New Possible’s British HR Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about delivering a world-class people experience.
Continuing with our Sharing Success series, we interview British HR Awards 2025 Winners to shine a light on the inspiring projects that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we chat with Louise McDonald from Manchester & Trafford Local Care Organisation, who in partnership with Delve OD were awarded ‘L&D Initiative of the Year’.
Introducing Louise McDonald:
Louise McDonald is Head of OD for Manchester and Trafford Local Care Organisations (LCOs) and the University Dental Hospital of Manchester (UDHM). The LCOs and UDHM form one of the clinical groups within Manchester Foundation Trust, the largest Trust in the country. Louise commented: “Leadership development is one of my absolute passions and it has been a privilege and joy to co-create a leadership programme for the LCO that has been so impactful. Seeing the shifts in leadership mindset and habits that people share, attributed to the programme, is so very rewarding.”
About Manchester & Trafford Local Care Organisations (LCO) and Delve OD:
Manchester & Trafford Local Care Organisations provide NHS community health services and adult social care services in Manchester and Trafford. They bring together health and care as ‘one team’ to encourage better collaboration between services that are provided in the community and out of hospital, working in an integrated way across traditional organisational boundaries.
Delve OD partners with organisations to co-create leadership, talent and team development solutions in their mission to enable work communities to be places where people thrive. Their values of 'doing the right thing', 'doing it with passion' and 'keeping it real' drive the way they work.
Transforming Leadership from Within
Manchester & Trafford Local Care Organisation (LCO), in partnership with Delve OD, has launched a transformative leadership initiative aimed at embedding compassionate, inclusive, and strengths-based leadership across its organisation. In October 2023, the LCO introduced its first bespoke leadership development programme, 'Leading Together – Empowering Strengths-based Leadership', as a direct response to the growing need for enhanced leadership capability and confidence, particularly among District Nurses.
Insights gathered through participant focus groups also led to the expansion of the programme to include Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), highlighting its flexible and inclusive design.
Louise commented: “Our aim was to develop kind, compassionate leadership and improve people’s everyday impact on others.”
The programme is a blended learning experience incorporating: 1:1 Strengths Coaching, Face-to-Face Workshops, Action Learning Circles and Self-Directed Learning.
Designed to drive immediate, meaningful impact in the workplace, Leading Together supports the LCO’s broader organisational ambitions, including goals around Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), appraisal engagement, and staff retention. The programme is seen as a key enabler in building a sustainable, people-centred leadership culture across the organisation.
Programme Objectives
The programme is centred around four strategic outcomes:
- Increased Leadership Confidence and Capability
- Readiness for Future Roles
- Improved Engagement and Retention
- Sustainable Development Model – Creating a replicable and scalable leadership programme to build collective capability across the LCO.
Louise explains: “The design prioritises practical leadership tools, ensuring participants are empowered to make immediate and meaningful changes in their roles. The programme is underpinned by the principle of leading with strengths, understanding who you are, what strengths you already bring to leadership and how to make the most of those strengths.”
When asked what leadership tool Louise believed was the most valuable, Louise mentioned: “One of the most practical leadership tools from the programme was the AID model for giving feedback. Participants found it particularly useful because it provides a clear and respectful structure for giving feedback, making it easier to address issues without becoming personal or confrontational. It helped leaders feel more confident in giving both continue and change feedback and supported a culture of openness and continuous improvement.”
Evidence of Impact
Since its launch, Leading Together has delivered outstanding results across four initial cohorts, with 74 participants completing the programme in 2024. Impact was assessed through self-reported confidence scores, behavioural assessments, and participant feedback. Participant satisfaction was strong, with an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 9.7/10. Feedback included:
- “Best leadership course ever.”
- “It has been so inspirational to my leadership skills.”
- “A high standard delivered in an engaging and stimulating way.”
- “For the first time in 25 years I am now able to be the kind, compassionate leader I wanted to be.”
Participants rated their confidence and preparedness for leadership on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high). These are the average results across all cohorts showing a significant increase across both key areas:
Participants also took part in a 'leadership selfie', rating themselves against 21 leadership behaviours, with the average scores showing a notable improvement across all areas.
When asked whether the LCO faced any challenges during the launch of the programme and how they were addressed, Louise said: “One of the initial challenges was creating a programme that would meet our outcomes and create impact without having a detrimental effect on front-line capacity. The structure of the programme has helped us to navigate that. Our Exec team are huge advocates for the programme and support protected time for people to participate and that has made a big difference."
"The other significant challenge was balancing consistency with flexibility. We needed a core structure and set of outcomes to ensure quality and alignment but also had to adapt content and delivery to meet the diverse needs of different leaders and teams. Managing this balance while keeping engagement high and logistics smooth took careful planning and strong collaboration with stakeholders.”
Looking ahead
Following its early success, the programme has been refined based on feedback and is now set to expand. Four additional cohorts are scheduled, aiming to reach 80 more participants. These next phases are part of a broader vision to embed compassionate, inclusive leadership as a core value across the entire LCO.
Leading Together is more than a development programme - it’s a culture-shifting initiative. It’s equipping leaders with the mindset, skills, and emotional intelligence needed to make lasting impact in their teams, and their services.
What advice would Louise give to other organisations looking to implement a similar initiative?
“We would emphasise the importance of early and ongoing engagement with key stakeholders, including your intended participants, to ensure the content aligns with organisational priorities and culture. Running a pilot is also invaluable as it allows you to gather feedback, test what resonates, and make meaningful improvements before rolling it out more widely. Building in regular feedback loops throughout helps keep the programme relevant and responsive to leaders' real-world challenges. Don’t feel the need to push in loads of content - cover the most important and useful tools and ensure there is time and space for practical application and discussion.”
Overall, Judges praised an ‘outstanding initiative' that had a 'lasting positive impact in a challenging environment’.
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