We develop healthcare scientists into the leaders our profession needs — across the NHS, life sciences, academia, and beyond. Analytical rigour. Relational courage. Human connection.
"Healthcare Scientists are leaders of influence rather than command. Leadership is not the assertion of authority but the creation of space for others to contribute their expertise."
The AHCS Leadership Faculty is the dedicated home for scientific leadership development across the healthcare science professions. We sit at the heart of the Academy's mission — cultivating leaders who bring both analytical rigour and relational depth to one of the most vital workforces in the NHS.
Built on over eight years of trusted programme delivery, we are now entering our most ambitious chapter — as the national standard-setter, evidence engine, and development partner for scientific leadership across the UK.
The Leadership Journey
Five stages within the Good Scientific Leadership framework — from a free gateway open to all, to executive fellowship for the most senior scientific leaders.
Stage 0
Any Stage · Free
A free, frictionless introduction to the GSL framework. Online, self-paced, open to any healthcare scientist at any point in their career.
Stage 1
Early Career
Personal leadership foundations — self-awareness, team working, and psychological safety. Built on eight years of PSEL delivery.
Stage 2
Operational Leadership
Managing scientific services — resource, workforce, and organisational context. Modular and levy-eligible.
Stage 3
Senior & Consultant
Influence, system navigation, and working within complexity. Residential immersive and national action learning.
Stage 4
Executive & Board
Governance, strategic oversight, and system stewardship. Fellowship and executive coaching for the most senior scientific leaders.
Strategic Pillars
We unite 50+ specialisms around a shared language of leadership. Setting the national standard, curating the evidence base, and mobilising knowledge through the HCS Leadership Journal and national forums.
Our four-stage pathway supports every career transition. From PSEL and PEP to National Peer Learning Networks and Executive Coaching — always practice-based, always relational.
A professional Faculty of Associates, a robust commercial model, Growth & Skills Levy alignment, and industry partnerships — building the permanent national engine this workforce deserves.
Join Us
Whether you're an early-career scientist finding your voice, or a senior leader navigating board-level complexity — there is a place for you here.
"Healthcare scientists lead constantly — but rarely see themselves as leaders. That's what we're here to change."
The AHCS Leadership Faculty was established in 2017 with a clear conviction: that the healthcare science workforce — responsible for 80% of NHS clinical diagnoses — deserved a form of leadership development that matched the complexity and humanity of the work they do every day. The Faculty is now developing the Good Scientific Leadership framework — doing for leadership what Good Scientific Practice does for the profession: setting a career-long standard that every healthcare scientist can navigate and aspire to.
Over eight years, we have built a reputation for development that is contextual, relational, and identity-forming. Not a competence checklist. Not a generic management course. But spacious, curious, reflective learning that takes scientists seriously as human beings — and as leaders.
With the Kingdon Review (2025) as a wake-up call for the sector, the 10-Year Health Plan demanding three fundamental shifts, and AHCS on its journey toward Royal College status, we are now entering our most ambitious chapter.
Faculty Leadership
Leadership Ambassador, AHCS
Ruth Thomsen MBE
Scientific Director, NHS England London. Co-founder of the Leadership Faculty alongside Dr Sue Fergy. Awarded MBE for services to healthcare science and the AHCS Chairman's Award for the Faculty's development. One of the most senior and influential voices in the profession.
Leadership Faculty Lead, AHCS
Kev Wyke
OD consultant, facilitator, and coach. Former Audiologist and NHS Leadership Academy Faculty member for 12 years. The creative and operational engine of the Faculty — re-engineering PSEL, OPSEL and PEP into the Good Scientific Leadership framework and leading the Faculty’s relational, identity-forming philosophy.
Faculty Coaches
Individual & Career
Kathleen Sullivan
CMI qualified coach and group facilitator, 2006. 5,000+ hours one-to-one. Senior Coach on NHSE Coaching Programmes. Board member, Association of Integrative Coach-Therapist Professionals.
Leadership & Wellbeing
Dr Charlotte Kemp
Transformational coach with 20+ years as a healthcare scientist in clinical practice. Specialist in STEM leadership, health and wellbeing, and sustainable performance. Leadership and sleep consultant.
Systemic & Organisational
Camilla Child
MA Advanced Organisational Consultation. Principal Consultant, Tavistock Institute (30 years). Bar Council accredited conflict resolution practitioner. Group Relations practitioner.
Faculty Associates
Action Learning & Leadership
Divine Azange
Biomedical scientist, Chartered Scientist, and IBMS Fellow. Specialist in action learning and its application to scientific leadership development. National Pathology Transformation Implementation Lead, NHSE. NHS Clinical Entrepreneur.
Trust Leadership & Research
Dr Emma Walker
Trust Lead Healthcare Scientist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Winner of the AHCS Award for Leadership in Healthcare Science (Advancing Healthcare Awards). Consultant Clinical Scientist, Specialty Lead for Diagnostic Endocrinology, NW London Pathology. Healthcare science author.
Strategy & Innovation
Alex Milsom
Science and Innovation Programme Lead, Office of the Chief Scientific Officer, NHS England. Long-standing architect of the national HCS leadership infrastructure alongside Ruth Thomsen.
Our approach
We draw on the philosophy of science itself — Peter Checkland's systems thinking, Michael Polanyi's tacit knowledge, and Reg Revans' action learning — to build programmes that develop leaders for the real, messy, relational world of the NHS. Compassion is not a soft skill here. It is a cognitive safety intervention.
Two roles, one framework
The Good Scientific Leadership framework belongs to the profession. It maps the full arc of a scientific leadership career — naming the stages, describing the transitions, and pointing to relevant development wherever it comes from. An STP module, an ICS programme, a mentoring relationship — all of it finds a home here.
The Academy's own programmes are designed specifically for the moments the framework identifies. They are the most coherent, HCS-specific offer available at each stage — but the framework is bigger than the Faculty. That's the point.
GSL mirrors Good Scientific Practice
"Good Scientific Practice defines what good science looks like. Good Scientific Leadership defines what good scientific leadership looks like."
Just as GSP sets the professional standard for practice, GSL sets the standard for leadership — making it a natural accountability for every registered healthcare scientist, not an optional add-on.
Four Career Levels. One Coherent Pathway.
A framework for the whole profession — naming what scientific leadership demands at each career stage, and pointing to development that meets those demands. The Academy’s own programmes sit within it. So does everything else.
Gateway · Any Stage · Free
Before a career stage — an entry point. The Explorer is for any healthcare scientist who wants to understand what scientific leadership means, where they are in the GSL framework, and what a next step might look like. No application, no cost, no barrier.
Co-produced with and for the community — built from real experiences across specialisms and career stages. Stories, tools, and insights contributed by the people who’ve been where you are.
Early Career
What this career stage demands
At an early career stage, the emphasis is on personal leadership foundations — self-awareness, team working, and psychological safety. The transition from technical expert to team leader is one of the most significant in a scientist’s career. It requires a new relationship with authority, with peers, and with uncertainty.
Our offer at this stage
Foundation in Good Scientific Leadership — born from the hugely successful PSEL programme, updated for now. Delivered since 2017 with 800+ alumni. A cohort-based experiential model that builds confidence, voice, relational intelligence, and the courage to lead — through a "pressure cooker" design that mirrors the complexity of real scientific environments. Available as a residential cohort (PSEL) or fully online (OPSEL). MBTI profiling at this stage is the first structured invitation to see yourself clearly.
Operational
What this career stage demands
At an operational level, development focuses on managing scientific services and understanding organisational and resource contexts. Scientists at this stage are navigating budgets, people, systems, and competing priorities — often without formal preparation for any of it. Theory from qualification-level training rarely reaches this territory.
Our offer at this stage
Two parallel offers at Navigator level — participants may engage with either or both, in any order. GSL Navigator uses action learning as the engine: small peer groups working on live organisational challenges across a 9-month programme, with GC Index profiling and a co-produced resource library. Alongside it, The Scientific Manager offers modular, pick-and-mix development grounded in the nuts and bolts of running a scientific service — finance, HR, service improvement — dip in as needs evolve. Philosophically aligned, practically distinct.
Senior & Consultant
What this career stage demands
For senior and consultant level leaders, the focus broadens to influence, system navigation, and working effectively within complexity. At this stage, scientists are leading across boundaries — across specialisms, organisations, and geographies. The challenge is less about managing and more about shaping: cultures, strategies, and the conditions for others to lead well.
Our offer at this stage
Two complementary offers at Architect level. Scientific Systems Leadership is an intensive 4–5 day residential for scientists at or approaching system-level leadership — aspiring CSOs, national role-holders. Max 16. A serious venue. GC Index team profiling reveals the collective strengths and gaps of the cohort. Emerging from the pioneering single-cohort programme developed with Joy Tweed. Alongside it, Leading in Action is a national action learning programme that can wrap around the Residential or stand alone — facilitated peer sets where the curriculum is the group's own live experience.
Executive · Consultant / CSO
What this career stage demands
At executive level, support centres on governance, strategic oversight, and system stewardship. Scientists here are not just leading services — they are shaping policy, influencing national strategy, and stewarding the future of the profession. The work is political, relational, and often without precedent. Formal authority matters less than presence, credibility, and the ability to hold complexity.
Our offer at this stage
Two offers at Steward level. The National Scientific Leadership Fellowship is an invitation-only 12–18 month programme for scientists in or preparing for national, board-level, or executive roles. Not a taught programme — a structured immersion in governance, political astuteness, and national scientific leadership, supported by bespoke executive coaching. Fellows join an enduring cohort of peers who share the same rare vantage point. Leading in Action — executive action learning — is also available at this level as a standalone offer for those already leading nationally who want confidential peer inquiry as ongoing practice.
Our Programmes
Every programme in the Faculty portfolio creates the conditions for scientists to grow into their leadership identities — through action, reflection, and authentic connection. Organised across the four career levels of the Good Scientific Leadership framework.
Gateway · Any Stage
Good Scientific Leadership Explorer
The entry point to everything. Before anyone commits to a programme, the Explorer meets them where they are — no application, no cost, no barrier. A 60–90 minute online experience that helps any healthcare scientist understand what leadership means in the profession, where they sit on the pathway, and what a next step might look like.
The Explorer is co-produced with and for the community — built from the real experiences of healthcare scientists across specialisms and career stages. Stories, tools, and insights contributed by the people who've been where you are.
We're designing this with the community. If you'd like to be part of building it, get in touch.
Early Career
Born from the hugely successful PSEL programme · Updated for now
Delivery formats
Our flagship programme for early-career scientists — reimagined for now, rooted in what has always worked. Since 2017, PSEL has been the rite of passage for emerging scientific leaders. 800+ alumni. An NHS Healthcare Science Award for Excellence in Workforce Development. The Foundation in Good Scientific Leadership carries that heritage forward.
A "pressure cooker" experiential model that builds confidence, voice, relational intelligence, and the ability to lead change in complex clinical environments. Delivered as a residential cohort (PSEL) or fully online (OPSEL) — the experience is the same. Participants leave knowing who they are as leaders and what they stand for.
"The programme that changed what healthcare science leadership can look like — and proved that scientists don't just want development, they hunger for it."
Pathology Educator Programme
For pathology scientists taking on education and training responsibilities. Nine days online across four cohorts, developing the teaching, facilitation, and leadership skills to build the next generation of pathologists. Highly Commended, CSO Excellence Awards 2022. A specialist expression of the Foundation philosophy.
Operational
Two parallel offers at Navigator level — participants may engage with one or both, in any order, depending on their development needs.
The Leadership Accelerator
A 9-month action learning programme for scientists managing scientific services and navigating organisational complexity. Peer sets, a shared resource library, and optional coaching. Every cohort produces something for the commons — a resource that lives beyond their own development.
Operational Leadership in Practice
Modular, pick-and-mix development with a management starting point. Finance, HR, service improvement, resource planning — learned experientially and applied directly in your own department. Philosophically aligned with our leadership approach, but grounded in the practical realities of running a scientific service. Dip in as your needs evolve.
Senior & Consultant
Two complementary offers at Architect level — an immersive residential and an ongoing action learning programme that can wrap around it or stand alone.
The GSL Architect Residential
An intensive 4–5 day residential for scientists at or approaching system-level leadership — aspiring CSOs, those stepping into national roles. Max 16. A serious venue. GC Index team profiling reveals the collective strengths and gaps of the cohort; the cohort itself is part of the intervention. Emerging from the pioneering single-cohort programme developed with Joy Tweed.
National Action Learning for Scientific Leaders
Facilitated peer sets where the curriculum is the group's own live experience. Can wrap around the Scientific Systems Leader residential or stand alone for those who want national action learning as an ongoing practice at senior level.
Executive · Consultant / CSO
GSL Steward Programme
Invitation-only. Our most significant offer — for scientists ready to lead at the national level. Bespoke, 12–18 months, designed around the individual and the moment. Governance, strategic oversight, political astuteness, system stewardship.
Fellows work with Executive Coaches, engage with national bodies, and develop the GC Index insight and personal leadership philosophy needed to take a seat at the highest tables in healthcare science.
Nominations are considered by the Faculty Leadership. Contact us to discuss eligibility.
Executive Action Learning for Scientific Leaders
A small, confidential set of senior scientific leaders — CSOs, national leads, those carrying the weight of system-level accountability — working through their real challenges together. Peer inquiry as executive practice. Can complement the Fellowship or stand alone as ongoing peer support for those already leading at this level.
Need something bespoke?
We design tailored programmes for NHS regions, ICSs, and professional bodies. Contact us to discuss your organisation's needs.
Enquire About Bespoke →Expert coaching from within the healthcare science world — by people who understand the environment, the pressures, and the professional identity at stake.
One-to-one coaching designed specifically for healthcare science professionals — whether navigating a career transition, stepping into a new leadership role, or seeking greater clarity and confidence in your current position.
Develop coaching competencies as a healthcare science leader. Drawing on the Faculty's expertise, this programme trains scientists to use coaching approaches with their teams, colleagues and the next generation.
The Faculty Coaching Team
Individual & Career Coaching
A coach and group facilitator with over 20 years' experience working with senior professionals. Qualified with Coaching & Mentoring International in 2006, with more than 5,000 hours of one-to-one coaching. Senior Coach on NHSE Coaching Programmes.
Leadership & Organisation Development
Over two decades working at the intersection of leadership, identity and organisational change. A former clinician, Kev has spent twelve years on the NHS Leadership Academy faculty and brings a practitioner's depth to facilitation, coaching and programme design. He works with scientists at every stage — from the newly appointed to the seasoned executive — helping them make sense of who they are as leaders, not just what they do.
Leadership & Wellbeing Coaching
Transformational coach with 20+ years as a healthcare scientist in clinical practice. Specialist in STEM leadership, health and wellbeing. Leadership and sleep consultant. Brings a distinctive lens on sustainable performance, identity, and the human cost of leading in clinical science.
Systemic & Organisational Coaching
MA Advanced Organisational Consultation. Principal Consultant, Tavistock Institute (30 years). Bar Council accredited conflict resolution practitioner and Group Relations practitioner. Brings the depth of systemic and psychodynamic thinking to Faculty programmes and the coaching work.
Strategy & Coaching
Science and Innovation Programme Lead, Office of the Chief Scientific Officer, NHS England. A long-standing architect of the national HCS leadership infrastructure. Brings a distinctive system-level view to coaching and Faculty strategy.
The Faculty Coaching Flywheel
Every scientist who develops coaching skills through the Faculty enters a growing community of practice — and can go on to offer coaching to the next generation. A self-sustaining ecosystem of leadership development, built entirely from within the healthcare science world.
Explore the Community →800+ healthcare science alumni. A Faculty-rooted peer network. A growing pool of scientist-mentors. This is what leadership development looks like when it compounds.
For Alumni
Completing a Faculty programme is the beginning of a professional relationship, not the end of one. The Alumni Peer Network connects scientists across specialisms, seniority levels and geographies — sustaining the peer learning culture that programmes create.
Alumni as Mentors
Experienced Faculty alumni offer structured mentoring to scientists earlier in their leadership journey — one of the most powerful things a developed leader can give, and one of the most sustainable ways to extend the Faculty's reach.
"The real power of the Faculty isn't in any single programme — it's in the 800 conversations still happening between people who went through it together."
AHCS Leadership Faculty
Re-connect with your cohort, join the peer network, or explore becoming a mentor.
Connect →Tell us where you are in your leadership journey and we'll match you with someone who's been there.
Request a Mentor →The most prestigious offer in the Faculty portfolio. For scientists who are ready to shape the NHS at the national level.
What the Fellowship offers
"The Fellowship is not about teaching leadership. It is about stepping fully into your authority as a scientific leader."
AHCS Leadership Faculty
Eligibility
The Fellowship is open to senior healthcare scientists — typically Consultant Scientist level or equivalent — who are either in or aspiring to national, regional, or executive roles. Selection is by invitation or application.
Express Interest →Samantha Scott · Kath Hayden · Paul White · Didi Akinluyi · Dario Freitas
Summer 2025 — Current Issue
The Journal gives voice to scientists already leading — and in doing so, shows others that leadership is possible, impactful, and theirs. From clinical practice to crisis zones, from early career to the board, these are real accounts from real people changing the NHS.
The Quiet Revolution: How Clinical Scientists Can Lead from the Front
The Confidence Catalyst: Creating Opportunities Through Self-Belief
Leading Without Borders: Navigating Crisis on the Global Stage
Redefining Leadership: The Rise of the Healthcare Scientist
Influence Over Authority: Rethinking Leadership
About the Journal
The Journal was established to prove one thing: healthcare scientists are leaders, and their stories matter. Every article is a case study in possibility — showing scientists at every career stage that the path to leadership is real and available to them.
As a Faculty publication, the Journal is our evidence engine — translating the tacit knowledge of 50+ specialisms into a shared professional narrative. It is one of the most tangible expressions of what this Faculty stands for.
Editorial Leadership
Write for the Journal
Articles already published have fed into NHS regional policy, raised the profile of contributors, and encouraged scientists across the UK to step into their leadership. We welcome submissions on leadership in practice, personal accounts, policy analysis, and emerging evidence.
Submit an Article →Designed and produced with
Chamberlain Dunn Creative
Award-winning events & design · Healthcare science specialists · 30 years' experience
Celebrated in the Journal
Ruth Thomsen MBE
Scientific Director, NHS England London · Leadership Ambassador, AHCS · Awarded MBE for services to healthcare science in the King's Honours · Faculty Leadership
Whether you're exploring our Foundation programmes or expressing interest in the Fellowship, we'd love to hear from you.
We work with NHS regions, ICSs, professional bodies, and industry partners. Tell us about your leadership development needs.
AHCS Leadership Faculty
An Academy for Healthcare Science initiative · ahcs.ac.uk