Cheryl Samuels

Cheryl spearheaded "Flex Evelina," an equity-driven cultural transformation at Evelina London that successfully repositioned flexible working as a core organisational principle. Addressing burnout and racial disparities in request approvals, she used co-design and data transparency to achieve remarkable results. Rejection rates for flexible working fell from 23.3% to 6.2% for Black staff and from 24.1% to 7.9% for Asian staff. Simultaneously, staff turnover dropped from 13.7% to 8%. Cheryl’s evidence-based approach and board-level advocacy have since been shared with other NHS Trusts as a national blueprint for equitable, flexible working.