Rebuilding Trust in the NHS: Transparency, Accountability, and Patient Experience

Helen is Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning.

Helen's passion for improved patient safety is informed by personal family insight into the impact of unsafe care and the ineffectiveness of organisational responses to learn from error.

Helen is an experienced leader in organisational effectiveness and transformational change. She has held leadership roles in healthcare in the UK and the WHO, the National Patient Safety Agency, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman and the Charity Commission.

Helen’s previous leadership roles in patient safety include, as Director of Operations of the National Patient Safety Agency, designing the first patient safety infrastructure and policy framework for the NHS in England, and Director of the National Reporting and Learning System. At the WHO, she held a range of roles, including partnership and patient safety programme management and executive lead of the global ‘Patients For Patient Safety’ programme.

Judith has over 25 years of experience in procurement across both the public and private sectors. She has spent much of her career working within the NHS and wider health sector and is passionate about ensuring that the patient and public voice is reflected in procurement activities. She has worked across a broad range of specialisms, procuring goods and services across a variety of categories. In her role at HQIP, she is responsible for the strategic development, operation, and management of the organisation’s procurement function.

Jon Wilks is Chief Executive of the Institute of Health & Social Care Management, a post he has held since 2020. The Institute can trace its founding back to 1902, so Jon is very much a custodian for this great organisation. He has been in and around the NHS and social care for the last 25 years, being Commercial Director for primary care distribution leader Williams Medical from 2000 to 2007 before co-founding health market access specialist UK HealthGateway in 2007 and NHS best practice repository The Academy of Fabulous Stuff, a community interest company, in 2016.

A thought leader, systems thinker and speaker on the international conference circuit where I present and consult on a wide range of human-centred topics including re-thinking health and care for the 21st Century, value creation and re-thinking policy and strategy in a customer experience age.

We stand at the dawn of the greatest changes in science, medicine and technology the world has ever witnessed. Digital technology and the data that flows from it is encroaching more deeply and intimately into every corner of our lives providing organisations with more opportunities and power to create value but also undermine our freedom, privacy and agency. Meanwhile individuals and society are feeling more alienated, distrusting and anxious about the new world we are creating, the institutions that serve them and the growing inequalities this is producing. We need new thinking and new ideas.

A new consciousness is emerging in which individuals and society are seeking better answers to how organisations and institutions can help us all to live more prosperous and meaningful lives . Organisations and leaders are under pressure to meet this new challenge while also having to contend with the fact that many of the historical certainties, assumptions & management models are no longer fit for purpose.

The starting point for this a recognition that a new compact is needed between people and the private, public and community sector organisations that serve them. Key to this is an understanding of VALUE EXCHANGE and how an organisation can create value for all its stakeholders.

Bertha Bernasko Asante is a Clinical Practice Nurse Educator, author, and healthcare quality improvement leader with over 30 years of nursing experience across Ghana and the UK, including 23 years in the NHS. She holds an MSc in Healthcare Leadership, earning an excellent write-up in Emotional Intelligence, an Advanced Diploma in Perioperative Nursing, and a PGCE in Professional Academic Practice, gaining Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

A trusted Professional Nurse Advocate, Bertha provides restorative clinical supervision and champions staff wellbeing and pastoral support, particularly for the international workforce. She also serves in the Christian Healthcare Professionals Network (CHPNet), connecting, mentoring, and supporting staff through education and community engagement.

Bertha is the author of The Professional Progression Pathway (PPP) and founder of initiatives supporting professional integration, cultural adaptation, OSCE readiness, and leadership development. She also created the Quality Care Compass Framework to guide organisations in CQC preparation.

She is passionate about building a resilient, skilled, and future-ready NHS workforce through education, leadership, emotional intelligence, and change management.