Time to get serious about distributed leadership: lessons to learn for promoting leadership development for non-consultant career grade doctors in the UK

Abstract

COVID-19 has exposed the National Health Service (NHS) to the greatest challenge in its existence, highlighting the need for nimble, reactive and inclusive leadership. It is set against a backdrop of a workforce recruitment and retention crisis predicted to worsen in coming years. There is a need to do things differently in healthcare, including better diversity and distribution of leadership. We make the case for senior non-consultant doctors, in the UK more usually referred to as specialty and associate specialist or locally employed doctors. These skilled, experienced medics have much to offer yet are frequently overlooked, with little guidance or support from central organisations and medical colleges or within NHS Trusts themselves. In this commentary, we suggest ways this workforce might be better tapped into, to the benefit of patients and healthcare systems, as well as the doctors themselves.