Sir, I would like to raise awareness of the Chief Dental Officer's Clinical Fellowship Scheme, which started in 2017 in partnership with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. The programme is designed as a way to develop and empower future leaders within the profession.

Leadership itself is an ambiguous term that's difficult to clearly define or measure. Despite this, leadership skills are increasingly cited as a key component to one's professional development. Indeed, demonstrating 'good leadership' is referred to in the GDC standards for anyone managing a team.1

In the literature there is clear evidence detailing the link between leadership and a range of important outcomes within health services, including patient satisfaction, patient mortality, organisational financial performance, staff well-being, engagement, turnover and absenteeism, and overall quality of care.2 Lack of leadership resulting in failing patient care is also well recognised.3

In September 2019 I joined eight other dental fellows on a 12-month non-clinical fellowship to explore themes like project management, healthcare policy, quality improvement and strategy. Each fellow is allocated a host (NHS England and NHS Improvement, GDC, CQC etc) and gets the opportunity to work with senior leaders within that organisation to better understand their function and agenda. Within its inceptive weeks the scheme has already offered me insight into how healthcare is commissioned, and begun to illuminate the rationale behind some policy decision making. As a group we have been motivated to work collaboratively and with others on a national platform with the aim to ultimately effect practical change.

This programme presents a fantastic opportunity for any young dentist who truly wants to develop their leadership skills and learn from influential actors within the dental profession. Applications for the next cohort of clinical fellows will open in March 2020.