Senior appointments to Health and Community Services

Tuesday 19 June 2018

Two senior appointments have been made in the Health and Community services as part of the States restructuring and modernising programme.

Anthony McKeever and John Howard have respectively been appointed interim Director General for Health and Community Services for six months and Head of Health Modernisation.

Mr McKeever (pictured left) will take up his post on 25 June. His appointment follows the announcement of Julie Garbutt, the Health and Social Services Chief Officer, that she will step down in September to spend more time looking after her parents as they move into residential and dementia care.

Mr Mc Keever has worked in the UK Department of Health and the NHS for more than 40 years. He has held national and regional roles, including permanent and interim chief executive positions with seven NHS Trusts. He is currently working as a consultant to the Care Quality Commission and the NHS South West region.

Mr Parker said: “This is an important appointment, as it provides continuity of leadership for the new Health and Community Services department, following Julie Garbutt’s retirement. Anthony McKeever has considerable senior strategic and operational experience in the NHS and his appointment ensures that we can make the structural and service changes that are needed without delay.”

John Howard has been appointed Head of Health Modernisation to speed up the process of health reform and to support the restructuring of the new Health and Community Services department.

He has worked in healthcare, government and corporate transformation in the UK and internationally. He has expertise in out-of-hospital health services, in healthcare data analytics and in healthcare IT transformation programmes that have improved patient safety, health system collaboration and operational efficiency.

Mr Howard, who started this week, is on an initial six-month contract. He will be tasked with reviewing the transformation, modernisation and efficiency programme for health and community services. He will also put in place a revised plan and resources to implement the changes that are needed.

Working alongside the Group Managing Director for the Hospital and Community Services, Rob Sainsbury, and other health senior leaders, Mr Howard will identify key areas to improve the effectiveness of the service, and develop team capability.

Rob Sainsbury said: “John Howard will bring much-needed commercial, systems and organisational expertise to the health and community services modernisation and transformation programme. He will update the strategy to help us to realise the promised benefits and value for money that the programme was established to deliver.”

The news follow the appointments of several internally and externally recruited staff into Director General roles. The most recent was Mark Rogers, who defended his track record following his appointment as Interim Director General of the new children's services and education department.

A further appointment will be announced shortly for the Director of Adult Social Care position, to support adult mental health and improve the integration between community adult care and hospital services.