Each network meets several times a year, providing opportunities for members to connect, hear from and engage with key policy and decision-makers from across the healthcare service, and facilitate the sharing of best practice and learning.

These networks support a range of job roles, and sector-specific interests, and are open to executive and non-executive directors employed by our member trusts.

The twelve networks are:

• Chairs and chief executives
• Communications leads
• Community network
• Company secretaries
• Digital Boards leadership
• Director of operations/chief operating officers
• Finance directors and commercial leads
• HR directors
• Mental health leaders
• Non-executive directors
• Medical and nursing directors
• Strategy directors

This programme is delivered free as part of our core membership offering.

To find out more about the Networks programme see the programme page here or contact the Networks team.

Our focus is practical, interactive training and development delivered by trainers with extensive senior-level sector experience. 

The programme's core training modules are delivered as open courses nationally and in-house for individual organisations. We also deliver the national NHS induction programmes for new executive directors and non-executive directors, providing individuals with key knowledge and skills in preparation for their board roles.

The programme can provide tailored in-house training along with bespoke board development programmes designed to support the strategic objectives and development aims of your board. Our ethos is one of continuous improvement and we bring this into our approach to development.

The Board development programme is available to members and non-members, members access the training at a discounted rate.

To find out more about the Board development programme see the programme page here or contact the Board development team.

GovernWell is the national training and support programme for NHS foundation trusts governors. The programme aims to equip governors with the knowledge, skills and confidence required to fulfil their statutory role and responsibilities effectively through every stage of their development.

The GovernWell training programme include a core skills module and six specialist skills modules. This training is available as open courses for all governors as well as in-house bespoke training for individual foundation trusts. All courses are interactive, led by experienced trainers committed to continuous development and offered at a discounted price for members. We can also provide Council of Governors' effectiveness survey and workshop to help understand the views of the council and development requirements.

The programme also provides additional products and resources to support NHS foundation trust staff and their governors which are free to all members. This includes the annual Governor Focus conference, a Governor Focus e-newsletter, pre-induction materials, induction toolkit, guidance documents and email/telephone helpline.

To find out more about the GovernWell programme see the programme page here or contact the GovernWell team.

The roundtables programme offers the opportunity for members to have private, informal, honest conversations with key senior stakeholders in the sector. These intimate events are open for all members to register their interest, the final delegate list is by invitation only, this ensures we invite a diverse range of attendees to stimulate interesting conversations.

All of our roundtables operate under the strict Chatham house rule, in order to ensure privacy of attendees and any discussions that take place.

To find out more about the Roundtables programme see the programme page here or contact the roundtables team.

Delivered in partnership with Public Digital and supported by Health Education England and NHS England, the programme aims to build board understanding of the potential of the digital agenda and its implications and increase the confidence and capability of boards to harness the opportunities it provides.

We offer free board development sessions tailored to reflect the needs of individual boards, peer learning through events and our Digital Boards leadership network and board resources that play back key headlines including digital leadership guides which focus on key topics exploring the changing digital landscape.

To find out more about the Digital Boards programme see the programme page here or contact the Digital Boards team.

Delivered by NHS Providers in partnership with the NHS Confederation and Public Digital, and supported by Health Education England and NHS England, the programme is designed to support ICS leaders to harness digital to deliver system ambitions.

We offer ICS leaders access to a range of free resources, events and leadership sessions focused exclusively on the role of the board in leading the digital agenda across systems.

To find out more about the Digital ICS programme see the programme page or contact the ICS Digital team.

Board members are keen to harness the power of shared improvement approaches through provider collaboratives to create the optimism and energy needed to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access, and rebuild towards higher quality of care for the benefit of local people. To help, NHS Providers has joined forces with the Q community, with support from the Health Foundation and NHS England, to deliver a programme of peer learning for senior leaders on how provider collaboratives can develop shared improvement approaches with an equity lens embedded from the outset - Provider collaboratives: improving equitably.

Our peer learning events and resources help board members share the challenges and opportunities they face in creating a positive improvement culture in partnership, and consider how to embed a focus on equity into existing and new quality improvement work.

Our trust-wide improvement programme, supported by the Health Foundation, aims to support boards to develop greater awareness and understanding of organisational approaches to improvement and to take action to implement and sustain improvement in their trusts.

Through a range of events, resources and action learning sets, uniquely targeted at a trust board audience, this programme provides opportunities to step back and learn from peers. We share practical tips and strategies on how embedding a trust-wide approach to improvement could help sustain gains made due to the pandemic and in responding to the scale of the challenges ahead. As the move to place-based collaboration and partnerships within and between systems intensifies, the programme also explores how quality improvement can be effectively driven across organisational boundaries.

To find out more about the improvement programmes see the Provider collaboratives: Improving equitably programme page here and the Trust-wide Improvement programme page here or contact the team.

The Provider Collaboration programme aims to support members to maximise the potential of greater provider collaboration to tackle care backlogs, reduce unwarranted variation, address health inequalities and deliver more efficient, sustainable services. It covers the full spectrum of collaborative arrangements that providers are forging at scale, involving all trust types.

The programme focuses on sharing good practice and peer learning through a range of events and resources for boards. It also contributes to our ongoing influencing to ensure there is a flexible and enabling national policy framework for provider collaboration and greater clarity on accountability arrangements in the new era of system working.

To find out more about the Provider Collaboration programme see the programme page here or contact the Provider Collaboration team.

We have developed a strong relationship with the Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation to deliver a range of free, bespoke support for health and care partnerships. The programme aims to help local partners strengthen their relationships, align priorities and agree on their collective next steps.

Building on two successful phases of peer support, we offer peer-facilitated workshops, peer reviews and peer mentoring, all of which can take place online. Requests for peer-led support can be made and delivered at any level, whether that be system, place or locality, helping to address the wider determinants of health, creating opportunities for health improvement, tackling health inequalities and promoting prevention.

To find out more about the leading integration peer support programme see the programme page here or contact the peer support team.

Our research showed us that trusts wanted support to:

• Make sense of health inequalities – trust board agendas are complex and busy, and while there is a wealth of information about health inequalities available, it can be challenging to prioritise the issues and know where to begin in a local area, particularly while balancing other pressures. Trust leaders told us that resources to simplify information about key changes in the national landscape would be welcome.
• Share good practice and facilitate collaboration – trusts are committed to developing their role on health inequalities, as active leaders, partners in the system, and as anchor institutions, but knowing where to begin is a key challenge and trust leaders told us they would welcome support to share experiences with their peers, and hear stories of successful, creative interventions around health inequalities.
• Make use of valuable partnerships in systems, and clarify their role in ICSs - far from simply having a responsibility to provide equitable healthcare, trusts see themselves as playing a role as leaders in systems and as anchor institutions, making a key contribution to system-wide ambitions to improve the health of local communities. System partnerships are crucial, and trusts are clear that an engrained, system-wide problem needs bold, system-wide solutions.

To find out more about the health inequalities programme see the programme page here or contact the Health Inequalities programme team.

The race equality programme will be made up of a range of events and resources to support the three main requirements for real change:
• Hearts and minds change – a series of blogs, videos and podcasts where senior leaders reflect on their personal journeys. Creating more safe spaces at NHS Provider events and committing to have the difficult conversations drawing on data and personal testimony.
• Confidence and capability to act – evidence based case studies on high-impact interventions and why they’ve worked in a particular context. Peer learning sessions on ‘the how’. Signposting to wider resources, other support offers and networks.
• Taking accountability – key questions for boards and governors on race equality. Sharing learning on how to embed race equality into the heart of the board’s work, including looking at how progress is evaluated and reported.

To find out more about the race equality programme see the programme page here or contact the Race Equality programme team.

Our major new programme of work, Providers deliver, celebrates and promotes the work of NHS trusts and foundation trusts in providing care.

As we work to influence and shape the environment in which trusts operate, highlighting the many challenges they face, we also want to ensure the extraordinary work and achievements by trusts and their staff are acknowledged, and that the lessons learned are shared. 

To find out more about providers deliver see the programme page here or contact the providers deliver team.