Background to the impact evaluation
This impact evaluation aims to explore the impact of the Aspiring Chief Executive and Aspiring Chair Talent Programmes on leadership capability, career progression, and influence across organisations and the wider NHS system. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) is carrying out this work on behalf of NHS England.
Whilst the in-programme evaluation focused on the delivery of the programme itself, the impact evaluation activities will identify how alumni apply programme learning in practice and how this contributes to changes in leadership behaviours, organisational outcomes, and system-level impact. It will run from June 2026 to August 2027 and will bring together evidence over time to show how impact develops. Participation is optional, and you are free to withdraw at any time without giving a reason.
What does participating involve?
The impact evaluation is designed to gather meaningful insight while recognising the time pressures of senior leadership roles. It includes two main elements:
Element 1: Career check-ins (all alumni)
All programme alumni will be invited to complete a series of short, light-touch structured career check-ins at quarterly intervals across the evaluation period.
- We will send invitations by email between June 2026 and August 2027
- Each check-in will include a small number of questions (typically 3–5)
- Questions will cover changes in role, applications and outcomes, and reflections on programme influence
- Some questions will vary over time, so we can explore participants’ personal reflections on their career progression.
These check-ins are quick to complete and allow us to track career progression over time across the full alumni group.
Element 2: Impact interviews (sample of alumni)
A small sample of alumni will be invited to take part in a structured programme of in-depth impact interviews.
- Participants will take part in two interviews during the evaluation, approximately in September or October 2026, and again in April or May 2027.
- Each interview will last approximately 60 minutes
- We will conduct interviews virtually, and they will be recorded with your permission
These discussions will focus on:
- How programme learning has been applied in practice
- Changes in leadership behaviours and approach
- Organisational and system-level impact attributed to a change in leadership approach
- The contextual factors that enable or constrain impact
- The contribution of the programme to impact outcomes.
As part of the second interview, alumni will be asked to nominate up to three local stakeholders (such as sponsors, peers, or system partners) who can provide additional perspectives on leadership outcomes and impact.
What will happen to my data?
We will use your data only for the purposes of this impact evaluation and handle it in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). NHS England is the data controller, and IES is the data processor for this evaluation. Please see the privacy notice for full details of how your data will be managed.
Professional contact details, including your name, work email address and job title, will be processed to invite alumni to take part in the evaluation. The information that IES collects during the evaluation varies depending on the evaluation activity:
- Short online ‘career’ digital forms: Professional and career information, including current and previous roles, applications, appointments, and personal reflections on career progression.
- One-to-one virtual impact interviews: Perceptions of leadership effectiveness, the influence of the programme on personal behavioural change, and evidence of how those changes contributed to organisational or system-level outcomes.
The information collected will be used to understand alumni experiences, track career progression, and assess how the programmes contribute to outcomes at individual, organisational, and system levels. Findings will be reported in anonymised and aggregated form, so individuals will not be identifiable in the main impact evaluation report.
IES also intends to develop named case studies that illustrate programme impact in practice for alumni who participated in the impact interviews. These are expected to be named and attributed, but only where you provide separate, explicit consent. If you are invited to contribute to a case study:
- You will be asked for explicit consent to be identified
- You will have the opportunity to review and approve the case study in full before it is shared with NHS England
- If you do not approve the final version, the case study will be anonymised or not used in an attributed form
The evaluation report and case studies will be published. Where consent is provided, named case studies may also be used by NHS England for learning, communications, and promotional purposes.
All data will be stored securely on encrypted UK-based systems, with access restricted to the research team. Identifiable data will be deleted no later than three months after the evaluation ends (currently expected October 2027). Fully anonymised data may be retained for longer-term research and learning.
What happens next?
We will invite all alumni to participate in quarterly career check-ins starting in June 2026.
If you have any questions about this evaluation, your participation, or if you would like to withdraw, please do not hesitate to contact:
IES Project Manager, Megan Edwards: [email protected]
Aspiring Chief Executive Senior Programme Lead, Samantha Banks: [email protected]
Aspiring Chair Talent Senior Programme Lead, Michelle Fitzgerald-shaw: [email protected]