North London Mental Health Partnership | Brendan Davies

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I) are the major mental health service providers in North London and by partnering together have created one of the largest mental health providers in the country – North London Mental Health Partnership (NLMHP). It was identified that a Joint Director of Estates would enable efficiencies and the ability for the incumbent to reinvest resources where they are most needed across a larger geography, and with one individual providing oversight, they could most effectively scale their services and accelerate the ambitions of both Trusts.  

The brief was not just the traditional Director of Estates and Facilities overseeing the operational management of the estate, but called for a truly transformational leader who can bring two separate organisations and directorates together under a collective vision and strategy.

Hunter conducted a far-reaching and complex search, requiring candidates to articulate how they would improve service outcomes; remove competition between the Trusts; approach agendas in a unified way; share resources and knowledge; make efficiencies through economies of scale; and create an overarching culture and set of values that is preventative, compassionate, personalised and trauma informed.  

We attracted an exceptionally competitive field against this brief, shortlisting five current Directors from across the country, and rejecting several Directors who were not able to articulate their experience or motivators as persuasively. We successfully appointed and have negotiated an early start to allow a handover between the interim and the permanent.