Practice Manager Supporters

Wessex LMCs is delighted to offer support to Practice Managers through our Practice Manager Supporters who are based throughout Wessex.

Practice Manager Supporters provide ad hoc advice and support to their practice manager colleagues, and offer learning opportunities to support Continuous Professional Development for PMs. The PM Supporters offer coaching and mentoring to new and experienced practice managers, and have specific training to enable them to appraise fellow practice managers. They offer support in person, via email or on the telephone.

The Practice Manager Supporters will work in a completely confidential way, but are duty bound to take forward any issues that are brought to their attention that may be unsafe in any way. They are not able to offer any legal advice, but will assist in signposting their colleagues towards useful resources and assistance. They will contact new Practice Managers to introduce themselves and offer any support that they might need.

The PM Supporters will respond to your request for help as quickly as they can. The PM Supporters are financed for two sessions per month by the LMC, to support the practices and the LMC office is open 5 days per week. There is a lot of experience in the office, and all staff members of the LMC are keen to offer support and help with any query that you might have.

What special skills can a PM Supporter offer?

An informal chat with new PMs
Appraisals
Coaching & Mentoring
Action Learning Set Facilitator Services
Time Management top tips
Delegation hints
Hints on resilience for you and your team

The PM Supporter can offer general advice on:

NHS Structure
HR
IT
Finance
Stress & workload

Feedback from Practice Managers:

My PM Supporter has been a great help and an inspiration for my plans moving forward. I am already planning how to delegate some of the minor financial things. The meeting gave me the confidence to know that I can do so as this has previously always sat with the PM. (Sally, March 2020)

(My PM Supporter) was very professional, approachable and I felt comfortable to be able to share with her my issues over the last couple of years. (My PM Supporter) gave me the confidence to move forward by getting me to review my workload, acknowledge it’s not possible to manage everything (although as PM’s I feel it’s something we’re expected to do), let go of things that I’ve tried to change without success, not work more than my contracted 37.5 hours per week and make sure I take my non-working day off.

It helps to be able to speak to someone who understands the role and the pressure we face on a daily basis. (I now have the) confidence to inform the partners, work to the plan and move forward (PM, July 2019)

“I would like to thank you for all your support, advice and guidance over the last few months, I very much took on board your advice and I remembered you saying to me- 'what do YOU want to do'

Thank you again, you really did help me focus on what I needed to do” ( PM June 2019)

Thank you so much for organising my PM Mentor session. I have just had my first session and learnt loads! It is such a relief to know that the Practice Manager is at the end of an email or telephone call; just the thing a new PM needs. There are some bits of the job that you just can't research, so the experience is invaluable. The Practice Manager I spoke to was extremely patient and explained things in easy to understand terms so one doesn't feel stupid. She was really reassuring and now I don't feel as intimidated by the role as I did. It is also good to know that when I am feeling that the amount of work us PMs need to do isn't humanly possible, even the most experienced of PMs can have thoughts like that too...phew!

I readily admit I had lost my confidence and 'mojo'. I found the session more then helpful. It helped focus me on a way forward to help me cope with the pressures I have at the Practice and helped me take a different view of things. It was thought provoking and enlightening and I feel so much more positive about the future

Thank you so much for arranging a session with your PM Supporter, it has been like a breath of fresh air. We have talked through so many things today and the supporter easily understood the issues I face and helped me with a plan going forward.

Our CQC report was published last week and we are delighted to have achieved a ‘Good’ result for all domains and in all population groups. I am very grateful for your PM Supporters input towards this result.

Our PM Supporters are:

Note: All PM Supporters are trained to undertake Practice Manager appraisals.

You may also be interested in our interactive booklet :Support for General Practice Staff - What is available

Some of our PM Supporters are also available to work in a locum PM capacity. Please find some feedback for one of them from a grateful GP:

First time in 5 years that the practice has:

spent less than it earnt.

Highest opening balance in 4 years.

Lowest debt in 3 years.

First time we’ve had business savings account running as a back- up.

You’ve done a hell of a job for us to turn the ship round. We’re so grateful to you, we were so close to going under its scary"

Locum Support for the Practice Team

Click here to find a list of GPs, PMs, Nurses and Practice Staff who are advertising their capacity to work as locums. (please note you must be logged into the website with your email and password to view). It's recommend that practices and individuals using our jobs pages undertake their own due diligence, before entering into an agreement.