Women shaping health systems: Lessons from Amaree Conference 2025

There are moments in the evolution of a sector when the conversation sharpens - when lived experience, strategic insight, and moral courage converge to shift the narrative fundamentally. The Amaree Women’s Network 2nd Conference, held at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in December, was one such moment.

Bringing together leaders from across the NHS, social care, academia, charities, and community organisations, the event centred on the powerful theme “Impactful voices: Women shaping systems.” But this was far more than a conference. It was a national commentary on where our health and care system stands today and a blueprint for what change must look like to be equitable, sustainable, and safe.

At a time of tightening budgets, workforce pressures, industrial action, declining international recruitment, widening inequalities and accelerating digital transformation, the discussions at Amaree felt both urgent and necessary. And for organisations like The Mandatory Training Group, whose work spans compliance, leadership development, governance, digital readiness, and workforce transformation, the insights offered are rich and highly practical.

In this blog, Dr Richard Dune reflects on key insights from the Amaree Women’s Network Conference 2025, highlighting how women’s voices are reshaping leadership, equity and system change across health and care. This article distils the conference’s most powerful lessons on culture, governance and workforce transformation.

Leadership reframed - Attitude, ambition and achievement

Dr Nola Ishmael OBE opened the day with a message that cut through the noise of modern leadership rhetoric. For her, leadership rests on three deceptively simple pillars:

1. Attitude - A commitment to professionalism, learning and integrity - even when systems make this difficult

2. Ambition - Not entitlement, but curiosity. A disciplined willingness to read, question, learn, and seek mentorship

3. Achievement - Measured not just in titles, but in impact: lifting others, modelling excellence, and strengthening the system.

In a sector grappling with trauma, low morale and chronic understaffing, Dr Ishmael’s challenge was unapologetically direct: Intellectual passivity is incompatible with leadership responsibility.

This message resonated strongly with women of the global majority, who continue to face structural barriers to progression. For many, ambition is not simply aspiration - it is resistance. For MTG, her emphasis reinforces why leadership development, CPD pathways, accessible training and robust governance frameworks remain essential tools for levelling the playing field.

Truth-telling, integrity and the cost of leadership

One of the most powerful testimonies came from Evonne Hunt, Chief Nurse at Medway NHS Foundation Trust. Speaking candidly about her experience of racism, organisational hostility and professional isolation - followed by vindication - she gave voice to challenges that too often sit in the shadows of our system.

Her message was anchored in a single line: “Tell the truth and let the devil be ashamed.” This was not simply a personal reflection; it was a call to action.

Evonne’s emphasis on documentation, escalation, psychological safety and values-led leadership echoes longstanding concerns identified in national workforce reviews, including those by Roger Kline. Data consistently show that the global majority of staff are disproportionately subjected to disciplinary processes, exclusion and slower progression.

Evonne’s story is not an anomaly. It is a mirror. It challenges not only organisational cultures but also leadership training, regulatory processes, and the wider compliance ecosystem. For MTG partners and clients: how organisations respond to concerns is a measure of integrity, not inconvenience.

Systems as people - Reimagining culture from the inside out

A recurring theme throughout the day was that systems are not abstract entities; people, behaviours, policies and relationships shape them. Where culture thrives, people thrive. Where culture fails, systems fracture.

Four key insights emerged. These are as follows:

1. Healing and accountability start with individuals

Lillian Morris urged leaders to view system change not as a distant ambition but as a personal responsibility. She called for trauma-informed, human-centred approaches that prioritise compassion over compliance tick-boxing.

This aligns strongly with patient safety, human factors and Safety-II approaches - areas increasingly embedded across MTG’s governance and safety curricula.

2. Belonging as a strategic imperative

Senior academic Alwin Puthenpurakal argued that the greatest barrier to thriving is not a lack of skill but the environment.
In the context of rising aggression, polarised rhetoric and social divisions, staff carry emotional burdens that go unseen.

His call for cultures rooted in belonging, dignity and learning aligns with the national shift toward Just Culture, and underscores why leadership programmes must centre on behaviours, not just performance metrics.

3. The experiences of Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs)

Some of the most sobering reflections came from internationally educated colleagues who spoke of:

• Visa precarity

• Debt and financial pressure

• Trauma and cultural dislocation

• Subtle and overt discrimination

• Lack of support during induction and beyond.

Their accounts exposed the system’s central paradox: The NHS relies heavily on global-majority clinicians, yet struggles to value, retain or protect them.

This is not simply a workforce gap; it is a system vulnerability.

4. Authenticity as a leadership discipline

Emily Fernandez spoke powerfully about representation, visibility and imposter syndrome as a senior Filipino nurse leader. Her message, “Be visible, be consistent, be purposeful.”, was a reminder that authenticity is not softness, but discipline.

Authentic leadership is essential for building trust, particularly in regulatory and high-stakes environments.

The ‘Fourth Shift’ - Workforce, community and research integration

Among the most forward-looking ideas of the day was the “Fourth Shift” articulated by Rudi Page FRSA, the integration of workforce development, community engagement, faith networks and research capacity to shape systems from the neighbourhood up.

This perspective reflects major policy trends:

• The move toward place-based care within ICSs

• Recognition of faith and community settings as trusted health spaces

• Expansion of community-anchored research, particularly around inequalities

• Growing emphasis on prevention, social value and community assets.

Rudi’s message was unmistakable: Systems must be co-designed with the communities they serve. This resonates strongly with MTG’s work on community partnerships, cultural competence, and equitable workforce development.

Equity through partnership - The expanding role of NHS charities

Ellie Orton OBE, CEO of NHS Charities Together, highlighted the increasingly strategic role of NHS charities in tackling inequality - particularly in relation to:

• Women’s health

• Mental health

• Domestic abuse

• Loneliness

• Community wellbeing.

Her examples illuminated a key truth: Equity requires resources, relationships and action; not statements.

In a post-COVID landscape, voluntary and community sector organisations are no longer peripheral partners; they are essential contributors to system resilience and innovation.

Human factors, innovation and workforce wellbeing

Innovation was a running theme throughout the day; not simply digital, but relational.

Restorative Clinical Supervision (RCS) as workforce innovation

Martin Hogan showcased the impact of restorative clinical supervision on:

• Staff wellbeing

• Psychological safety

• Retention
  

• Patient safety

• Culture change.

At a time when burnout, sickness absence and attrition are at record levels, relational innovation is not optional; it is foundational. His message aligns strongly with MTG’s work in:

• Safety culture

• Clinical governance

• Leadership and well-being training

• Supporting psychologically safe teams.

And it underscores a crucial insight: The future of safety will depend as much on relational competence as on digital capability.

The role of allies and system architects

Throughout the conference, the work of key allies was repeatedly acknowledged, including:

• Roger Kline – Workforce inequality, disciplinary disparity, fair culture

• Bren McInerney – Community voice, patient leadership, international collaboration

• Elizabeth Carter – Leadership development, narrative practice

• Ruth May and Duncan Burton – Strategic support for the network.

Their contributions reflect a simple but essential truth: System change requires courageous insiders and committed allies.

Towards a more inclusive, safer and sustainable future

Across every session, one message returned: Systems do not shift on their own. People shift them. And when women of the global majority lead, they bring clarity, compassion, and conviction; qualities our system urgently needs.

The Amaree Women’s Network is not merely supporting leaders; it is reshaping leadership itself. It is redefining:

• What influence looks like

• What safety and equity require

• What community-centred care can become

• What systems should look like when they reflect the people they serve.

The Amaree 2nd Conference was a blueprint, not just for the NHS or the care sector, but for a more just, humane and resilient future. As debates continue on workforce reform, digital safety, governance, human factors, community partnership and inclusion, the voices amplified at Amaree must not simply be applauded.

They must be embedded into the systems we build next.

May every voice elevated in that room inspire many more to rise - and may the systems they enter be ready to receive them.