National Health Service

As part of NHS restructuring, ten new Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and 149 new Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were created. The NHS needed to appoint a Chair to each new organisation.

Our consultants worked closely with senior officials in the NHS Appointments Commission to identify the key qualities required for success and then to develop a series of job-related exercises that simulated typical aspects of the Chair role. Our assessor team assessed more than 300 candidates for these roles, delivering written reports and verbal feedback to interview panels highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. This work required a high level of political sensitivity in dealing with candidates from diverse and high profile public and private sector backgrounds, including many who had been Chairs in the previous SHAs and PCTs.

The role of Chairs in the new SHAs and PCTs was critical to the successful nationwide restructuring of the NHS. It was therefore essential to ensure the right people were chosen for these challenging roles. Our work helped the NHS to confidently identify the best people to lead this restructure and build the new organisations.