When you look at my career, it’s all about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, isn’t it?” observes Jenny Owen. She laughs, but her point is a serious one. What ties together her 30-year nursing career in sexual health, substance abuse and mental health is “championing the underdog”, she says.

“As a nurse, it was a struggle advocating for patients with substance misuse and HIV,” she explains. “Just getting basic things like incontinence pads was difficult. There’s a lot of stigma attached to HIV, drugs and mental health problems, and they’re often interlinked.”

Mental health nursing can be tough, she says. “You’re seeing people at their most vulnerable. If you’re having a psychotic episode, suffering from anxiety or depression, or feeling suicidal, reaching out and trusting somebody can be really scary. But also as a nurse it’s a privilege when people do that.”

After working in the psychological day unit at Fazakerley Hospital (now Aintree University Hospital) and in substance abuse services for Mersey Care, she moved into commissioning with Halton council, where she led the development of the Young People’s Plan for substance abuse.

“At that time there was a lot of money around—not like now,” she recalls. “Being able to look at high risk groups and set up new services meant we could make a real difference to the community.” When she later joined the local Primary Care Trust (PCT), she went “on the bank”, working shifts as a sexual health nurse alongside her day job commissioning cancer and end-of-life services.

“That was completely conscious,” she explains. “I think most nurses working as managers will say they need that clinical fix, where they still feel like a nurse. It’s about being hands on, saying in touch with patients.” Even today, she still works nursing shifts for a local urology clinic, alongside her job with NHS England as planned care and cancer manager for the North West region.

That job involves working with trusts on planning elective recovery, validating patient pathways, data quality and monitoring performance information. She also supports three ‘Cancer Alliances’—provider collaboratives working across systems to plan cancer care.

Jenny says she became an MiP rep because she “was looking for opportunities to use the nursing and managerial skills which were missing in my current role”. She took part in the MiP’s reps training course—five 90-minute sessions—followed by three days of health and safety training with reps from other unions.

“They were a good bunch and we got on really well. The training really was interesting and relevant, as NHS England was going through organisational change and had issues with estates, flexible working and disabled colleagues needing personal evacuation plans,” she says.

Jenny now sits on NHS England’s health and safety committee alongside representatives from management and other unions. “It’s a collective opportunity to make things better for staff,” she explains. “We look at some of the risks and challenge the organisation about the training and level of support staff get,” she says. She also supported MiP members affected by the recent organisational change programme at NHS England and its new hybrid working policy, which requires most staff to work in the office at least 40% of the time. Feedback from members showed that “having a safe space to talk to reps about their options, rather than just formal representation, was valued”, Jenny says.

I asked Jenny if she had any qualms about ‘going over to the dark side’, as management is still seen in some quarters. “I saw it as an opportunity,” she replies firmly. “I make it very clear that I’m still a nurse. I’m still registered and I’m still practicing. It’s important to be recognised for that qualification and to use that experience and knowledge as a manager.”

She thinks back to when, working for the PCT, she led the setting up of a sexual assault referral centre, working with Cheshire police, local councils and charities. “I developed the spec, I developed the model, I developed the performance matrix, the memorandum of agreement,” she says. “I put it all in place and I couldn’t have done that without my background in sexual health and nursing. We need people who have that crossover between clinical experience and management.” //