Louise Tibbert is moving from head of HR and organisational development at Hertfordshire County Council to director of workforce and organisational development at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Tibbert has 27 years experience in local government, with previous positions including head of HR at Cambridge City Council. In her new position Tibbert will oversee 11,000 staff across three hospitals serving Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Tackling key NHS challenges of funding, skills shortages, relieving pressure on staff and boosting morale, will be a case of “making sure that whatever we’re doing is meeting the needs of the organisation for the current day, but also as it’s needing to transform,” said Tibbert.
She said that, as with her current role and indeed within all public sector organisations, partnership work will be crucial.
She told HR magazine: “It is that immediate operational delivery so: have we got doctors and nurses? What are the vacancy rates? How are we attracting people in? How are we retaining people? What’s the quality of our leadership?
“Those are our immediate priorities. But longer term it’s got to be working with key partners like local councils and other providers to make sure we’re delivering the best services possible with the resources we’ve got.”
The role of HR in NHS Trusts is now very much to facilitate partnerships to support renewed emphasis on end-to-end care and preventative intervention, said Tibbert.
“A lot of the stuff you hear about on the news is about early intervention, helping people to help themselves. It’s about making sure that people stay fit and healthy so they don’t just turn up at the door of the hospital or GP or local council for them to put things right,” she said. “So it’s supporting a complete shift through creating partnerships.”
Though Tibbert said her new position would very much build on her past experiences, she said she was “really excited about moving to a new sector and all the challenges the NHS would throw at [her]”.
She will join the trust at the start of August.
