The NHS has launched a new scheme aimed at widening the pool of executive talent available to its hospitals and trusts – and has drawn up a list of 13 executive search firms to headhunt that talent.

NHS Executive Search, as it is known, represents a major change in approach. In the past, the NHS has tended to recruit senior executives from within its own ranks rather than from outside.

But NHS organisations today have more executive posts to fill than ever before – each NHS trust employs a chief executive and between five and seven board-level directors in functions such as HR and finance. The NHS hopes the firms on the list can fill these roles.

The aim is to bring in skills from outside rather than recycle candidates from the same pool.

“Because the NHS is becoming so much more diverse, we need people from different sectors with different outlooks and skills,” said Keith Johnston, a policy adviser at the NHS Confederation.

He added that the NHS focused on whether firms had the right kind of quality assurance mechanisms, geographical scope and the required capacity to deal with the recruitment needs of more than 600 NHS organisations.

Viv Walton, founder of Dearden Search and Selection, one of the firms shortlisted, said: “We’re an NHS-focused company but we have experience in bringing in people from other sectors as well.”