Joint Head of Children and Young People’s Transformation programme, NHS England, England

Sara is Joint Head of Children and Young People’s Transformation programme for NHS England- London region. She trained as a nurse at Westminster Hospital and the Royal Brompton. She was the Registered Nurse on the Governing Body at Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group from 2012- 2020 and awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse in 2015 from the Queens Nursing Institute.

Sara has held a variety of innovative operational and strategic roles within primary, secondary and tertiary care. From local practice nurse to Associate Director of South London Cardiovascular and Stroke Network, she has been involved with the national Primary Care, Coronary Heart Disease and Healthier Community Collaboratives and was Programme Lead for Healthy London Partnership, Children and Young People’s Transformation Programme, Homeless health and Good Thinking. She established nurse-led cardiothoracic preadmission clinics and was the first thoracic surgical assistant in the country in the 1990’s. She is an NHS App ambassador, editorial board and founding member of the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing and has published in both medical and nursing press, including two books chapters.

More recently she has led the development of the London asthma programme and the Babies, Children and Young People’s Improvement Collaborative During Covid she was part of the HSJ award winning team that mobilised the homeless from the streets of London into hotels to keep them safe. She is passionate about prevention and improving systems and QI.

Sara Nelson (RN, QN) | LinkedIn @SaraNelsonRGN