SPIN New to Practice & Islington Fellowship Programme
In partnership with the NHS England SPIN/New to Practice Fellowship Programme , led by NCL Training Hub, the Islington Leadership Programme brings together newly qualified and mid-career healthcare professionals who are all taking on some form of new leadership role in the borough with educational and pastoral support.
This includes:
Newly Qualified GP Fellows
Newly Qualified GP Nurse (GPN) Fellows
Year 1 Foundation and Academic training pathways
Year 2 Care Leadership programme
Associate Fellowships:
Postgraduate Certificate in Health
National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) fellow
Any other mid-career Islington primary care staff member (clinical and non-clinical) taking on a leadership role.
On this page you will find information about:
NCL Training Hub SPIN New to Practice Fellowship Programme.
Islington Leadership Programme.
Recruitment of fellows to portfolio projects.
Islington Shadowing Scheme and how to get involved.
SPIN New to Practice NCL Training Hub Fellowship Programme
North Central London (NCL) Training Hub is delivering the SPIN newly qualified GP and GPN scheme to help individuals who are new to primary care transition in their role and develop as system leaders.
The scheme is open to any newly qualified GP or GPN who are:
Employed by a GP practice in NCL on a salaried contract.
Work at least four clinical sessions per week.
Qualified within the last 12 – 24 months.
To find out more about the scheme, including how to register your interest and funding available, please visit:
Islington Leadership Programme
The Islington Leadership Programme has been running since 2019 to support newly qualified and mid-career professionals who are taking on a leadership role in the borough.
The two-year programme aims to help individuals understand their role as part of a wider integrate care system, support leadership and independent practice, and develop a network of emerging leaders across Islington.
The programme combines the core components of the NCL SPIN Fellowship Programme with shadowing and portfolio opportunities, as described below:
Workshops: Two-hour bi-monthly workshops facilitated by Islington Training Hub. In these sessions fellows will share experiences from their fellowship (i.e., shadowing and projects), learn leadership skills and coaching to inform new approaches to clinical and non-clinical work. You can view the monthly workshop topics here.
Leadership roles (project): portfolio roles will help fellows to develop experiences outside their clinical work.
Shadowing Scheme: fellows are assigned to a colleague working in the local health and care network to gain a deeper understanding of the wider [context].
Fellows who join the NCL SPIN / New to Practice Fellowship programme will automatically join the Islington Leadership Programme.
You can find out more information about the programme by reading the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document.
How to get involved
To find out more about the Islington Leadership Programme, including eligibility, please contact igpf.islingtontraininghub@nhs.net.
Recruitment of fellows to portfolio projects
SPIN Fellows can be a great addition to any project team. For example, GP and Nurse fellows bring with them an understanding of primary healthcare delivery, and a keen interest in leadership development, clinical innovation, and quality improvement.
In Islington the Training Hub helps to target our fellow’s project work towards the priorities of our borough teams, while also using the programme to recruit, embed and retain an expanding primary and community care workforce.
To this end, borough partners can submit an expression of interest to host a fellowship project by clicking the link below.
Fellowship projects require a project name, clear outline, named line manager and usually some top-up funding to support sufficient time for fellows to progress project work:
The project outline should offer some opportunity for the fellow to lead on an area of work. The aim is to give them direct leadership experience and the opportunity to develop a special interest while the rest of their fellowship provides wrap-around educational and peer-support for their learning.
The named line manager should be able to meet with the fellow regularly to direct their project work.
The time commitment of a fellow’s portfolio role can vary depending on the project requirements and the fellow’s capacity. Their work can range between 0.5 to 2 sessions per week over a period of 1 – 2 years (1 session being roughly 4 hours). Some of this time will be funded through the SPIN Fellowship and some through top-up funding from the project host.
There are two project intakes each year that align with the start of the fellowship programme - February and May. The availability of fellows to join projects outside of the intake periods will need to be agreed with the fellow, project host and Islington Training Hub.
Islington Shadowing Scheme
Our Shadowing Scheme is unique to Islington and encourages facilitated networking by our fellows. The aim is to introduce them to key roles and services across the borough partnership and wider ICS. Fellows have fed back that it helps them feel embedded in the borough and that they value the opportunity to meet the team and understand how our system works.
Each fellow is paired with someone to shadow every four months, each year they are on the fellowship programme. These rotations form three terms that showcase the diversity of roles and organisations supporting healthcare in North Central London, with a specific focus on local context, health, and care needs:
The scheme has been set up to be very light touch for people volunteering to be shadowed:
The fellow is responsible to make regular contact with their assigned shadow lead. Shadow leads are encouraged to set some time aside for an introductory meeting with their fellow within the first month of being paired.
Shadow leads are assigned a fellow for four months. After this time the fellows will rotate.
Shadow leads have no mentoring responsibilities or coaching component. There are other support networks in place where fellows can raise issues or seek support.
You will only be asked to shadow a fellow once or twice a year maximum – after each allocation shadow leads will be given a break between 4 and 8 months.
The structure of shadowing is flexible - the fellow and shadow lead can decide on frequency and meeting style (e.g., this might be 1:1 meetings, invitations for the fellow to shadow the lead at a team meeting or other work activity).
Islington Training Hub will contact shadow leads at the start of each year to ask about capacity to support the scheme.
We are always looking for new managers and system leaders to support the scheme. Expressions of interest for future shadow rotations can be submitted using the online form below:
National SPIN New to Practice Fellowship Programme Guidelines
For more information on the National SPIN New to Practice Fellowship Programme, please click here
Get in touch
Please contact Islington Training Hub to find out more about fellow and leadership opportunities available in the borough.