Andrew Ridley appointed Chief Executive

We are pleased to announce that Andrew Ridley will be Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust's new Chief Executive. Andrew has a wealth of experience in NHS leadership roles, most recently at NHS England where he has been Regional Director for the South of England and formerly National Programme Director for the Better Care Fund.

Making the appointment, Angela Greatley, CLCH Chair, said: "We're delighted to appoint Andrew as Chief Executive. His experience across all aspects of the NHS will be a real strength as we continue to build partnerships across our nine London boroughs and Hertfordshire."

Andrew said: "I'm delighted to be joining CLCH as it provides valuable and excellent services in a city I know and love. The Trust delivers a large range of services across a diverse London footprint and Hertfordshire. I'm very much looking forward to leading the organisation through the next stage of the Trust's development where we'll be looking to build stronger partnerships with patients, providers and commissioners. As the Five Year Forward View makes clear, high quality person centred care delivered in the community is an essential focus of the future strategy for the NHS. CLCH's Goodrating from the Care Quality Commission last year shows the organisation is well placed to continue to deliver great care closer to home and work with partners to innovate and make more care available outside of hospitals."

Prior to joining NHS England Andrew led a cross government task force to improve the better care fund and before that was managing director for the NHS Commissioning Support Unit in North and East London.

Between 2005 and 2011 Andrew worked in leadership roles at NHS Tower Hamlets (Primary Care Trust) where he led a range of health improvement programmes focussed on primary and community based care.

Andrew has also worked in acute hospitals and charities with roles at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Andrew will join the Trust on 1 October 2016. Interim Chief Executive Peter Coles will leave at the end of June and Deputy CEO Richard Milner will be acting-up until Andrew starts.