Twenty trusts in region now sharing chairs and CEOs

East London and North East London foundation trusts made the decision to move to shared leadership on Friday. They said this followed both their councils of governors, which have a formal role in FT chair appointments, having “explored the benefits” of a joint arrangement.

Once the recruit is in place, and a joint chair is in place across four northwest London acute trusts, there will be 20 trusts in the capital out of a total 34 which are sharing chairs and/or chief executives (see list below).

ELFT chief executive Paul Calaminus said: “This [appointment] is about continuing to develop strong and vibrant collaboration between our two trusts.

“One of the insights during covid has been seeing all the skills and abilities we have between us working alongside each other to improve services for patients.

“The appointment of a joint chair for the two trusts is a natural progression from that collaborative work and will make that close co-operation and planning even more effective, bringing benefits for the people of northeast London.”

The move in ELFT comes after its current chair Mark Lam was appointed to the same role at North Middlesex University Hospital Trust, in addition to being chair at neighbouring Royal Free London FT. The chair role at NELFT is expected to become vacant soon.

HSJ previously revealed the significant variation in how much chairs of two or more trusts were paid for their additional roles.

The process for the joint chair appointment has begun and the successful candidate is expected to be in place during the spring.

UPDATE: This article has been updated after it was announced Matthew Swindells would become joint chair of northwest London’s four acute trusts from April 2022

Shared chairs and chiefs in London