Leadership Stories
Amanda Hinkley, Head of Occupational Health, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
How did you get here?
I commenced my Occupational Health (OH) Nurse career aged 22. During the last 34 years of my OH career (24 in management) I have been lucky to have many leadership training opportunities (many supported by the NHS) and on the job development opportunities. Following my MSc in Occupational Health I completed an Open University distance learning Certificate in management in healthcare services. This was a very useful course including regular opportunities to attend residential course lectures with many NHS managers of different professional backgrounds. The most helpful professional development in leadership has resulted from learning on the job through many difficult circumstances.
Can you share some unexpected twists and turns?
A personal challenge to me was being rushed into hospital end of 2012 and receiving a diagnosis of a brain tumour and remaining an inpatient to have surgery. A life changing event such as cancer as a single parent with children is challenging enough, I felt an overriding sense of commitment to support my team through the Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Services (SEQOHS) accreditation process. I was lucky to have a great team who pulled together to continue the submission, whilst I was working at home on restricted duties providing leadership with my knowledge as a SEQOHS Assessor. A professional challenge was being asked by the NHS Trust Executive board to undertake a service review and reconfiguration of my own service and team in 2007. The remit included meeting a service improvement cost reduction target, considering outsourcing options and through stakeholder engagement drawing up a bronze, silver, gold and gold plus service specification checklist. The Board expected regular updates through the 4-month review and the final presentation at Board would decide in house or outsource the service and which service specification the budget could afford. It was hard and included having to calculate redundancies, considering TUPE and reporting a senior manager of acting with a declared interest and plan under the Whistleblowing policy. The team and I were successful in achieving the right outcome of keeping the in-house service with gold service model. A funny story was a week later the CEO contacted me asking to access the fast track inhouse Physiotherapy and I had to remind him he took that out the week before as this was in the Gold plus model.
How have you balanced your life outside of work alongside your career?
Working parents become very adept at juggling and ensuring that all home and work responsibilities are balanced whilst trying to maintain health and wellbeing. During my career there have been roles with long commute times that has led to me avoiding working in the evenings or weekends. The only time this has been difficult was as NHS Head of OH service role that required me to undertake on call hospital management in addition to my day job and I was a single parent. I have read the book “The 7 habits of highly effective people” by Steven Covey on a leadership course years ago. The seventh habit “sharpen the saw” focuses on self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Self-renewal enhances our capability to manage change and personal growth. I try to keep a positive work life balance to maintain my personal health and wellbeing with an underlying health condition and enhance emotional resilience.
What routines or habits contribute to your personal and professional growth?
To provide evidence-based advice and leadership requires continuous improvement and development. I am always seeking opportunities to expand my knowledge through professional networking (specialist Facebook groups, LinkedIn, webinars, TED talks and learning from others). The opportunity to learn from many colleagues with different professional backgrounds and work experience can never be underestimated. In my current team we are very lucky to have a day weekly from a very experienced Consultant in Occupational Medicine and OH physio that has supported team multi professional clinical supervision sessions monthly. These provide the opportunity to reflect and then go away and consider research and new areas of knowledge. I am currently on a part time organisational loan to Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) this has provided me with opportunities to work with new colleagues (including DWP and NHS England) and increase my knowledge of national policy, healthcare and Government policy though the Joint Health and Work Unit.
How do you manage balancing short term and long-term needs, goals and priorities?
Throughout my career in OH management I have developed skills in prioritising and decision making. This has helped me currently where I am undertaking several roles in addition to my core role and DHSC loan, such as Associate Caldicott Guardian, Safeguarding Lead and Co-Chair of the UKHSA Working Through Cancer Network. On a weekly basis I look at my diary, decide what is essential and desirable, the pareto 80:20 principle and if there is another approach or change to demands /requirements. This time management approach helps me along with the principle of cutting the elephant into slices that helps problem solving and subsequently I feel more in control of my responsibilities. I am passionate about workforce health and wellbeing and undertake do undertake some commitments in my non-working time, these include being a Faculty of Occupational Nursing Board member and mentoring new nurses and Dr’s who are interested in a career in OH as part of the National School of OH and SOM OH mentoring scheme. I make sure on weeks when I have some extra commitments that I focus more on downtime to minimise feeling overloaded or stretched.