Joanne Matthews (RGN BSc) has over 27 years’ experience working across Health and Social Care within Scotland and England. As the Associate Director for Improvement and Safety within Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Joanne provides strategic leadership at national level to the redesign and continuous improvement of health and social care systems across the country.

With a passion for improving the quality and safety of care she leads a range of national quality improvement programmes supporting leaders to create the conditions and culture for improvement including, for the last 10 years, leading the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) and more recently Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s work to develop a Quality Management System.

Prior to returning to Scotland in 2013, Joanne had a number of senior clinical, managerial and commissioning roles in the NHS in the South East of England. These included the national telephone triage and advice line, NHS Direct Kent, Surrey and Sussex and health and social care strategic commissioning for adult and children’s services within Brighton and Hove Primary Care Trust.

Joanne started her career in the NHS as a nurse graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University, is an ILM Executive Coach and a member of The Health Foundation’s Q Advisory Board