Brent Kilmurray
Executive Director for Strategy & Service Development and Divisional Director for Surgery, City Hospitals Sunderland NHS FT

I have worked in public service for most of my career because it’s something that fits with my values. I felt that I had something to offer the NHS and believed that the NHS could offer a fulfilling and rewarding career.

The Gateway scheme seemed like a good platform to change career. It’s relatively low risk in that you have the benefit of being part of a wider programme.

Currently, I’m a member of the Board of Directors, so my role is wide ranging and brings me into contact with people at all levels. I deal with other Executive Directors and Non Executive Directors, as well as a wide range of other managers and staff across the Trust, and I regularly present to Governors. I also deal with consultants on a daily basis and line manage four Clinical Directors (all surgeons!). This is a high profile role where I lead the contracting process and act as the main point of contact for PCTs. Increasingly, I’m working with GPs who are interested in developing partnerships and services with the Trust and I meet with patient groups from time to time.

Within the next 5 years, I aim to have achieved the post of Trust Chief Executive and, with the Gateway programme behind me, I’m confident I can.

Paul Mears
Director of Operations, Torbay Care Trust

Having worked in travel and transport for nearly 10 years, I wanted to broaden my horizons. I wasn’t specifically looking for opportunities in the public sector, but I saw the Gateway ad in the Times and it seemed to resonate with what I was looking for – so I went for it!

I could see that there was a huge opportunity to develop and improve the way in which people experience the NHS system, particularly coming from an industry where customer satisfaction is the key to success. It sounds trite, but the desire to help people less fortunate was also a real driver for me and it has been reinforced even more since being directly involved in health and social care delivery.

I’ve been in my current role for 3 years, leading 1000 community based staff (community nurses, physios, social workers, occupational therapists etc) across a range of service areas, including older people’s services, learning disability services and community hospitals.

We are one of only 5 Care Trusts nationally and I have successfully taken our services through a significant period of organisational change as well as improved our rating for adult social care from 1 star with uncertain prospects, to 2 stars with promising prospects. We are now embarking on an organisational development programme to radically re-design the way we work with people in the community, ensuring that their needs are central to the way we deliver services.

Creating the Care Trust has been a fantastic experience and has also been great for raising my profile both locally and nationally, but I’d like to see what working in other parts of the NHS is like. I’d like to get some experience in other settings over the next few years before deciding where I would like to be a Chief Executive.

Clare Morris
Commercial Director, Mid Essex PCT

Claire’s extensive CV is impressively varied. After starting out to train as an accountant, Clare embarked on a career as a generalist spanning a range of sectors and countries, thriving in environments undergoing change. Having completed an MBA with distinction, Claire began to look for even more variety and challenge in an organisation going through massive change, at the edge of the public/private sector and where we would share organisational values. In January 2004, she joined Cambridge PCTs as Primary Care Development Manager.

“I did take a considerable pay cut when I joined the NHS, but I was confident I would get to a senior level quickly - which I did! You have to be a self starter on the Gateway Scheme, get yourself known and let it be known that you’re willing to learn and progress. The scheme stands you in good stead with advocates of the programme.”

Now Commercial Director with Mid Essex PCT, Clare is responsible for Market and Provider development, long range strategic planning and “anything else that I want to turn my hand to!” In the last 12 months Clare has negotiated a deal for a new PFI community hospital, led a corporate turnaround process achieving £18m of savings, worked with the public and the wider community to set out a 10 year vision for the local NHS, and introduced private sector healthcare providers into the local health market. Her current role allows her to use her pervious skills in combination with her NHS experience to the full.

“One of the best things about working for the NHS is the sheer scale of the operation and the variety that this brings. There genuinely always are opportunities to develop new skills and experiences and to move between strategic and operational roles.

“Ultimately I want to be a PCT Chief Executive. The NHS is very positive when it comes to balancing family and working life, and achieving this balance hasn’t hampered my career progression in any way.”

Gareth Robinson
Divisional Director, Women’s, Children’s & Sexual Health Services, Walsall Hospital

“I joined Royal Mail on their graduate training scheme in 1996. During a 10 year career there, I followed a career pathway that included a wide variety of roles including project management, operational management, business development, customer management and strategic planning.”

Gareth came to the NHS in March 2005 because he was looking for more of a sense of fulfilment. “I saw an advert in The Times for Gateway to Leadership that resonated with me. I decided to go through the recruitment process before making a firm decision as to whether I wanted to make a significant change in career direction. The process underlined that there was a very real opportunity to get a greater level of personal satisfaction from a career in the NHS.”

Gareth’s NHS career got underway as Patient Choice Manager at Barnsley Hospital. “On the Gateway Scheme, you have contact with an Area Manager and you are encouraged to find your own mentor such as a Director. I’m currently responsible for the overall delivery of high quality Women’s, Children’s & Sexual Health Services to over 220,000 people. That includes responsibility for all budgets, income streams, activity, workforce issues, national performance measures, patient quality and clinical risk issues, in a division with over 500 staff and a budget of over £18m.

I’ve been in my current role for a year, and there are significant changes to the division planned for the next three years, not least a brand new building, and I plan on being in this role to see in these big changes. After that, who knows? I don’t have a career plan.”

Joe Gibson
Director of Strategy & Implementation for the NHS in East Lancashire

After an extensive career with the RAF, during which he also worked towards an MBA, Joe spent 3 years working in the defence and aerospace sector, before joining the NHS on 1st December 2003. What attracted him? “The NHS can only benefit from attracting talent and experience from other sectors, and this ‘gateway’ is a genuine way to facilitate that migration.” He also cites other compelling factors: the alignment of values with the mission that the NHS fulfils; the complexity of the challenge and the breadth of opportunity, given the sheer scale and diversity of the organisation.”

Starting as a manager within the service improvement team at South Staffordshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Joe moved on to become Project Director and then Chief Executive of ‘Lifesource’, the Collaborative Procurement Hub for Shropshire & Staffordshire, before taking on his current very high profile role: “I am responsible for the direction of 30 discreet projects under the ‘Meeting Patient Needs’ programme that was publicity consulted in 2006. The projects will reconfigure health and social care across the region to provide 21st century healthcare for East Lancashire. I work to a Board of 3 NHS CEOs and two local govt Executive Directors.”

Joe feels that it was a joint effort – he had to push himself, but the NHS led him to this stage of his career. He feels that letting people know you are keen to get on and always thinking ‘what can I add to the service’ helped. “There are lots of opportunities within the NHS and networking internally offers a great advantage.”

Joe’s strengths lie in challenging existing practice and developing strategies that bring change through influence and effective people skills. His single greatest achievement was delivering and then running a new type of purchasing agency for the NHS, the first of its kind and the first ‘pathfinder’ to be delivered on the national programme to budget and ahead of time.

Looking ahead, Joe has a clear career aspiration – to lead a mental healthcare trust. “The mental healthcare trust faces many challenges and struggles to get recognition, so I see this as a huge career challenge.”

Richard Milner
Director of Operations for Harrow PCT

After a dynamic, fast-paced career that saw Richard move through research and consultancy, face considerable career-building challenge and complete more than a few notable achievements, Richard was looking for something new. At around the same time he spotted an advertisement for the Gateway to Leadership programme in the Times: “The advertisement resonated with my own values and desired career path at the time. I had spent 6 years making wealthy companies wealthier and wanted to apply my skills in a complex, challenging and ultimately more worthwhile operating environment. I was attracted by fact that the Gateway scheme was looking for future CEOs in the NHS.”

Richard felt the NHS offered more experience of operational management, and the Gateway Scheme enabled him to start in the NHS at a level he wouldn’t otherwise have been able to.

“I started here in Harrow as Head of Corporate Development, covering all the corporate support functions for the organisation - HR, Communications, PALS/Complaints, Admin and Board support, Corporate Governance. Following a reorganisation in 2005 I became Director of Performance at the PCT.”

With big ambitions, responsibility and a forward-looking Chief Executive who valued Richard’s experiences and knowledge, he helped to turn Harrow into a successful PCT, taking it from zero stars to one star, then two, and now providing “good” quality of care. The organisation has turned a £9.5m deficit into an operating surplus in 2006/7.

Since joining the NHS he has established the PCT website, led successful Improving Working Lives and Investors in People bids, and restructured both corporate and provided services to ensure a fit for purpose organisation. He has also helped improve the stroke pathway for patients, developed shared service models of provision for HR and OD services, developed a performance management system and established staff-led efficiency benchmarking exercise for community teams.

“I would like to gain senior operational experience in an acute Trust environment, with the aim of becoming a Chief Executive within the next five years”, says Richard.