Glen Burley has been appointed Knight Bachelor in recognition of his services to the NHS, it was announced on Friday 13 June 2026 as part of the King's Birthday Honours List. He will use the title Sir Glen Burley.

Burley, who began his NHS career as a finance trainee in 1983, has spent more than four decades in healthcare management. He currently holds two senior positions simultaneously: Deputy Chief Executive of NHS England and Chief Executive of The Foundation Group, a coalition of four hospital trusts operating across the West Midlands and West of England.

The Foundation Group is an unusual structure in the NHS, bringing together South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, Wye Valley NHS Trust, and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust under shared executive leadership. The model, covering Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, was designed to generate efficiencies and improve clinical services across a set of hospitals that would individually be too small to recruit and retain specialist leadership at scale.

Burley has led the group since its formation, navigating the practical difficulties of uniting organisations with distinct cultures, geographies, and financial circumstances. The arrangement has attracted attention from NHS policymakers as a potential template for managing smaller district general hospitals, which face ongoing pressure from workforce shortages and rising demand.

His national role at NHS England sits alongside that regional work. As Deputy Chief Executive, he has been involved in strategic planning and operational decisions affecting the wider health service at a time of sustained financial strain. NHS England has been managing significant budget pressures, and senior leaders in that tier of the organisation have faced scrutiny over the pace of reform and the handling of waiting list backlogs that grew substantially following the pandemic.

The knighthood is formally designated for services to the NHS, a broad citation that covers both his local trust leadership and his contribution at national level. Honours in this category are assessed by the Cabinet Office on the basis of nominations submitted through official channels, and recipients are not publicly informed in advance of the announcement.

The investiture, at which Burley will be formally dubbed by the King or another member of the Royal Family, will take place at a later date at a royal residence. Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are the usual venues for such ceremonies.

Burley is one of a number of NHS figures recognised in this year's Birthday Honours. The list is published twice annually, in January to mark the New Year and in June to coincide with the sovereign's official birthday.