Northern Ireland launches nursing leadership toolkit and mental health model
Northern Ireland has launched a digital leadership toolkit for nurses and midwives in Band 7 roles and published a new model for mental health nursing. The two initiatives were introduced at this year’s Chief Nursing Officer Conference, attended by about 250 people from across the Health and Social Care sector.
The announcement sets out resources and a proposed professional direction. It does not announce a completed reorganisation of services or claim that a new clinical service is already operating. Its immediate focus is on the people who lead teams and on the contribution mental health nursing is expected to make as services develop.
A resource for team leaders
The Nursing and Midwifery Leadership Toolkit is aimed at Band 7 nurses and midwives who lead operational teams. It is intended to provide practical guidance, learning resources and tools that strengthen confidence, capability and leadership skills in roles that sit between frontline care and management.
The toolkit recognises that a Band 7 post can involve clinical expertise, staff leadership, operational oversight and responsibility for the resources available to a ward or department. It includes material designed to help people who are new to a role understand its responsibilities, while also giving experienced leaders a way to review their development needs.
Its content addresses issues including team communication, civility, conflict resolution, change management and the management of resources. The digital format means it can be revised as guidance, learning opportunities and policy develop. Separate appendices can also be downloaded or printed, making the material usable in different workplace settings.
A proposed direction for mental health nursing
The accompanying Mental Health Nursing Model, titled Partnering for Wellbeing and Enabling Recovery, sets out a future-facing framework for the profession. It places mental health nursing within neighbourhood-based, person-centred care closer to home, with an emphasis on prevention, early intervention, integrated care and recovery-oriented practice.
Work on the model began in October 2024. Its development drew on engagement with mental health nurses, student nurses, people with lived experience, education partners and system leaders. The published model identifies four priority areas: the right care, at the right time, in the right place and from the right person.
Those priorities describe an intended framework, rather than a timetable for service delivery. The model contains recommendations on workforce development, education, leadership, quality and governance, but the launch material does not give a date for every recommendation to be put into effect or quantify the service changes that may follow.
Workforce context and next steps
More than 30,000 nurses and midwives are registered in Northern Ireland. Health Minister Robbie Butler said rising demand, alongside workforce and financial pressures, meant the system needed to consider how and where care is provided. The Chief Nursing Officer has described nursing and midwifery as the largest professional workforce in health and social care, with influence across direct care, service leadership, education, research and policy.
A Registered Nurse Learning Disability career pathway was also launched at the conference. It is intended to support work on more equitable access and outcomes for people with learning disabilities.
The practical test of the new publications will come after their launch. The toolkit can support day-to-day development for team leaders, while the mental health model provides a structure against which future workforce, education and service plans can be assessed. Neither document, on its own, is evidence that the wider changes it envisages have already been delivered.
