The course is designed with a focus on action learning.

It consists of six full-day workshops (36 learning hours in total) which are taught over three, two-day blocks.

These workshops will combine staff expertise, experiential learning and small and large group discussion with experiential exercises.

This course will be delivered remotely using Zoom.

You will need a device with a microphone and camera together with a suitably fast internet connection. Although mobile devices and tablets can be used, we recommend the use of a laptop or desktop PC for the best experience. Some devices provided by employers may have restrictions in place. Please use this Zoom test link to check your set up before booking.

You will be sent the necessary login link about a week before the course start date. Should you have any concerns about the accessibility of remote delivery please contact us to discuss how we can best help you.

Over the course you will:

• explore your own leadership journey, developing your skills and abilities drawing on the personal and professional in the context of the organisation and your relationships and privileging values
• develop a theoretical overview, applying a range of systemic ideas to work situations – including a whole systems approach, coordinated management of meaning, social constructionism and narrative ideas
• understand yours and other participants’ organisations and positions within these, observing and reflect on ways of communicating and the range of possibilities available to you in your practice
• explore the task of systemic leadership, management and consultation
• develop skills in reflexive leadership, including taking up an ‘observer position’ in relation to your own behaviour and actions and those of others to effect change
• examine political, social and organisational contexts– systemic ideas are used to help make sense of the contradictions and complexities that occur in a variety of organisational cultures both within and between these and external environments
• apply an active stance towards challenging injustice and oppression, exploring differential power, honouring diversity and cultivating small acts of resistance, radical candour and constructive awkwardness
• reflect on the management of change – the challenge for leadership is how to manage and lead organisations that will survive but maintain their core values and identities within new contexts

Some knowledge of systemic ideas is useful, but not essential, but please outline this on the application form.

Library membership

Included in your course fee, you will receive online membership to the Tavistock’s internationally-renowned library for the duration of your course.

Our friendly and knowledgeable library team will help to support you through your specialist CPD course, whatever your level of professional or academic experience. You will have access to an extensive range of eBooks, online journals, all the relevant key databases and our specialist audio-visual collection, plus reference access to all our print books.

Our information skills trainer has made lots of material available on Moodle to help you navigate our comprehensive electronic collections. PCs and photocopiers are available for your use (charges apply for printing and copying), as well as various online resources including audio/video playlists.

Bursary

As part of our commitment to becoming a more inclusive education provider, we are delighted to be able to offer a 50% bursary to a delegate from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic / Global Majority backgrounds applying for this course. Please see here for full details.

The Department of Education and Training at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is committed to widening access to its courses and supporting a truer representation of the communities among those we train. The purpose of this bursary is to encourage, as a result of completing this training, the development of the clinical skills of suitable candidates from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic / Global Majority backgrounds, who have been historically excluded and are currently under-represented.

The bursary of 50% of the course fee can be awarded to a student starting the course in February 2025.

Applicants must:

• identify as being from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic / Global Majority backgrounds
• be self-funding and UK resident
• be able to show how the course will positively support their progression / development
• the successful applicant will need to show in the application form how the bursary would benefit them, their organisation, and the wider community in which they work

Applications will be assessed by an appointed panel including the course lead.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 1 December 2024 at 23:59pm.

Applicants are expected to be notified of the outcome by 10 January 2025.

Decisions are based on the quality of the application. Panel decisions are final.

A place will be held on the course for all applicants. The successful applicant will be invited to enrol at half the published course feel. Unsuccessful applicants will be offered the opportunity to take up their place for the full fee, or to decline the place.

To apply for a bursary, please complete this application form.

Applicants are expected to have also submitted a course application form either before or at the same time as their bursary application.

Between the modules, one session will be devoted to facilitated consultations where delegates will be able to practice using the tools learnt in the first sessions to the resolution of a workplace dilemma relevant to their setting.