Courses available (click on the link for more course details and dates):

The New Manager >>
Managing People, leading teams >>
Managing with excellence >>
Driving service improvements through complaints >>
Commercial awareness for practice managers >>

Creating a sucessful NHS business case >>
The NHS budget holder's survival guide >>
Finance skills for healthcare managers >>
Contracts and service level agreements >>
Marketing yourself and your services >>
Winning NHS tenders >>
* Find out more about finance and management courses from David Bailey

Interviewing and selection skills for managers >>
Coaching for performance >>
Appraisal skills for managers >>
Handling people problems >>>
* Find out more about course leader Nick Oliver's courses

HPMA Masterclasses Dealing with the downturn
Creating a recession proof HR department
Increasing HR influence within NHS organisations

• Take a look at our course leaders >>
• Interested in taking some of these courses in-house >>
• Return to GateHouse Courses home page >>

LONDON
Wednesday 24 - Thursday 25 March 2010
Thursday 1 - Friday 2 July 2010

BIRMINGHAM
Wednesday 28 - Thursday 29 April 2010

A GateHouse classic that has launched the careers of hundreds of top managers
A two-day foundation course for new managers, or junior managers keen to upgrade their skills. This course provides an understanding of the responsibilities of the manager’s role and highlights practical and constructive approaches to the key tasks of management. Delegates will explore a range of practical skills, from managing and motivating staff to successfully achieving goals and objectives.

COURSE CONTENT
• A successful manager - roles, expectations, skills and attribute
• Management styles - effective styles for a variety of situations
• Interpersonal communication skills - listening, questioning, observing
• Non-verbal communication and its impact
• Assertiveness skills for difficult situations
• Constructive feedback
• Motivation - achieving and maintaining commitment
• Performance management
• Strategies for good time management
• Setting clear goals and SMART objectives
• Prioritising and delegating
• Making meetings matter.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
New managers who want to understand and hone thier skills in order to deal effectively with the challenges they face and be more effective in their work.

LONDON
Thursday 22 - Friday 23 April 2010

BIRMINGHAM
Monday 8 - Tuesday 9 March 2010
Tuesday 8 - Friday 9 June 2010

Management techniques are all very well, but when things go wrong, it is nearly always for the same reason - people! People represent the most important resource in an organisation. In fact, teams are often ‘virtual teams’ - that is to say, the manager often does not have direct authority over all the team members. Yet the team’s needs, roles and attitudes constantly change. This highly participative course helps delegates to assess their own personal effectiveness and their ability to influence the performance of the team in a changing environment.

COURSE CONTENT:
• Principles of management
• Delegating and empowering
• Leadership and management
• Negotiating and communicating
• Coaching and developing
• Building the team
• Creative thinking/problem solving
• Setting priorities
• Motivation theory
• Assertiveness
• Communication skills.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
All managers who would welcome training on the techniques for managing people.

LONDON
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Wednesday 9 June 2010

BIRMINGHAM
Thursday 20 May 2010

COURSE CONTENT:
• What is a complaint?
• An exploration of the current political climate in which companies need to be dealth with
• Presentation and discussion on the latest Department of Health guidance
• Overcoming barriers to success
• A guided analysis of the complaints cycle and what can go wrong at each stage
• Listening, responding, improving
• Who or what is a complaints manager
• An organisational framework for handling complaints
• Framework for handling complaints for individual managers

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Managers in health and social care whose main responsibilty is to handle complaints and manage the complaints team; other managers for whom complaints-handling is a significant part of their role; clinical governance managers, those working in PALS and regulatory bodies

LONDON
Tuesday 13 April 2010

BIRMINGHAM
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Thursday 10 June 2010

A highly structured, hands-on practical one-day course on creating an NHS business case with the maximum chance of gaining acceptance. Designed to be highly participative, it combines presentation and group discussion with individual and group excercises. Practical examples of direct relevance to service managers are used throughout.

BY THE END OF THE COURSE, PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
• Use effective analytical techniques to present the need for change
• List the main sections of any business case
• List key business planning models and their applications
• Understand business planning concepts and how they apply to the NHS
• Provide all the necessary information to create a successful business case

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
NHS department, divisional, service and directorate managers and clinicians who want to better understand this complex area

LONDON
Wednesday 24 - Thursday 25 February 2010
Thursday 29 April - Friday 30 April 2010
Monday 26 July - Tuesday 27 July 2010

People who have reached middle to senior management positions, but have not been specifically trained for their responsibilities will benefit from this two-day programme. Effective leadership is about ordinary people getting extraordinary things done and this programme will help participants enhance their interpersonal, management and decision making skills. It emphasises leading without relying on positional authority, making it a challenging and intensive workshop with a focus on the individual.
it has been devised to boraden understanding of management and develop skills in order to better equip you to get the best out of people, by focusing on those key behaviours and activities that differentiate truly effective leaders.

COURSE CONTENT
• Principles of management
• Leadership and teambuilding
• Setting priorities
• Motivation theory
• Meeting skills
• Communication skills
• Managing people.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Middle and senior managers who aspire to be more effective and efficient in
management roles.

LONDON
Thursday 15 April 2010
Tuesday 6 July 2010

BIRMINGHAM
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Wednesday 16 June 2010

Do you hold a budget? Do you want to know how to use it to benefit your patients and clients most? Then this course is for you.
This one-day course is an essential practical introduction to the principles of finance and financial control. It is designed for managers at all levels and for those who deputise for or are likely to become directly responsible for financial performance in the future.
Engaging practical exercises are backed-up by simple theory to ensure comprehensive coverage of all the basics. No unnecessary jargon is used!

BY THE END OF THIS COURSE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
• List your financial responsibilities
• Get the best out of your finance department
• Use a simple step-by-step method to interpret financial reports
• Project and forecast future financial problems
• List reasons for variances from budget.

COURSE CONTENT
• Budgets and budgetary control
• Understanding financial reports
• The three methods of accounting
• Forecasting your financial position
• How budgets are set
• Planning to develop your service
• Your responsibilities... and your rights
• The seven point plan for interpreting your financial information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Budget holders at all levels and those likely to become budget holders.

A comprehensive two-day workshop covering all aspects of healthcare financial
management specifically designed for managers and clinicians with significant financial responsibilities.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
• Talk the same language as their accountant
• Use alternative budget setting techniques
• Identify the underlying causes of financial variances
• Plan effectively by identifying hidden costs and benefits
• State how costs react to changing activity
• List their financial responsibilities
• Get the best out of their finance department

THE WORKSHOP WILL COVER:
• Comprehending and using appropriate financial jargon
• Practical budgetary control
• Active interpretation and understanding of financial reports
• Costing your service
• Analysis of your underlying financial position
• Forecasting future financial problems and opportunities
• Financial and business planning concepts and techniques
• Saving money
• Your current and future financial responsibilities.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Healthcare managers and clinicians with significant financial responsibilities.

This one-day course covers all the essential ingredients to develop successful contracts and service level agreements (SLAs). Their purpose, format and content are covered in detail together with the impact of Payment by Results on the technical aspects of data collection, information reporting, dispute resolution and monitoring arrangements. It covers the behaviours needed to negotiate and agree successful contracts and SLAs with a full range of partners.

BY THE END OF THE COURSE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
• List the contents of a completed contract/SLA
• Identify risks and strategies to manage them
• Recognise the competing needs and expectations of the different parties
• Identify weaknesses and produce and action plan to improve them
• Play your part in creating successful contracts/SLAs

COURSE CONTENT:
• Purpose, format and content of SLAs
• Understanding other stakeholders
• Being exact and specific
• Current and future contracting environment
• Negotiation and agreement
• Accountability
• Risk management strategies
• Action planning.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
• Commissioning directors and commissioning managers
• Practice-based commissioners and facilitators
• Lead professionals for commissioning or practice-based commissioning
• GPs involved in practice-based commissioning
• Market development managers within healthcare
• Procurement and purchasing departments
• Finance managers involved in commissioning
• Locality managers, Directorate service managers, Directors of provider services
• Anyone in health care who wants to start commissioning as well as more experienced senior commissioning managers

This one-day interactive course takes you through all the practical steps needed to market your service. It includes how to identify your customers and their needs and expectations, using practical examples from public sector services. The difference between marketing, selling and advertising as well as the difference between customers, clients and commissioners is clearly covered.

BY THE END OF THE COURSE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
• Understand the importance of being able to market your service
• Confidently identify your service features and formulate them into impressive customer benefits
• Understand marketing techniques to help you sell your service

COURSE CONTENT:
• Overview of the marketing process
• Market research and marketing research
• Becoming a customer-focused organisation
• How marketing works in relation to other disciplines
• Principles of marketing communications
• Marketing planning tools
• How to communicate with commissioners, partners and service users

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Anyone in health or social care, or the volutary sector who has to represent themselves or their service to users of the service, their representatives or managers inside or outside their organisation. All staff will benefit from attending.

The development of World Class Commissioning, the introduction of new provider organisations and the competitive tendering of services are putting increasing pressure on NHS managers and clinicians. This workshop is designed to meet the needs of those who find themselves involved in tendering within the NHS. Its a highly sturctured, hands-on, practical, one-day course on creating an NHS tender bid with the maximum chance of winning.

BY THE END OF THE COURSE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
• Identify tenders to which they should respond
• Identify potential conflicts of interest
• Complete Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (QQ) documentation
• Complete Invitation to Tender (ITT) documentation
• Participate in competitive dialogue
• Identify the skills required in their team

COURSE CONTENT:
• Sources of information
• Conflicts of interest
• Types of tenders
• NHS Collaborative procurement hubs
• Expressions of interest, pre-qualification questionnaires and invitations to tender
• Invitation to participate in dialogue
• Organisation capabilities and creating a multi-disciplinary team

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
NHS departmental, divisional, service and directorate managers and clinicians who would like to extend their understanding of this complex area

LONDON
Monday 26 April 2010
Thursday 1 July 2010

Knowing how to coach effectively is an essential management skill, helping you to raise the performance and motivation of your team by providing on-the-job development opportunities. This one-day course provides managers with an understanding of what it means to be a coach and offers participants a framework for holding a focused coaching discussion, which will improve the performance of individuals and their team

COURSE CONTENT
The role and behaviours of the coach; understanding your learning style and catering for the learning style preferences of others; directive and non-directive coaching interventions; coaching techniques; questioning and listening techniques; development planning.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
All managers who would like to raise team performance and delegate tasks more effectively by providing on-the-job development opportunities.

LONDON
Tuesday 15 June 2010

An action packed workshop for directors of human resources and organisation development, and senior HR managers in NHS organisations to focus minds on what the HR department can uniquely contribute to deliver high quality patient care.

This course will explore NHS healthcare in the post-credit crunch world and tackle the perennial question of to outsource or not to outsource. It will examine HR staffing and skills, efficiency and effectiveness with effectiveness with HR and look at alternative ways of delivering HR expertise within your organisation so that you can demonstrate added value. And to realise the value of your human capital, we look at ways of engaging clinicians.

Human capital is the NHS's greatest resource which it squanders at its peril. People management is the key to delivering high quality patient services.

Building on key research findings, this timely course for directors of human resources, OD specialists and senior HR managers looks at NHS staffing and the recession, corporate governance and accountability, the HR department and the wider organisation, reporting on HR issues and HR metrics. And, in the fight to win the hearts and minds of the board, we show you how to cope with the new financial challenges and convince the board the HR means business.

Alison Rushworth has been a trainer in personal development and communications skills since 1992. She is an expert in training techniques, presentation skills, course development, personal effectiveness and training needs analysis. Alison possesses a Joint Examining Board Teaching Diploma, and is a certified NLP Practitioner. Her style is extremely interactive and incorporating such skills as counselling and feedback methods.

David Baker went into management training full-time in 1994 after a successful career in sales and human resources. His open, humorous yet challenging approach helps to develop personal and
management skills in all areas where there is interaction between people.

David Bailey is the leading provider of NHS finance training in the country, having trained thousands of NHS staff. He has over 20 years experience of NHS finance and is the author of The NHS Budget
Holder’s Survival Guide. He is well known as a lively and provocative workshop facilitator...find out more about finance courses with David Bailey

Derek Ayling is a specialist in communications with an unusual background in engineering, marketing, financial control, project and change management. He holds an MBA from City University where
he is a regular tutor.

John Illman specialises in media training, presentation skills, crisis management and writing skills. He spent five years as medical correspondent on The Daily Mail; eight years as health editor on The Guardian; and three years as medical correspondent on the Observer. Founder editor of New Psychiatry and a former editor of General Practitioner, he spent four years as a columnist for Woman magazine, and six years until 2001 as chair of the UK Medical Journalists Association. As a visiting tutor at the University of Westminster in London, he has helped to pioneer Europe’s first BA (Hons) Medical Journalism course for medical students. John has extensive broadcasting experience, both as an interviewer and interviewee, and also works as a facilitator and chairman.

Nick Oliver, Frontfire’s director who worked as a training professional in the private and not-for-profit sectors for over 11 years during which time he has delivered organisational wide development initiatives including competency management and leadership development programmes. Nick is a graduate of Lancaster University and is a registered user of a number of psychometric tools. He specialises in management development and team dynamics, using a range of self-assessment and 360-degree feedback tools. Nick’s delivery style is highly participative and engaging, drawing on practical examples and exercises to make learning come to life. Find out more about management courses with Nick Oliver

Noel Plumridge,

Got a question?

Take a look at our frequently asked questions, call Samantha Zoratto on 020 8334 4525 or email gatehouse@chamberdunn.co.uk