Maria Nelligan, our Chief Nurse and Quality Officer, has been asked to provide executive leadership and support to Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, with a focus on improvement in professional practice, standards of patient care, clinical governance and the implementation of the Trust’s overarching improvement plan, following feedback from regulators and the escalations regarding Edenfield.

The Board of Directors supports Maria’s secondment into this role as Interim Executive Director of Clinical Transformation from 3 April 2023.

Maria joined LSCft in September 2019, as the Executive Director of Nursing and Quality with a proven track record in leading improvement in the quality of patient care, notably in North Staffordshire as Executive Director of Nursing, leading four CQC inspections, the final resulting in the Trust being rated as outstanding. Her extensive knowledge and patient focused leadership has been widely recognised and she received the highest recognition from the Chief Nurse for England in May 2021. 

At LSCft Maria has championed patient centred care and involvement of service users and carers. She has redesigned the nursing and allied health professional workforce, with investment in professional and clinical roles across the Trust. She has promoted patient safety, patient experience, education, equality, diversity and inclusion, multi-disciplinary working and transformation of our services, which has ensured better outcomes for our service users and better opportunities for our staff now and for the future. 

Chris Oliver, Interim Chief Executive said:

"Maria’s contribution to the nursing and professional teams and the wider organisation will be missed at LSCft. On behalf of the Board, I wish to thank Maria for her dedication and commitment over the last four years and the clinical and leadership expertise that she has provided. We wish her every success in her new role.”