Advisors

John has nearly 40 years’ experience in healthcare – his roles have included Finance Director and a decade as an acute trust CEO. He has worked at national level for the Department of Health reviewing whole health communities and undertook the role of Chief Operating Officer for the London Deanery during a period of major change in doctor and dentist training. John joined the NAPC in 2015 supporting the development of the primary care home programme and was Chief Executive Officer from 2016 to 2024. He is inspired by local frontline energy and a desire to improve local health and care services.

Nigel Edwards is an independent health policy expert working as an advisor with WHO and a number of UK organisations including PPL and RAND Europe.

Nigel was Chief Executive at the Nuffield Trust from 2012 to 2023. He has a long career in health policy and working on innovation and change in healthcare delivery and in providing challenging analysis on health policy. He has a strong interest in using different disciplines to inform health policy.

He has worked for the King’s Fund, KPMG’s global health practice and the NHS Confederation where he was Director of Policy for 11 years. Prior to that he worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he remains an honorary visiting professor. He started his professional life as a graduate trainee in NHS management and worked at hospital and regional level following this.

Nigel works across a range of issues from new models of service delivery, primary care, local health strategy and on wider health care policy in the UK and internationally. Most recently this has included reviewing the strategies for developing a teaching hospital and a rural health system in Wales, supporting WHO Europe in developing its thinking on hospitals, developing a vision for community pharmacy and working on research about the role of District Hospitals in low income countries.

In his substantive career, Richard worked for seven unitary, county, district, and London borough councils. He served as Chief Executive of East Cambridgeshire District Council, Aylesbury Vale District Council, Wolverhampton City Council and Central Bedfordshire Council.

Between 2017 and 2020, Richard was also the Senior Responsible Officer for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care System (ICS).

In 2020, Richard was asked to support the Department of Health and Social Care in its response to the Covid pandemic, which he did until 2022 as Regional Convenor for the South West. During that time, he led a team supporting local partners in their efforts to protect and support the region’s five million residents, including through the fastest roll out of the vaccination programme in the country.

Since 2022, Richard has undertaken a number of interim management and coaching assignments, including with the City of Edinburgh Council and Colchester City Council, where he led the authority’s group of wholly owned trading companies as Managing Director. During this time, Richard was also the Managing Director of the East Midlands Development Company (EM DevCo).

Richard is now the Senior Non-Executive Director of the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).

In November 2023, Richard was appointed as Managing Director Commissioner at Woking Borough Council as part of the Government’s intervention at the authority and serves as its Chief Executive.

Richard is an accredited peer for the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement programme and has led Corporate Peer Challenges in Northumbria, Devon, Stockport, and Shropshire.

Patricia has recently retired from the NHS where she had a forty-year career. The last thirteen years were spent as a Chief Executive Officer of both hospitals and integrated care systems where she was responsible for overseeing complex health services and health improvement programmes for local communities.

Patricia holds a Masters degree in Health Care Management. She is a graduate of the East of England Aspiring Directors Programme, the ‘Breaking Through’ Leadership Programme, the Athena Leadership Programme for Executive Women, and the Collaborative Leadership Programme at the Kings Fund.

Whilst working in the NHS Patricia remained passionate about improving the lives of populations and staff. Patricia has a strong focus on and commitment to social justice and reducing inequalities. She was previously the co-chair of the national integrated care system (ICS) CEOs network, a member of the ICS network board and is member by distinction of the Faculty of Public Health. She was a member of the review panel for the national review undertaken by the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, into integrated care systems and co-chaired the work stream focussed on prevention, population health management and health equity.

Patricia was named as one of 25 Rising Stars of the NHS in 2013 and one of the top 50 CEOs in 2019. She was named amongst the top 50 Ethnic Minority leaders who will exercise the most power and/or influence in the NHS and health policy each year from 2020 until her retirement from the NHS in September 2025.

She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the NHS and is a visiting Professor at the Health Sciences University in Bournemouth and London where she as awarded an honorary Fellowship in 2025.