Carol George, Director of Health and Social Welfare

St Helena Government has introduced a new directorate structure which came into effect on 1^st April. Because of this, instead of Departments SHG now has ten Directorates.  In a ten part series the Public Relations/Information Office will introduce each of the ten Directors, their responsibilities and directorate plans for the next year.

This week meet Carol George, Director of Health and Social Welfare:

The Health and Social Welfare Directorate is the largest in SHG and employs over 250 full time staff and has a recurrent budget of over £6m. In addition to this there is project funding of around £1.5m for implementation of the DfID Healthlink 3 project and other Development Strategy activities.

As Director of Health and Social Welfare Carol’s role involves policy development and implementation, strategic planning, budget and resource allocation and participation in SHG Corporate Management Meetings.

Carol has overall responsibility for the following areas with the different services being led by Senior Managers:

Medical Services

Nursing Services, including acute and community care services

Pharmacy Services

Laboratory Services

Dental Services

Social Services which includes the Learning Disabilities sector

Social Welfare Services, which includes assessments for Income Related Benefits and Basic Island Pension, as well as assessment and allocation of Government Landlord Housing

Environmental Health Services

Older Persons Services, including sheltered accommodation and Home Care Support

Administration Services 

The Key targets for the Directorate during this financial year include taking forward plans for hospital redevelopment; progressing plans to establish a link with an NHS Trust in the UK; continued emphasis and development of clinical governance within the various care settings; successful implementation of the Basic Island Pension and new Income Related Benefit systems; continued emphasis on health promotion, in particular aiming to establish more 'self-help' groups to encourage patients to take more responsibility and ownership for their health; working towards divestment of non-core services; international accreditation of the Food and Water Laboratory; introduction of additional nurse led clinics for diabetic and cardiac patients and revision of Food Hygiene Regulations. 

These are just a few of the targets that the Health and Social Welfare Directorate need to achieve before the end of March 2012!  

On being the Director of Health and Social Welfare Carol said:

“The most enjoyable aspect of the job is its diverse nature with every day presenting a new challenge.” 

Carol began working in SHG in 1989 where she was employed as a clerk in the Development and Economic Planning Department (DEPD).  In 1990 Carol joined the Education Department and was promoted and returned to DEPD in 1991. 

With the exception of a three month secondment to the Public Health Department in 1992, Carol stayed with DEPD until 1997 when she took up employment with Cable & Wireless plc as Human Resources Officer. In 2003 she returned to SHG to take on the role of Clerk of Councils within the Office of the Chief Secretary. Carol then joined the Public Health and Social Services Department in January 2008 as Counterpart to the Chief Administrative Health and Social Services Officer and was promoted to her current substantive post in November 2008 upon retirement of her predecessor.

Carol has also previously served on the Board of Directors of the St Helena Development Agency and the St Helena News Media Board. Employment experience in the UK, prior to living on St Helena, involved work in both the public and private sectors.

In her spare time Carol enjoys walking and watching the English football Premier League.

Public Relations/Information Office

The Secretariat

2 June 2011