A hybrid leader shaped by disruption
Jo’s route into digital leadership wasn’t mapped out for her. She built it herself. Originally trained as an occupational therapist over 20 years ago, she quickly realised that structured leadership pathways weren’t as clearly defined for therapists as they were for doctors or nurses. Rather than wait for that opportunity, she created her own path.
Midway through her career, she stepped into operational leadership roles, mobilising brand-new primary care and children’s mental health services and working closely with GPs. It was there she became a “hybrid leader” who is equally comfortable in clinical and operational spaces.
Now, as Chief Clinical Information Officer at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, she is leading digital transformation across one of the country’s largest specialist mental health and learning disability services – ensuring technology improves safety, access and patient experience at scale.
Digital emerged naturally from that intersection. “Being disruptive but in a positive way – for your own profession really matters,” she says. “Digital fits perfectly if you want to shift the dial.”
When technology became unavoidable
Jo can remember a time before email and electronic patient records – but only just. Over the course of her career, technology has steadily reshaped clinical practice. “There hasn’t been a point where clinical work hasn’t been impacted by technology,” she reflects. “Now we’re talking about AI but it’s just the next evolution.”
Her interest in digital wasn’t about gadgets or systems. It was about patients. Working in mental health, she became increasingly aware of the hidden burden placed on people navigating complex pathways – missed calls, repeated assessments, long waits, retelling traumatic stories again and again.
“Patient journeys in mental health are already hard enough,” she says. “The repetition, the anxiety, the feeling you’re having to pitch for treatment- we shouldn’t be making that harder.”
That frustration became fuel.
A strategic decision to level up mental health
The real turning point came when Jo realised she had a choice: continue leading services that included digital transformation, or step fully into strategic digital leadership and advocate for mental health at a system level.
Working across primary care and mental health made something clear to her: parity wasn’t there. Not in funding, and not in technology.
“If mental health wants to level up, we have to stop feeling ‘less than’ and stand up for ourselves,” she says. “If I wanted to be part of that movement, I needed to move into a more strategic role.”
As CCIO at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, she now advocates consistently for mental health representation in digital conversations – both within the Trust and across the wider Sussex system. “If we can spend 55 minutes talking about cardiac pathways, we can spend time talking about mental health pathways too.”
Pandemic shifts and digital reality
Like many digital leaders, Jo saw attitudes transform almost overnight during COVID. Video consultations, once resisted, suddenly became essential. Her organisation went from significant pushback to being one of the highest users nationally.
“It wasn’t the patients who were the barrier,” she says. “It was us.”
The shift changed her own clinical practice too. Delivering therapy virtually required new skills, new risk management thinking and new awareness. “When you’re in a therapy room, it’s controlled. Online, it’s a completely different dynamic.”
COVID didn’t just accelerate adoption, it forced cultural change.
Where digital can make the greatest impact in mental health
For Jo, digital in mental health must go beyond digitising notes. Integrated records across A&E, community and mental health settings have transformed safety. Electronic prescribing across inpatient and community settings could further simplify journeys and reduce risk.
She is particularly excited by AI-supported decision tools, digital talking therapies and ambient voice technologies, but always with safeguards.
“Clinical judgement can’t be replaced,” she says. “Technology should support decisions, not make them for us.”
She also sees huge potential in virtual wards and remote monitoring, particularly for people with learning disabilities, where life expectancy remains significantly lower than it should be. “If we can monitor whole health properly, we change outcomes.”
Innovation with a safety lens
Mental health digital transformation carries unique risks, from safeguarding to bias in AI systems trained on smaller or more complex datasets.
“There’s a real danger of more complicated groups being excluded from innovation,” Jo warns. “We shouldn’t be the last conversation in the room.”
Her approach is embedding clinical safety teams from procurement through to deployment, ensuring innovation is matched with governance. “You can’t bolt safety on at the end,” she says. “It has to be there from the start.”
Selling strategy to the frontline
One of Jo’s most honest reflections is about introducing well-intentioned digital ideas to frontline teams who didn’t ask for them.
“We’ve all done it,” she admits. “Taken something that’s a good idea on paper and tried to ‘sell’ it to a service.”
She believes the basics are often missed; process mapping, change management, giving teams space to adapt. Mental health teams, she notes, are creative and will build workarounds if something doesn’t fit.
“If you get it wrong, they’ll find another way. So better to intentionally disrupt together than impose something.”
Small projects, big impact
While she has led major programmes, one of Jo’s most rewarding projects was a smaller one: digitising a group intervention platform. Developed collaboratively with clinicians and digital teams, it aligned perfectly with organisational values and demonstrated what happens when the right ingredients come together.
“It flowed because we didn’t try to cut corners,” she says. “It showed me that innovation doesn’t have to be huge to be transformational.”
Courage, authenticity and allies
For clinicians – particularly women – considering digital leadership, Jo’s advice is clear: build allies, take opportunities and ask questions.
“No one is going to stop you asking a question in a room. Ask it.”
She openly acknowledges experiencing assumptions linked to gender, age and seniority. “You know when you’re being underestimated, so call it out.”
Over time, she has become more unapologetically herself. “I’m far more authentic now. I don’t need to be more corporate and I don’t need to be less quirky.”
Inspired by community
Jo draws strength from the people around her. From current CEOs to clinical leaders like Jade Padmore, Uzman Niazi, Paul Colbran and Colin Hicks, to national voices such as Ayesha Rahim, she’s built a network that both challenges and champions her. She also credits peer communities – including the Shuri Network and the national CCIO mental health network – as spaces where ideas are sharpened and support is real.
An early chapter of her career in New Zealand also shaped her perspective. “They were ahead in some areas,” she reflects. “Coming back to the UK made me realise what was possible.”
For Jo, inspiration isn’t about hierarchy, it’s about community. “You need advocates, supporters and contacts,” she says. “Digital leadership isn’t a solo sport.”
