New chief exec starts

A former mental health nurse has taken over as the chief executive of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Sara Munro, formerly Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Nursing & Quality at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, started in her new role on Monday 5 September 2016.

Sara said: “I can’t say enough how delighted and excited I am to be joining the Trust. As a mental health nurse it’s great to be joining a trust which provides some of the best mental health and learning disability services I’ve seen in my career.

“Over the summer I spent a few days visiting some of the services in Leeds and York and I was hugely impressed by the people I met. What struck me was the strong commitment to service users, carers and communities. So many staff clearly go above and beyond their core roles – sharing knowledge, expertise and passion with others to make a difference.”

Sara’s initial priorities in post will be:

• Getting to know the services, staff, service users and carers better
• Becoming an active member of the health and care system in Leeds and West Yorkshire and representing the Trust at forums where plans for the future are being developed, and
• Ensuring the Trust gets a fair CQC report following its comprehensive inspection in July this year.

Sara added: “I’d like to thank Jill Copeland who has been Interim Chief Executive since January this year. I am very grateful for all the work she has done on developing our vision and values, our strategy and overseeing our comprehensive CQC inspection. Jill is continuing to support me in the first few weeks as things are handed over. Therefore Lynn Parkinson will continue as the Interim Chief Operating Officer and Dawn Hanwell will continue as Interim Deputy Chief Executive.

“Our Medical Director Dr Jim Isherwood will step down from his board role and focus full time on his clinical role as a consultant psychiatrist from 1 October. I’d like to thank Jim for his contribution to the Trust Board and leadership during this time. We’ll be recruiting a new Medical Director and I’ll be putting some interim arrangements in place which I’ll confirm in the coming weeks.”

Dr Sara Munro

Sara was previously the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Nursing & Quality at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She is a mental health nurse by background and has been at Cumbria since 2009 where she held a wide portfolio of responsibilities for professional standards and clinical governance, the Trust’s quality plan, safeguarding, medicines management and patient experience. Sara has a doctorate in attitudes in mental health nursing and has been involved in a range of national projects.

Follow Sara on Twitter @munro_sara