Chief Executive Officer | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
| Posting date: | 13 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | per annum |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 12 February 2026 |
| Location: | London, SE5 8AZ |
| Company: | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 7726379/334-NCL-7726379-DP |
Summary
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) is one of the largest providers of mental health and learning disability services in the country, recognised nationally and internationally for clinical excellence, research, and innovation. Our Trust sits at the cutting edge of mental health care, translating research into practice and shaping the future of the field. At the same time, we are grounded in the realities of delivering care for diverse and complex communities, navigating challenges such as workforce pressures, financial constraints, and rising demand, while remaining steadfast in our commitment to compassion, equitable, and outstanding care.
We are seeking a Chief Executive to lead SLaM with vision, courage, kindness, and operational excellence. This is a pivotal role during a time of growth and transformation, where balancing strategic ambition with operational rigour is essential. The successful candidate will drive improvement across quality, access, and outcomes, strengthen organisational performance while sustaining innovation, and building strong, collaborative partnerships across the NHS, local authorities, VCS organisations and communities. This is an opportunity to shape the Trust’s future, champion clinical leadership, and foster a culture in which staff feel supported, empowered, and able to deliver their best work.
We are looking for an accomplished, authentic, and compassionate leader with extensive senior leadership experience in large, complex health or social care organisations. The ideal candidate will have a proven record of delivering transformation, improving performance at scale, and nurturing high-performing teams and positive organisational culture. Strategic yet operationally astute, courageous yet collaborative, they will inspire confidence across the Trust and system, turn vision into action, and demonstrate a deep commitment to equity, inclusion, and reducing health and racial inequalities. This is a role for a leader who can navigate complexity, balance ambition with delivery, and guide one of the NHS’s most influential mental health trusts into its next chapter.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is world renowned for its pioneering work in mental health. We serve a local population of 1.3 million people in south London and specialist services for children and adults across the UK and beyond. We employ over 6,500 staff. We are part of King's Health Partners, and are the only mental health trust in the UK to have our own biomedical research centre - hosted jointly with Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London.
We are supported by Maudsley Charity. We are focused on promoting mental health and wellbeing. We provide treatment that helps people get well and stay well, so they can achieve their full potential.
Our strategy Aiming High, Changing Lives has been built on the feedback of hundreds of staff, service users, carers and partners with the support
of many community organisations. It focuses on five key ambitions:
• Deliver outstanding mental health care
• A partner in prevention
• Being a catalyst for change
• Building a culture of trust together
• Becoming effective and sustainable
Running through all of our ambitions is our deep commitment to anti-racism. In our strategy, we pledged that we will be a leader in anti-racism within mental health care by 2026.
Our Values and Behaviours Framework was created using the inputs of over 1,200 staff, service users and carers. Together, we treat each other and our patients with kindness and respect.
Saxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to SLaM on this appointment. For further information about the role, including details about how to apply, please visit www.saxbam.com/appointments using reference AADASC. Alternatively, emailBelinda.beck@saxbam.com. Applications should be received by midday on Monday 9 February.
This advert closes on Monday 9 Feb 2026