Sarah Amani talks to HSJ about how a radical solution is needed on leadership within the NHS

“My ceiling is about to come when I get promoted to band 6 perhaps, so why should I try to get to band 7 and 8 when somebody has already confirmed that this is how it’s always been?” says Sarah Amani, chief clinical information officer for Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust, about the career challenge facing minority groups in the NHS.

In this six minute podcast, an extract from an in-depth interview, she discusses some of the disadvantages minority groups face in career progression and what it will take to remove some of those barriers.

Should black and minority ethnic networks do more to get policymakers to attend their events rather than looking inwardly? Do leadership programmes need to change in set up and structure?

“If we’re going to channel out the same programmes with a different name, different leads, it’s that thing of ‘do the same, expect the same’ so we need to do something radically different,” Ms Amani explains.

Ms Amani is a Mary Seacole award winner. Her use of social media has opened up patient engagement at her trust. She also discusses social media’s use in removing hierarchy and allowing the dissemination of valuable ideas.

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