Change Management in the NHS

This assignment examines the importance of change management within the National Health Service (NHS). It highlights the necessity for ongoing changes to maintain quality healthcare delivery and adapt to a dynamic environment. The document analyzes barriers to change implementation within the NHS, such as resistance from staff and communication breakdowns. It then proposes effective solutions, emphasizing the roles of strong leadership, transparent communication, staff involvement in decision-making, and fostering a culture that embraces change.

Leadership and
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Change scenario related to health and social care delivery in the 21st Century..........................1
Issues related to change management and its application to Health and Social Care.................1
Chosen change scenario within health and social care................................................................1
Factors influencing the change as well as the type of change introduced...................................2
Thorough and critical examination related to the beliefs and perceptions of change within
organizations and the service users..............................................................................................2
Way in which change should be introduced................................................................................2
Implications for staff, service users and the organization...........................................................3
Stakeholders that would need to be involved..............................................................................3
Importance of involving people...................................................................................................3
Impact of change upon managers and their ability to implement effective and successful
change in the chosen scenario......................................................................................................4
Strengths and weaknesses of appropriate theories and models for the effective
leadership/management of change and team work......................................................................4
Applying theories to assess the way in which proposal for change will be introduced and
implemented................................................................................................................................5
Process of planning, implementation and evaluation of the change............................................5
Potential barriers to the introduction of change...........................................................................5
Solutions that would need to be introduced to overcome the barriers.........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In the present scenario, to bring changes in the organisation time to time is highly
important as per the changing needs of customers. Today, the business environment is dynamic
as well as in every sector, competition is increasing at a fast pace. Therefore, in health and social
care sector also, to bring changes in the organisation to survive with sustainability is vital. For
the same, effective leadership and management are required. In the present report, the firm NHS
is selected with reference to which various concepts related change management as well as
leadership and management will be studied.
Change scenario related to health and social care delivery in the 21st Century
In 21st century, it is highly important for the organisations operating in health and social
care sector to offer care based on continuous healing relationships so as to be in the competition
in the long run. For the same, it is important for NHS to bring changes in its processes as at
present it is following the old methods of treating patients. In today’s era, to operate with
sustainability, it is important to offer safest and highest quality care to the service users for which
customization based on patient’s needs and values is important (Currie and Lockett, 2011).
Issues related to change management and its application to Health and Social Care
At the time of bringing changes and applying the same in NHS, number of issues may
occur. The most common issue is rigidness of workforce for not accepting the changes as
employees never want to leave their comfort zone and thus, mostly they are not ready to accept
the changes. Also, in NHS, there is less lack of change and health care professionals due to
which the firm needs to hire some so that they can train the staff regarding necessity and benefits
of bringing change in the organisation (Reeves, Macmillan and Van Soeren, 2010). Along with
that, there is lack of expertise needed to undertake professional tasks due to which it is very
difficult to bring change in the management as for the same, highly skilled, talented and expert
people are required.
Chosen change scenario within health and social care
NHS is planning to bring changes for delivering effective and high quality treatment to
the patients. The chosen change scenario within organization is that firm is required to replace its
old ways of treating patients with the new along with using advanced techniques. However, just
1

bringing new techniques in organization is not enough as to make employees learn the way of
using same is equally important. At the time of bringing change in NHS, it might be possible that
workforce may feel dissatisfied and their confidence level may get down that may result in
creating an unhealthy working environment (Blais, 2015).
Factors influencing the change as well as the type of change introduced
Several factors are there that influence the change as well as type of change introduced
by NHS. One of the most common among them is organisational culture as well as its structure,
if the culture and structure are rigid and not flexible to adopt the changes effectually and in a
smooth manner, introducing change will not be possible. In addition to this, there are high
chances that the employees would resist for accepting changes that will hinder the process and
thus, at first, they have to be made agree with the same. Also, teamwork highly matters for
introducing change if there is lack of coordination and cooperation in between team members,
management of NHS would find it very difficult to introduce changes (Cherry and Jacob, 2016).
However, leadership also plays a significant role in introduction of the changes in organisation as
if it is ineffective, it will serve as a hindrance and vice-versa. Further, effective communication
in between management and the employees make introducing changes in firm easy.
Thorough and critical examination related to the beliefs and perceptions of change within
organizations and the service users
Introducing changes in NHS would prove to be positive as well as negative for the
business. It is because; according to the beliefs and perceptions of change within organisation, it
will help in satisfying the needs of customers but; if these changes would go fail, firm will have
to bear heavy losses. Also, introducing changes involve various risks like employee turnover,
reduced morale and motivation, delay in operations due to employee resistance, etc. However, on
the other hand, it can be critically analysed that, for service users, belief and perception regarding
change is positive as with the same, they get safe and high quality treatment in against of what
they spend on availing the services rendered by staff of NHS (Reeves and et.al., 2011).
Way in which change should be introduced
In NHS, the change should be introduced in such a way that health and social care
workers would feel benefitted with the same. For the same, at first, it is necessary that they
should be made aware with the need, importance and benefits of introducing change in the
2

organisation at individual level. However, this can be done through hiring experts who would
impart training to them with which they would understand the advantages for their future career
growth and thus, would become ready to accept the changes (Sullivan and Garland, 2010).
Implications for staff, service users and the organization
Bringing changes in NHS will lead to put some implications on the staff, service users as
well as on the organisation. The staff will get affected as with introducing changes in
organisation, operational and employee policies will get changed with which they may or may
not get satisfied. Also, they would get various opportunities in organisation to grow. On the other
hand, for service users, the implication is that they would get high quality and safe services from
health and social care staff with which they would get the value in return of what they spend on
availing the treatment (Kakuma and et.al., 2011). However, major implication on organization by
introducing change is that of encouraging innovation with which customer base will get
increased and the cost would be reduced. Along with that, it will help in increased the efficiency
of employees with their improved attitudes that will lead to earn higher profits.
Stakeholders that would need to be involved
In NHS, for bringing changes in organisation, stakeholders that would be needed to get
involved are government, service users, supervisors and line managers, staff of administration
and HR department, etc. All these stakeholders are needed to be involved as without them to
bring changes in the organisation is not possible. It is because; in accordance with the laws and
legislation imposed by government, changes will be introduced for applying of which staff of
NHS will be required that would perform activities as per the instructions given by line managers
under the knowledge of HR department (Best and et.al., 2012). However, it cannot be ignored
that every change is brought ultimately for the service users.
Importance of involving people
It is important to involve the stakeholders like line manager, government, service users,
etc. so that effective management of change and team working within organisation can be
ensured for which these are the only people who can make it possible. Without them, bringing
changes in the organisation is just a dream as to make all strategies into action, these
stakeholders are required.
3

Impact of change upon managers and their ability to implement effective and successful change
in the chosen scenario
Implementing effective and successful change in NHS will have a high impact on the
managers as well as on their ability to execute the same. It is because; with the help of
implementing change in an effective and successful manner, knowledge and abilities of them
would get increased along with their motivation and confidence level (Munn-Giddings and
Winter, 2013). Along with that, their leadership skills would also get improved through leading
people for the purpose of introducing changes in NHS. However, form sometime, these changes
may have created stress for the managers.
Strengths and weaknesses of appropriate theories and models for the effective
leadership/management of change and team work
Appropriate theories and models for effective leadership and management of change as
well as team work are:
Transformational theory of leadership
 Strength – To influence followers with the decision and maintain healthy and strong
relationship with them.
 Weakness – Major limitation is that under the same, some individuals are ignored as to
few of them are overemphasised (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter, 2012).
Lewin’s model for change management
 Strength - It makes employees understand the need of changes in relatively stable
conditions and get comfortable with the same.
 Weakness – The model is too simplistic and mechanistic and thus, its practical application
is quite difficult.
Tuckman’s stages of group development
 Strength – With the same, employees learn to work in a team, get comfortable with
members and gain benefits from the skills and knowledge of others.
 Weakness – The process very long and time consuming and it is not necessary that every
individual will take the results positively (Hasson, 2010).
4

Applying theories to assess the way in which proposal for change will be introduced and
implemented
Theories and models given below need to be applied in NHS so that it can come into
practice and firm will gain advantages from the same.
Transformational theory of leadership - The transformational leadership theory will be
applied in NHS for introducing change as with the help of this, people will have high trust on
their leader that will increase their motivation and thus, they would be ready the accept the
changes.
Lewin’s model for change management - Lewin’s model of change management will help
the managers in NHS to introduce change with the help of following steps of Unfreeze, Change
and Refreeze respectively. As per this, at first the staff will be made ready to accept that change
is necessary, then they will look on the new ways to solve uncertain things and at last, they will
adopt the change and get comfortable with the same (Currie and Lockett, 2011).
Tuckman’s stages of group development - As per Tuckman’s stages of group
development, there are four phases names forming, storming, norming and performing.
According to these phases, team will be formed in NHS and changes will be applied effectually.
Process of planning, implementation and evaluation of the change
In order to bring change in NHS, the process of planning, implementation and evaluation
needs to be followed step by step. At first, the managers will assess the need to bring changes in
the organisation and then proper planning will be done for implementing the change in firm.
Finally, the change will bring in action with the help of using appropriate tools and techniques
and at last, evaluation will be done to assess that whether objective has been achieved or not. If
not, corrective measures will be taken to remove the deviations (Reeves, Macmillan and Van
Soeren, 2010).
Potential barriers to the introduction of change
There may be some of the potential barriers that NHS may have to face while introducing
change in the firm. If the communication in organisation is not effective then introducing change
is very difficult as staff would understand what the exactly are expected to do. Also, if the
organisational culture is not flexible enough and rigid in nature, it would not allow changes to be
introduced (Frost, 2017). One major barrier that NHS may have to face is that employees would
5

not want to change their comfort zone for the unknown and unfamiliar processes that may lead
their job into risk. Apart from that, it is important to have good leaders as if the leadership would
be ineffective then introducing change will not be possible as employees would not get agree for
the same.
Solutions that would need to be introduced to overcome the barriers
There are some effective solutions by which barriers to introduction of change in NHS
can be overcome. The most common among them is effective communication as when all staff
members would easily communicate with their supervisors and managers and when they will be
involved in decision making process, they would feel valued and encouraged. Thus, making
them ready for the accepting change prior implementation is significant (Blais, 2015). Apart
from that, effective leadership also plays a crucial role in overcoming the barriers as leaders are
the people who influence others by their decisions.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that for maintaining a quality provision in NHS, it is highly important
for the organization to bring, introduce and implement changes required for making the firm run
for longer span of time. It has been assessed that to thrive in ever changing world, bringing
suitable changes in organization time to time is very important. Also, for delivering quality
services to users or patients, NHS is required to update and modify its methods or techniques
used for the treatment. Overall, it can be said that in the present competitive scenario, for
bringing changes, effective leadership and management in organization is essential.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Best, A. and et.al., 2012. Large‐system transformation in health care: a realist review. Milbank
Quarterly. 90(3). pp.421-456.
Blais, K., 2015. Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives. Pearson.
Cherry, B. and Jacob, S. R., 2016. Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Currie, G. and Lockett, A., 2011. Distributing leadership in health and social care: concertive,
conjoint or collective?. International Journal of Management Reviews. 13(3). pp.286-
300.
Hasson, H., 2010. Systematic evaluation of implementation fidelity of complex interventions in
health and social care. Implementation Science. 5(1). p.67.
Kakuma, R. and et.al., 2011. Human resources for mental health care: current situation and
strategies for action. The Lancet. 378(9803). pp.1654-1663.
Munn-Giddings, C. and Winter, R., 2013. A handbook for action research in health and social
care. Routledge.
Reeves, S. and et.al., 2011. Interprofessional teamwork for health and social care (Vol. 8). John
Wiley & Sons.
Reeves, S., Macmillan, K. and Van Soeren, M., 2010. Leadership of interprofessional health and
social care teams: a socio‐historical analysis. Journal of nursing management. 18(3).
pp.258-264.
Sullivan, E. J. and Garland, G., 2010. Practical leadership and management in nursing. Pearson
Education.
Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J. and Ginter, P. M., 2012. Strategic management of health care
organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
Frost, S., 2017. Barriers & Challenges to Change Implementation. [Online]. Available through:
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/barriers-challenges-change-implementation-
30842.html>. [Accessed on 19th April 2017].
7