‘Outstanding’ trust CEO leaving after 13 years

The chief executive of an “outstanding” rated community trust is to step down after 13 years in the role.

Tracy Allen has announced she will leave Derbyshire Community Health Services Foundation Trust in September.

She was appointed to the role in 2011, when the trust was created, and it was rated “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission in 2019 overall, including an “outstanding” for well-led.

Ms Allen is also a system lead for “place” development, and an elected trustee of NHS Providers, representing community trusts. She has been included in HSJ’s top CEOs list for several years.

In a statement Ms Allen said: “This has been my dream job for the past 13 years, but it has also been very tough and demanding at times and can take a lot out of you, so I want to step back on a high and before I start running out of energy to do the job well.”

Before becoming DCHS CEO, Ms Allen was managing director of the provider arm of community health services for NHS Derby County for more than four years.

Previously, she held several senior roles, including as director of strategy and service improvement at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust between 2002 and 2006. She joined the NHS as part of the graduate management training scheme from university, in 1990.

DCHS chair Julie Houlder said: “Tracy has been relentless in her ambition to improve services and patient experience for local people and has greatly enhanced relationships with our many partners.

“She guided the organisation to foundation trust status and on to an outstanding CQC rating and led us through many ups and downs with her dedication to the role. It goes without saying that we’ll all be incredibly sad to lose such a brilliant chief executive.”