- Professor Deborah Sturdy OBE has been appointed Chief
Nurse for Adult Social Care in England
- Professor Sturdy will act as champion for the interests
of social care nurses and work to ensure at risk adults are
provided with high quality care
- Industry leaders welcome the appointment designed to
promote great work and raise standards
Social care nurses in England will soon benefit from the
leadership and advice of the first Chief Nurse for Adult
Social Care, who was appointed today.
Professor Deborah Sturdy OBE will take up the new role to
represent social care nurses and provide clinical
leadership to the workforce.
She will work closely with the Minister for Care and the
Chief Nursing Officer in this important role to ensure the
provision of high quality, personalised, joined up care.
The Chief Nurse will act as an inspiring leader for social
care nursing and help develop social care policy and how it
relates to the workforce.
Minister for Care said:
I’m delighted to welcome Deborah Sturdy as our first
Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care.
This is a really important new role ‒ supporting, leading
and speaking up for social care and our fantastic care
workers.
This year has shone a light on the commitment of carers
across the country. Care staff and nurses have risen to
the challenge of providing skilled, compassionate care in
the face of the huge challenges of the pandemic.
The appointment of a Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care is
another step towards giving carers the support and
recognition they absolutely deserve.
The role is an interim appointment for up to 6 months, to
further increase the professional support and expertise in
the department over winter ahead of filling the post on a
more permanent basis in 2021.
Professor Sturdy has had a long and successful career in
nursing, including working with older people and people
living with dementia. Since February 2020, Professor Sturdy
has worked on secondment for one day a week to the Chief
Nursing Officer as strategic adviser for social care
nursing.
She has also provided nursing advice to the Gosport
Independent Panel, set up to address concerns about the
care of residents in Gosport War Memorial Hospital. Before
this, Professor Sturdy was employed as professional nursing
adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care
(DHSC) between
2000 and 2011.
Interim Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care Professor Deborah
Sturdy said:
I am honoured to have been asked to help define a new
narrative for social care nursing and support colleagues
to find their voice, and contribute to the development of
the workforce in the coming months and work together to
deliver the best care possible.
The social care nursing and care workforce together are a
powerful force to help shape and deliver the health and
social care agenda. I hope that in this role I will be
able to give a voice to those working in social care and
develop the workforce, through the difficult months ahead
and beyond.
Professor Sturdy has held a variety of roles across both
health and social care, including clinical practice,
management, policy and research and will continue her role
as Director of Health and Wellbeing at Royal Hospital
Chelsea in a part-time capacity.
One of her main tasks will be to engage with the frontline
nursing workforce to listen to their views and act as a
champion for their interests in government, and the sector.
She will also be promoting and raising standards for the
social care nursing and wider workforce and working with
our national and regional partners to celebrate success.
Chief Social Workers for Adults Mark Harvey and Fran Leddra
said:
We are so pleased to welcome Deborah as the Chief Nurse
for Adult Social Care. We are looking forward to working
with her to strengthen and support the adult social care
nursing workforce and to help us provide a strong
professional voice for the sector.
Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England, said:
I am looking forward to working with Deborah as she takes
up this vital role providing a bridge across health and
social care as well as supporting the delivery of the
winter plan for social care.
Most importantly, this means leadership and
representation at the highest level for the many
thousands of social care nursing colleagues who make a
difference to millions of people every day.
The role will begin on 21 December and will sit with
DHSC,
reporting to the Director General of Adult Social Care with
a professional line to the Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May.
Further quotes:
Gary Lashko, CEO the Royal Hospital Chelsea, said:
On behalf of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, I would like to
congratulate Professor Deborah Sturdy OBE, our Director
of Health and Wellbeing, on this important secondment to
the Department of Health and Social Care. We are all
immensely proud that she will be representing nurses on a
national level and when she takes up her new role, she
may take with her some of the learning from the excellent
work she has done here at the Royal Hospital whilst
caring for the Chelsea Pensioners.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care
England, said:
Nurses play a vital role in social care and we are
delighted that the Department of Health and Social Care
has appointed Professor Deborah Sturdy 0BE as the new
chief nurse for social care. Deborah has extensive
experience in social care, and the NHS, and will be a
valuable asset to our sector at an incredibly challenging
time.
Vic Rayner, Executive Director, National Care Forum, said:
I am delighted to hear about this long awaited
appointment. Deborah will be an excellent champion and
advocate of social care nursing, at a point when the
nurses within social care are under more pressure than
ever before.
Her appointment is exceptionally timely as we move
forward to ensure that the most vulnerable members of all
our communities, and the staff who work with them take
part in a mass vaccination programme. Her ability to
highlight the role that nurse clinicians can play in
supporting the smooth roll out of vaccination will be
vital, and in ensuring the voices of social care nurses
are heard loud and clear as plans to develop and reward
the whole nursing workforce ensue.
Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, Queens Nursing Institute Chief
Executive, said:
I am absolutely delighted with the appointment of
Professor Deborah Sturdy to the role of Chief Nurse for
Adult Social Care in England.
Deborah is a superb champion for the sector with a unique
career combining practice, research and policy in adult
social care. Her deep knowledge and thoughtful insights
into the needs of the sector and her outstanding ability
to co-create solutions are personal qualities which will
be drawn upon every day in this new role.
The QNI is immensely proud that Deborah, who was awarded
QNI Fellowship for her achievements in adult social care,
has been appointed to this role. I wish Deborah every
success and very much look forward to the QNI supporting
her in this critical new role.
David Foster, chairman of Foundation of Nursing Studies,
said:
Professor Sturdy is exactly the right person for this
role. She is highly experienced and credible in this
sector and as an influential leader will make an impact
in this pioneering new role.
Joanne Bosanquet, chief executive, Foundation of Nursing
Studies, said:
As a enormously respected nurse, academic, leader and
policy expert Professor Sturdy brings exactly the right
skills to this job. Her energy and passion for people
cared for in this sector will ensure she makes a real
difference.
