After four years leading the organisation, Joe Chadwick-Bell is moving to the West Midlands where she is taking on the role of Group Chief Executive at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
As many of you know, Joe grew up in East Sussex, beginning her NHS career in the Eastbourne pharmacy team. After time away from the county in senior roles in the NHS and Care UK, we were fortunate when she returned to us in 2016, firstly as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, then acting Chief Executive in 2020, becoming our Chief Executive in 2021.
During her time with us, Joe has guided the trust on a journey of improvement: providing stable operational delivery of our wide range of services; supporting us out of special measures; through the challenges of the Covid pandemic and into a new era of collaboration with our health and care partners.
She has provided leadership to place the trust into a position of strength in the emerging Sussex health and care system, where we are seen as an effective trusted partner for delivery, with the Sussex Surgical Centre now being built as testament to this. Internally, she has championed a collegiate style of leadership that placed an emphasis on plain-speaking, approachability and a values-driven culture.
As Joe says “It has been a privilege to lead my local trust. East Sussex has given me so much more than just a career, and being CEO here has always been more than ‘just a job’. I hope that my commitment to our trust has come through in the achievements we have delivered together and in the culture that we have strived to create. I have always believed that work is about the people who make the difference and what we have built together will serve us well for the future.”
Joe will remain with us until later this year, and our Deputy Chief Executive, Steve Aumayer, will assume the role of Chief Executive on an interim basis after she leaves while we finalise our recruitment of a new Chief Executive. A competitive process to find a replacement for Joe will be launched shortly.
I wanted to share with all of our communities, on behalf of the trust’s Board, how grateful I am for her leadership over the past three years and for all of her time that she has been with us.