A joint executive team has been announced across the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, to offer unified leadership as part of the transition to a single organisation.
It follows the announcement from Keir Starmer back in March that NHS England would be brought back “at the heart of government, where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, more money for nurses – an NHS refocused on cutting waiting times at your hospital”.
The joint executive team will help bring policy and delivery from both organisations together, managing directors from related work areas from 3 November 2025. Joint regional teams have also been established to focus on local delivery, improvement, and performance.
Members of the executive team include Samantha Jones, DHSC permanent secretary; Jim Mackey, CEO of NHS England; Chris Whitty, CMO; Tom Riordan, COO; Matthew Style, director general, system development; Duncan Burton, CNO for England; Catherine Frances, director general, global, public health and emergencies; Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser and director general, science and research; Sally Warren, interim director general, adult social care; Elizabeth O’Mahony, interim director general, finance; Jo Lenaghan, interim director general, people; Claire Fuller and Meghana Pandit, interim medical directors; and David Probert, interim director general, performance and delivery. Still to be announced are the roles of interim director general for strategy and healthcare policy, interim director general for technology and data, and interim director general for commercial and growth.
Regional leads include Louise Shepherd for the North West; Fiona Edwards for the North East and Yorkshire; Dale Bywater for the Midlands; Clare Panniker for the East of England; Caroline Clarke for London; Sue Doheny for the South West; and Anne Eden for the South East.
National Priority Programmes are being set up to deliver on the government’s key priorities for health, with an assigned programme director taking the lead in each different area. Mark Cubbon will lead on planned care, whilst Sarah-Jane Marsh will lead on urgent and emergency care. Duncan Burton will be the interim programme director for maternity, women’s health, children and young people; Claire Fuller will be interim programme director for neighbourhood health; Amanda Doyle will continue as NHSE national director of primary care and community services; and Glen Burley will continue as NHSE financial reset and accountability director. The programme director for mental health, learning disability and autism is yet to be recruited.
Wider trend: NHS reform
An NHS transformation executive team was announced back in March to help lead the transition of NHS England into the DHSC and “support ongoing business priorities, statutory functions and day to day delivery”.
The UK government has published its Fit for the Future: The 10 Year Health Plan for England, aiming to “build a truly modern NHS”, with focus on moving from hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention. The plan outlines a new operating model, a new era of transparency, a new workforce model with staff aligned to the direction, a reshaped innovation strategy, and a different approach to NHS finances. AI, technology and digital tools play a key role in realising the ambitions in the plan, with the UK government signalling the intention for patients to gain “real control through a single, secure and authoritative account of their data and single patient record” aiming to deliver more co-ordinated, personalised and predictive care.
For a HTN Now panel discussion, we were joined by experts from across the health sector to dissect the findings from Lord Darzi’s report, reflecting on what is holding the NHS back from innovation; the challenges and missed opportunities; and the role of digital and tech in driving change, supporting a focus on prevention and promoting integrated care. Panellists included Lee Rickles, CIO, director & deputy SIRO at Humber Teaching Hospitals; Andrew Jones, digital transformation leader at Amazon Web Services; Tracy McClelland, CCIO; and Dan Bunstone, clinical director at Warrington Innovation Network and Warrington ICB.
