Professor Sue Colley

During the Academic Year 2022-23 Sue will assume leadership of a Module delivered within the School of Health Sciences as part of the Post Graduate Taught Provision (Leadership and Management Pathway): Policy and Governance in Health and Social Care (HLTH 6222)

Throughout her career Sue has explored the application of  progressive pedagogies to engage in new ways of working with employers.  Increasingly health and social care providers, when faced with workforce development challenges,  express a need for specific academic expertise, rather than the more traditional approach of purchasing modules. In response to this Sue has developed her pedagogic skill-set as a ‘consultant to the workplace’, balancing academic rigor with relevant learning and teaching. Examples of her work are below:  

• South West Strategic Health Authority (2007): led the Faculty of Health Sciences response to the tender process that resulted in the successful award of a multi-professional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) contract that covered the geographical area of South Wiltshire. The provision offered within this contract addressed employer need for more flexible education packages that allowed for a ‘stepping off/stepping on’ approach to credit accumulation.  There was a degree of organisational diagnostic problem framing within the programme design and the programme was delivered in a range of employer settings.

• Southampton City PCT (2007): Following close consultation with Trust managers,  designed a pilot programme that focused on developing three levels of leadership capacity across the organisation. This was well evaluated and the PCT agreed a three year contract with the Faculty to continue this work. This was a significant achievement in relation to the University securing further strategic development funding related to Employer Engagement initiatives.

• Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust (2008-09):  Following a series of informal meetings,  led a Faculty team  who visited the Trust to discuss workforce development provision relating to: Chronic Disease Career Pathways and the Management of Long Term Conditions; Inter-professional Mentorship Programmes and Inter-professional Leadership programmes for Band 6/7 clinical staff. Regarding the latter, I personally led the design and delivery of the inter-professional Leadership Programme. This developed into an innovative programme that combined policy analysis, drama and improvisation to focus on leadership development related to Patient Safety and Service Improvement. Other health care providers expressed an interest in this work and I was invited to present the initiative as part of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme hosted by The Said Business School, University of Oxford. 

Sue has spent a major part of her career involved in health care and health care education, initially working in public health as a Health Visitor in South London, before joining King’s College London as part of the pioneering team that established The Nightingale Institute. Sue arrived at The University of Southampton in 2003 and her first post was to lead on the multi-million pound/multi stakeholder regional education contract that was awarded to the University by Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority. Between 2003-2010, under Sue’s leadership, the successful year-on-year delivery of this contract ensured that the preparation and development of the health care workforce was undertaken in close partnership with a range of health care providers, the shared focus being: excellent health care delivered by dedicated and well prepared health care professionals.

Sue’s heavy involvement in the formation of Health Sciences at Southampton fostered a personal skill set that included being comfortable with complexity and recognising the importance of encouraging innovation. As a result, in 2011, Sue extended her portfolio to include enterprise and international responsibilities. In 2018, upon the formation of the larger Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, Sue became Associate Dean International covering the disciplines of; Biological Sciences; Health Sciences; Geography and Environmental Science; Psychology and Ocean and Earth Science.