LLR PM Academy
 

Competency Framework

This tool is helpful in the recruitment of a new Practice Manager, assessing the skill set of a current Practice Manager and a way to identify any missing areas across the practice team. 

PM Induction Course

The Practice Manager Academy Induction course is an interactive course which has been written for new and/or aspiring Practice Managers of the future. Participants are encouraged to collect evidence throughout the four weeks of the programme and are given a copy of all of the course materials

Items covered will include:

• The changing face of General Practice
• Background to the NHS
• NHS Structure
• Funding streams and commissioners
• Type of contract
• Payroll
• NHS Pension Scheme
• Understanding Doctors Accounts
• Profit shares and tax liabilities
• Partnership Agreements
• Partnerships/Salaried/Locums – the difference and the pitfalls
• The Training and Teaching Practice
• Private Fees
• Premises
• Practice Manager/Business Manager/Managing Partner
• An overview of Employment Law
• Whistleblowing
• Complaints and Significant Events
• CQC
• Glossary of Terms

This is not an exhaustive list, and participants will have the opportunity to discuss any concerns or issues they have with the group, or via a 1-1 booked session with the trainer at the end of each session.


Mentoring

The purpose of mentoring is to tap into the existing knowledge, skills, and experience of another Practice Manager and transfer these skills to newer or potentially less experienced manager in order to advance their careers. 

Mentors are available to cover all aspects of Practice Management and would usually work on one specific area at a time, these might be Premises Development, Accounting and Finance, Governance or HR issues. 

Experienced Practice Managers are required to fulfil the mentor role.


Coaching

Learning how to incorporate coaching into your everyday management role can help to:

• Improve staff performance
• Encourage staff ownership and responsibility
• Transform your role from a “fixer” to an “enabler”

Run over two half days, managers will learn what is and isn’t, have plenty of opportunity to practice the principles of coaching as well as learning how to incorporate their new skills into an already busy day. 


Peer Appraisal

Separate to your in-house practice appraisal, having a Peer Appraisal with an experienced and specially trained Practice Manager Peer Appraiser can bring an external and objective aspect to your ongoing development. Focused on being supportive, the appraisal allows time for the Practice Manager to explore what is happening for them today and identify areas to focus on for the coming year, with the input from someone who understands what it is like being in a Practice Manager role. The appraisal usually takes 90 minutes and there are preparatory forms for the Practice Manager to complete and submit a week before their Appraisal. The Appraiser will provide a report summarising the discussions along with an action planning template the Practice Manager can complete for themselves. 

Support can also be offered to train other experienced Practice Managers to become Peer Appraisers and to set up a Peer Appraisal model in their region.


Survey

Access to a survey link for all Practice Managers and a summary of the results that will enable useful discussion about who your managers are (age, experience), what their challenges are and what support would be helpful.


DISC Workshop

Understanding our own personality style and preferences and those of our colleagues helps us to increase respect and tolerance of each other's differences and highlights how we need to adjust our style to meet the needs of our team members.  DISC is a well-established personality profiling tool that is easy to use but has the power to transform one-to-one and group dynamics once understood. Patients also have their own DISC profiles and once you understand the principles you will be able to spot the clues in patient too, helping you to better adapt your style to meet their needs. 

This workshop is for teams that work together within or across practices.  It can also be run for whole practices. 


Practice Manager Recruitment, Induction, Mentoring and Review

A package of support for practices recruiting a new Practice Manager through four stages of recruiting, appointing, inducting and supporting a new Practice Manager including confirming job roles and responsibilities, selection for interview, interviews, induction, mentoring, probationary review and annual review. Parts of the package can be purchased individually and costed accordingly.