- At 14 of 20 trusts in NHSE’s lowest “oversight” tier, the CEO and/or chair has been deplaced in the past two years
- Four of those trusts have seen both CEO and chair change
- Comes as health and social care secretary threatens to “sack persistently failing managers”
Three out of four of the worst-performing trusts have seen their CEO and/or chair replaced in the last two years, HSJ analysis shows, following Wes Streeting’s vow to “sack” more bad leaders.
The findings suggest there is already a high turnover of leaders of the most struggling organisations often — although not always — triggered by their performance problems and sometimes encouraged by government and NHS England.
Twenty trusts are already in the lower rung — tier 4 — of NHSE’s national oversight framework, based on a range of performance and finance measures, as well as their leadership, and the judgement of NHSE officials. The “league tables” promised by Mr Streeting are due to be based on an updated oversight and assessment framework.
At 14 of the 20, the CEO or chair has changed in the past two years. At four, both have changed. The median time in post of the CEOs and chairs of these organisations is currently a year and 11 months.
In a statement published on Wednesday ahead of Mr Streeting’s speech to NHS Providers’ conference in Liverpool, the Department of Health and Social Care said there would be “no more turning a blind eye to failure” and declared “persistently failing managers [will] be sacked”.
CEO and chairs’ start dates at ‘tier 4’ trusts
| Trust | CEO Name | Joined on | Chair Name | Joined on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust | Tracey Fletcher | Apr-22 | Stewart Baird | Jan-24 |
| Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust | Karen Howell | Jun-24 | Tony Warne | Jan-24 |
| Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Ron Sheilds | Jul-23 | Lynne Hunt | Apr-24 |
| Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Alex Whitfield | Apr-17 | Steve Eskrine | Jan-19 |
| Isle of Wight NHS Trust | Penny Emerit | Jun-23 | Melloney Poole | Oct-20 |
| King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Clive Kay | Apr-19 | Sir David Behan | Jun-24 |
| Medway NHS Foundation Trust | Jayne Black | Aug-22 | John Goulston | Jun-24 |
| Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust | Matthew Hopkins | Aug-23 | Nigel Beverley | Dec-19 |
| Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | Caroline Donovan | Oct-23 | Zoe Billingham | Jan-22 |
| Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust | Anthony May | Sep-22 | Nick Carver | Feb-22 |
| Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Ifti Majid | Dec-22 | Paul Devlin | Jan-20 |
| Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust | Penny Emerit | Mar-21 | Melloney Poole | Nov-17 |
| Royal Devon University Healthcare Foundation Trust | Sam Higginson | Jan-24 | Dame Shan Morgan | Apr-22 |
| Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | Jo Williams | Sep-24 | Andrew Morgan | Oct-24 |
| South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | David Eltringham | Mar-23 | Professor Chris Balch | Jan-22 |
| South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | Simon Weldon | Apr-23 | Usman Awais Khan | May-24 |
| Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust | Liz Davenport | Oct-18 | Professor Chris Balch | May-24 |
| University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust | David French | Apr-21 | Jenni Douglas-Todd | Jul-22 |
| University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust | Richard Mitchell | Oct-21 | Andrew Moore | Jul-24 |
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | Mark Hackett | Aug-24 | James Brent | Aug-22 |
Meanwhile, of the three integrated care boards in tier 4, two of their chairs are currently being replaced, two-and-a-half years after the organisations were created. Two of their CEOs have been in place since they set up in July 2022, while one was replaced in February this year.
The high turnover at tier 4 organisations chimes with findings of the government’s independent senior salaries review body, whose July report said: ”Turnover of senior leaders is high, at 15 per cent for [very senior managers]…
“These difficulties particularly affect challenged trusts. Trusts rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission have vacancy rates and proportions of executives in their first year which are several times higher than those of ‘outstanding’ trusts.”
HSJ research last summer found nearly two-thirds of trusts had a “first-time” CEO, while one-third of the sector’s CEOs had only been in their post for 18 months or less.
*This story was updated at 15:48 on 18/11/2024 to amend Tony Warne’s start date to January 2024.
Source
HSJ anlysis/DHSC announcements
13 Readers' comments