MSc/PGDip/PGCert Health & Care Leadership

The provision of health and social care is increasingly set against a background of partnership working between the public, private, voluntary and independent sectors, co-production with service-users and local communities, growing digital sophistication, and an insatiable drive for social innovation. 

This module will develop the idea of collaborative leadership as a potential way forward. It will explore how collaborative leadership might work, the changes in mindset and culture that it entails, the knowledge and practices which are required to make it work, and the methods that may be engaged to evaluate outcomes. It will also consider the “dark” sides of collaborative leadership and their potential remedies.

Health data analytics skills are currently in high demand due to the complex nature of medicine and healthcare delivery as well as the growing expectation from the public for safe and efficient health services. Health delivery systems are hugely complex organisations which are increasingly storing huge amount of patient and epidemiology data. 

Data can be extremely powerful in the design, delivery and management of health and social care systems. It can be used to plan and develop new services, influence strategies, inform budget decisions and optimise processes and policy. Health and Care leaders should not themselves need to be data scientists, but they should be able to confidently identify data sources, create data management plans and put these into action and manage data analytics projects in the health and care context.

A core element of leading in health and care is the ability to understand the complex environment in which services operate, and the key debates and issues which prevail. This class presents contemporary issues in health and care in order to explain and contextualise the challenges faced by leaders and others in the sector, presenting the issues in both an integrated and rigorous manner.

This module will focus on participants’ personal, professional and leadership development.  It comprises a series of seminars, workshops and activities that run alongside and are aligned with the core modules.  Participants will be required to develop a portfolio of evidence that supports their development of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required of senior managers in the health and care sector.

The module increases participants’ understanding of how to manage their own continuous professional development in order to enhance their personal and leadership effectiveness.

This module equips students with the capacity to understand health systems at multiple levels, from the operational to the strategic and policy levels. This class will focus on key issues in health policy and aims to provide students with an awareness of the state of current health policy debates as well as the tools available for analysing the role of health policy and its effectiveness. 

This class provides an overview of selected health policy issues related to performance and financing. More specifically, students will acquire knowledge in the performance assessment and performance management of health systems, as well as knowledge of macro- and micro-level health policies concerning public-private governance and the nature of markets in healthcare.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on the patient perspective of healthcare and the options for designing patient centric health systems. This module develops on this theme but widens it to consider the needs of patients, carers and a much wider range of stakeholders in the design and delivery of health and care in a holistic manner. Health and Care is influenced by a complex range of physical, social, economic cultural end environmental factors and this module critically analyses the widest range of these issues in the design of systems and interventions likely to have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of all people who directly or indirectly are service users. 

Healthcare is a vast industry that is undergoing constant reform. Effective operations management in this context is complex and evolving and essential to control costs and improve the quality of services provided to patients. This module will provide essential knowledge and a practical understanding of the principles, tools and techniques required for the effective improvement and transformation of health and care processes and systems, which are indispensable for health and care analysts, managers and consultants.

This module will focus on participants’ personal, professional and leadership development.  It comprises a series of seminars, workshops and activities that run alongside and are aligned with the core modules.  Participants will be required to develop a portfolio of evidence that supports their development of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required of senior managers in the health and care sector.

The module increases participants’ understanding of how to manage their own continuous professional development in order to enhance their personal and leadership effectiveness.

The primary aim of the Service or Business Transformation Project is to clearly demonstrate ability in the utilisation of knowledge gained during the programme and through previous work experience. Participants are tasked with the identification of substantial managerial problems/issues and the appropriate selection and application of methods for a critical analysis of these problems/issues. The project creates robust learning in the area(s) of leadership or organisational change chosen by the participant. A variety of options are available regarding both the project topic and method of exploration. For example undertaking an applied managerial project, investigative hypothesis testing, and investigative theory deducing or action research may be considered.