Articles / King's Fund Leadership Programmes: Expert Healthcare Training
Development, Training & CoachingDiscover how King's Fund leadership programmes develop senior healthcare executives through proven frameworks, collaborative learning, and system-wide transformation. Explore Top Manager, clinical leadership, and more.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Wed 19th November 2025
What makes King's Fund leadership programmes distinctive in healthcare development? The King's Fund offers evidence-based leadership development rooted in over 46 years of experience, combining rigorous research with practical application to address the unique challenges facing health and care leaders across Britain's complex healthcare landscape.
For healthcare executives navigating unprecedented demands—from population health challenges to integrated care systems—leadership development isn't merely professional enhancement. It's the cornerstone of organisational transformation and improved patient outcomes.
The King's Fund has established itself as Britain's pre-eminent independent think tank on health and care policy, translating decades of research into leadership programmes that directly correlate with organisational performance, patient satisfaction, and staff engagement. Their approach recognises what Florence Nightingale understood in establishing modern nursing practice: that effective leadership fundamentally shapes the quality of care delivered.
The King's Fund bases its leadership development on comprehensive evidence linking leadership behaviours to measurable healthcare outcomes. Their 2015 landmark research, conducted with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management and the Center for Creative Leadership, established clear connections between leadership quality and patient mortality rates, organisational financial performance, and staff satisfaction.
This evidence-informed approach distinguishes their programmes from generic executive training. Rather than importing corporate leadership models wholesale, The King's Fund develops frameworks specifically calibrated to healthcare's unique characteristics: complex stakeholder environments, clinical governance requirements, and the moral imperative of patient care.
At the heart of The King's Fund's philosophy lies collective leadership—a departure from traditional hierarchical models. This approach emphasises:
The model acknowledges that in modern healthcare, no single leader possesses all the answers. Integrated care systems, multi-disciplinary teams, and population health approaches demand collaborative intelligence rather than heroic individualism.
Building on research by Professor Michael West, The King's Fund champions compassionate leadership—an approach demonstrating measurable impact on innovation, staff wellbeing, and patient outcomes. This framework comprises four elements:
Far from "soft" management, compassionate leadership delivers hard results. Organisations whose staff report compassionate leadership show higher engagement scores, lower turnover, and better patient experience metrics.
The Top Manager Programme represents The King's Fund's premium offering for senior healthcare executives. Running continuously for over 46 years, it has developed more than 600 alumni occupying influential positions across Britain's health and care sectors.
Who should attend? The programme targets:
Programme structure: This six-month immersive experience creates cohorts of 20-25 participants who develop lasting peer relationships whilst exploring:
The programme employs action learning sets, facilitated reflection, and real-world application of concepts to participants' live challenges. Unlike purely academic approaches, leaders bring current dilemmas to the programme, receiving peer challenge and expert coaching to develop solutions they implement immediately.
Participants consistently describe the Top Manager Programme as transformative—not merely adding skills but fundamentally reshaping how they conceptualise their leadership role within complex adaptive systems.
This nine-month programme addresses the critical capability gap in cross-organisational working—essential as integrated care systems become the dominant NHS structure.
Programme design: Four residential modules of two days each, spread across nine months, allowing participants to:
The programme recognises that collaborative leadership requires distinct competencies beyond traditional organisational management: convening diverse stakeholders, managing without formal authority, and building shared purpose amongst organisations with competing incentives.
With health and social care integration accelerating, this programme equips leaders for the reality that most significant improvements now require cross-organisational collaboration.
The King's Fund offers tiered clinical leadership programmes recognising that clinicians face distinct leadership challenges as they progress from frontline practice to strategic roles.
Emerging Clinical Leaders Programme: Designed for doctors, senior nurses, and allied health professionals (Band 7 and above) moving into formal leadership positions. The programme addresses the identity transition from primarily clinical to clinical-managerial roles, helping participants:
Strategic Clinical Leaders Programme: For experienced clinical directors and professionals in strategic roles, this advanced programme focuses on:
These programmes acknowledge that clinical training typically provides minimal leadership development, yet clinicians occupy critical leadership positions influencing billions in healthcare spending and millions of patient interactions.
Launched in recognition of healthcare's shift from reactive treatment to proactive population health management, this programme has developed 179 health and care leaders since 2019.
The programme explores:
Participants earn 38 Category 1 CPD credits whilst developing capabilities to lead integrated approaches addressing the root causes of poor health rather than merely treating symptoms.
As Britain's demographic challenges intensify—ageing population, rising multimorbidity, widening health inequalities—leadership for population health becomes increasingly central to sustainable healthcare systems.
Recognising that leadership development shouldn't be exclusively available to senior executives, The King's Fund created ShiftWorks—an online platform providing CPD-accredited courses for just £35 per person annually.
ShiftWorks offers:
This platform enables frontline leaders, middle managers, and aspiring leaders to access world-class development at an accessible price point, recognising that leadership culture requires development at every organisational level.
The Activate programme addresses systemic racism within healthcare leadership through development relevant to leaders at all career stages. The programme:
With minority ethnic staff disproportionately underrepresented in senior NHS leadership despite comprising significant proportions of frontline workforce, Activate represents essential work addressing systemic barriers.
The Circles programme recognises persistent gender disparities in healthcare leadership, where women constitute the majority of the workforce but remain underrepresented in executive positions.
Through cohort-based development, women leaders explore:
The programme creates safe spaces for women to discuss challenges they may not feel comfortable raising in mixed-gender settings whilst building practical strategies for overcoming systemic barriers.
This three-day programme targets new leaders developing their leadership identity and core capabilities. Available both online (£1,160 + VAT) and in-person (£1,335 + VAT), it covers:
The programme recognises that many health and care professionals are promoted to leadership positions based on clinical or technical excellence without receiving formal leadership development—setting them up to struggle unnecessarily in roles requiring distinctly different capabilities.
Several factors distinguish King's Fund leadership programmes from alternatives:
| Feature | King's Fund | Generic Executive Education | In-House Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare specificity | Designed exclusively for health/care context | Generic principles requiring translation | Organisation-specific but limited external perspective |
| Evidence base | Rooted in healthcare leadership research | General management theory | Variable evidence foundation |
| Peer learning | Cross-organisational cohorts sharing challenges | Mixed industry participants | Single organisation perspective |
| System perspective | Explicit focus on whole-system leadership | Primarily organisational focus | Limited system view |
| Ongoing support | Alumni networks and continued resources | Time-limited engagement | Ongoing but potentially insular |
| CPD accreditation | Formal CPD credits | Variable | Often unaccredited |
The combination of healthcare specialisation, evidence-based curriculum, and cross-organisational peer learning creates development experiences difficult to replicate through generic business schools or purely internal programmes.
The King's Fund's research establishes clear links between leadership quality and organisational outcomes:
Patient outcomes: Organisations with strong leadership cultures demonstrate:
Staff outcomes: Leadership development correlates with:
Organisational performance: Effective leadership drives:
These aren't merely theoretical benefits—The King's Fund's longitudinal research demonstrates measurable improvements in organisations whose leaders complete their programmes.
Beyond individual leadership development, The King's Fund offers organisational development consultancy for health and care organisations seeking systemic transformation.
Organisations can commission tailored programmes addressing specific strategic challenges:
These bespoke programmes combine The King's Fund's methodology with organisation-specific context, creating development experiences addressing immediate strategic needs whilst building long-term leadership capability.
The TeamDynamics platform provides virtual coaching for leadership teams, enabling:
As healthcare leadership becomes increasingly team-based rather than individual, this platform addresses the critical need for team-level development alongside individual capabilities.
This flagship organisational development initiative supports whole-system transformation across integrated care systems, helping leadership teams:
The programme recognises that individual leader development, whilst necessary, is insufficient for system-wide transformation requiring collective leadership across multiple organisations.
For individual leaders:
For organisations:
Many NHS organisations include King's Fund programmes in leadership development pathways, with established processes for nomination and funding approval.
Participants can expect:
Pre-programme: Diagnostic assessments, 360-degree feedback, and pre-reading establishing baseline and focusing development goals.
During programme: Combination of expert input, action learning sets, facilitated reflection, peer challenge, and application to real challenges. Residential modules typically run at The King's Fund's London facilities, creating focused learning environments away from operational pressures.
Between modules: Structured application activities, peer coaching, and implementing concepts to live challenges, ensuring learning translates to practice rather than remaining theoretical.
Post-programme: Alumni networks, ongoing resources, and continued development opportunities maintaining momentum and supporting sustained behaviour change.
The time commitment varies by programme—from three days for Release Your Potential to six months for the Top Manager Programme—but all require genuine engagement beyond merely attending sessions.
Healthcare organisations face constant budget pressures, making investment in leadership development compete with immediate operational needs. However, the business case for King's Fund programmes is compelling:
Return on investment: Research demonstrates that effective leadership directly impacts:
Strategic capability building: Programmes develop capabilities essential for:
System-wide impact: Individual participants return to organisations with:
The investment in development typically generates returns exceeding costs within 12-24 months through improved decision-making, more effective collaboration, and enhanced organisational performance.
The King's Fund continuously evolves its programmes responding to emerging challenges:
Hybrid delivery models: Blending online accessibility with in-person deep learning, making development more flexible whilst maintaining relationship-building essential to peer learning.
Focus on system leadership: Increasing emphasis on leading across boundaries as integrated care systems become the dominant NHS structure.
Climate and sustainability: Integrating environmental sustainability and net zero into leadership development as healthcare addresses its significant carbon footprint.
Digital leadership: Developing capabilities for leading digital transformation, AI integration, and data-driven decision-making.
Population health: Expanding programmes focused on place-based leadership, health equity, and addressing social determinants of health.
These evolutions ensure King's Fund programmes remain relevant to healthcare's changing context whilst maintaining the core focus on evidence-based development delivering measurable outcomes.
King's Fund programmes serve leaders at all career stages across health and care sectors including NHS, social care, public health, third sector organisations, and private healthcare providers serving public health objectives. Specific programmes target different career stages from new leaders (Release Your Potential) to senior executives (Top Manager Programme). Most programmes welcome both clinical and non-clinical leaders, recognising that effective healthcare requires diverse leadership perspectives.
Programme costs vary significantly based on duration and format. ShiftWorks online platform costs just £35 per person annually, making basic leadership development highly accessible. Short programmes like Release Your Potential range from £1,160-£1,335 + VAT for three days. Longer programmes like the Top Manager Programme and Building Collaborative Leadership involve higher investment reflecting their extended duration and intensive nature. Organisations often fund participation as part of leadership development budgets, viewing investment as essential talent development rather than discretionary training spend.
Absolutely. King's Fund programmes welcome leaders from across health and care sectors including local government public health, social care providers, voluntary sector health organisations, and private healthcare providers working towards public health objectives. The cross-sectoral mix enriches learning, as modern healthcare challenges increasingly require partnership across organisational boundaries. Some programmes, like Leadership for Population Health, explicitly require multi-sectoral participation reflecting the integrated nature of population health approaches.
Building the business case requires connecting leadership development to organisational strategic priorities. Highlight research linking leadership quality to patient outcomes, staff engagement, financial performance, and regulatory ratings—all organisational imperatives. Emphasise how specific programme capabilities address current strategic challenges (integrated care, transformation, population health). Demonstrate value through structured application of learning to real organisational challenges during the programme. Consider proposing cohort participation creating critical mass of shared language and approach. Present development as investment in strategic capability rather than cost, with measurable returns through improved organisational performance.
Time commitment varies considerably across programmes. ShiftWorks offers flexible self-paced learning fitting around operational demands. Short programmes like Release Your Potential require three days. Extended programmes involve multiple modules spread over months—Building Collaborative Leadership spans nine months with four two-day modules, whilst the Top Manager Programme runs six months with regular module attendance. All extended programmes design between-module periods for applying learning to real work challenges, making development integrated with rather than separate from operational leadership. The structured timeframes create accountability whilst allowing participants to balance development with ongoing responsibilities.
Yes, King's Fund leadership programmes provide CPD accreditation recognised across healthcare professions. For example, the Leadership for Population Health programme awards 38 Category 1 CPD credits. ShiftWorks courses carry CPD accreditation. Specific credit allocations vary by programme based on learning hours and depth. Beyond formal CPD credits, The King's Fund's reputation means programme completion carries significant professional credibility with healthcare employers and professional bodies, often featuring prominently in career progression discussions and senior role applications.
The King's Fund takes multifaceted approaches to diversity and inclusion. The Activate programme specifically addresses anti-racist leadership development, examining systemic racism within healthcare leadership and developing capabilities for creating inclusive cultures. Circles programme supports women's leadership development, addressing persistent gender disparities in senior healthcare roles. Beyond dedicated programmes, The King's Fund integrates inclusion principles across all programmes, examining how leadership behaviours and systems create or dismantle barriers facing underrepresented groups. Programme cohorts intentionally include diverse participants, creating learning environments reflecting healthcare's diverse workforce and patient populations whilst challenging the homogeneity historically characterising senior healthcare leadership.