Dame Julie Moore to take over STP

Senior sources in the health economy have told HSJ that the acute trust chief executive has been named as the successor to Mark Rogers, who stepped down last month. Her appointment has yet to be formally announced.

Dame Julie is chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham and Heart of England foundation trusts. The providers, which are merging, have a combined turnover of more than £1.4bn and provide the vast majority of acute care for the Birmingham and Solihull patch, making her one of the most powerful hospital leaders in the country and the dominant provider chief in the city.

• Read HSJ’s special report on lessons from the STP journey

Mr Rogers stepped down as Birmingham city council chief executive last month, days before a government appointed panel criticised the local authority’s leadership for its control of a programme of work to transform the organisation and make it financially sustainable.

He was appointed as STP lead because he was a high profile, neutral figure in a health economy where relationships were not always strong and sometimes acrimonious.

HSJ reported last month that Birmingham and Solihull’s three clinical commissioning groups, which are also in the process of merging, have delayed appointing a single accountable officer and have pulled back from committing to a shared financial control total for 2017-18.

In other parts of the country, groups of CCGs have appointed single accountable officers who will also be STP leads.

Sarah Blow, who was recently appointed as the joint chief officer of the five south west London CCGs at the end of last year, will become STP lead for that patch when she takes up the post later this month.

Helen Pettersen, the new joint chief officer of five north central London CCGs, has also been confirmed as become STP lead for the patch, replacing the Royal Free chief executive Sir David Sloman.