Health Education England HEE appoints its senior management team
Health Education England, the organisation responsible for providing national leadership for the education and training system, has today announced the appointments made to its senior management team.
The appointments are:
- Dr Nicki Latham – Chief Operating Officer within the Directorate of Performance and Development
- Steve Clarke – Director of Finance
- Jo Lenaghan – Director of Strategy and Planning
- Lee Whitehead – Director of People and Communications
- Chris Welsh OBE – Director of Education and Quality
Health Education England’s central role will be to ensure that the shape and skills of the future health and public health workforce evolves to sustain high quality outcomes for patients in the face of demographic and technological change. The organisation will allocate £5 billion multi-professional education and training budget funding to sixteen Local Education and Training Boards and hold them to account for delivery against national education outcomes, goals and priorities.
Today’s appointments complete the first stage of recruitment for Health Education England. In the next phase, a Director of Nursing and a Medical Director will be appointed to be part of the Directorate of Education and Quality.
Ian Cumming, Chief Executive of Health Education England said: “Health Education England exists for one reason alone which is to ensure that the highest possible quality of care is provided to patients. To deliver on this, we need to ensure that healthcare staff are not only recruited in the right numbers, but also with the right set of values and governance.
“I am pleased that we have been able to secure such strong leaders to help realise this vision. The appointments should put us in a position to quickly start building a robust and valued education and training system that will develop and motivate our workforce and ensure the best outcomes for patients.”
Dr Nicki Latham is currently Director of Operations and Partnerships at Health Education England, where she is leading the authorisation and development of the Local Education and Training Boards. Nicki was previously Chief Operating Officer for Information Systems at the National Institute for Health Research. Prior to this, Nicki worked for fifteen years in the higher education sector.
Steve Clarke is Director of Finance at NHS Midlands and East. In this post he has also managed the Budget Bundle of £6bn on behalf of the Cluster Chief Executives and ensured that financial targets were met across three SHAs, with turnover approaching £30bn.
Jo Lenaghan is Director of Policy for the National Quality Team. Previously she was Director of Reform at West Midlands SHA. Jo worked as Chief Adviser to Sir David Nicholson for four years and prior to this she was a Director of PPI and Communications at Birmingham and Black Country SHA.
Lee Whitehead is Director of Communications and Engagement for NHS Midlands and East SHA Cluster and prior to that he was Director of Communications for NHS East of England. Before joining the SHA, Lee was a Board Director at large corporate communications agency, Fishburn Hedges, where he worked for companies and organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Chris Welsh OBE is currently Medical Director at NHS Midlands and East, and was previously Medical Director at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber. Chris spent thirteen years as a consultant vascular surgeon and has been both an Undergraduate and Postgraduate Dean in the former Trent region.
Sir Keith Pearson, Chairman of Health Education England said: “It’s good news that we now have a full team of highly respected executive directors to work alongside Ian Cumming. The individuals we have appointed bring a wealth of experience and expertise from a wide range of backgrounds. They all have a track record of success and I’m confident they will make a strong and immediate impact in their new roles.”
For media enquiries please contact the Health Education England press office on 0113 254 5806.