Josh’s story began with a simple but powerful moment—he took an opportunity that came his way.

In the third episode of 'Leading the way', our monthly series of leadership conversations, Dr Jonathan Darling, RCPCH Vice President for Education and Training, speaks with Dr Josh Hodgson, new Chair of the Trainee Committee about his journey into leadership.

They consider how leadership so often starts with recognising the right opportunity and having the courage to take it. Leadership development doesn't have to be formal, and finding mentors and taking time for reflection can be just as impactful as structured training.

• Find out more about Josh and see related resources - on RCPCH Learning
• Read Jonathan's reflections on this episode
• Download the transcript (PDF)

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speaker and not necessarily to their employer, organisation, RCPCH or any other group or individual.

Step out of your comfort zone, encourage others, simply show up with integrity... leadership doesn’t always mean taking centre stage.

In this second episode of 'Leading the way', our monthly series of leadership conversations, by Dr Jonathan Darling, RCPCH Vice President for Education and Training, speaks with Dr Emma Dyer as she completes her tenure as Trainee Committee Chair.

Emma used to think of leaders as charismatic, sociable, the ones who always put their hands up in a meeting. But as an introvert, she's brought her own way of being an effective - and collaborative - leader to the workplace and College.

• Find out more about Emma and see related resources - on RCPCH Learning
• Read Jonathan's reflections on this episode
• Dowload the transcript (PDF)

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speaker and not necessarily to their employer, organisation, RCPCH or any other group or individual.

Leadership isn’t about titles - it’s about action, passion and impact. And it's for everyone working in child health. 

From clinical academia to national leadership in education and training... Dr Simon Broughton, General Paediatrician and RCPCH Officer for Recruitment, shares how mentorship, joy in work and early succession planning have shaped his career.

This is our first episode in 'Leading the way', our monthly series of leadership conversations, hosted by Dr Jonathan Darling, RCPCH Vice President for Education and Training. 

• Find out more about Simon, get the transcript and see related resources
• Read Jonathan's reflections on this episode 

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast relates only to the speaker and not necessarily to their employer, organisation, RCPCH or any other group or individual.

Dr Ronny Cheung, Officer for Health Services, joins Alison Firth, Head of Health Policy, and Bruce Warwick, Public Affairs Manager, for a lively discussion on how our landmark report – a blueprint for transforming child health services in England, published last autumn - has helped secure commitments to deliver care equitably for children at a national and local level.

Together, they take a close look at what these national commitments over the past six months mean for elective and community services. The trio also reflect on some of the challenges along the way as well as the opportunities to come.   Looking ahead, Ronny, Alison and Bruce consider the next six months for child health services. There's a focus on the Long-Term Workforce Plan and 10 Year Health Plan refresh and how the recommendations in our blueprint have helped focus the College’s approach to these major opportunities.   As ever when working in influencing, events often overtake us no matter how hard we plan. As such, it is worth noting that this episode was recorded before the College heard the news that NHS England would be abolished.   In this episode, you'll get a rare insight into how staff and members produce policy and then use this to influence decision makers at a national level. 

Download transcript

See our blueprint for transforming child health services in England

In this final episode of our podcast series on the changing climate, this mountainous country is seeing extreme temperature fluctuations, landslides and air pollution, endangering communities and impacting healthcare. But, there are some lessons around adaptation, as our guests who work or have volunteered in Nepal explain.

Dr Bernadette O’Hare hosts a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with Dr Jamun Singh, a Nepalese paediatrician, and Dr Rashmi D’Souza, a UK-based paediatrician and Heather Watson, a UK-based paediatric nurse, who volunteered with Dr Singh in our Global Links programme.  

Dr Singh gives a powerful account of the dramatic effects climate change is having in Nepal, from extreme temperature fluctuations to the indirect dangers posed by cooking on indoor fires. He highlights the impact of floods, which have triggered landslides, further endangering communities and disrupting daily life. Despite these challenges, Dr Singh shares how Nepal is adapting, including changing school schedules to cope with climate extremes and harnessing the country's hydropower potential as a sustainable energy source. 

In a separate conversation, Bernadette caught up with Dr Camilla Kingdon in her last weeks as RCPCH President to find out more about the impacts of air pollution, as well as find out about her experiences visiting Nepal over the years.  

This episode not only sheds light on the specific challenges faced by children in Nepal due to climate change but also underscores the importance of global cooperation and local adaptation strategies. Tune in to hear these compelling stories and learn how communities are striving to protect their children and future in the face of a rapidly changing environment.

Download transcript (PDF)

Resources:

• The impact of climate change on global child health - position statement
• The impact of climate change on child health around the world: results of a survey of child health professionals outside the UK
• Climate change - resources for child health professionals
• Global Links programme

Floods, heatwaves and wildfires have become increasingly common across Canada. And as retired paediatrician Dr Julian Pleydell-Pearce explains in this episode of our climate change series, this makes a profound impact on the lives of children and young people - and the way health services are delivered.

In episode two of this three-part series, Professor Bernadette O’Hare speaks with guest Julian, who worked as a paediatrician in Canada before his recent retirement. Julian shares his firsthand experiences of how shifting weather patterns has had a drastic impact on the lives of children and young people in Canada. 

Julian explains how heatwaves are causing widespread damage, leading to devastating wildfires that have displaced communities, destroyed vast areas of forest and severely degraded air quality. Beyond the physical dangers, Julian shares the personal challenges he faces in a region increasingly affected by climate change.

Drawing from our recently published survey, this series aims to deepen our understanding of the risks posed by climate change, particularly for the world’s most vulnerable population: children.

We hope this podcast series deepens your understanding of the serious impacts climate change has on children's health. There's an urgent need for action, so tune in to hear about how we can all contribute to creating a safer, healthier future for children everywhere.

Download transcript (PDF)

Resources:

• The impact of climate change on global child health - position statement
• The impact of climate change on child health around the world: results of a survey of child health professionals outside the UK
• Climate change - resources for child health professionals 

Less predictable weather in the past several years in this east African country have made it increasingly difficult to grow crops, leading to food shortages and skyrocketing prices. There are broader consequences for children's health, too, as Eva Odongpiny, a pharmacist in Uganda, discusses with us. These include an increased vulnerability to diseases like HIV and cholera, air pollution and water scarcity.

This is the first episode in our three-part series on the impacts of climate change on children's health around the word. Host, Dr Bernadette O’Hare, chair of the international workstream of the RCPCH climate change working group, speaks with Eva who has firsthand experience of the environmental challenges children - and health services - face. 

Eva explains how the imbalance between supply and demand of food has resulted in widespread hunger and malnutrition. She talks too about how forced migrations due to flooding interrupts normal life routines. And that can impact adherence to medicines, such as antiretrovirals. And, Eva and Bernie explore the mental health toll on children, as the environmental challenges contribute to rising levels of eco-anxiety.

Drawing from our recently published survey, this series aims to deepen our understanding of the risks posed by climate change, particularly for the world’s most vulnerable population: children. We hope to inspire action to tackle climate change to protect children in Uganda and around the globe. So, tune in to learn more about how we can all contribute to creating a safer, healthier future for children everywhere.

Download transcript (PDF)

Resources:

• The impact of climate change on global child health - position statement
• The impact of climate change on child health around the world: results of a survey of child health professionals outside the UK
• Climate change - resources for child health professionals 

Health inequalities are widening in paediatrics. Those that are more disadvantaged experience more safety issues whilst in health care.  If we can make our healthcare systems more equitable for the children and young people we can for, they will be safer in our care.

In episode 5 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Helen Stewart, Dr Cian Wade and Dr Mimi Malhotra to explore how patient safety and health inequalities are inextricably linked. Tackling healthcare inequalities can improve safety and vice versa. 

Dr Stewart shares her knowledge and experience as the RCPCH Officer for Health Improvement as to how our children are impacted by health inequalities. Dr Wade and Dr Malhotra discuss their BMJ paper, Action on patient safety can reduce health inequalities, and explore some of the improvement avenues that are available to clinicians and service providers.

Thank you for listening.

Dr Natalie Wyatt, RCPCH Clinical Fellow and Jonathan Bamber, RCPCH Head of Quality Improvement | Produced by 18Sixty

Please be advised that this podcast series contains stories relating to child death and harm. All views, thoughts and opinions expressed belong to the guests and not necessarily to their employer, linked organisations or RCPCH.

Download transcript (PDF)

About the Patient Safety series

As doctors we ‘first, do no harm’. However, the systems in which we work are rife with safety issues and resultant harm. In thinking about how to improve this, we have brought together leaders in the field to discuss challenging and thought-provoking issues around keeping our children safe in healthcare settings.

We hope you will be entertained, educated and energised to make strides in improving the safety of the children that you care for.

The RCPCH Patient Safety Portal has lots of resources, including a wealth of learning about paediatric patient safety. The RCPCH health inequalities programme of work can be found on our key topics pages.

It is imperative to turn this knowledge into action through improvement activities. 

About the speakers

• Dr Helen Stewart is a Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. She also has an interest in public health and health inequalities, which has led to her becoming the Officer for Health Improvement at RCPCH.
• Dr Cian Wade completed a National Medical Director Clinical Fellowship with NHS England. He is a Fulbright Scholar who recently completed a Master of Public Health at Harvard University and now consults for health systems and healthcare providers.
• Dr Mimi Malhotra completed a National Medical Director Clinical Fellowship with the Health Foundation. Dr Malhotra continues to work as a respiratory trainee in London with ab honorary clinical lectureship at UCL.

Topics/organisations/papers referenced in this episode

• Wade, C, Malhotra, A.M., et al (2022). Action of patient safety can reduce health inequalities. BMJ
• North West & North Wales critical care transport service
• Michael Marmot
• Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM)
• RCPCH Health Improvement Committee
• National Medical Directors Fellowship
• The Health Foundation 
• RCPCH Child health inequalities driven by child poverty in the UK - position statement
• Increased risk of perioperative pulmonary embolism and sepsis in black patients (Urban Institute)
• Increase risk of adverse drug events in black people (Medical Care)
• MBRRACE study: A comparison of the care of Asian, Black and White women who have experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death
• Racial and ethnic differences in bystander CPR for witnessed cardiac arrest (The New England Journal of Medicine)
• Skin Deep
• WHAM (Wellbeing and Health Action Movement) health inequalities map
• Race-based vs race-conscious model of medicine (The Lancet)
• Decentralisation of public services in Greater Manchester (PDF)
• Sugar tax explained
• Vaping in children (RCPCH response to Government plan to ban disposable vapes)
• Health and Social Care Committee - a Commons Select Committee
• Core20PLUS5 – An approach to reducing health inequalities for children and young people
• Nationwide Children's Hospital (US)
• Shared decision making framework (NICE)
• Closed feedback loop communication
• Ian Sinha: The cost of the clinic visit (European Respiratory Journal)
• RCPCH Engaging children and young people resources
• RCPCH Six step toolkit for child health inequalities and poverty
• WHAM (Wellbeing and Health Action Movement) portal
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Natural language processing (Wikipedia)

It is imperative that children and young people are central to the co-design and co-production of our patient safety improvement interventions.

In this episode, we speak with Dr Jane Runnacles, consultant paediatrician at St. George's Hospital, and Dr Victoria Dublon, paediatric diabetes consultant at the Royal Free Hospital. Both are champions of improvement work that puts the young person and their needs first.

As Jane and Victoria describe, involving children, young people and their families in improvement work improves the experience and outcome for all involved. There are fantastic examples of co-creating and co-producing safety improvements in healthcare.

We discuss the practicalities of how to do this and who to involve in your healthcare setting, and we hear about some of Jane and Victoria’s successes.

Thank you for listening.

Dr Natalie Wyatt, RCPCH Clinical Fellow and Jonathan Bamber RCPCH Head of Quality Improvement  Produced by 18Sixty

Please be advised that this podcast series contains stories relating to child death and harm. All views, thoughts and opinions expressed belong to the guests and not necessarily to their employer, linked organisations or RCPCH.

Download transcript (PDF) 

About the patient safety series

As doctors we ‘first, do no harm’. However, the systems in which we work are rife with safety issues and resultant harm. In thinking about how to improve this, we have brought together leaders in the field to discuss challenging and thought-provoking issues around keeping our children safe in healthcare settings.

We hope you will be entertained, educated and energised to make strides in improving the safety of the children that you care for.

The RCPCH Patient Safety Portal has lots of resources. And our engaging children and young people web pages can help you get started on your engagement journey to effectively work with children and young people to improve their healthcare. 

Dr Victoria Dublon is based at the Royal Free Hospital and part of the Trust-wide diabetes team. She has been a paediatric diabetes consultant for eight years, working primarily at the Royal Free Hospital as well as running clinics at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital. As a registrar, she trained in adolescent health as well as endocrinology and diabetes and this continues to be a big part of her work. Victoria is involved in improvement work within the department as well as being a champion of ‘Me First’, striving to put the young person and their needs first.

Dr Jane Runnacles is a consultant in ambulatory paediatrics at St George's hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London and clinical governance lead for her department. She has an interest in acute paediatrics, simulation and quality improvement. During her postgraduate training in London, she was awarded distinction in her MA in clinical education and spent a year as a Darzi clinical leadership fellow at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Jane is a Training Programme Director for the London School of Paediatrics and leads their leadership and QI education programmes.

Topics/organisations/papers referenced in this episode

• Great Ormond Street Hospital
• Royal Free Hospital
• Darzi Fellowship
• Peter Lachman
• RCPCH SAFE Collaborative
• RCPCH QI Central
• Don Berwick
• Whiteboard communication project (on QI Central)
• Yincent Tse
• NHS blog - Asking "What Matters To You?"
• NHS - Co-production
• Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS)
• St George's Hospital
• St George’s Hospital - Children and Young People’s Council
• Wac Arts
• WHO World Patient Safety Day (17 September)
• ‘Listening to you’ project at Birmingham Children's Hospital
• NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework
• Safety huddles (part of Situation Awareness for Everyone)

It is not enough just to collect data on harm occurring to children in healthcare settings. We need the data to be robust, comparable across the NHS and for it to be transformed into effective, meaningful changes in outcome.

In episode 3 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Damian Roland, a paediatric emergency medicine clinician scientist and head of service for the Children's Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

As Damian discusses on the podcast, in order to learn from harm and prevent it occurring again we need to collect data and investigate what is occurring across the healthcare system rather than looking to individuals. Removing the individual, more punitive approach to harm investigations could improve the quality of how we record and report harm.

There is already a wealth of learning available from a range of sources including national reports, coroner’s findings described in regulation 28 reports to prevent future death and large-scale reviews like those of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body. We can investigate whether the causes of harm identified in these reports are occurring where we work and make proactive steps to avert it.

Damian also shares the progress of the SPOT programme (System-wide Paediatric Observation Tracking). This looks to reduce harm and improve how we learn from harm by creating a standardised common language to identify and discuss children whose health is deteriorating.

Thank you for listening.  

Hosted by Dr Natalie Wyatt, RCPCH Clinical Fellow and Jonathan Bamber RCPCH Head of Quality Improvement | Produced by 18Sixty

Download transcript (PDF)

Please be advised that this series contains stories relating to child death and harm. All views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast series belong to the guests and not necessarily to their employer, linked organisations or RCPCH. 

About the Patient Safety series

As doctors we ‘first, do no harm’. However, the systems in which we work are rife with safety issues and resultant harm. In thinking about how to improve this, we have brought together leaders in the field to discuss challenging and thought-provoking issues around keeping our children safe in healthcare settings. We hope you will be entertained, educated and energised to make strides in improving the safety of the children that you care for.

The RCPCH Patient Safety Portal at https://safety.rcpch.ac.uk has lots of resources. It includes a wealth of information summarising reports and investigations that identify what puts children at risk of harm. It is imperative to turn this knowledge into action through improvement activities.

More about Dr Damian Roland

Damian is a paediatric emergency medicine clinician scientist and is head of service for the Children's Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Among his many achievements, Damian has been focused on addressing the challenges of identifying deterioration in health in children. He created the Paediatric Observation Priority Score for Children's Emergency Care and currently he is instrumental in the NHS England SPOT programme.

Topics/organisations/papers referenced in this episode

• John Madar (PDF)
• Datix
• Health Services Safety Investigations Body
• Royal College of Emergency Medicine
• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• René Amalberti
• Adrian Plunkett
• Learning from Excellence
• David Sinton (on X)
• POPS (Paediatric Observation Priority Score for Children’s Emergency Care) - (PDF)
• Swiss Cheese Model (on National Library for Medicine)
• NHSE SPOT: System-wide Paediatric Observation Tracking programme - guidance
• Emma Lim
• Critically Careful forums (University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust)
• Peter Lachman
• Ronny Cheung
• Eric Hollnagel: From Safety-1 to Safety II (PDF)
• Charles Vincent
• Mary Dixon Woods: How to improve healthcare improvement - BMJ
• The Health Foundation
• Creating Communities of Practice
• Rhizomology - Rhizomatic Knowledge Communities, Edtechtalk, Webcast Academy