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It's time for the government to provide qualified, regulated sign language interpreters throughout the public sector Most of us take the ability to communicate for granted. Yet for those people who are deaf, dealing with public services without qualified British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters can be at best stressful and at worst potentially dangerous. As many as one in six people are deaf or hard of hearing, but hospitals, police and other important public services are not legally required to offer qualified sign language interpreters, enabling them to opt for unregulated interpreters. Failure...

Applications are open for the largest ever NHS development programme, aimed at changing the culture of the health service Applications have opened for the largest ever leadership development programme in the world, which is aimed at changing the culture of the NHS. Described as leadership development on an "industrial scale never seen before in the NHS", it is anticipated that at least 25,000 staff from any professional background or managerial role will be put through one of the four programmes in its first three years. The intention, according to the NHS Academy , which is behind the...

Designing, developing and commissioning leadership development is a difficult job to explain at the dinner table I design, develop and commission leadership development for leaders across the NHS. Have I lost you yet? I have one of those jobs that are difficult to explain to anyone not in the same little world. Explaining what I do at the hairdressers or over dinner with new friends always take much longer than any passing interest the person enquiring had. I could say I was a manager in the NHS — that's where I started and is the root of my enthusiasm for my job — but that often leads to a...

The chair of the NHSLA board on changes in the health service, her life as an academic and why diversity is slipping back What does the NHS litigation authority do? We are essentially a mutual insurance company for the NHS in England. We indemnify NHS organisations against negligence claims, and in particular claims for clinical negligence. We also try and stop claims being brought in the first place by feeding back lessons to NHS organisations on what can potentially go wrong. Why did you first become involved in the health sector as a non-executive? I've got the NHS in my blood; it runs through...

Complaints aren't just about failure – handled correctly, they offer an opportunity to improve public services When we think of complaints, we think of frustration, failure, and poor service. Complaints are not often associated with innovation and creativity, and receiving lots of them is seen as something to be wary of. But what if we think of complaints more positively, as catalysts for change ? The way complaints are handled makes a real difference to how we feel about a service or company. When we are told promptly that our concern is being investigated, and are then informed of the outcome...

Potential conflicts of interest could harm NHS reform and should be addressed speedily and effectively The disclosure that one in three GPs running the new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) that will allocate £65bn of NHS funding also help run or hold shares in private healthcare firms has raised concern about managing potential widespread conflicts of interest. The government is taking a huge risk with its reforms in allowing such conflicts of interest to exist. Any suspicion, justified or not, that a contract was awarded unfairly could quickly discredit the reforms, which have already raised...

Specialist public sector staff don't like being 'managed' but there must be a balance between professionalism and accountability Would Sir David Nicholson be facing quite such a torrid attack if instead of being an NHS manager he were a 'professional'? On the Public Leaders Network, we would probably agree that public sector managers are usually highly trained and have many of the attributes of a professional (though a code of ethics is still lacking), but the public do not regard them that way. In the NHS, as in local government and Whitehall, generic public managers tend to...

The New Zealand minister's suggestion that middle managers in the public sector should be axed is misguided The prescription for public sector reform is depressingly familiar – a bonfire of managers in response to financial challenges. New Zealand's state services minister, Dr Jonathan Coleman had his hand forced by the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquake. It's the same policy that's been practised here in the UK, where 32% more people than two years ago think government policy will have a negative long term effect on public services. UK ministers are reforming in a time of economic...