Caroline Donovan promises to improve mental health outcomes at NSFT | News and events

Caroline Donovan has officially commenced her role as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT).

Caroline joined the Trust last week and spent time with departing CEO Stuart Richardson ensuring that she is fully sighted on the Trusts challenges and continuing improvement journey.  Earlier this year the Trust was recognised by the Care Quality Commission as moving at pace with 60 percent of services being rated as good, and legal warning notices relating to concerns about the quality and safety of care being removed.

Caroline, a nurse by background with a proven passion for improvement and transformation of NHS services, brings exceptional experience of NHS leadership with her to the Trust. She is the former Chief Executive of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, a mental health and learning disability provider. She has also been Chief Executive at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, a provider of mental health, social care, learning disability and substance misuse services where the Trust was rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC under her leadership.

Upon commencing her role Caroline said “I am delighted to join NSFT at such an important time for the Trust and the communities we serve. I am looking forward to engaging, supporting and developing our dedicated workforce so that together we can make further robust improvements to the specialist mental health services we provide.

“My mission is to lead our organisation to a position where we are improving mental health outcomes for all people who use our services by providing accessible, compassionate, person-centred care at every opportunity.”

Trust Chair Zoë Billingham said “I am delighted that Caroline, an experienced mental health chief executive, is joining NSFT. She has an excellent leadership track record, and I am confident that she will enable us to meet our ambition to provide highly accessible and consistently good specialist mental health services across our two counties.

“Building on the progress already made, Caroline will bring renewed focus and impetus to ensuring NSFT provides high quality, person-centred and compassionate care, while being a great place to work. I cannot wait to see the positive difference that Caroline will make in transforming NSFT, working with our excellent staff and system partners.