Trust appoints new Associate Director

Leeds and York PFT appoints Clare Edwards as new Associate Director

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) has appointed Clare Edwards as its new Associate Director for Corporate Governance.

Clare (39) will take up her position at the beginning of September, but LYPFT Chief Executive Officer, Dr Sara Munro has wasted no time in welcoming her to the Trust.

“I am very excited to announce that Clare Edwards will be joining us to take up a very important and strategic role at LYPFT. We are focussed on getting the very best people to help us deliver our services and Clare stood out in a highly competitive recruitment process.
“Clare has held a range of senior governance and leadership roles in the NHS and will be a fantastic addition to the team. She comes with 17 years of NHS experience, much of it at senior and influential levels and so brings significant expertise to the Trust,” said Sara Munro.

The Associate Director post became available when Cath Hill, who has worked for the Trust for over 43 years, decided to take retirement.

Clare, who lives with her husband and two dogs in Glossop, began her NHS career as a PA to the Medical Director at Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s NHS Trust, before moving into clinical governance within an acute setting, working with medical and community services across Greater Manchester.

An Assistant Director role followed at Manchester Royal Infirmary before Clare moved into a Trust wide role at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MUFT), where she led on the response to the COVID Inquiry. Prior to accepting the position with LYPFT, Clare held an Associate Director role in Clinical Governance at MUFT, working across 10 hospital sites and leading on patient safety.

“This is a challenging but exciting time to be joining a Trust which has a culture and values closely aligned to my own. The opportunity to join the Trust and be a part of its continued growth and development is quite something.

“I’m looking forward to working across the partnership, to strengthening existing links whilst ensuring we have robust systems and processes in place that provide assurance in the decisions we make and the direction we move. There is a huge amount of great talent at LYPFT, and I can’t wait to be working with the teams there,” said Clare Edwards.