Professor Sue Proctor

Role:Chair

I became the Chair of our Trust on 1 April 2017.

What I do

I am the Chair of our Trust Board, the body responsible for the strategic direction of our organisation. In my role as Chair I hold the Chief Executive and her executive team to account for the delivery of the organisation’s strategic aims and objectives, alongside our non-executive directors. I chair both our Board of Directors and our Council of Governors.

How I contribute to improving the experience of service users and carers

My expertise is in leadership development, corporate and clinical governance, safeguarding, strategic planning and delivery. I have a passion for improving services for service users and carers by working in partnership with them.

My experience

I have over 30 years of experience in healthcare; qualifying as a nurse in 1987 and a midwife in 1990. I have extensive leadership experience in the NHS, including seven years as an executive director and four years as a non-executive director. From 2010 to 2013 I was Chief Officer at the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.

I currently run a management consultancy working with charity and faith-based organisations. I have strong links with higher education as a former member of the University of Leeds Council and a visiting professor at Leeds Beckett University. Currently I am Chair of the Strategic Safeguarding Group for the Diocese of York, and a lay member of the Veterinary Nursing Council at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

In the last few years I have led two extensive and complicated investigations into allegations of historical sexual abuse. From 2013 to 2014, I chaired the independent investigation into matters relating to Jimmy Savile at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and then led the national NHS Savile Legacy Unit overseeing 16 subsequent Savile-related NHS investigations. In 2016 I led an investigation into abuse at a former children’s home in Kent.

I was Vice Chair of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust from August 2013 until taking up this role and was a member of both their Audit Committee and their Quality Committee, as well as being the non-executive lead for research and development within the Trust.

Get in touch

You can email me at sue.proctor1@nhs.net or find me on Twitter @DrSueP1.