Prof Alison LearyAcademic

Biography

Professor Alison Leary MBE FRCN is Chair of Healthcare & Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University and a Senior Consultant at the World Health Organization's Human Resources for Health Group, where she works on modelling complex healthcare systems. She has served as Deputy President of the Royal College of Nursing since 1 January 2025, having been elected in November 2024 and subsequently re-elected unopposed for a second term. Before entering nursing, she spent ten years working in engineering and biomedical sciences before qualifying as a registered nurse in 1996 and completing a PhD in clinical medicine. She is best known publicly for co-leading the long-running #ProtectNurse campaign, which in May 2025 secured a government commitment to protect the title 'nurse' in UK law. She has also argued consistently that nursing staffing should be treated as safety-critical and that workforce planning must be grounded in mathematical modelling of demand rather than headcount.

References

1. 1.RCN Presidential and Council elections results announced | Royal College of Nursing — Confirms election as Deputy President of the RCN in November 2024, her role at LSBU and the WHO, and her membership of the RCN Professional Nursing Committee.
2. 2.Who will be the next RCN President? You decide | Royal College of Nursing — Confirms re-election unopposed to a second term as Deputy President (July 2026).
3. 3.Professor Alison Leary MBE – The Queen's Institute of Community Nursing — Confirms role as Senior Consultant at WHO, Chair of Healthcare & Workforce Modelling at LSBU, Director of the ICNO 2019–2026, and award of the QICN Gold Badge in May 2026.
4. 4.'Nurse' title to be protected in law, government announces | Nursing in Practice — Confirms Leary led the #ProtectNurse campaign and the May 2025 government announcement to protect the title 'nurse' in law.

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking

Stated areas of expertise

• Healthcare workforce modelling
• Nursing workforce policy
• Patient safety
• Nurse title protection
• Advanced and specialist nursing practice
• Data science in health systems

Notable achievements

• Co-led the #ProtectNurse campaign; the UK government announced in May 2025 that the title 'nurse' would be protected in law, with a call for evidence launched in July 2026. Source ↗
• Elected Deputy President of the Royal College of Nursing in November 2024, taking office 1 January 2025, and subsequently elected unopposed to a second term in July 2026. Source ↗
• Appointed MBE in 2019 for services to crowd safety in English football, following 23 years as clinical lead at Millwall Football Club. Source ↗
• Awarded the Gold Badge of the Queen's Institute of Community Nursing (QICN) — its highest honour — in May 2026, in recognition of her leadership of the International Community Nursing Observatory from 2019 to 2026. Source ↗
• Awarded RCN Fellowship in 2015, the highest honour the RCN can bestow, for exceptional contribution to nursing and healthcare. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “The effective rationing of incontinence products means that staff and patients both suffer – patients do not get the dignified care they need and nursing colleagues feel they are not meeting patients' fundamental needs.”

  deputy president of the Royal College of Nursing · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · People living with incontinence face shortage of sanitary pads as NHS limits supplies ↗

• “Experts including Prof Alison Leary, deputy president of the Royal College of Nursing, believe that minimum nurse-patient ratios should be set out in law.”

  deputy president of the Royal College of Nursing · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · The Guardian view on the Ockenden maternity review: lifting standards must be the number one priority | Editorial ↗

Source references

1. People living with incontinence face shortage of sanitary pads as NHS limits suppliestheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. The Guardian view on the Ockenden maternity review: lifting standards must be the number one priority | Editorialtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://researchportal.lsbu.ac.uk/en/persons/alison-leary/
• LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-leary-094108a/

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.