Letter: How staff are treated by line managers is key to performance

The House of Commons education committee’s recent report “Further Education and Skills” criticising Skills England for actively deskilling, appears to tally with the points raised by Sarah Neville in her piece “Lack of training for NHS managers raises concerns about Streeting reforms” (Report, September 29).

The apprenticeship levy is particularly targeted, with the report stating: “The defunding of these apprenticeships will reduce uptake — particularly in key sectors such as healthcare — widen existing skills shortages, and limit career progression for many”.

For nearly a decade, Bayes Business School has run leadership programmes for medical doctors and multidisciplinary health professionals mainly from the NHS. We have detailed outcomes data, including from students’ line managers, documenting career progression, improvements in management skills and patient care, organisational efficiencies, and implementation of large “change projects”. These are the same types of improvement projects that hospitals often pass on to management consultancies at huge cost to the NHS (as Neville reports, NHS spend on management consultants has increased despite government promises to cut the use of consultancies).

Why does this kind of training matter? Because research shows that how we are treated by our line managers has the largest influence on performance, job satisfaction, and retention.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced at the Labour party conference this week that the government is to guarantee jobs for young people on long-term benefits. But research shows that mental health, diversity and work-life balance are top priorities for Gen Z workers — they especially will not stay in jobs where they are being mismanaged.

Amanda Goodall
Professor of Leadership, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), University of London.