Sheffield Children’s appoints new Chief Nurse

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has announced the appointment of Yvonne Millard MBE as its new Chief Nurse.

Yvonne joins from Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, where she has worked for more than 25 years and is currently Deputy Chief Nurse. She will start in her new role on 19 September 2022.

Professor Sally Shearer OBE, Sheffield Children’s current Chief Nurse, Executive Director of Nursing and Quality and Acting Deputy Chief Executive, is retiring at the end of August after a 42-year career in nursing.

Ruth Brown, Chief Executive of Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I am delighted to confirm Yvonne’s appointment as Chief Nurse and we are looking forward to her joining our Trust Board and leadership team in September.

“Yvonne’s predecessor, Professor Sally Shearer, has provided strong leadership and a voice for nurses since she joined Sheffield Children’s in 2015. I have personally been immensely grateful for her support to me since I joined the Trust and her leadership during the pandemic has been invaluable in helping us steer through it.

“I’m sure Yvonne will be an equally valuable professional lead for over 1,000 nurses, health visitors and allied health professionals that work across our Trust. She brings a wealth of skills and knowledge from more than 30 years’ experience in nursing – 25 of them in paediatric care. She will be a tremendous asset to Sheffield Children’s and I know will ensure the voice of the children and young people we serve is reflected in all we do.”

Yvonne was awarded the MBE by The Queen in the New Year’s Honours in 2020 for services to paediatric nursing.

During her career in Birmingham she has led a nurse-led discharge programme in the early 2000s that ensured patients were able to go home earlier – sometimes reducing the length of hospital stays by days.

She was instrumental in creating a sensory garden, which opened in 2014 to help children with disabilities. She led the project that offered a dedicated space to help ease anxiety and make visits less daunting.

Yvonne played an important role in Birmingham Children’s Hospital becoming the first of its kind to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2017.

Yvonne said: “I’m really excited at becoming part of the Sheffield Children’s family. To visit the hospital was amazing – there is such fabulous work going on and I had that ‘feeling’ when you know something is right.

“I believe I can share some of my knowledge and I look forward to being a part of what I believe is going to be an exciting future. I am relocating as I want to be a part of the community. I love the energy of a city and have definitely felt that about Sheffield.”