Leadership of struggling trust to be taken over as CEO announces sudden departure

Louise Robson told staff yesterday that she would be leaving Stockport Foundation Trust at the end of the week, to take up a secondment role with NHS England, HSJ has learned. She has been in post since January 2019.

It comes after a difficult 18-month period in which the trust has struggled to make improvements to the quality and performance of its emergency services, and during which there were several senior departures over the summer.

The emergency department was rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission in May 2020, and after a follow-up inspection in August, the regulator last week acknowledged “a number of improvements”, but said “more work was needed”.

In her secondment with NHSE, the trust said she would be supporting provider collaboration in seven health and care networks in the north of England. Asked why staff had only been told of her departure with five days’ notice, a trust spokeswoman said the provider collaborative work needed to be “carried out at pace”.

Karen James, chief executive of Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care FT has agreed to lead both trusts on a joint basis for the next 12 months, after which the arrangements will be reviewed.

In a statement, Ms Robson said: “It is exciting to be given the opportunity to help shape a new more devolved way of working that will put NHS provider organisations at the forefront of developing new systems and healthcare economies to meet the needs of local communities.”

Adrian Belton, the trust chair, said: “We are extremely grateful to Louise for the work she has done over the last two years to lay the foundations of an extensive improvement plan that the organisation is now starting to see the benefit of. This is a tremendous opportunity for Louise and we wish her well for the future.”

“I am sure that under the leadership of Karen we will see further improvements to the long standing challenges facing the Trust and the local health and care system. She will bring clinically led expertise in quality and performance improvement, but also a deep commitment to employee engagement, partnership and integrated working. I am confident Karen will enhance the skills available to our board.”