Dr Billy Boland

Medical Director

Dr Billy Boland  took over the role of Medical Director in March 2021.

Dr Billy Boland is Executive Medical Director and Consultant Psychiatrist in Community Psychiatry at South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust, Clinical Director for Mental Health for NHS England, London region and Honorary Reader in the Population Health Research Institute at St George’s, University of London. He is the Executive lead for the MHA and has joint responsibility with the Director of Nursing. He is responsible for the medical workforce being informed of the Act.

He was elected to the Royal College of Psychiatry General Adult Faculty Executive Committee in 2013 and subsequently became Chair in 2019. He is on the Advisory Board of the Money and Mental Health Policy Unit.   

His preferred pronouns are he/him.

Philip Murray

Director of Finance and Performance and Deputy Chief Executive

Philip joined the Trust in March 2017.

Philip is a Certified Accountant with over 30 years of NHS and public sector experience encompassing time within Mental Health, Acute and community providers as well as within the commissioning environment. He has previously managed clinical services within a surgical  services directorate and has brought with him a wealth of knowledge and experience from across the wider NHS.

His position prior to joining the Trust was as Chief Finance Officer covering the two Clinical Commissioning Groups within  Buckinghamshire.

Vanessa Ford

Chief Executive

I am proud to be the Chief Executive at SWLStG. As Chief Executive I am ultimately responsible for the mental health care that we provide to our communities and the experiences of our members of staff. My absolute focus is to put our patients and local communities at the heart of everything that we do. I started my career at SWLStG 20 years ago where I trained to be a mental health nurse. Over the years I have worked in a number of nursing leadership roles at Devon Partnership NHS Trust and West London Mental Health NHS Trust. I came back to SWLStG in 2016 as Director of Nursing and in August 2019 became the Chief Executive.

I am proud to be a Registered Mental Health Nurse and member of the Royal College of Nursing.

I am the NHS Place based lead for Merton, which means that I lead a team of NHS, local authority and voluntary sector partners to join up the health and care services we provide and develop and strengthen Merton’s health and care together partnership.

I am also Senior Responsible Officer for South West London Digital. I am passionate about the positive impact digital transformation can have on the care and treatment of patients and increasing patient choice.

Ask me about: Long walks, my trusty Brompton bike, and my beloved dog!

I pledge: to ensure that being inclusive and equitable is at the heart of our Trust