Person-centred Cultures: A FoNS Development Programme

This programme is now open for 2026 applications

We are delighted to announce applications are now open for 2026 for this unique programme designed to support clinical nurse and midwife leaders in the development of person-centred cultures.

Now in its third year, this programme follows on from the hugely successful and transformative Inspire Improvement Fellowship. FoNS has been working with nurses and midwives for over 30 years and is a leader in culture change work in the health and care sector.

FoNS believes that in services that are person-centred, care will be the best it can be, staff will feel valued and enabled to innovate.

This programme benefits from FoNS’s immense experience in facilitation of learning and understanding of culture change in the health and social care sector. The transformative nature of FoNS’s programmes can be seen in ‘Our Stories‘.

It is practice-based – you learn in and from your own practice benefitting from FoNS’s hugely successful approach to learning and development.

The programme will be underpinned by the Person-centred Practice Framework (PCPF) (McCormack and McCance, 2020).

We welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds in any health or social care setting, from anywhere in the UK.

Closes 5pm, 14 June 2026.

S1R1C1

This is a fully funded programme. Year 3 will run from September 2026 to May 2027 and offers:

Learning Blocks

The three learning blocks to:

Develop skills as facilitative leaders of culture change
Explore and enable the use of effective strategies for creating person-centred workplace cultures
Promote continuous improvement

The blocks are:

Block 1

Face-to-face

One and a half days, residential (face-to-face), 16/17 September 2026

Block 2

Virtual

Four full-day online workshops:

15 October 2026
26 November 2026
28 January 2027
11 March 2027

Block 3

Face-to-face

Full day (with residential) workshop 6 May 2027 (including overnight hotel stay on 5 May)

The workshop is fully funded including reasonable travel expenses if required.

The programme will be underpinned by the Person-centred Practice Framework (PCPF) (McCormack and McCance, 2020) and informed by FoNS’s extensive expertise in culture change in health and social care.

On-going support

The Programme includes a variety of support mechanisms.

2.a. Support via virtual meetings/ telephone/email from a FoNS Person-centred Practice Facilitator to:

Refine and use skills in facilitation to lead and develop their team
Promote reflective practice
Support problem-solving
Undertake evaluation and actively share outcomes via report writing and publishing to spread learning across their organisation and more widely

2.b. Peer-to-peer mentorship, based on the Critical Allies Framework (Hardiman, 2017).

2.c. All participants are required to secure the support of an internal mentor (for example the participants line manager) who will ensure that support and time are available for culture change and practice improvement work.

After the programme

All FoNS participants are warmly welcomed into the ‘FoNS family’, and are encouraged to continue their connection with FoNS, through writing blogs, attending alumni events and potentially participating in other programmes.

The programme is open to applicants from any care setting in health and social care across the UK. We encourage applications from across the UK, and from any health or social care background.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds.

FoNS is looking for nurses, health visitors and midwives who have a desire to create more person-centred cultures within the teams they lead, the people who receive care and their families/loved ones/carers.

Applicants should:

Hold a UK NMC registration
Be leading a nursing and/or care team
Be the direct line manager for the members of the team
Be willing to explore person-centred culture and continuous improvement
Be able to commit to all the workshop dates of the programme

Application process

Application Pack Here

Application timetable

Closing date for applications:	5pm 14 June 2026
Short-listing by FoNS – applicants informed by:	29 June 2026
Interviews:	13 and 14 July 2026*
Applicants informed of outcome by:	20 July 2026**
Successful applicants to confirm their attendance:	27 July 2026**
First workshop:	16/17 September 2026

* Please ensure you can attend an interview during this time period. Your line manager will be invited to join the first 5 minutes of the interview to confirm his/her support for your application. You can choose to be in the same place as your line manager or can access the online interview separately.

** We will inform applicants of the outcome by email, using the email you have put on your application. If you will be unable to access your emails during this time, please give us an alternative communication method.

Read all the information on this page of the FoNS website
Consider the technical and time aspects of this programme:
You will need to be able to attend the face-to-face and virtual sessions and will need access to a computer with a camera and microphone that can use MS Teams. You will need to be able to use a quiet private space.
You need to be free for all the sessions (dates will be published as part of the application pack)

Drop-in sessions have been arranged to enable potential applicants to find out more.

FoNS Person-centred Cultures Development Programme: Drop-in session 1

7 April 12-12.30

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/39787734822393?p=Uc0Jqf99x58ISrOcf5

Meeting ID: 397 877 348 223 93

Passcode: Sz3QW7SR

FoNS Person-centred Cultures Development Programme: Drop-in session 2

22 April 12-12.30

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/38828873504552?p=4I8pnAV4TaMNlaIRch

Meeting ID: 388 288 735 045 52