited programmes which map against a leadership career, irrespective of professional background. This establishes the need for prior training and development before applying for significant and vital senior roles, and creates an expectation of sufficient experience, knowledge and a minimum level of academic achievement for leadership roles. The Academy works with partners and in-house experts on developing a model for leadership, based on research evidence and best practice.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
Board-level leaders A directory of support offers for executive and non-executive Board members was developed in August 2023 and has been refreshed and updated recently.
All NHS managers Once the curriculum is finalised, a new nationally consistent training and development delivery model is planned, involving a framework of quality assured / accredited providers. The ambition is that this will ensure that all NHS-funded leadership and management training, whether locally, regionally or nationally delivered, is focussed on the right areas of development to enable managers to achieve the core standards. The competency domains are aligned to Our NHS People Promise, Our Leadership Way, and the Seven Principles of Public Life.
All of NHS England’s leadership and management offers, including the NHS Leadership Academy programmes, the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, online resources and other products to support leaders and managers at all levels up to and including CEOs, will be refreshed in line with the curriculum. Since this recommendation was made, the Messenger Review has also made further recommendations in relation to management standards and accredited training.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented - Ongoing”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 214, PDF page 534.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
The NHS Leadership Academy continues to bring together national activity supporting leadership development in health and NHS funded services. To achieve this, the Academy oversees the development of core leadership programmes and a leadership model to ensure a consistent approach to leadership development of staff at all levels in the NHS.
The Executive Fast Track programme, launched in June 2014, aims to increase the number of executive leaders in the NHS. With clinical and non-NHS backgrounds, the 49 participants are undertaking this 10-month long development programme, which includes four weeks of executive development at Harvard, Boston, USA, as well as an industrial placement and six-month long change programme under an NHS chief executive mentor.
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
Site note: The Inquiry addressed this recommendation to the NHS Leadership Academy, not to the Department of Health. The annex gives this update in the Department's publication and does not say who wrote it, so the row is the Department's report of the progress made on it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said that the NHS Leadership Academy, launched in April 2012, performed this role.
In the February 2015 Culture Change report, the Government referred to the launching of the Executive Fast Track programme in June 2014, aimed at increased the number of executive leaders in the NHS.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review colours its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green, which it uses to mark evidence, identified by the legal team, that a recommendation has been clearly implemented. Table row: section 16.2 No. 214, PDF page 495.
Source
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding