Jo Bibby is Director of Health at the Health Foundation.
Jo is responsible for leading the Foundation’s Healthy Lives strategy to create the opportunities for everyone to lead a healthy life.
Joining the Foundation in November 2007, Jo initially led the Foundation’s influential portfolio of work in patient safety and person-centred care.
Jo has worked in health care at local and national level for 25 years, including 10 years at the Department of Health. As Head of NHS Performance, she oversaw the implementation of the policy agenda set out in the NHS Plan. At the NHS Modernisation Agency, Jo led an international quality improvement initiative – Pursuing Perfection.
Before joining the Foundation, Jo was the Director for the Calderdale and Kirklees Integrated Service Strategy where she led a major service reconfiguration programme to deliver improvements in quality, safety and patient experience.
She is a trustee at the Centre for Homelessness Impact and from June 2021 a non-executive director at Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
Jo has a PhD in Medical Biophysics.
For media enquiries please contact the media office.
Latest articles
Long read
Building public understanding of health and health inequalities
Exploring public attitudes towards health and health inequalities, and how public health...
Newsletter blog
Action as an antidote to despair
It’s important not to feel overwhelmed by current trends in health inequalities, but rather to seek...
Newsletter blog
Good health: vital for levelling up
Jo Bibby considers the weight of expectation now attached to the term ‘levelling up’, and puts this...
Blog
An investment in people is an investment in health
The COVID-19 impact inquiry shows the extent of the pandemic’s unequal repercussions, writes Jo...
Research report
Unequal pandemic, fairer recovery
A comprehensive review of the factors that affected the UK’s devastating COVID-19 death toll.
Blog
1 year on since lockdown began – our lives have changed but what lessons have we learned?
Jo Bibby takes stock of the past year of the pandemic, reflecting on how our recovery must draw on...
Newsletter blog
Putting health at the heart of the recovery
Our Director of Health, Jo Bibby explores how we need to put improving health at the heart of our...
Blog
An opportunity to take a broader view on preventative health measures
In this blog, Jo Bibby discusses the launch of the ONS Health Index and how it could focus minds on...
Research report
Using economic development to improve health and reduce health inequalities
This report sets out how economic development can be used to improve people’s health and reduce...
Newsletter blog
Who would want to be 20 in 2020?
Our Director of Health, Jo Bibby, looks at the experience of coronavirus through the eyes of young...
Long read
Learning from lockdown
COVID-19 and the response have touched every part of society. But as the UK edges out of lockdown,...
Blog
Emerging evidence on COVID-19’s impact on mental health and health inequalities
We explore the impact of the pandemic on mental health and how some groups are affected more than...
News
Health Foundation statement on racial inequalities in health and health care
A statement from the Chief Executive and directors of the Health Foundation on racial inequalities...
Long read
Will COVID-19 be a watershed moment for health inequalities?
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the wider governmental and societal response, have brought...
Long read
The nation's health
We explore worrying trends that have emerged in the UK’s health in recent years and set out...
Analysis
Mortality and life expectancy trends in the UK
Since 2011 improvements in life expectancy in the UK have stalled, and for certain groups of the...
Report
A healthy foundation for the future
The final report from the Young people's future health inquiry, bringing together all of the...
Blog
If young people can’t afford to move to UK cities for work, that’s a health issue
Young people face an impossible choice between either quality housing or good work. Jo Bibby...
Blog
Preparing young people for tomorrow’s workplace is key to a healthy future
Jo Bibby explores why investing in the future of young people needs to be at the heart of public...
Analysis
Creating healthy lives
This publication makes the case for an ambitious, whole-government approach to long-term investment...
Newsletter blog
A welcome shift in conversation
With a string of reports in the press on stalling life expectancy, growing inter-generational...
Blog
Why poverty is bad for the nation’s health
Jo Bibby explores the links between poverty and health
Newsletter blog
Keeping us healthy is not all about the NHS
Tackling the issue facing millions across the UK of spending years in ill health will only happen...
Briefing
Reframing the conversation on the social determinants of health
Analysis of public understanding, expert opinion and the media narrative around health, based on...
Thought paper
The local health environment
The CMO’s annual report 2019 considers what the state of the public’s health in England in 2040...
Learning report
A place to grow
The second report from the Young people’s future health inquiry, exploring site visits with young...
Blog
Seeing the world through a young person’s eyes
Jo Bibby explains how our Young People's Future Health Inquiry helped us gain a deeper understanding...
Briefing
The nation's health as an asset
A briefing that asks: what is the social and economic value of maintaining and improving people's...
Briefing
Taking our health for granted
This briefing paper assesses the extent of cuts to the public health grant since 2014/15 and...
Blog
A changing society is putting the future health of the next generation at risk
Experiences between the ages of 12 and 24 play a crucial role in determining young people’s health...
Infographic
How do our family, friends and community influence our health?
Infographic illustrating how our family, friends and community build the foundations for good...
Quick guide
What makes us healthy?
This guide explores how a person’s opportunity for health is influenced by factors outside the...
Blog
Can the voluntary and community sector lead the change we need in health and care?
To improve care for people with long-term conditions, our sectors must come together more often,...
Blog
Winter pressures on health: An alternative perspective
Our Director of the Healthy Lives Strategy asks: what if your life was always like winter?
Infographic
How do our education and skills influence our health?
Our latest infographic looks at how health is influenced by education and skills, and the...
Blog
Health care only accounts for 10% of a population’s health
Bernard Baruch, a US philanthropist, said that ‘the ability to express an idea is well nigh as...
Blog
Healthier lives: Our plans for 2017
Twelve months ago, the Health Foundation set out to explore our contribution to enabling everyone in...
Blog
A new deal for health? The links between economic infrastructure and health and wellbeing
Last week a job was advertised that could have the greatest impact on population health for the next...
Blog
Why wouldn’t the government take stronger action on childhood obesity?
A week on from the publication of the childhood obesity plan, the work of government rolls on. The...
Blog
Shaping our strategy to improve health
If you follow Health Foundation news you may have noticed a different flavour to some of our more...
Blog
Health cannot be improved by health care alone
Having spent the last 15 years with a focus on improving health care, the Health Foundation is...
Blog
Six big ideas for health
Our final two days were spent in groups, developing and testing strategies that participants want to...
Blog
Improving the lives of others: having a shared sense of justice and understanding where our contribution will have the greatest impact
Jo Bibby, the Health Foundations' Director of Strategy, is at the Salzburg Global Seminar, and...
Blog
Twelve-hundred years of insight in 90 minutes!
After having worked for over twenty years in health care, this year I have been given the...
Blog
Genuine transformation will depend on every one of the 1.4 million people working in today’s NHS
One of the aspects I most enjoy about my role at the Health Foundation is the opportunity to meet...
Blog
Frugal improvement and how we can make the most of positive deviants in health care
Suppose someone told you that they could improve your outcomes without you having to invest anymore...
Blog
Meeting the challenge of population health: what we can learn from Kaiser Permanente
I first heard of Kaiser Permanente in 1997. Alan Milburn, the then health minister, had asked...
Blog
Putting care back into health care
Over twenty years ago, my first job at the Department of Health was setting up the NHS Health...
Blog
Taken with total health - a focus on prevention and proactive management
Following on from my visit to the Garfield Innovation Center in Oakland, I was just as lucky to have...
Blog
Really breaking through the innovation barrier in health care
At the Health Foundation we’ve been supporting teams to test their innovations for over five years...
Blog
NESTA's FutureFest: What are the lessons for health care?
Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to FutureFest – an exciting multimedia and multi-sensory...
Blog
Unleashing the caring potential of families: taking an innovation from India to the US
Two years ago I was fortunate enough to join a study visit to India. One of the many impressive...
Blog
What next for the Francis culture of safety? Six steps to start
No-one would claim that changing culture is easy, but it is possible. And in light of Robert...
Blog
What next for the Francis culture of safety? Six steps to start
No-one would claim that changing culture is easy, but it is possible. And in light of Robert...
Blog
QI methods: the essentials of good clinical management?
It’s nearly 15 years since the NHS Plan set out the blueprint for a national agency tasked with...
Blog
A year on from Berwick: putting safety at the heart of good care
A year on from A promise to learn – a commitment to act, the two questions we should ask are ‘Have...
Blog
Four lessons for running impactful collaboratives in health care
Human beings are social animals and, while most breakthrough ideas and insights come from...
Blog
Making QI business as usual for health care
With Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the World Cup over, half of 2014 is already behind us. And looking...
Blog
Shine like a star: inspirational improvement innovations
One of my favourite days in the Health Foundation calendar must be the annual Shine event. Each...
Blog
Safe, safer, safest: the patient safety journey continues
As an organisation that has led patient safety efforts in the UK over the past 10 years, at the...
Blog
Could holding the NHS dear be stifling innovation?
A few weeks ago I attended the annual conference of the International Partnership in Innovation in...
Blog
A turning point for patient safety?
Fifteen years ago I was involved in developing a performance assessment framework for the NHS – an...
Blog
The Self Care NHS Trust - the future for NHS Choices?
The new year started with a clear warning about the impact on the NHS of rising numbers of people...
Blog
Minimum nurse staffing levels are only part of the picture
Perhaps one of the mostly hotly debated issues before and since the publication of the Francis...
Blog
Smart sensors and wearable tech: the future for the NHS?
We often lament how off the pace the NHS is in harnessing the power of the internet. The rest of our...
Blog
A summit for safer care
Last April, at the BMJ International Quality Forum, we launched one of our most popular reports to...
Blog
Five ways to deliver high quality care at low cost
Imagine you are responsible for healthcare in a country where 30 million people are in poverty...
Blog
Improving equity in healthcare through innovation
Visiting The LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad as part of the IPIHD study tour, I was...
Blog
Quality, affordability and scale in healthcare: learning from Narayana
uch has been said and written over the past few years about the work of Dr Devi Shetty and the...
Blog
Getting to grips with the needs of older people
There comes a time in your life when you start to get preoccupied about what the world looks like...
Blog
What lessons can be learnt from the Friends and Family Test?
Now that the dust has settled on the publication of the first set of Friends and Family Test...
Blog
The Berwick report: why we mustn’t let this opportunity pass
If someone were to ask me why I am doing the job I am, I could pinpoint the reason as an evening in...
Blog
The NHS at 65: what’s next?
As the NHS passes another milestone, one wonders how 2013 will be remembered. The beginning of a...
Blog
The future is here: improving urgent care for frail older people
One of my favourite quotes is William Gibson's 'The future is here, it’s just not very evenly...
Blog
Being open: the importance of communication in healthcare
Last week over 7,000 medical students found themselves in limbo. Having first been told they had...
Blog
Confronting the risks of unintended consequences
There are moments when you sense that we might be on the edge of some genuine transformation. For...
Blog
The Quality 2020 strategy: parallels with Francis
Last Friday I attended the steering committee meeting for the Northern Ireland Quality 2020...
Blog
Healthcare, holidays and how we make choices
At last week’s National Voices conference, David Nicholson asked why it is that people will spend...
Blog
Patient safety: learning from Europe
Last week the European Union launched its joint action on patient safety. The three year programme...
Blog
Every (improvement) system is perfectly designed to deliver the results it gets
Anyone who has been involved in improvement activity over the past 10 years will be familiar with...
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