Top Manager programme

The Top Manager programme is not your typical executive leadership training. Designed for senior leaders across health and care, it offers a rare and eye-opening space to explore how human behaviour and group dynamics shape organisations and systems. Through a unique combination of experiential learning, exploration, discovery and reflective practice, you’ll uncover insights about your leadership that you won’t find in any textbook or experience in more traditional development settings.

What makes the Top Manager programme different?

For more than 46 years, the Top Manager programme (TMP) has been recognised as one of the highest-quality leadership development programmes in the UK, supporting senior leaders across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to adapt to the evolving realities of leading within and across health and care. With a growing alumni network of over 600 leaders, TMP stands apart for its focus on the human dynamics of leadership and the relational, emotional and political forces that shape the functioning of systems.

Unlike traditional management training, TMP is not about management theory or basic leadership principles. It goes much deeper, offering a unique space to explore the realities of leadership in complex, high-pressure environments.

What’s unique about the Top Manager programme?

• The programme delves into the human aspects of leadership and what it takes to be an effective leader. It emphasises the relational aspects of leading, noticing and working with group dynamics, exploring sources of power and influence. These critical elements don’t usually feature in standard training, yet they have a profound impact on the experience of those leading the health and care systems. Generic methods simply can't address these nuances.

• Our programme is adaptable to allow us to focus on what is important to you. There’s no set agenda or off-the-shelf content. Each cohort shapes its learning through live, shared experiences that reflect the real challenges of leadership in health and care.

• TMP helps you navigate holding uncertainty, conflicting priorities, and working with diverse perspectives.

• This programme isn’t a quick fix. The work is deep and can be hard. It helps recalibrate your approach to leadership, providing lasting insights and experience that will support you throughout your leadership journey.

What will I learn on the Top Manager programme?

The Top Manager programme isn’t built around rigid or prescribed content; instead, it is underpinned by a range of theoretical frameworks. These include ideas around group dynamics, system psychodynamics, psychoanalytic perspectives and living systems theory. The programme evolves with each cohort, adapting to the challenges, questions and realities that matter most to you and your peers.

By the end of the programme, you will:

• better recognise and work with underlying forces such as power, authority, conflict and group behaviours that influence how organisations and systems really function

• gain valuable feedback on your leadership style, influence and behavioural patterns, and how these affect your ability to lead and impact within the wider system

• learn to recognise and manage the often unseen emotional dynamics, such as anxiety, self-doubt and unconscious patterns, that influence individuals, teams and organisations

• strengthen your ability to lead through personal and organisational transitions, work with resistance to change and sustain focus and momentum over time

• develop the skills to engage with diversity, identity and lived experience, using difference as a catalyst for meaningful change

• explore how leadership interfaces with technology and how to maintain human connection and influence in digital environments

• be encouraged to view things through the lens of the system rather than to operate at an individual level, moving away from personalising systemic issues and towards developing alternative and wider explanations for your experiences.

Programme structure

Over five in-depth modules across six months, you and your cohort will work as a system as well as in smaller configurations of the whole group. Together and with the programme directors, you’ll create a temporary system that mirrors your own working environments and often the same patterns and experiences of life outside the temporary system. This dynamic setting allows you to explore leadership challenges, practise new approaches, and experiment with ideas in real time, making the learning relevant and applicable.

In addition to group work, you’ll take part in:

• study groups for deeper reflection and peer learning

• workshops focused on specific leadership challenges

• peer learning activities to support collaboration and shared problem-solving

• debates and discussions with guest speakers and experts who bring fresh perspectives from across health and care.

This rich mix of experiences is designed to stretch your thinking, build practical skills and foster strong professional relationships.

To find out more about the modules and how the programme is structured, please contact our Senior Programme Co-ordinator, Martyna Baxter.

Is the Top Manager programme right for me or for my organisation’s senior leaders?

The Top Manager programme is designed for senior leaders working in health and care who are responsible for leading organisations, partnerships, and system-wide initiatives. Whether you’re an individual leader looking to develop your leadership impact or an organisation seeking to invest in your senior management team, our programme offers a proven, in-depth development experience that builds leadership capability for real challenges.

Typical participants include:

• chief executives, directors and senior leaders in health and social care, including the third sector and local government

• aspiring leaders preparing for director-level roles

• senior clinical leaders interested in strengthening their leadership confidence and capabilities

• individuals in system leadership roles, representing their organisations or leading cross-system programmes

• senior professionals from health charities and the private sector working towards public health and care objectives.

We actively encourage applications from a diverse range of leaders, with particular emphasis on increasing participation from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds and others underrepresented in system leadership.

For organisations

TMP is an ideal opportunity to develop key members of your leadership team, helping them build the personal and systemic leadership skills needed to navigate the challenges of today’s health and care environment.

Discounted places

We are pleased to offer a limited number of discounted places specifically for leaders from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, social care and local government. These discounted places aim to support wider system leadership by ensuring that diverse perspectives and experiences are represented. Please contact our Programme Co-ordinator, Martyna Baxter for more information.

What’s required to join TMP

• A clear commitment to personal and system-wide leadership development.

• Applicants will be asked to reflect on their leadership objectives and challenges as part of the application process.

• All applicants are interviewed by a Programme Director, where offers to join the programme will be made.

• Participation requires full attendance across all five programme modules.

Find out what previous TMP alumni think

Programme team

The Top Manager programme is supported by a highly experienced and dedicated team of development professionals who bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in leadership development, health and care systems, and organisational dynamics. Throughout your journey, you’ll benefit from their guidance, support and unique perspectives as they work alongside you and your cohort to address the leadership challenges you face.

Pricing and dates

At £11,600 (+VAT), the Top Manager programme offers exceptional value. This price includes:

• five weeks of immersive learning spread over six months, allowing time for reflection and the application of new insights at work

• ongoing support from expert consultants who are experienced leaders in the field, guiding you throughout the entire programme

• networking opportunities with your cohort peers, fostering deep connections and relationships that grow over the six-month programme and often last for many years beyond it

• tailored content that adapts to the needs of your cohort and the current challenges of the leadership landscape – there’s no off-the-shelf agenda

• continued access to a community of more than 600 professionals and alumni, with an annual gathering to reconnect with TMP alumni, be exposed to further ideas related to the core learning of TMP and hopefully gain sustenance to go back into your systems and continue leading, influenced by your learning on TMP

• a follow-up post programme coaching session with a Programme Director.

• a 12-month membership to ShiftWorks.

And for organisations: At £11,600 (+VAT) for five weeks of in-depth learning, the programme provides a high return on investment when you consider the long-term impact on your leaders’ effectiveness, confidence and ability to influence necessary organisational changes. Also includes a 12-month membership to ShiftWorks.

Upcoming dates

2026/27

• Module 1: 17–20 November 2026 (in person)

• Module 2: 23–26 November 2026 (in person)

• Module 3: 12–15January 2027 (online)

• Module 4: 23–26 February 2027 (in person)

• Module 5: 13–16 April 2027 (in person)

For any questions about dates, pricing and bursary places, please email Martyna Baxter.

Frequently asked questions

If you're thinking about applying for the Top Manager programme, or any of our other programmes, you can read our general frequently asked questions to find the answers you need.

For specific questions about the Top Manager Programme, see below.

Funding

Programme structure and requirements

Participants, support and experience

Get in touch

Still have questions or want to speak with someone from our team? We’d love to chat with you!

• Email: Martyna Baxter, Programme Co-Ordinator [email protected]

• Phone: 020 7307 2551