Sally Phillipps

Head of People & Culture and SIB Chair/Board Director

Working on a flexible basis I support our in-house learning and development, delivering and coordinating courses for my colleagues including peer review sessions. I developed and implemented Smile Together’s bespoke Training Academy, which sees our clinical colleagues in particular completing more than three times as much verifiable CPD as required each year, and our bespoke appraisal and review system, Perform.

This work continues but, following an in-house HR team restructure to create a new opportunity aligned with business need, I’ve moved into a more HR generalist role as HR Business Partner. To complement this I achieved Chartered CIPD status in 2021, funded by Smile Together – this is a great example of the career opportunities positively encouraged and enabled at Smile Together for clinical as well as professional support colleagues like me.

I have previously provided Call Centre cover and Out of Hours support for evenings and weekends, working alongside clinical colleagues, which is not only a good temperature check for my more substantive role but gives me great insight into individuals’ current and future L&D requirements.

I’ve had a very varied career, from completing a catering apprenticeship to working in social services. Following a career break I worked for BT in their call centre, moving into a managerial retail role when they became O2. During this I took a 2-year secondment opportunity in training and development, which led to the role of Learning and Development (L&D) Consultant after which I worked for Rick Stein as L&D Manager in Cornwall. You can read more about my career trajectory here.

I love working at Smile Together where I make full use of my skills and experience and continue to grow and develop individually, in terms of my career and in being a SIB Rep, regularly engaging with my colleagues and representing them at Board level. I was thrilled to be elected SIB Chair in July 2021, thus becoming a Non-Executive Employee Shareholders Director on the Board of Smile Together. The health and wellbeing initiatives that we’ve been able to instigate together with partners across the county have been fantastic. It’s such an inspiring and supportive environment, always looking to broaden opportunities and experience for its people, patients and community.

Outside of work I enjoy good food and drink, walking, travelling and spending time with my family, some of whom live overseas.