Sarah Garrity – KHPeople

What is your role with King’s Health Partners? 

I am Head of Workforce with the central team at King’s Health Partners (KHP). 

You joined KHP at its inception in 2009 – what was your background and what inspired you to work with the team? 

I came to KHP from within the partnership, having joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FT back in 1993, when the two hospitals merged. I joined as HR Manager for Acute Medicine and did a number of HR manager jobs (with various reorganisations in between) until I had my first child in 1999. I returned from maternity leave having secured a promotion to Head of Resourcing and Medical HR on a job share basis and did that until I applied for the KHP role at start up in 2009. Having worked at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FT for a while, albeit in different roles, I was looking to work on a bigger playing field and when the job came up at KHP it was perfect. 

What has been your highlight of your time with KHP? 

There have been many, I’ve enjoyed almost every moment! We’ve done some great things. Personally, I am proud to have developed and implemented the KHP passport which is still in operation today and has created efficiencies across the partnership for HR, saving time and cost. It was also used as an exemplar by NHS England for mobility of staff across the NHS. I have also enjoyed being part of our many wonderful events. The team here are amazing and I have worked with so many great people over my 15 years with KHP. 

What has been the biggest changes since 2009? 

I remember when Prof Moxham first spoke about value based healthcare and better outcomes for patients and these seemed to be terms that weren’t really used at that time. Then we hired people to focus on their development and now it’s embedded within everything we do and is a commonly used term across the NHS. The number of programmes we run has also increased dramatically over the 15 years.  

What benefits of working in partnership have you seen over the last 15 years?  

The ability to collaborate across a group of organisations brings many benefits and sharing of best practice and we have such a diverse group of people who bring so many amazing skills and their expertise to the work that we do. There is always a place in each organisation to test out new ideas, however big or small, and the spread and adoption of these can be at much greater scale when we work as One Team. 

What is your one career top tip?  

I think there is a need to remain very flexible and able to deal with change, having an open mind for new and different ways of working. I would say grab every opportunity that comes your way. Every day’s a learning day! 

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