Chair

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Chair

Location: Colchester

Remuneration: £60,000 for, on average, 3 days a week

About Us

We are by any measure a large and complex organisation, formed on 1 July 2018 through the successful merger of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust and The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust. We deliver care from two main acute hospital sites in Colchester and Ipswich, six community hospitals and in patients' own homes. We provide a range of specialised services and are developing centres of excellence such as robotic surgery. Community health services operate in Aldeburgh, Clacton, Halstead, Harwich and Felixstowe community hospitals, as well as Bluebird Lodge near Ipswich. We have an annual income of £1.1b and over 12,000 dedicated staff.

Our ambition is to "provide the best care and experience and to increase equality in health outcomes". Thanks to all our colleagues who make up the ESNEFT family we have delivered most of the goals of our initial five year strategy and the Board have now agreed a clinical strategy covering the period to 2029.

ESNEFT is an ambitious Trust and we actively use our philosophy of "Time Matters" to provide the overarching framework for our quality improvement work. Digital transformation is key to our strategy, improving patient safety and quality and increasing productivity. We are currently working to introduce Epic, our new Electronic Patient Record, in October 2025 through a clinically led transformation programme. We have consistently outperformed national and regional benchmarks for access to services and we have demonstrated our strength as an integrated Trust and a system partner, continuing to innovate in the delivery of high quality, sustainable and increasingly integrated care.

We see ourselves as a community asset and are proud to be an anchor institution, rooted in and connected to the communities we serve. Our communities include some experiencing the greatest health inequalities in the country. Using our size and scale we can positively contribute in many ways beyond providing health care, through our relationships with our local partners. In this vein we work as a key partner in the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System. Through provider collaboration and a range of other initiative we continue to be committed to playing a role in the system-wide programme to improve our population's health as a key area of focus in our transformation.

The Opportunity

This is an extraordinary opportunity to lead our Board of Directors and Council of Governors, to build on our current success and face the multiple challenges before us. We need an exceptional individual who is used to leading at Board level in large and complex organisations and who has, or is willing to develop, a deep understanding of the NHS and the wider health and social care sector.

You will need a strong track record of building relationships with a range of stakeholders across both organisations and communities and have a reputation for your ambassadorial and diplomatic approach. It is a significant commitment requiring a range of attributes including resilience and agility in the face of public scrutiny.

Our future must be shaped around our people and supported by inclusive leadership and robust governance. It is imperative that we seek out those leaders who embody our values and commit wholeheartedly to supporting our staff to achieve the priorities we have agreed with our patients to deliver the very best care to them, their families and our communities. We want someone who will be deeply committed to improving patient outcomes, who is empathetic and kind, and who will listen to and hear our staff and communities. Our Trust values are Optimistic, Appreciative and Kind, they are the touchstone of how we treat each other and all those we serve. Our communities, patients and staff deserve the best and that includes appointing the best leaders we can find.

We are keen to hear from values-driven leaders who are committed to advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. You should bring a passion to challenge, guide and champion our work, significant Board level leadership experience, a strong understanding of good governance, and positive energy to lead our Board of Directors and Council of Governors to help us to continue our journey of improvement and drive to reduce health inequalities for our population.

For more information, please visit our recruitment microsite by clicking Apply.

If you believe you may be the exceptional individual we seek, then we encourage you to contact our retained consultants at GatenbySanderson in the first instance for a confidential discussion:

Emily Perry, Principal Researcher

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Julia St Clare, Senior Consultant and Research Lead

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Closing Date: 9am Monday 28th October 2024