Recommendation BRIS-67: Focus NHS leadership investment on joint, multi-professional training for all staff
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
The NHS’s investment in developing and funding programmes in leadership skills should be focused on supporting joint education and multi-professional training, open to nurses, doctors, managers and other healthcare professionals.
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)
Please see our responses to Recommendations 49, 50 and 66, where detail on leadership development activity is set out. Opportunities are available for all roles.
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 Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Superseded”.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. 67, PDF page 102.
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.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health referred to the new executive directors’ development programme as focusing on multi-professional roles for medical and nursing directors.
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 does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 67, PDF page 94.
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding