Classification: Official
Publication reference: B0496ii
To:
- Integrated care board (ICB), NHS trust and NHS foundation trust:
- chairs
- non-executive directors
- chief executives
- chief people officers
cc.
- Board members, NHS England
Dear colleague
Leadership competency framework for board members
The NHS Leadership Competency Framework (LCF), published today, is for all board members of NHS providers, ICBs and NHS England’s Board.
The LCF has been designed with engagement and support from a significant number of NHS chairs, chief executives and other stakeholders, and using insight into best practice in other industries.
The LCF provides a framework for board member recruitment and appraisal and will inform future board leadership and management training and development.
It has been developed in response to a recommendation from the Tom Kark KC (2019) review of the Fit and Proper Persons Test. The LCF provides a consistent competency and skills benchmark against which board members will individually self-assess as part of the annual ‘fitness’ attestation. This is described in the NHS England Fit and Proper Person Test Framework for board members, published in August 2023.
The LCF is based on 6 domains, each with a range of competencies. For each domain there is a description of what good looks like, as well as an optional scoring guide to help with self-assessment and development. We understand it is unlikely that NHS board members will be able to fulfil all of the competency examples all of the time. First-time directors, in particular, may need time to develop proficiency. This framework should act as a guide to support ongoing development – to help identify opportunities, please refer to the directory of board level learning and development.
The 6 competency domains should be incorporated into all NHS board member role descriptions and recruitment processes from 1 April 2024. They should also form a core part of board member appraisals and the ongoing development of individuals and the board as a whole. The competency domains will also be built into national leadership programmes and support offers for board directors and aspiring board directors.
A revised Chair Appraisal Framework has been published for use in 2023/24 chair appraisals, and includes the competencies outlined in the LCF. A new Board Member Appraisal Framework will also be launched this autumn.
In the meantime, all board members should self-assess against the LCF and discuss findings with their chair or chief executive as part of their 2023/24 annual appraisal. This conversation will help to guide board members’ personal development plans for 2024/25.
The three frameworks are part of a wider programme of management and leadership development being led by NHS England with education partners, staff and stakeholders, to implement the recommendations in the Health and social care review: leadership for a collaborative future (known as the Messenger Review), as well as the recommendations from other reviews and reports on NHS leadership and management. We will publish a three-year roadmap setting out more details of this work shortly.
Please let us have any feedback and send any questions that you would like answered to england.karkimplementationteam@nhs.net. We will review the LCF as part of the planned review in 2025 of the Fit and Proper Persons Test Framework.
Thank you for your support in implementing these frameworks. As we noted in our 2 August letter, the Messenger Review recognised many outstanding examples of first-rate leadership in health and social care but he also found that more is required to ensure quality leadership and management is adequately developed and embedded. This is another important step in that direction.
Yours sincerely
Dr Navina Evans CBE, Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer, NHS England.