JERSEY’S mental health chief has been handed a significant new leadership role overseeing day-to-day operations across the wider health service while continuing to manage one of the Island’s largest and most pressured portfolios.
A spokesperson for Health and Care Jersey has confirmed that Andy Weir will now enjoy dual titles as both director of mental health and managing director for health and care services.
Despite his appointment being effective from 1 May 2026, the announcement was only made public yesterday.
A Health Department spokesperson said that Mr Weir “will provide strategic operational leadership across all health and care services, including the Hospital, mental health, social care, community services and the ambulance service, and will report to the Chief Officer.”
The spokesperson emphasised that the appointment of the former registered mental health nurse as managing director for health “will not increase the size of the executive team”, with Mr Weir implementing a “revised leadership structure” to support his new tandem role within the government.
“Andy will continue to hold executive director responsibility for mental health, social care and community services alongside the additional responsibilities”, the statement continued.
The appointment, which follows an internal recruitment drive overseen by the Jersey Appointments Commission, is described as reflecting a “commitment to developing internal talent and strengthening leadership capacity”.
In a statement, Mr Weir said he was “delighted to be taking on the managing director role having worked here in my current role now for over four years”.
“I particularly look forward to working alongside senior leadership team colleagues to further strengthen our care group governance, quality improvement approaches and learning from incidents,” he said.
Mr Weir added that as managing director he would be involved in “maintaining a focus on achieving financial balance” and “working with all colleagues to enhance patient, carer and staff involvement in further developing our health, social care and ambulance services”.
The emergence of a new deputy-style operational leadership role comes after criticism of the succession planning within the senior ranks of the government by the Appointments Commission.
Published in April, the JAC Annual Report 2025 identified the “active” risk that rushed recruitments risked the commission being compromised in their ability “to provide the level of guidance necessary”.
As a mitigating action, it asked for “improved succession planning activity by organisations to ensure that they understand their workforce [and] the potential forces impacting on their organisation”.
Later in the report, it is stated: “Succession planning is not about automatically promoting the internal candidate to the role, it is about ensuring that internal candidates have been provided with the opportunity, skills, and knowledge to compete on a level playing field with external candidates.”
