Dean Royles, chief executive officer of NHS Employers, the organisation representing employers in the NHS, was blunt last week in his assessment of the health service’s attempts to attract non-NHS talent into leadership roles.

Speaking last week at a London event attended by Recruiter on the subject of diversity & inclusion, Royles responded to an audience question on the problem of having “just the same old NHS people” taking up senior positions by saying that the NHS “has done various things in terms of trying to bring in leaders from other sectors, other industries, but not with much success”.

However, he added that there had been some success in bringing such talent in as non-executive directors, allowing them to challenge the existing culture, and said that for many senior NHS roles “you actually do need NHS experience”.

This issue was particularly important as the NHS faced up to issues raised in Francis Report into mistreatment of patients at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. On the report’s release, Royles, speaking to Recruiter, pledged that NHS would continue to “recruit on values and train for skills”.

Last week, he described that the Francis Report “leaves the NHS with the world’s largest organisational development challenge”.

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