Take part in the Connect ‘Walking in Their Shoes’ programme

If you are passionate about the potential to build a more connected health and care system, and would value the opportunity to gain experience of cross-boundary working, and to reflect on and develop your system leadership practice, the Walking in Their Shoes programme is for you.

Sign up to take part in the first cohort by the end of 14 March.

This is a uniquely flexible learning opportunity to connect with a like-minded peer from another sector or profession experiencing a common challenge from a different perspective. Participants can expect to develop a deeper understanding of our health and care system by gaining insights into the different cultures, constraints and opportunities their counterparts work with.

It is open to anyone from organisations that contribute to health and care in south east London, regardless of role.

How to take part

To take part, fill in this form outlining which of the below cross-boundary challenges you’re most passionate about tackling:

• empowering and nurturing our workforce
• harnessing the power of our communities
• staying well – making prevention a reality
• going green – achieving net zero in health and care services
• getting the best start in life – focusing on our children and young people in SEL
• parity of esteem – the importance of mind and body
• the challenge of continuity – caring for complexity
• innovation – spreading and scaling new ideas.

Based on this, we will undertake a matching process to ensure a ‘good fit’ between applicants with shared areas of interest.

Deadline to sign up: 11.59pm, Tuesday 14 March.

We are hosting two online information sessions for anyone who would like to find out more about the role – details of these are on the ‘Information for applicants’ page.

What is Walking in Their Shoes?

Walking in Their Shoes is a peer-to-peer exchange programme within the Connect South East London System Leaders Community. Participants will be matched with another community member from a different sector or profession based on shared interests. Each pair will then commit to spending a minimum of a day walking in one another’s shoes over a six month period.

The programme is designed to be flexible and to suit individual needs and learning objectives. Exchange activities could include: on-the-job shadowing, meeting your exchange partner’s colleagues or front-line staff, attending work meetings, paired conversations, attending events/conferences together.

Anyone that contributes to health and care across sectors in south east London is able to participate, regardless of role or experience.

The aim of the programme is to provide a platform for cross-boundary knowledge sharing where peers working on similar challenges can gain an insight into the different cultures, constraints and opportunities their counterparts work with.

Why walk in another’s shoes?

Taking part in the Walking in Their Shoes programme offers many benefits including:

• space to reflect on what it means to be a system leader
• an opportunity to enhance your awareness of another organisation and/or sector, developing an understanding of their challenges, business planning processes and governance
• an independent and confidential sounding board to exchange and challenge ideas and explore innovative ways of working that both motivate and inspire you
• a fresh perspective on your own role, improving leadership skill capacity
• a chance to gain some mutual informal mentoring
• the ability to share best practice and encourage collaborative working
• development of a new relationship with a cross-sector or profession colleague, gaining essential connections and future networking opportunities.

The ‘Walking in Their Shoes’ programme is part of Connect, a south east London system leadership community. By taking part, pairs will be contributing directly to Connect’s mission to increase the number and quality of connections across boundaries in service of working together to deliver kinder, more equitable care for south east Londoners:

• an exchange creates stronger links and a greater understanding between organisations, highlighting areas of synergy and opportunity for mutual benefit
• exchanges can act as a conduit between areas of work once a strong link is built between individuals.