Shane Devlin has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB cluster, following a rigorous recruitment process.

Shane is currently Chief Executive Officer of NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) ICB and brings a wealth of experience and a strong track record of health and care leadership to the new role, which he formally begins on 1 October 2025.

Over a career spanning nearly three decades Shane has held a range of senior positions in the NHS and social care in Northern Ireland and England.

Before beginning his post at Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB in February 2022, Shane was Chief Executive of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust from March 2018. Prior to this he held the post of Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.

A proud product of comprehensive education in England, Shane studied at Queen’s University, Belfast, graduating in 1995 as a Bachelor of Science: Economics. He followed this with a Postgraduate Diploma from the Institute of Management. Shane also gained a Diploma in Business Improvement from the University of Ulster and studied at Harvard University, participating in the Kennedy School of Government programme ‘Leaders for Tomorrow’.

Chair of the NHS ICB cluster for Gloucestershire and BNSSG, Dr Jeff Farrar, said:

“I am so pleased to welcome Shane to the ICB cluster and look forward to working with him. I know from first-hand experience that he is a dedicated and enthusiastic leader, passionate about providing the highest quality care for local people and committed to collaborative working and partnership.

“Shane takes up the role of cluster CEO at a time of significant change for Integrated Care Boards and I know that under his guidance and leadership we can face the challenges and opportunities with confidence.”

Shane Devlin said:

“I am delighted to be taking up this new role at an exciting time in the development of our two organisations and the role of ICBs.

“The move to an ICB cluster, serving 1.7 million people, brings new challenges but also new opportunities to transform services and improve health and care outcomes for our communities.

“Collaboration, partnership working and the voice of local people will be central to this and I’m really looking forward to hearing from colleagues, partners and our communities across Gloucestershire and BNSSG as we begin this new phase.

“Clearly the months ahead will be challenging as we enter a period of restructuring, while also maintaining our focus on delivering the long-term changes set out in the NHS 10-Year Plan.

“Nonetheless, we start from a strong position of considerable achievement and progress in both organisations, both of which have a strong Joint Forward Plan and a clear sense of local priorities.

“We have so much talent, enthusiasm and commitment across our two organisations and I’m looking forward to building on this and the progress we have made to date, as we move toward our new organisational structure.”

Additional information

NHS Reform

  • Over the last few months, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have been discussing closer working, reducing duplication and reforming the size and functions of NHS organisations to support the Government’s priorities for the health service.
  • As part of this reform and the stated desire to maximise use of taxpayers’ money to support frontline services, ICBs, through a clustering arrangement, will work on larger footprints in the future to meet their strategic commissioning responsibilities and reduce their running costs.
  • Prior to any future merger, the current ICBs (NHS Gloucestershire ICB and NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB) will continue to be statutory bodies and legal entities in their own right, but will work together in partnership to deliver the health priorities of local people.