Anna Gardner is a former lawyer and Executive Director for International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) – a UK based non-profit whose mission is to build capacity in legal services across the African continent. She is a leader, strategic thinker and communicator with a remarkable ability to straddle and be effective in two very different worlds:  in high pressure multinational environments (she has held a number of senior roles in US multi-nationals such as Hewlett-Packard and Accenture) and her NGO work in Julangel Village, Upper River Division, The Gambia.

Anna is now training to become a therapist whilst completing her masters in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton.

Employed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (and predecessor organisations) for nearly 30 years as a consultant medical psychotherapist, I also served as trust medical director for eight years, so bring extensive clinical and board level experience to my role as a governor.

As a clinician I worked with people suffering a wide range of difficulties, and helped develop the multi-disciplinary Psychological Therapy Service. As medical director I was involved in merger of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire mental health trusts, the achievement of foundation trust status, the extension of children’s mental health services to Wiltshire, Bath and NE Somerset, and finally integration with Oxfordshire’s community health services.

Since retiring I have worked on a voluntary basis (1) as Chair of NE Oxfordshire Public Forum for the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group; (2) with Oxfordshire Youth Justice Service’s Restorative Justice Team; (3) in primary schools as road safety cycling trainer, and as qualified cycling coach with both able-bodied and young people with disabilities; and (4) as chair of a community organisation which purchased our local pub, instigating a programme of socially inclusive activities to promote mental, physical and social wellbeing.

My aim as governor is to engage the trust’s membership and wider community to support and shape services provided by the trust, and to ensure that patient and carer experience is addressed. I want to foster collaboration with Oxfordshire’s other NHS organisations, including primary care, and social care. Joined-up mental, physical and social care is essential for people with complex ill-health, and those with learning disabilities.

I have been dismayed by the under funding and progressive dismantling of mental health and community health services over the last decade, and am a passionate advocate for increased resources for health and social care. I want to make a difference to modern health care in Oxfordshire!

My name is Julien FitzGerald and I have been an LGBT+ advocate and activist for over three decades. In addition, since 2005, I have been a service user of adult mental health services, as well as sitting on a number of associated forums and committees, to ensure that the collective voices and views of the local LGBT+ communities are heard, especially in regard to the provision of general and mental health services.

Additionally, I am also the founder and joint co-ordinator of the Aylesbury Vale LGBT Social Group who runs an increasingly successful Monthly Coffee Posse and will soon be relaunching our LGBT+ Families Hub and Café Posse, in conjunction with the Healthy Living Centre in Aylesbury.

I became a governor representing the constituency Service Users – Buckinghamshire & Other Counties to provide a voice for patients with mental health conditions and ensure that services can be specifically tailored to the needs of the LGBT+ communities in Buckinghamshire and the surrounding areas.

Having been a mental health patient for over two decades, I want do all that I can to improve the rights and representation of mental health service users, and to give something back to the service user community which has been so good to me and which deserves so much better from mental health services.

As a service user since 2012, I am all too familiar with how we can feel undervalued and deflated.

Sometimes services don’t get it right, and as the people who access these services, we have the power to help them understand ways to improve that would benefit our care.

Within my role as governor my overarching aim is to empower service users to have their voice heard on every level and understand their opportunities for involvement and coproduction to enable us to shape services.

I am involved in many projects and forums within the trust, and I hope that within the governor role I am able to assist in explaining the benefits of membership to the service user constituency to allow a stronger voice.

We are the present and we can shape the future.

I am a Chartered Engineer and the Research & Development Director of a company based in Switzerland. We are currently setting up a new research and development facility in Milton Park with the capability of manufacturing systems in small batches.

I became a Governor with the ambition of improving the culture within the Trust so that patients are always treated with compassion and dignity. I have lived in Oxfordshire with my family for over 40 years. In my experience, the Trust is capable of delivering outstanding healthcare when it gets it right; unfortunately the services are sometimes under-resourced or badly configured for people in crisis and for certain groups of patients. I believe passionately in parity of esteem. Back in the 1990s, I campaigned for a radical reform of mental health law to make it comply with human rights and I am keen to see the new Mental Health Act incorporated into the Trust’s processes when it is eventually adopted.

As an engineer, I have made pioneering contributions to medical imaging technologies and was instrumental in developing the world’s highest field whole-body MRI magnet. Outside of work, I am helping to transform a social enterprise into an effective campaigning platform for women in prison. I am an experienced mountaineer and have climbed in the Alps, High Tatra and Dolomites. I have two children who have now left home to study at university.

I have been disabled since birth. I have previously worked with a disabled organisation and my local authority in several positions. I decided I wanted to do something different and help more disabled people particularly those with a learning disability.

I have been a member of My life My choice for nearly four years; three of them as Co-Chair of the Trustees; a member of the Oxfordshire County council co-production Board; part of the leading together co-production group at Oxford Health and a spokesperson for Learning Disability England.

I have written a story which was published about my life during the first lockdown. I have also written many blogs and given many quotes about learning disabilities. I have been in the Oxford Mail as well as other local and national newspapers about how the pandemic is affecting people with learning disabilities. I have been on BBC local radio stations talking about COVID-19 and its effect on people with learning disabilities. I have made several appearances on BBC South Today talking about My life My Choice gig buddies and phone buddy projects along with COVID-19. I have also been on Japanese TV talking about COVID-19 and how it has affected people with learning disabilities in England.

I have done many presentations and lectures on self-advocacy and people with learning disabilities becoming leaders. I have done a podcast for the Leader’s Council of Great Britain.

Since moving to the area 27 years ago, I have used many of the health services available in Oxfordshire, as have my four children and eight grandchildren. Our experiences have been very varied, and I believe have offered me an in-depth understanding of immediate (emergency) health needs and services right across the spectrum to the quality and range of much longer-term needs and support for physical and mental health conditions.

As a longstanding and active health service user (and a very long-term patient!) I would like to put my advocacy skills to good use for other Oxfordshire patients who may benefit from them.

My working life has been predominately spent in the legal profession assisting, supporting, and advocating on behalf of individuals who either are vulnerable or find it difficult to present information about their vulnerability.

Some years ago, I trained as a local Advocate for patients detained under the Mental Health Act and went on to work with several in-patients on their journeys.

I have also previously served as a Parish Councillor for my village, and have hopefully demonstrated my commitment to trying to contribute back into the community.

During and post Covid-19, I have worked with families and children, and specialised in assisting victims of domestic abuse, particularly coercive and control cases, through the family and criminal legal systems.

I am now looking forward to full retirement from legal work and spending more time following my own interests such as health advocacy, antiques and renewables (furniture!) and walking with my dog Florence in our beautiful English countryside.

 

My name is Ekenna Hutchinson and I am grateful to have the role of Staff Governor because I am passionate about learning about how the NHS works. I feel I am able and willing to make a difference each day with the teams as we work jointly to create the best and most suitable treatment and plans for patients.

I started my first job as a nurse on Phoenix Ward, where I learnt so much from discussions  and by putting plans into action. I am always interested in learning from the past and also other people’s perspectives.  I also see how resources within the area  can influence better outcomes for patients and the teams working with them. I have experience working with families, carers and patients. I have seen the impact of low incomes  in one of the most expensive areas and how it  can have  a negative influence on a person’s mental health.

I want to increase my awareness of how decisions are made in the NHS; as a mental health nurse I have observed the impact of the  link  between recruitment, retention and patient care. This drives my passion to learn about how to improve and understand how as individuals  we can appreciate the value of  interactions, sense of belonging and ensure each person feels safe and able.

I am currently working within the Adult Community Eating Disorders Team,  where change is constant; it is the response to the change that matters, exploring the impact and considering current imbalance between capacity and demand.

With all these factors in mind, I aim to collectively reflect, weigh up and work with teams showing through my practice my passion for ensuring both staff and patients are supported and equally valued.

Davina retired in June 2010 from her role as Deputy Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police having been a Police Officer for 34 years.

Davina served in the Metropolitan Police for a few years before transferring to Thames Valley Police where she spent the vast majority of her time policing in Milton Keynes, Faringdon and Cowley before becoming the Area Commander for South and West Oxfordshire. Davina left Thames Valley to serve in Leicestershire as an Assistant Chief Constable for 4 years before moving to Northamptonshire as Deputy Chief Constable towards the end of 2005.

Davina joined the Police to make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable and this drive and passion is still very strong. She is keen to put her experience and skills gained throughout her career to good use and became a Trustee of Age UK Oxfordshire (AUKO) in November 2010.

In March 2016 Davina became Chair of Trustees for AUKO and Action for Carers Oxfordshire.

Davina is a ‘nominated governor’ on the Council of Governors and is keen to see the particular issues and challenges for older people and carers being properly catered for when they need to access our services. She is also keen to see strong co-operation and partnership working between, and across, the statutory and voluntary sectors bringing positive outcomes for older people and carers.

Davina hopes that by being on the Council of Governors, she can give a voice and be an advocate for those older people and carers who would otherwise not be heard.

Carl was appointed to the Council of Governors by Buckinghamshire Council, where he represents the Chalfont St Giles ward and is Deputy Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing.

His Cabinet brief includes responsibility for public health services, health inequalities and Buckinghamshire Council’s Covid response.  In his full-time job, Carl is Chief of Staff to a Member of Parliament and runs his busy Westminster office.

A lawyer by training, Carl later worked as a director of a research consultancy, leading their patient experience research projects for NHS England, NHS Foundation Trusts, private hospitals, and private medical insurance providers.

In his Governor role, Carl wants to use his experience for the benefit of the Trust and its patients, and to ensure effective cooperation between local authorities, NHS bodies and other healthcare organisations across the new Integrated Care System.

Dr Mary Malone is director of Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery at Oxford Brookes University, a unique partnership between Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust under the umbrella of the Oxford Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC).

The school combines education, clinical practice and research across the nursing, midwifery and allied health professions. It has a focus on increased collaborative working and sharing best practice, and has been developed to better meet the challenges of a significant period of change in nursing and midwifery education.

Dr Malone said: “Being a governor at Oxford Health is a unique opportunity to work in partnership and really develop nursing and midwifery for the 21st century.

“It provides a real insight and understanding into the mental and physical health needs of Oxfordshire which we can bring to education so we can have a more meaningful offer for people coming to us for a nursing education. We really want people to come through and contribute nationally, globally and to Oxfordshire which I know many do.

“We have to think strategically about the core opportunities we are opening up for people. I’d very much like to contribute to work around the workforce that’s going on and also, if I’ve got the capacity to do so, to be part of the staff experience and patient experience work.

“Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery does have a unique partnership between education, clinical practice and research and being a governor at Oxford Health is an excellent example of that.”

Tina joined Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust in November 2013 and brings the unique experience of being a GP, a primary care trust medical director and an acute hospital medical director to her role with the Trust. Previously medical director at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Tina began her career in acute hospitals in the south east of England and Scotland before starting her GP training. Tina has been a partner in a GP practice in Milton Keynes since 1988 and has successfully combined the roles of a GP and an acute trust clinical manager for many years. Tina has an abiding interest in medical education and has been a GP trainer as well as an acute trust Director of Medical Education.

Tina spent eight years as a GMC Fitness to Practice panel member and 3 years as a medical adviser to the Health Professions Council. She has been a reviewer for the Healthcare Commission and has served on a variety of department of health, national and Royal College of General Practitioner committees.