The NHS in Practice: Structure, Finance and Decision Making - A Course for NHS Doctors, Nurses and Healthcare Professionals 

Most NHS professionals work within complex organisational and financial systems every day, but many have never been shown how those systems actually function or how to engage with them confidently. This course gives you a clear, practical understanding of how Trusts are structured, how decisions are made, how money flows, and how organisations are held to account. You will learn how to interpret the systems around you, understand your place within them, and contribute more effectively without needing a background in management or finance.

What the course covers:

• How a Trust is structured in practice, including boards, committees, and how authority and accountability are distributed
• Decision making in the NHS: where decisions are made, how they move through the system, and how to influence them appropriately
• The wider health economy: how your organisation fits within integrated care systems and the relationships between providers, commissioners, and regulators
• Commissioning explained: what it is, how it works, and how services are planned and funded
• Funding models in the NHS: including payment by results and how financial flows shape behaviour and priorities
• Contracts, service specifications, and KPIs: what they mean in practice and how they drive performance and accountability
• Budgets and finance: understanding reports, financial pressures, and cost improvement programmes without needing to be a finance expert
• The business case process: how ideas become funded projects, what makes a strong case, and how to navigate approval pathways

By the end of the course, you will be able to understand how your organisation functions, interpret financial and contractual information with confidence, follow and influence decision making pathways, and work more effectively within the wider NHS system to support safe, efficient, and sustainable care.