Introducing competence‐based management development: a case study of a university‐hospital partnership

The British National Health Service (NHS) has experienced a number of changes in management over the last 20 years resulting in management development becoming a greater priority. Consequently, hospitals and other NHS organisations have rapidly introduced competence‐based management development programmes for their staff. This paper reports in depth on a case study of a partnership between a hospital trust and a university to introduce competence‐based management development to NHS managers. It evaluates the management development programme at a hospital trust over a four‐year period and concludes with a discussion of the benefits and problems of the partnership approach and highlights lessons that providers of management education could draw from them.