Bespoke services growth for Cheshire Business School

Cheshire Business School has reported growth in its bespoke training division following the completion of a leadership symposium programme with key stakeholders.

The leadership and management not-for-profit was launched by founder Rachel Kay 18 months ago. 

Leaders from four NHS Trusts, Cheshire East Council, Primary Care and the voluntary sector recently completed six online sessions of bespoke training over a six-month period. 

Led by Cheshire Business School’s experts, the programme was designed in response to organisational development which inevitably suffered during the pandemic. 

The programme was also designed to build networks and strengthen system working.

Key themes included how to be a better leader, how to improve performance, organisational structure, as well as covering the importance of connectivity and partnership working, resilience and wellbeing.

Ged Murphy, Chief Executive, East Cheshire NHS Trust (pictured above), said:

“We got stuck in the command and control world of COVID, which is understandable for a couple of years. One of the things that I was really keen on was getting people into a shared space. 

“The symposium was an investment in the future as a lot of organisational development suffered in the period of the pandemic. 

“The idea was to let staff know that it was ok to take some time out for development, meet colleagues from other organisations and build their relationships.” 

He added: “Very often people attend training and get the benefit of the input, but then it doesn’t spread more widely. As we were able to record the sessions we have spread the learning and discussions across our teams widely, which is really important as we are keen to get the most benefit for the investment we have made as a system.

“The feedback from those who attended has been really positive. We believe you have to invest in both yourself and your organisation in this new world of collaboration across many organisations.”

Cheshire East Place provided sponsorship for the programme. 

Mark Wilkinson, Cheshire East Place Director, said:

“In the world we work in today the challenges are around less resource, insatiable demand and how we change the way we deliver services to meet that new world in a more cohesive way than perhaps had been in the past.

“I was keen to support this initiative which will help us to build a collective response to the very real challenges ahead.”

Mark added: “It was definitely a valuable programme and very worthwhile. We shared this programme with our Integrated Care Board who see it as best practice as no one else is doing anything like this across the whole of Cheshire and Merseyside.”

Rachel Kay, founder of Cheshire Business School (pictured below), said: “The symposium with the NHS and other stakeholders across the wider region has been a great success. 

“Cheshire Business School will be running more bespoke services as this crucial part of our offer continues to grow to meet the demand.  

“We’ve also found that we are becoming an agent for organisations who are wanting to book world class keynote speakers, following the success of our monthly Mindful Monday sessions.”