I feel enormously privileged to have been appointed as Director of Performance and Delivery for King’s Health Partners. I have joined the Executive at a hugely exciting time with our Clinical Academic Group leaders currently being appointed, our strategic vision well articulated, a joint business plan for our partners agreed and plans for Clinical Academic Group accreditation beginning in earnest. I also however, join the Executive in the context of a changing NHS, a changing partnership between patients and professionals and at a time of great uncertainty.

I believe that this is a time of great opportunity. It is a time to be focused on delivery and on truly understanding what Clinical Academic Groups are already delivering and will go on to deliver, not just in the run up to their accreditation but in the longer term and for future generations. It is important that we remain confident in the plans we have made and that these plans are resilient in a turbulent environment. We need to ensure that the achievements of the Clinical Academic Groups are well understood and articulated by those within them and outside of them, so that we can readily share the difference that being King’s Health Partners really means.

So my thoughts have been very much focused on creating a framework that measures our progress. All Clinical Academic Groups as part of accreditation will be asked to articulate a baseline ‘where are we now’ position, and a ‘where are we going’ position. It will be the task of the Clinical Academic Group leadership teams to be able to make explicit what a movement from one to the other looks like with clear metrics that define the journey. This is no easy task and so with privilege comes the mantle of responsibility; I look forward to working with the other members of our Executive to achieve the goals of our strategic vision and to be sure that we can measure them.

Frances O’Callaghan