Iain Snelling

Iain Snelling

Health Services Management Centre
Associate Professor

Contact details

Address
School of Social Policy and Society, HSMC
Park House
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2RT, United Kingdom

Iain specialises in teaching, consultancy and research in management and leadership development in the NHS, service evaluation and improvement, clinical engagement in management and leadership. From 2011 – 2013 he was co-Director of the educational element of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme and the NHS Clinical Leadership Fellows programme, and from 2012-2015 he was HSMC Director of Teaching.  He was a tutor on the NHS Leadership Academy’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson programme from 2013-2020. His current work includes contributions to HSMC’s MSc programmes, and the intercalated programme in Health Management and Leadership for medical students. He has developed and run leadership programmes for surgical trainees, and had developed a PGCert programme to runs alongside future cohorts, and is developing with Mark Exworthy, a Clinical Leadership strand to the Business School’s on-line MBA programme.

Qualifications

His main qualifications and memberships are: 

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Sheffield Hallam University (2003)
  • MA Ethics of Health Care, University of Wales (1998)
  • Diploma in Health Services Management, Institute of Health Management (1992)
  • BA (Hons), Politics, University of Leicester (1987)

Biography

Iain joined HSMC in 2010 and was previously Head of the Centre of Professional and Organisation Development at Sheffield Hallam University. He is an experienced teacher at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has developed a number of bespoke educational programmes for the NHS. He is particularly interested in the effect of individuals’ development on their performance at work, the idea that there can be a ‘rate of return’ on development activities. His professional background is in NHS hospital management – he had wide experience in operational management and in corporate roles in the NHS where he worked for 13 years. His last post was Deputy Director of Operations at West Suffolk Hospital, until 2002.

Iain was an NHS Manager from 1988 – 2002. He started in the NHS at a time when the movement to engage doctors in the management and leadership of the NHS was taking off. His first senior management job was in a ‘triumvirate’ with a Clinical Director and a Nurse Manager, and this experience of working with part time medical leaders (hybrids), and with clinical leaders more generally, has remained an academic interest ever since. For many years he has run leadership development programmes for Medical Trainees, most recently for Surgeons in the West Midlands. He has undertaken research into medical leadership arrangements, and the development of  development roles to support medical leadership.

Research

Current and previous projects include

  • Evaluation of the Health Education England South West Clinical Leadership Mentors programme (2019-2020)
  • Evaluation of the HEE Wessex Chief Registrar programme (2017-2018)
  • Evaluation of the Royal College of Physicians Chief Registrar programme (2016-2017)
  • Every patient a research patient? Evaluating the current state of research in the NHS. Cancer Research UK (2014-2015)
  • Models of Medical Leadership and their Effectiveness: NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation programme. (2011-2013)
  • Understanding and improving transitions of older people: a user and carer centred approach. NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation programme.  (2010-2012)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Pathmanathan, A & Snelling, I 2023, '', BMJ open, vol. 13, no. 9, e068202.

Snelling, I, Brown, H, Hardy, L, Somerset, L, Bosence, S & Thurlow, J 2023, '', BMJ Leader.

Snelling, I, Exworthy, M & Ghezelayagh, S 2020, '', Journal of Health, Organization and Management, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 1-15.

Snelling, I, Benson, L & Chambers, N 2019, '', Leadership in Health Services, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 85-100.

Dickinson, H, Snelling, I, Ham, C & Spurgeon, P 2017, '', Journal of Health, Organization and Management, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 430-444.

Dickinson, H, Ham, C, Snelling, I & Spurgeon, P 2013, '', Health Services Management Research, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 119-125.

Snelling, I 2010, '', Leadership in Health Services, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 172-179.

Snelling, I 2003, '', Journal of Health Organisation and Management, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 210-223.

Chapter

Sellman, D, Snelling, P & Snelling, I 2010, . in Becoming a Nurse, A textbook for professional practice. Pearson Education. <>

Sellman, D, Snelling, P, Snelling, I, Havard, C & Pontin, D 2010, . in Becoming a Nurse, A textbook for professional practice. Pearson Education. <>

Commissioned report

Brown, H, Hewison, A, Gale, N, Snelling, I & Shneerson, C 2015, Cancer Research UK. <>

Brown, H, Ellins, J, Kearney, J, Singh, K, Jackson, O, Krelle, H & Snelling, I 2014, . Cancer Research UK. <>

Dickinson, H, Ham, C, Snelling, I & Spurgeon, P 2013, . National Institute for Health Research, Southampton. <>

Ellins, J, Glasby, J, Tanner, D, McIver, S, Davidson, D, Littlechild, R, Snelling, I, Miller, R, Hall, K & Spence, K 2012, . National Institute for Health Research. <>

Working paper

Millar, R, Snelling, I & Brown, H 2011 '' ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, Health Services Management Centre, Birmingham. <>