Events

This registration page is for online attendance only.

SOM Leadership Conference 2025 - Leading in challenging climates

SOM leadership event with the National Forum for Health & Wellbeing at Work

Thursday 9th October 9.15am-5.00pm, Online

An inclusive day for all disciplines offering inspiration to develop your leadership skills.

Current challenges are on many levels – margins are tight, AI is emerging, and geopolitical and social uncertainty is affecting business. What skill sets are needed for the future? What are the business cases we need? This day will pull the above themes through highlighting the need to work in a multidisciplinary way.

The agenda is as follows:

9.15-9.20am Welcome - Dr Lanre Ogunyemi & Dr Vicky Mason

9.20-10.05am Leading in challenging climates and managing in a digital age

Armchair conversation with Professor Sir Cary Cooper, CBE and Dr Richard Heron. Chair: Dr Vicky Mason  

10.05-10.50am Learning from Neurodivergent Leaders - Inclusivity for all

Managing challenging situations - learning from neurodivergent leaders and how do we integrate neurodivergence when leading? Professor Nancy Doyle with Q&A / discussion. Chair: Jo Vallom-Smith tbc

10.50-11.10am Morning break

11.10am-12.10pm Panel - My Leadership journey – what challenges did I overcome?

Dr Abeyna Jones, Jo Vallom-Smith, third speaker tbc. Chair: Dr Lanre Ogunyemi

12.10pm-12.55pm Skills in influencing and managing people and Boards in difficult situations

Dr Richard Heron. Chair: Dr Jill Crabbe tbc

12.55-1.55pm Lunch break (networking with opportunity to “mine the leaders” with speakers available to meet on a 1:1 basis - only available for in-person attendees)

1.55-2.55pm Discover your leadership competencies 

Prof Jo Yarker & Dr Nathan Palmer. Introduced by Nick Pahl, SOM CEO

Presenting the leadership competency framework with facilitated self / team discovery exercises to reflect about development needs / opportunities. What is your response to uncertainty, changing business contexts and the impact on the team’s needs?

2.55-3.40pm Leading in challenging environments- how does this feel personally? From threats do opportunities emerge?

Matt Day, NHS England, Director of clinical commissioning. Chair: Dr Hajnalka Sereg tbc

3.40-3.55pm Afternoon break

3.55-4.40pm Mitigating work-related stress

Prof Jo Yarker. Chair: Anne Clayson

4.40pm Wrap up and close - Dr Lanre Ogunyemi

Cost: £50 non-members; £40 SOM members (please log in before registering). Trainees in all fields (doctors and AHPs) can book at the discounted rate of £27 - contact Mimi.Eyeoyibo@som.org.uk for the discount code.

All nurses, doctors, AHPs and OH professionals, including trainees and students, are welcome.

This registration page is for online attendance only. The Zoom joining link will be emailed to you upon registration.

FREE for ALL (please log in on the SOM website first). 

Summary of webinar: 
A panel discussion on the career progression for nurses in Occupational Health. With panel members at various stages of their careers and some having branched out, this is an ideal opportunity to understand drivers, opportunities and ideas on career progression, with consideration of obstacles to overcome. 

Chaired by Janet O’Neill and Amanda Hinckley 

Presenter bios: 
Janet O'Neill is an OH Nurse Advisor,  Deputy Head of the National School of OH; Head of PAM Academy (PAM Group); Vice-President of iOH, and on the board of the Council of Work and Health. Janet is a keen advocate of mentoring in OH and supporting career progression for all OH professionals. 

Phina Amahoro is a Lecturer in the School of Health & Life Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland and a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (Occupational Health Nursing) with over 10 years’ experience across diverse healthcare settings. She has worked in acute care, community health, and occupational health roles with organisations such as Optima Health and PAM Group, developing expertise in case management, health promotion, and workforce wellbeing. Since completing her SCPHN at UWS in 2023, she has focused on shaping the next generation of OH specialists through curriculum development, postgraduate teaching, and work-based learning support. Alongside her academic role, she serves as a Board Member of the Faculty of Occupational Health Nursing (FOHN), contributing to professional advocacy and advancing the visibility and impact of OH nursing across the UK. She is passionate about community health and has supported initiatives within the Black community and in mental health across different charity settings. She has also contributed to projects that promote inclusion, wellbeing, and equitable access to care.

Saghir Siraj is Head of Occupational Health and Wellbeing at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Previously worked in several NHS organisations across London including Hillingdon Hospitals, Northwest London Hospitals, Hammersmith Hospitals and UCLH. My first OH post was in heavy industry in Sheffield, and I previously enjoyed working in ITU and Renal Nursing. I obtained my OH BSc from University of Sheffield in 1998 and completed my MSc in 2006 from Brunel University with my dissertation on work related stress. I have been involved in a number of developments within OH over the years including the vaccination Smart Card and the London wide OH Hub and spoke project. I recently led on the initial COVID vaccination roll out for Buckinghamshire employees and as a Non-Medical Prescriber, prescribed the fist vaccines before the national protocol was published. 

Rebecca Preece, Senior Occupational Health Advisor, studied to become a Nurse at Portsmouth University. Once graduated she was posted to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), Headley Court and spent four years caring for wounded, injured and sick service personnel, many of whom sustained horrific injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. She spent four months working as an Aeromedical Evacuation Liaison Officer in Kuwait, where she ensured the safe and swift passage of wounded, injured and sick service personnel from Op Telic. She has many fond memories of her time at DMRC and encountered some wonderful opportunities, such as escorting a teenage brain-injured soldier to Clarence House, where he was presented his Op Telic campaign medal by the then Prince Charles; she had to explain to HRH that the soldier could only communicate by drawing pictures due to his injury. 

Robert Manson is an independent Safety Health and Wellbeing specialist who provides consultancy services
to a variety of organisations both nationally and internationally. He is an experienced professional who has managed Occupational Health and Safety teams across the pharmaceutical, food retail and energy sectors for over 30 years. This included over 20 years experience in GlaxoSmithKline leading the Employee Health team in the UK as well as well delivering oprogrammes and undertaking health audits globally He has a Diploma in Life Coaching and has been coaching clients for over 10 years, specialising in mental health improvement, stress reduction and resilience enhancement. He has a BSc in Occupational Health, an MSc in Health Ergonomics and a NEBOSH Diploma in Health, Safety and Environment.
 

FREE for ALL. You will then be sent the joining link.

FREE for ALL (please log in on the SOM website first). 

Summary of webinar: 

This exclusive webinar for SOM will focus on bone biology, osteoporosis, and the effect that declining hormones have on bone mineral density, and the impact of osteoporosis on women’s life and working life.  It will also discuss remedies for increasing bone mineral density and improving health span and life span! 

Presenter bio: 
Dr Bill Robertson-Smith is a bone health researcher, campaigner, and has worked for 11 years as a Senior Surgical Care Practitioner specialising in sarcoma and lower limb arthroplasty within the NHS. She completed her Doctorate in 2022, researching the oncologic outcomes of synovial sarcoma in a UK population. Her interest in bone health started a few years ago when she realised that the vast number of fragility fractures in the women that she saw within the NHS, were largely preventable. In recent times she has worked with the author and menopause campaigner Kate Muir, GP and menopause specialist Dr Radhika Vohra, and author of The Feel Good Fix Lavina Mehta MBE with Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, launching a national campaign “Give your bones a break”  at Bloomberg, empowering women to take charge of their bone health. She has spoken about women’s bone health on numerous podcasts and has contributed to wider literature on the importance of hormones for women’s bone health in midlife. 

Chair: Emma Persand

FREE for ALL. You will then be sent the joining link.

FREE for SOM Members (please log in on the SOM website first). 

Session details:

Burnout is often spoken about in terms of systems, workload and resilience – but what happens when we explore it through a creative lens? This interactive webinar will consider how art, sketchnotes, and slow creative hobbies can support recovery from burnout, promote self-reflection, and help us reconnect with meaning in our work.
Drawing on personal experience, nursing practice, and examples from creative communities, Elfie will share how watercolour painting, illustration, sketchnoting, and other mindful activities have helped her slow down, process emotions, and challenge the pursuit of perfection. We will explore how creative expression, with its restorative and therapeutic qualities, can act as both an outlet and a mirror – helping people affected by burnout, or on the path towards it, to express themselves and articulate feelings that may be difficult to put into words.
Attendees will be invited to reflect on their own creative habits (or barriers to them) and consider how incorporating creativity into daily life, at work or at home, might offer new perspectives on burnout prevention and recovery.

Speaker bio:

Elfie Astbury is a Registered Nurse, Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA), and passionate advocate for creativity as a tool for wellbeing. Alongside her nursing career, Elfie practises digital illustration and watercolour painting, and enjoys slow creative hobbies such as crochet, embroidery and gardening. She believes these activities help harness their restorative and therapeutic qualities to nurture wellbeing and support mental health. Elfie is also an active proponent of using sketchnotes (visual note taking) to capture ideas and information in ways that reduce cognitive load and support diverse teams. Drawing on both professional insight and lived experience of mental health challenges, she has spoken at conferences and events about the benefits of creative expression in healthcare - from supporting staff wellbeing to enhancing communication and connection.

Chair: Professor Gail Kinman

FREE for SOM Members (please log in on the SOM website). You will then be sent the join link.