Rupinder Singh
same time as me. Together, we introduced a more evidence-based approach to a clinical strategy, and built more constructive relationships with other providers in the region. We also rebuilt trust with clinicians so that we could constructively discuss options for reconfiguring services.” What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve ever learned? “Do your homework and know the person you are speaking to – what drives them and where incentives might align. Learning about leadership, developing skills and demonstrating good leadership is a lifetime job.” What’s the secret to your own success? “I would say that I can understand and recognise the underlying drivers of issues and formulate credible strategic solutions.” How do you like to relax at the end of a long day? “When I am working away from home, I tend to run or swim in the evenings, Skype my lovely family and then watch Netflix. When I’m at home, it’s all about my wife and children.”
chief executive, the finance director, and maybe the director of commissioning, sitting round a table in a darkened room. That’s shifting now.” He cites the example of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which developed a clinical policy group – a body of clinicians that has direct conversations with the board and help to shape clinical strategy. “It’s a great model that needs to be replicated across other NHS organisations.”
Life on the other side In 2014, Singh decided to leave Monitor and use his regulatory experience to help healthcare providers. He set up his own consultancy practice to support providers in financial, operational and strategic distress. He also works with organisations that are developing new models of care. “Initially, it felt like being thrown from the shallow end into the deep end with no armbands,” he recalls. “Thankfully, I quickly learnt to swim. My primary motivation is having the ability to deliver genuine change and become a disrupter.” He spent the first 14 months of self-employment acting as interim director of strategy and partnerships for the University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Trust. In this role, he was responsible for developing the trust’s long-term
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strategy, and fostering relationships with privatesector organisations. “It was a steep learning curve for me,” he says. “It is difficult, when you work for the regulator, to appreciate the wide spectrum and complexity of the challenges faced by providers. But I helped the trust to understand what the regulator expected of it, and to gain valuable breathing space to deliver necessary changes.” Since then, Singh has gone on to work with numerous other organisations, directing complex projects related to clinical strategy, financial turnaround, leadership reviews, new models of care, peer-to-peer groups and system transformation projects. He is also chief commercial officer of Kraydel, a provider of in-home monitoring systems that support the elderly to live safely and comfortably in their own houses. “My views and understanding of leadership have considerably matured during my post-regulator life,” he comments.
Like father, like son Singh admits that his biggest personal and professional inspiration was his own father, a civil engineer who moved his family to the UK from India in the 1960s. “He worked seven days a week,” he says. “And he always tried to set an example in terms of how you should treat others. If a tradesman fixed something in the house, he always paid them more than they asked for, to show appreciation for what they had done. That’s always stuck with me.” The family lived in London to begin with, on a street where all their neighbours were white. “I saw racism as normal when I was growing up,” Singh explains. “I remember stones and bricks being thrown through our windows almost every week. When my mother went outside, children would often bounce footballs off her head. It could have pushed me towards being negative about particular people, but my father used to say: ‘All of this is born out of ignorance. None of it is personal.’ He was determined not to move, and he taught me not to give up. Some of the people who made our lives a misery then are among our best friends today.” In his own career, Singh has never felt discriminated against, although he says that some of his Asian friends working across different sectors have experienced discrimination. He admits that his own perspective has been heavily influenced by his involvement with the NHS, however. “The NHS has a long history of being populated by the best, regardless of their race and gender,” he says. “But, even so, I’m not saying that discrimination doesn’t exist. I’m just saying that I have not personally experienced it.”
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CAREER TIMELINE 1992-1998 Senior consultant with Arthur Andersen 1998 – 2004 Held finance and business analyst roles with various private-sector organisations 2004 – 2007 Assessment manager, Monitor 2007 – 2012 Senior regional manager for North East England and South West England, Monitor 2012 – 2013 Head of continuity of services implementation, Monitor 2013 – 2014 Head of monitoring project for independent providers, Monitor 2014 – 2015 Interim director of strategy and partnerships, University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Trust 2014 – present Director, Ward to Board Consulting; chief commercial officer, Kraydel
Sally Percy is editor of ‘Edge’
29/06/2017 16:51