Chief Nurse, Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board
Chief Nurse,
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board
United Kingdom
Delivering a shift from an acute to a community-centred health and care system
Since July 2022 NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has held responsibility for planning NHS services, including hospitals, primary care, community services and those previously planned by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
As well as the chair and chief executive, membership of the board includes partner members drawn from local authorities, NHS trusts / foundation trusts, and primary care. The board also invites regular participants from VCFSE, local Healthwatch, public health and children and adults’ social services.
Accountable to the people of Lancashire and South Cumbria and in charge of NHS money, NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB will ensure that the strategies developed by Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership become a reality on the ground.
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Dear candidate,
I am delighted that you are considering applying to become our Chief Nurse at Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (LSC ICB).
We commission health and care services for the 1.8 million people living across Lancashire and South Cumbria, with responsibility for over £5 billion of expenditure. Our population is spread across a complex and diverse geography, with significant variation in health outcomes and some deeply entrenched health inequalities. Addressing these inequalities, improving population health and ensuring that our resources are focused where they can make the greatest difference are central to our ambitions for the future.
This is a particularly important time to join us. We are reshaping the ICB and developing a new operating model that will enable us to become a more strategic commissioner focusing on population health and wellbeing. Alongside the significant challenge of developing our new organisation, we have a genuine opportunity to rethink how health and care are delivered and to accelerate the shift from hospital to community, from treatment to prevention and towards care that is increasingly designed around people, families and neighbourhoods.
For our new Chief Nurse, this presents an exceptional opportunity to influence the future shape of health and care across our communities. We are ambitious about developing new models of care, strengthening our approach to quality and patient safety, and finding new ways to engage and mobilise our workforce, communities and partners. Digital innovation will be an important enabler, as will developing different commissioning relationships both within and beyond the NHS.
There is already considerable momentum on which to build. We have two national neighbourhood health pathfinders and are strengthening our alignment with local authorities and the Mayoral Combined Authority. At the same time, major investment and infrastructure programmes, including two new hospital programmes, create opportunities to think differently about how services should be designed for the future. We want Lancashire and South Cumbria to be a place where we can stretch our collective ambition for the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, accelerate the shift towards neighbourhood and community-based care and demonstrate what can be achieved through innovation and partnership.
We are also clear about the challenges we face. The ICB, together with three providers within the Lancashire and South Cumbria system, has been escalated by NHS England into the Recovery Support Programme, with Financial Enforcement Undertakings applied to the ICB. Significant work is underway to strengthen our financial position and governance arrangements and to establish the foundations for sustainable improvement. Our Chief Nurse will have an important role in ensuring that quality, safety and the experience of our residents remain central as we navigate these challenges and transform services.
You will join a new clinical leadership team alongside our Chief Medical Officers, Professor Andy Curran and Dr Andy Knox. Together, you will provide visible and influential clinical leadership across the system, bringing different professional perspectives while working collectively to convene partners, build trust and create the followership necessary to deliver change across organisational boundaries.
We are therefore looking for an experienced and credible nursing leader who can operate confidently at both strategic and system level. You will bring a strong track record of improving quality and outcomes and, importantly, of sustaining that improvement. We are interested in leaders whose who understand the breadth and complexity of health and care, whether through acute, community, mental health, system, provider collaborative or commissioning roles.
Just as important will be how you lead. We are looking for someone with integrity, compassion and tenacity; someone who can convene and influence across a complex system, build strong relationships and inspire others behind a shared purpose. You will be comfortable holding people and organisations to account while creating the conditions for collaboration, openness and continuous improvement. Above all, you will ensure that the voices and experiences of our residents, patients and communities remain at the heart of our decisions.
This is a critical and influential role, but also one offering considerable scope to make a lasting difference. If you are excited by the opportunity to help reshape health and care, tackle inequalities and lead alongside ambitious partners across Lancashire and South Cumbria, I hope you will consider joining us.
I strongly encourage you to speak directly and in confidence with our advisers at Alumni Global to learn more about the role, our ambitions and the opportunities ahead.
I look forward to receiving your application.
Aaron Cummins
Chief Executive -
Please click on the role below to view the Role Description:
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All applications must include:
A full curriculum vitae/resume
Quoting the relevant role reference number:
Chief Nurse: (A042383)
A covering letter highlighting the aspects of the job description and Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB 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 self-attestation form
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 Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB’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:
David Heaton, Principal Researcher or Simon Green, Director, details of which can be found at the bottom if this microsite.
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.
Key Milestones:
Closing date: 28th October 2026 - TBC
Stakeholders (virtual): TBC
Final Interviews: 12th November 2026 - TBCPlease 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.
Please take note of the reference number found under section “How to apply”. This is needed for us to process any application.
