Meet the Team: Jacqueline John, Financial Consultant, London Sexual Health Programme

When Jacqueline John talks about finance, she doesn’t start with spreadsheets. She starts with impact. 

“I’ve been an accountant for over 40 years,” she says, “but what I’ve always enjoyed most is working with service leads and clinicians to help them understand their budgets so they can make the right decisions.” 

Jacqueline’s career began at McDonald's, where she quickly moved into leadership roles while studying accountancy. She qualified in 1998, having previously worked at Philips Electronics and Bupa head office, during an era of intense month-end reporting and 16-hour days! 

“I learned discipline and pace,” she reflects. “But I also realised I loved partnering with budget holders – helping them see the story behind the numbers.” 

That desire to work closer to services drew her into the NHS in 2001, when she joined King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as a finance manager. It was a formative period. Jacqueline supported early transformational initiatives: developing discharge lounges, embedding social workers in hospital teams to reduce length of stay, digitising GP communications, and supporting the early growth of global health partnerships. 

“What excites me is transformation,” she says. “How do we get better outcomes with the money we already have? How do we work smarter?” 

Her experience spans acute, community and system finance, including working with one of the first ever Integrated Care Boards and helping them develop their model. She has also supported sexual health commissioning from both provider and commissioner perspectives, ranging from bid development to securing European grant funding to expand consultant capacity at a time when teenage pregnancy rates were among the highest in Europe. 

Jacqueline also spent time in the private sector, working as a Finance Business Partner for the media division of a PLC. This role included working with one of the first companies to promote advertising on the internet, as well as a post-production house in Soho that produced films such as the James Bond movies and television programmes including Kavanagh QC. 

So, after all this broad experience, what drew her to the London Sexual Health Programme? 

“Sexual health funding is often salami-sliced when budgets are tight. It’s not seen as a big-ticket acute service, so it doesn’t always get the strategic attention it deserves. But the pressures are real; we have rising demand, constrained funding, and increasingly complex population needs.” 

For Jacqueline, the Programme’s focus on open-book approaches and benchmarking is critical. “Clinicians are used to sharing best practice. But structurally, commissioning and provider silos can get in the way. If we can create a trusted space to share innovation, outcomes and financial insight across London, we can help services stay ahead of the curve – not waiting for another 10% cut but proactively improving value.”