Alison Morton

Alison Morton joined the Institute as Director of Policy and Quality in 2019 to strengthen its work in Policy, delivering ‘Health Visiting in England: A Vision for the Future’. She transitioned to become Acting Executive Director in January 2021 and was appointed as the CEO in April 2021.

After training as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London, Alison worked for less than a year at the Evelina Children’s hospital before following her dream to become a health visitor. Following completion of the 3-year Community Nursing degree programme at King’s College London, she graduated with a combined qualification in health visiting and district nursing in 1993. With an extensive background in health visiting, having held senior roles across national policy, 0-19 public health operational delivery and quality improvement, alongside teaching and research.

Previously Alison worked as a Professional Advisor for Health Visiting in the Chief Nursing Directorate at the Department of Health from 2014 and then as the Best Start in Life Programme Manager at Public Health England (PHE), where she managed several national programmes of work for children aged 0 – 5 years, including developing a cross-government partnership as part of the Social Mobility Action Plan and led the first PHE Taxpayer Best Value Review of the Family Nurse Partnership national unit. She was previously the Head of Nursing in Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and an NIHR Clinical Academic at the University of Southampton. Alison is also an honorary lecturer at the Institute of Child Health at UCL and her work has been recognised through numerous national awards.