We’re so encouraged to hear today that the NHS has appointed a Head of Flexible Working, in a bid to encourage more part-time work in the health service.

Jane Galloway, deputy director at the NHS London Leadership Academy, has been given the new job of Head of Flexible Working, reporting to the Head of Improving People Practices, Raj Bhamber.

Prerana Issar, Chief People Officer at NHS England/Improvement said the new role reflected the ambitions laid out in their People Plan. Health officials said the move is part of plans to ensure workers could have more flexible careers, and a better work/life balance.

An NHS England spokesman said: "Recruiting and retaining world class staff to stay in the NHS for longer so there are more doctors and nurses to treat patients is a priority of the Long Term Plan and offering flexible working options is one of the many ways the NHS will achieve this.”

9-2-3 have long championed flexible working across all sectors, and Helen Wright, 9-2-3 Founder spoke last week over two days at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Equality Conference. With over 6,000 employees, we were thrilled to be involved and advocate flexible working patterns for EVERY workforce - whether you’re office based, or in a care-giving setting.

Mo Patel, Head of Inclusion for Oxford NHS commented: “Helen has raised awareness beyond all my expectations, she has set us alight [and] enabled us to have a trust-wide conversation about [flexible working]… We are a 24 hour, all year-round NHS service so we face many challenges and may not be able to make it work for everyone, but Helen has given us the confidence to experiment and test it out.

“Helen is extremely knowledgeable, world-wise and switched on. [Her presentation] is evidence-based, backed up with case studies, research into workforce attitudes and well-documented benefits for organisations which all totals to a very convincing, compelling and conclusive case.”