In late 2019 we were asked by the Chair of Southern Health, Lynne Hunt, to support the Trust in the recruitment of a new Chief Executive.
A community and mental health provider with services across the south of England, Southern Health has a challenging legacy around the quality of their service provision, clinical engagement and work with service users, family caregivers and stakeholders. In the two years prior they had made significant improvements and successfully moved out of special measures and from a CQC rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ to an overall ‘Good’ in 2019.
Dr Nick Broughton, the outgoing Chief Executive, had previously held a Chief Executive post in Somerset and had been at Southern Health for 18 months before deciding to move to Oxford Healthcare, which is much closer to his home. Dr Broughton had made a positive impact – especially with clinicians – and had helped move the Trust forward but there was still much more to do and so his departure came at a critical time and the Trust was keen to appoint an experienced or senior aspirant Chief Executive who could inspire and incentivise staff to continue on their journey of improvement towards becoming an ‘Outstanding’ organisation.