executive and board development
executive and board development
Anthony Davison, is the Director of Nursing Commissioning and Integration at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.
Anthony Davison’s career in the NHS began in 2002 as a healthcare support worker, where he quickly built a deep connection to compassionate values and community care. After qualifying as a mental health nurse, Anthony worked across inpatient, crisis, and community services, gaining deep insight into the challenges and rewards of mental health care. His passion for leadership emerged early, leading him to pursue a degree in leadership and management. A pivotal move into primary care as a cognitive behavioural therapist broadened his perspective, eventually inspiring him to seek wider impact through strategic roles in commissioning and quality oversight before he began his journey as a nursing director in the Lancashire and South Cumbria system. Anthony’s transition into leadership was supported by a range of development opportunities, including coaching and leadership programmes offered by the NHS North West Leadership Academy (NWLA). “I did the HLM 360° feedback, with the NHS North West Leadership Academy . The feedback got from my team was: you’re compassionate, good at connecting and being a networker, you like being around people, you like chairing events and pulling people together to work collectively. That led me to reflect deeply on my next steps.” Through lots of conversation and an appraisal conversation I decided I wanted to work at place and neighbourhood level.”
Through NWLA’s Foundations in System Leadership programme and ongoing coaching support, Anthony embraced a secondment into place-based leadership within the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System. There, he leads transformative projects in women’s health, integrated neighbourhood working, and palliative care each grounded in co-production, data-driven insight, and community voice. “I’ve had support from the NHS North West Leadership Academy, throughout this secondment. In September 2024, as part of my personal development plan, the Deputy CEO put me forward for one of the Trust’s executive coaching places and then Lorna supported me in finding the right coach for me. That was brilliant and I cannot praise the coach enough. I wrote objectives for what I wanted to achieve within six months of this secondment which I reviewed with my coach. Lorna [Krisson, Senior System Lead] also looked through those with me and offered suggestions, which was helpful.” “Support from Lorna has been fundamental, in terms of me being able to have a conversation and her ability to connect me with different people, opportunities and pieces of work going on in the NHS. The North West Leadership Academy provides networking and a strategic view across the North West, and I’ve been able to bring that back to place.”
Anthony credits several development opportunities as instrumental in his progression including early leadership programmes, executive coaching. “Coaching has been very impactful. That dedicated space to reflect, to unpick what’s going on, to realign with my values, it’s helped me several times when I’ve been at a crossroad in my career.” Anthony’s leadership is defined by trust, collaboration, compassion, and empowerment. As a senior system leader, he remains grounded in frontline realities by intentionally building open, supportive relationships across his teams. You can read more about Anthony’s career journey, approach to leadership and vision for the future of nursing on the NHS North West Leadership Academy website .
Anthony Davison: Advocating compassionate, community-driven nursing leadership
nw.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk | Leader
Leader | nw.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk
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