Our Leadership

Our Integrated Care System has a dynamic leadership team focussed on the delivery of high quality health and care services for the people of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

The team is led by a group of experienced Executive Directors. You can read more about each of them below:

Chief Executive Officer - Simon Whitehouse

Simon has worked in the NHS for over 20 years in several roles throughout this time. He graduated as a physiotherapist from Keele University in 1995, having trained at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH)

Having worked clinically for several years, he went to work for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in their employment relations team and worked nationally on the introduction of the NHS Agenda for Change Pay System, prior to moving into more senior management roles. More recently, he was Chief Executive of two of the Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Groups, before joining the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS as its Director in June 2017.

Chief Nursing Officer - Alison Bussey

Alison started her career in the North East of England as a Registered Nurse, before moving to the Shire Counties and training as a Mental Health Nurse. Alison has extensive experience working at board level in both operational and nursing roles for provider trusts.

For the past 10 years she has held both Chief Nurse and Chief Operating Officer roles at the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT), before joining NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin in June 2022.

Chief Medical Officer - Mr Nick White

Nick has undertaken a range of local, regional and national clinical leadership roles during his career. For the last three years before his appointment to NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin in May 2022, he had been the Medical Director for Commissioning in the NHS England and NHS Improvement - Midlands region. In this role he was at the forefront of the system integration agenda and has a real commitment to working across organisations to improve patient outcomes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic his role became far more operational, he led the regional Adult Critical Care, Operation Capacity and Recovery Cells. He is a Plastic and Craniofacial Surgeon by background and will continue to work clinically part-time.

Director of Delivery and Transformation - Gareth Robinson

Gareth joined from Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board in South Wales, where he had been Chief Operating Officer (COO) for an integrated health system which has many parallels to Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. Across his 20-year career supporting the NHS, Gareth has worked in a number of senior operational roles within acute providers and more recently system-wide organisations. In addition, Gareth has spent time providing support to NHS Trusts developing and implementing change programmes as part of his role with a large consulting organisation.

Gareth was born in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, brought up in Shrewsbury and Telford, and went to school in Newport. Having chosen to move away to university, the wisdom that comes with age and a young family rapidly brought him back to Shropshire, he is excited to contribute to improving health and care services for our citizens.

Director of Finance - Claire Skidmore

Claire had been serving within our system as Executive Director of Finance and Deputy Accountable Officer since June 2017 - first at Shropshire CCG and then at the combined CCG following the merger with its Telford and Wrekin counterpart. She also spent five months last year as Interim Accountable Officer.

She has worked in NHS finance for over 25 years, with more than 10 years of board-level experience. Claire has led on contract management and negotiation, transformation, procurement innovation and tactical commissioning. She has expert knowledge of NHS finance and through her previous roles she fully appreciates the significant challenges faced by the Integrated Care System, both in terms of improving quality of services and patient experience, as well as restoring financial balance.

Last updated on November 10th, 2023 at 01:55 pm