The Messenger review is a con (HSJ, 9 June 20220

Summary

The Messenger review may be full of well-meaning and often well-judged sentiments – but the recommendations were either peripheral (a five-day course for middle managers) or so vague as to be virtually worthless (proposals to make equality, diversity and inclusion everyone’s business).

Lord Rose, Sir Ron Kerr, Tom Kark and indeed Sir Robert Francis all made similar recommendations about ensuring the quality of NHS leadership, but the Messenger review has a slightly different thrust. It aimed to review health and social care leadership.

By this measure, the review has failed to do what it set out to achieve. Social care and indeed primary care are an afterthought, with the focus on the acute sector, writes Alastair McLellan and Annabelle Collins for the HSJ.