Effecting a national implementation project through distributed leadership in the West Midlands: rising to the spread challenge

We describe the utility and impact of a distributed leadership model to implement a National Health Service (NHS) England Academic Health Sciences national quality improvement programme, in the West Midlands. This model was adopted to address the inherent difficulties of implementing change in practice in a large geographical region with a diverse population of health service personnel. We report on the inclusion of a senior trainee as part of the implementation team, supported by a multidisciplinary clinical consultant team, with equal agency in decision making, acting as mentors and activators in the background.