Samantha Jones (civil servant)



Samantha Jones OBE (born 25 February 1971) is a UK health care professional working in the health and care services sector in England and has held senior positions in Government, the NHS and the independent health and care sector.

She began her NHS career in 1989 working as a nurse at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street. In 2007 she was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

In 2011 Jones accepted a position as a director of Care UK  before returning to the NHS, in 2013, as Chief Executive of West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Described as “pioneering, brave, and courageous" by the judges, she was voted one of the top 50 innovators in the NHS in 2014.

In the same year she was voted Health Service Journal Chief Executive (video) of the year.

In 2015, as part of the NHS 5 year Forward View, she led NHS England's “New Models of Care Programme” tasked with designing and prototyping its future care models.

Returning to the private sector in 2019 as CEO of NHS care providers Operose Health – a UK subsidiary of the US Centene Corporation.

She was appointed interim permanent secretary and chief operating officer of the new Office of the Prime Minister in February 2022 having previously been Boris Johnson's Expert Advisor on NHS Transformation and Social Care.

Jones was awarded an OBE (under her married name of Harrison) for public service in 2023.

She became a Non-Executive Director at the Department of Health and Social Care in 2023.