Joyce Redfearn has been appointed National Director for Health and Wellbeing Board Implementation at the Department of Health.
Joyce takes over from John Wilderspin who stepped down in December 2012 to become Managing Director at the Central South Commissioning Support Unit.
Joyce’s primary task will be to ensure that the right support arrangements for 2013/14 are in place when health and wellbeing boards go live in April 2013. She will provide visible leadership to the programme until April 2013 and will continue to build and maintain the strong partnership working currently in place.
Joyce said:
“I am delighted to be joining the team during this exciting period. It is vital that we maintain the strong shared leadership arrangements as I am convinced this is the best way of delivering better health outcomes for patients and local people.
“Health and wellbeing boards have an important and central role to play in promoting collaborative leadership and I am pleased to support and develop the good work being done locally.”
Joyce will oversee the final three months of the health and wellbeing boards programme and brings to the role a wealth of experience. Previously, she has worked in Wigan where in her final 15 months she was in a shared Chief Executive post with the Ashton Leigh and Wigan PCT. Prior to that, she helped to reintroduce the Chief Executive role to Gloucestershire County Council and took it from a poor to a good Authority. She has been working in partnership with DH since May 2012 through her role as a consultant on health and wellbeing boards at the Local Government Association.
Joyce recently spoke at a national sharing event on 8 November on the progress being made by health and wellbeing boards. The video can be viewed at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130123170713/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxqTJ99BykA
To find out more about the ‘story’ of the event on 8 November and health and wellbeing boards, visit the Storify page at sfy.co/jDNL