The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is leading a study looking at the impact of people management practices on the efficiency of the NHS.

The study aims to identify the human resource strategies that will improve the system, and the cultural developments needed to produce effective management.

The two and a half year enquiry will examine the results of consultations with over 40 NHS staff, reporting on existing practice within the system and looking at case studies.

The event was formally launched on 26 January, where leading speakers outlined their plans for coordinating this large review.

Duncan Brown, Assistant Director General of the CIPD, said: “It is now widely acknowledged that people management has a key role to play in delivering performance, and previous research has demonstrated relationships between how staff are managed and patient mortality rates.

“The first phase of this study demonstrated that the unique characteristics of the NHS makes applying ‘best practice’ derived from the private sector highly questionable, if not impossible strategy.”

The project, said Brown, will help one of the largest employers in the world to identify and spread good people management practices to ensure it can become more effective, and deliver its core objectives of improving health case service delivery to the UK population.

The CIPD is running the project in partnership with the NHS and the Healthcare People Management Association.