THE HEAD of the trust that runs mental health services in Sussex has announced his retirement.

Colm Donaghy, chief executive of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said he would step down on March 31 next year.  

Announcing his decision today, he said he felt it was the right time and he and his wife wanted to go back to family in Ireland.

Mr Donaghy joined Sussex Partnership from Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in July 2014, where he had lead Northern Ireland’s suicide prevention strategy.

He said: “I will have worked in public services for 38 years by the end of next March, which feels like the right time to retire.

"My wife and I also have plans to return to Ireland to be closer to our family once again.

"It’s been a privilege to do this job because it’s given me the opportunity to have a positive impact on people’s lives in Kent and Medway, Hampshire and Sussex.”

The trust was criticised earlier this year after one of its patients, Matthew Daley, was convicted of stabbing grandfather Don Lock to death on the side of the road. 

Mr Donaghy apologised for failings in Mr Daley's care and accepted his mental illness been underdiagnosed. 

The trust then announced a review into ten other homicides connected to patients who had been in its care, which is yet to be published.  

Caroline Armitage, Chair of Sussex Partnership, this morning praised Mr Donaghy's impact. 

She said: "He is passionate about making sure that patients are our first priority in everything we do.

"He is also a leader whose personal integrity, warmth and respect for others has had a significant, positive impact upon the culture of our organisation. Colm will be sorely missed when he leaves us at the end of March 2017.

"My colleagues and I at Sussex Partnership wish him and his family well for the future. I know he wants me to emphasise that he will continue to play an active role over the next six months in everything we are doing to improve services for patients."

The trust will be advertising his post shortly and hopes to have a replacement in post by April.