David Nicholson (civil servant)

Sir David Nicholson, KCB, CBE is a public policy analyst and NHS manager who was Chief Executive of NHS England. He was appointed in October 2011 following the NHS reforms, having been Chief Executive of the NHS within the Department of Health since September 2006. He issued what has become known as the "Nicholson challenge" regarding the finances of the NHS. He retired from the role on 1 April 2014.

Nicholson was educated at Forest Fields Grammar School in Nottingham, and graduated from Bristol Polytechnic (now known as the University of the West of England) with a 2:1 in History and Politics.

He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain after graduation, and remained a member of the party until 1983.

Nicholson joined the NHS as a graduate trainee.

For 10 years he worked in mental health, mainly in Yorkshire, where he was involved in implementing the policy of closing the old asylums and developing care in the community services.

In 1988, Nicholson moved into the acute hospital sector, appointed as the Chief Executive of the Doncaster and Montague NHS Hospitals Trust, a first-wave NHS trust brought in under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He introduced Clinical Directorates there in 1988 and the Trust was a national pilot for Total Quality Management. Under his leadership the Trust promised all staff "a job for life, it may not be the job you are doing now, but you have a job for life with this trust". The promise was printed in various Trust documents including the "Strategic Direction". In 1997, he moved to the Trent NHS Regional Office as the Regional Director of Performance before being appointed as Regional Director in November 2000.

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