We’re delighted to announce that the LCO’s Leading Together leadership development programme has won the learning and development initiative of the year at the prestigious British HR Awards 2025!

Leading Together is a bespoke programme for the LCOs, designed with staff to enhance leadership capability and confidence. Initially focused on district nurses, it has expanded to other community nursing groups and allied health professionals across Manchester and Trafford LCOs.

Delivered with our partners Delve OD, the programme includes 1:1 strengths coaching, face-to-face workshops, action-learning and self-directed learning. It prioritises practical leadership tools, empowering participants to make immediate and impactful changes to their leadership practice.

74 participants have completed our first four cohorts and feedback has been excellent. That includes a score of 9.7 out of 10 for recommending the programme to a colleague and improvements in participants’ self-assessments across 21 leadership behaviours. 80 more staff have started the programme this year.

Louise McDonald, LCO Head of Organisational Development, attended the awards on Wednesday with Delve OD and said: “I’m delighted that Leading Together has been recognised for the difference it has made to staff. There were 10 shortlisted finalists, including The Alzheimer’s Society, Natwest and E-ON so we were thrilled to be announced winners against some prestigious national competition. We’ve developed something bespoke to the LCOs around the needs of our leaders and we can’t wait to expand it further in the future. I’d really like to thank the staff who have taken part and made Leading Together such a success.”