St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group, Group Chair

Thank you for your interest in applying for the position of Group Chair at St George's, Epsom, and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group (gesh). This role presents a unique and prestigious opportunity to shape the future of healthcare across South West London and Surrey, leading two complex NHS trusts who, together, are one of the largest providers of NHS services in the country with a combined turnover of £1.7 billion and a workforce of over 17,000 dedicated professionals serving a population of approximately 3.5 million people.

As Group Chair, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of both St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust as we enter the next phase of our development as a Group. This is a high-profile leadership opportunity with wide ranging scope for impact, and where your influence will extend across both Trusts, ensuring we deliver outstanding care, together, to the diverse populations we serve. You will also serve as the statutory Chair for both Trust Boards and the St George’s Council of Governors, positioning you at the heart of decision making in this complex healthcare landscape.

As our new Group Chair, you will be expected to lead the Group Board in providing strategic leadership and vision as we move forward with our "Outstanding Care, Together 2023-28" strategy. Your leadership will be instrumental in driving collaboration across the Trusts for the benefit of our patients and the communities we serve, working closely with system partners in the South West London and Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Systems (ICS).

The Group Chair’s responsibilities are broad and impactful. They span across governance and accountability, strategic vision, organisational culture, and alignment of organisational objectives with the needs of patients and the community, delivery of quality, financial, workforce and operational performance, whilst living the values of both Trusts and the wider NHS. You will lead the Boards in fostering the integration of services across the Group to enhance collaboration and improve outcomes for patients, staff, and stakeholders, and represent the Group in key relationships with regional and national stakeholders, including NHS England, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and local authorities.

There are few roles of this complexity in the NHS, and it will require an exceptional leader with a strong record of success in a similarly complex, multi-stakeholder environment. You will have excellent communication and engagement skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and a demonstrable sense of strategic vision, balancing the delivery of high-quality care with financial sustainability and organisational transformation. Whether your experience has been within the NHS, public, voluntary or private sector, we value the diversity of perspectives you bring. Most importantly, we are looking for an individual who is committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable culture, dedicated to addressing health inequalities across our regions.

At gesh, we are committed to being as diverse as the communities we serve. We particularly encourage applications from women, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic candidates, individuals with disabilities, and candidates from the LGBTQ+ community.

If this role excites you and you feel you can contribute to shaping the future of healthcare in South West London and Surrey, please contact Thomas Patterson or Beth Stickney at Alumni Global for a confidential discussion. We look forward to receiving your application.

About the Trusts

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (ESTH) provides a range of acute hospital and medical services to approximately 490,000 people living across south west London and north east Surrey and beyond. In addition, ESTH provides specialist services, in particular renal and neonatal intensive care, to a wider area, covering Surrey and parts of Sussex and Hampshire, and hosts the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC) partnership. The Trust’s main commissioners are South West London Integrated Care Board and Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board. It also has a sizable specialist service contract with NHS England in relation to renal services, and we have exciting plans to improve how we deliver acute inpatient renal services in South West London and Surrey by integrating them into a new joint renal unit on the St George’s hospital site.

ESTH’s two main acute sites are St Helier Hospital in the London Borough of Sutton, within the South West London Integrated Care System, and Epsom Hospital in Surrey, within the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System. The Trust also provides out‐reach services at a number of more locally‐based care centres and is moving to increasingly integrated models of care working with local community, primary, and other service providers.

ESTH is the host for the delivery of community health services across both of its local place-based communities of Surrey Downs and Sutton. Our community contracts are delivered through contractual joint ventures and alliance agreements (Surrey Downs in partnership with the 3 local GP Federations and the community trust and Sutton in partnership with the local GP Federation, local authority and mental health trust). Discharging its host responsibilities to a high standard and working in partnership to transform pathways across hospital and community settings is a key priority for the future.

The Trust is also committed to the Building Your Future Hospital Programme, which will see the construction of a new, state-of-the-art Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Sutton. This will bring together A&E, critical care, acute medicine, emergency surgery, inpatient paediatrics, and births in hospital on our Sutton site, meaning that clinical expertise, experience and resource will be in one place, 24/7, improving patient safety, sustainability and staffing levels. This Programme will also provide the means to significantly improve existing infrastructure at both Epsom and St Helier hospitals.

ESTH values

“Above all we value RESPECT”

It helps ESTH to live our behaviours:

· Kind

· Positive

· Professional

· Teamwork.

So we can achieve our mission statement: outstanding care, together.

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

With over 10,000 dedicated staff caring for patients around the clock, St George’s is the largest healthcare provider in South West London and one of the biggest and busiest hospital Trusts in London. It provides services out of two main hospital sites, St George’s Hospital in Tooting and Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, as well as health centres, GP surgeries, schools, and people’s homes.

St George’s Hospital is one of four major trauma centres in London, and home to hyper acute stroke and heart attack centres. It is a major centre for cancer services, and one of the largest centres for cancer surgery and chemotherapy in the capital. St George’s is also one of biggest children’s hospitals, including being home to one of only four paediatric trauma units in London. In addition, St George’s is a major centre for neurosciences, offering patients innovative new treatments such as the country’s first 24/7 mechanical thrombectomy service. Its clinical teams also have growing influence in research, with more clinical trials undertaken than ever before. They are also part of the South London Cardiac and Stroke Network and the South West London and Surrey Trauma Network, for which St George’s Hospital is the designated heart attack centre, hyper-acute stroke unit and major trauma centre.

St George’s serves a population of 1.3 million across South West London. A large number of services, such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation, also cover significant populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people.

The main site, St George’s Hospital in Tooting – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals – is shared with City St George’s, University of London, whose School of Health and Medical Sciences trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. The creation of the newly-merged City St George’s creates significant opportunities for a new strategic partnership between the Trust and the University.

St George’s values and behaviours

To achieve our vision of providing outstanding care for our patients, staff and the communities St George’s serve, we need to keep patients at the heart of everything that we do – our values are designed to inspire staff to achieve this. All staff are expected to live our values of being Excellent, Kind, Responsible & Respectful, and for staff to behave in ways that reflect these values.

Board values, behaviours and standards

All NEDs should demonstrate a commitment to the Trust’s values and standards of behaviour

Ensure the Trust promotes equality and diversity for its patients, staff, and other stakeholders
Promote and safeguard the reputation of the Trust
Uphold the highest standards of integrity and probity, adhering to the Nolan Principles and the Trust values

We are seeking an exceptional leader to become the Group Chair of gesh Group, overseeing both St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.
With a combined turnover of £1.7 billion and a workforce exceeding 17,000, this is a rare and influential opportunity to shape healthcare for a diverse population of around 3.5 million people across South West London, Surrey, and beyond.
As Group Chair, you will lead both Trust Boards and chair the St George’s Council of Governors. This high-profile role is crucial to delivering gesh’s strategic vision, fostering collaboration between the Trusts, and driving the transformation needed to improve patient care and outcomes and address health inequalities. Your leadership will be instrumental during an exciting period of change and innovation. Providing strategic oversight, focused on exceptional patient care, staff empowerment and well-being, and operational performance, while ensuring robust governance, financial sustainability and resilience, and risk management across the Group.
As a key figure, you will champion a culture of continuous improvement and inclusivity, compassion, and collaboration that champions the diversity of the communities we serve. Building and maintaining strong relationships with local, regional, and national healthcare partners will be critical in positioning the gesh Group at the forefront of healthcare innovation and excellence.
We are looking for an outstanding leader with experience across a broad range of sectors. The most important quality is your ability to demonstrate inspirational leadership and a proven track record of governance and organisational leadership in complex environments. You will bring strategic vision, a commitment to delivering excellent patient care, and a commitment to reducing health inequalities. In addition, your exceptional communication and collaboration skills will enable you to navigate complex stakeholder landscapes and foster strong partnerships. A deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential to ensure our leadership reflects the diverse communities we serve.
This is a unique opportunity to lead one of the largest NHS groups in England, shaping the future of healthcare delivery at scale and making a lasting impact on both patients and staff. If you are committed to leading transformative change and have the leadership experience to shape the future development our hospital group, we encourage you to apply.
For a confidential discussion, please contact Thomas Patterson or Frank McKenna. We actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including women, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic individuals, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Group Chair
Please click here to view the Role Description & Person Specification
All applications must include:
• A full curriculum vitae/resume
• Quoting the role reference number:
Group Chair: A039866
• A covering letter highlighting the aspects of the job description and gesh that particularly attract you to the post (Microsoft Word document)
• Contact details for three referees, these will not be contacted without your permission. (References should validate a minimum period of six years employment)
• A completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (which you will be redirected to once you have submitted your application) *
Right to work checks
If you are successfully shortlisted, our partner, Yoti, will contact you to complete an online right to work check. This is a quick and secure process, ensuring that all necessary legal requirements are met before proceeding further in the recruitment process.
Monitoring
One of Alumni Global’s and gesh's objectives is to ensure that its workforce is reflective of the local community and therefore we actively encourage applications from under-represented groups. So that we can successfully achieve these aims, while it is not mandatory we would encourage every applicant to complete the “Equal Opportunities Monitoring form” so that we can measure the effectiveness of our efforts. The Recruiting Manager does not have access to the Monitoring Information Sections of the application form at any stage of the process and the information provided will be kept entirely confidential.
For a confidential discussion on this role please contact:
Thomas Patterson, Managing Director or Beth Stickney, Principal Researcher on +44 7703 821 996
Candidate adjustment
If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made as part of the recruitment process please can you advise us so that we can ensure this is accommodated.
Closing date: 8th November 2024
Stakeholder sessions: TBC
Final interviews: 3rd December 2024
Please ensure you have made a note of the final interview date(s). We recommend that you bookmark this microsite, as any potential updates regarding the role will be posted online.