Naomi Chambers

Naomi’s wide range of teaching, advisory and research interests include healthcare leadership, organisation culture, diversity and inclusion, board governance, clinicians in management, health care commissioning, health policy and management in Europe, primary care, and patient and public involvement in health care. Her publications and media profile reflect this breadth of interests.

Naomi is currently co-director of Leadership & Management in the doctoral-level Higher Specialist Healthcare Scientist Training (HSST) Programme, and director of the future leaders programme for the European Society of Dermatologists in Research. Previous teaching roles have included programme director for the Nye Bevan executive programme for aspiring NHS board directors, university lead for NHS Leadership Academy programmes, and Director of Executive Education. Outward facing roles have included President of the European Health Management Association and vice chair on the board of NHS North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Recent research projects have involved leading a team investigating changes in board level leadership in hospitals in England following the publication of the Francis Report into the failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Hospital Foundation Trust (completed 2018), the evaluation of the content, applications and impacts of the NHS well-led framework on behalf of CQC and NHSI (completed 2020) and  a series of curated patient stories for a monograph and manifesto for organising care around patients (published by Manchester University Press in 2021). 

Naomi is also sole editor for the Research Handbook on Leadership in Healthcare (42 chapters)  published by Edward Elgar in 2023. Current projects include an analysis of recent maternity services public inquiry reports from the perspective of the experiences of frontline staff, using labour process theory, and dissemination of fresh insights into the policy influencing impact of Roy Griffiths, following the acquisition of his personal papers relating to the period 1983-1994 by the University of Manchester, and the witness seminar held in November 2024.

Drawing from her experience, Naomi has an ongoing working relationship with a number of NHS boards and senior leadership teams, supporting them to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s health and care systems. She is also in close collaborative contact with colleagues working in national regulatory and oversight bodies, and with independent policy organisations such as the Kings Fund, Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation.

Naomi has a background of 30 years operational experience in health services management and research, with a focus on primary care, corporate governance and organisational development. Her PhD thesis examined the potential for nurse practitioners in primary care and the impact of the model on patients and on professionals. Other teaching and research interests include:

• Healthcare leadership and board governance
• Primary care
• The practice of healthcare commissioning
• The role of middle managers in the public sector
• European, other international and comparative health systems
• Doctors in management
• Policy issues and management challenges in the care home care sector
• Action learning for personal development and organisational change