Recommendation BRIS-65: NHS Leadership Centre to issue guidelines on acceptable leadership styles and practices
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
An early priority for the new NHS Leadership Centre should be to offer guidelines as to leadership styles and practices which are acceptable and to be encouraged within the NHS, and those which are not.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England state no delivery position (27 February 2026)
The Thirlwall Inquiry has noted action taken in response to this recommendation. Please see our response to Recommendation 50 (Leadership 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 Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Superseded”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 65, PDF page 101.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government agreed with this recommendation. The NHS Leadership Centre published the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework in 2002.
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 6.2 No. 65, PDF page 93.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding