The nomination follows his success in 2025, when he won the Complex Care Leader category, recognising his influence and achievements across the health and social care sector.
Since becoming CEO of Cygnet in 2017, Professor Romero has led the organisation through a significant period of growth, expanding its services, strengthening its partnerships and driving improvements in quality and outcomes.
Today, Cygnet supports almost 9,000 people annually across 163 services, with more than 13,000 colleagues and 3,200 beds.
A significant development over the past year has been Cygnet’s expansion of its social care services, including a series of acquisitions that have increased its capacity to support people in residential and community settings.
In 2025, Cygnet Social Care welcomed 10 new homes and 157 beds through acquisitions, including Oakview Care Services and Woodrowe Healthcare. This growth continued into 2026 with the acquisition of Orchard Care Group in the Republic of Ireland, which operated 39 residential and community homes and two day services, with more than 550 employees. The acquisition marks an important milestone in Cygnet’s development, extending its reach beyond the UK for the first time.
The move reflects Professor Romero’s focus on developing services that respond to changing needs and creating opportunities to share expertise across different care settings.
Alongside this growth, Professor Romero’s contribution to the sector has also been recognised through his appointment as a Professor at the University of East London (UEL), reflecting his work and expertise in health and social care leadership.
His leadership has continued to support investment in specialist mental health services. Cygnet is one of the UK’s largest independent providers of mental health and social care and over the past 12 months, he has overseen a major expansion programme, including:
- Seven new hospitals opened
- 230 new specialist beds created
- 181 beds refurbished
- More than 1,000 new roles created
This investment has been focused on areas of greatest need, helping to increase access to specialist services and support patients to remain closer to their families and communities.
Alongside this expansion, Cygnet has continued to make improvements in patient outcomes and access to care. Average lengths of stay have reduced by 17%, while 95% of adults and 98% of children and young people using CAMHS services were discharged towards community settings.
In addition:
- 88% of service users achieved improved outcomes on discharge
- 100% of service users discharged from Eating Disorder services moved on to more independent living
- Cygnet’s Bed Hub responded to 75% of emergency referrals within 30 minutes
Quality has remained a central focus of Professor Romero’s leadership, with 89% of Cygnet’s CQC-regulated healthcare services rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding.’
Service user and carer feedback provides further insight into the experience of care. During 2025, 3,150 service users completed discharge surveys, recording an average experience score of 4.4 out of five. A further 682 carers provided feedback, with an average satisfaction score of 4.5 out of five. Cygnet also received 50% more compliments than complaints.
Professor Romero has continued to champion the role of lived experience in shaping services. Cygnet’s Experts by Experience completed more than 1,300 hospital visits during 2025, contributing to service reviews, recruitment, environmental audits and improvement initiatives. People Council meetings also increased by 96%, providing further opportunities for service users to influence the care they receive.
Innovation and workforce development have been other important areas of focus. Investment in colleagues has contributed to improvements in workforce stability. Agency reliance reduced from 12.1% in 2023 to 5.3% in 2025, while staff turnover fell by 19%.
Through Cygnet’s Achieve learning platform, colleagues completed more than 160,000 hours of learning during 2025, while 350 colleagues undertook apprenticeships, creating opportunities to develop careers and build future clinical and leadership capability from within.
The impact of this investment is reflected in Cygnet’s latest staff survey:
- 91% said care of service users is the organisation’s top priority
- 88% said they enjoy working for Cygnet
- 85% said they are proud to work for the organisation
- 85% said they would be happy for a friend or relative to receive care at Cygnet
Beyond Cygnet, Professor Romero has supported greater collaboration across the sector. The organisation’s Independent Sector Safeguarding Network has grown to more than 180 organisations, providing opportunities to share learning and strengthen safeguarding practice. Cygnet clinicians also contributed to 23 research publications and conference presentations during the year.
Commenting on his shortlisting, Professor Romero said: “I’m delighted to be shortlisted again for this award. While it’s always an honour to receive individual recognition, the achievements highlighted in this nomination are very much the result of the hard work and commitment of colleagues across Cygnet.
“I’m particularly proud of the progress we’ve made in expanding specialist services while continuing to improve the quality of care and outcomes for the people we support. Our focus remains on working closely with the NHS, listening to service users and their families, and investing in our colleagues to ensure we continue to deliver the best possible care.
“I’m grateful to everyone across Cygnet who contributes to this work every day, and it’s fantastic to see their efforts recognised.”
We congratulate Professor Romero on being shortlisted for Complex Care Leader in the HealthInvestor Power List 2026 and wish him well at the awards.