RN, MSc, National Deputy Director for Community Nursing, primary care nursing and women’s health, NHS England
Paul Vaughan, RN, MSc is the national deputy director for community nursing, primary care nursing and women’s health at NHS England. In this role, he provides national leadership across nursing and women’s health, driving transformational programmes that strengthen care delivery, workforce capability, and patient experience across England.
Paul currently leads the delivery of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, working closely with the national clinical director for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, to ensure the strategy delivers tangible and sustained impact for women across the life course. His portfolio includes commissioning the development of a multiprofessional core capability framework for women’s health, commissioning group consultation models to support high-volume, low-complexity women’s health pathways, and co-chairing the Women’s Health Network of Champions alongside Dame Lesley Regan, the women’s health ambassador, to support system leadership, shared learning, and implementation at scale.
Alongside his women’s health leadership, Paul leads major national programmes including the Community Nursing Safer Staffing Tool, the application of CARE Programme principles to improve outcomes for people with lower limb wounds, and the development and implementation of the General Practice Nursing Core Career and Capability Framework, supporting sustainable workforce growth and quality improvement across community and primary care settings.
Previously, Paul served as director of nursing (Transformation) at NHS England, where he led the GPN Ten Point Plan, co-developed the NextGen Nurse programme, and establish the national Nursing Sponsorship Programme, supporting very senior leaders to build confidence in anti-racist leadership and actively sponsor global majority nurse and midwife leaders.
Prior to joining NHS England, Paul was regional director for the West Midlands at the Royal College of Nursing, where he founded the RCN Cultural Ambassador Programme, a nationally recognised initiative promoting inclusion, belonging, and cultural competence within healthcare organisations.
Paul holds a Master’s degree in Management from the University of Liverpool, with a dissertation focused on the factors that enable nursing staff to raise concerns safely. He has also served as an elected member of RCN Council and chair of RCN Council, contributing to the strategic leadership of the profession nationally. He remains deeply committed to advancing nursing leadership, improving equity, and ensuring women’s health is embedded as a core priority across the NHS.
