CEO to lead first acute trust

The chief executive of a challenged mental health trust will step down after five years to lead a nearby acute provider, it has been announced.

Brent Kilmurray is leaving Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Foundation Trust in April to take on the CEO role at Mid Yorkshire Teaching Trust following the retirement of Len Richards.

Mr Kilmurray said it had been an “absolute privilege” to lead TEWV, which was rated as “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission in 2023, its most recent inspection.

The inspection had followed a damning NHS England-commissioned review into governance at the trust published in March 2023, which criticised leaders’ response to safety incidents.

It said leaders had tolerated high levels of safety incidents and accepted verbal assurance with “insufficient professional curiosity”. The review had been preceded by separate reports identifying “systemic failures” over the deaths of inpatients Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore  in 2019 and early 2020.

Mr Kilmurray joined TEWV in 2020, having previously been CEO of Bradford District Care FT, a mental health and community provider in West Yorkshire, from 2018-20. He had previously been a director at TEWV and at acute trusts in the region.

Dave Jennings, TEWV chair, said Mr Kilmurray had led the trust through a “very challenging time” but the trust was in a “much healthier position” as a result of the outgoing chief’s leadership, with “clear signs of substantive and sustained improvement”.

He added: “This feels like a fitting legacy to his leadership, which he has delivered with compassion, dedication and an unwavering commitment to making a difference… I’d like to put on record my personal thanks to Brent for strength, integrity and humility during unprecedented times, and whilst we are incredibly sad to see him go, he leaves with our absolute blessing and best wishes to the future.”

Mr Kilmurray added in a statement: “I am proud of what we’ve achieved together and the meaningful change that has happened, which at times has been one of the biggest challenges of my career so far.”

In an inspection published in February 2025, the CQC said TEWV had made improvements and rated its mental health crisis services as “good” but it remains “requires improvement” overall.