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.

I have been working alongside Oxford Health since January 2020. I have had the pleasure of running staff wellbeing programmes like ‘Connect and Care for You’, ‘Energise You’ and ‘HealthFest’.

In addition to this I have directly benefitted by the amazing work of the Oxford Health team as between the ages of 20-25 I suffered from extreme OCD. The team and the treatment I received from Oxford health really did save my life. I am testament to the fact that everyone has a past, a present, and a future.

My own story is a big part of the work that I do. Therefore I will be training to become a CBT therapist later this year with Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. I am excited to complement my coaching work through using a CBT approach to inspire individuals to develop the skills they need to succeed. This work is close to my heart and therefore CBT will be a big part of our work at The Wellbeing Generation. Our offerings will use CBT coupled with coaching to support individuals through periods of struggle, transition or change.

I feel that this role will further enable me to continue the awareness work around this important subject. In turn the role will enable me to continue to inspire the next generation to believe that their struggles can become their strengths, and have faith that they can be the author of their own life story.

My heartfelt thanks to the public of Oxfordshire for electing me to the Council of Governors at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. I promise to draw onto my education, work and volunteer experience and the experience of using health services for me and my family to fulfil this role.

I am a physiotherapist by background and started off my career in 1998 as lecturer in physiotherapy with clinical responsibilities in India. I progressed to academic administration and eventually initiated and led a successful physiotherapy programme along with clinical, teaching and research responsibilities. In these roles, I gained significant experience in advocating for students and staff and led important and time-sensitive discussions and negotiations with multiple stakeholders including universities, government bodies and professional associations. I am sure that these experiences will be vital to my role as a governor.

I moved to Canada in 2009 to pursue a research degree on scholarship. I also got the opportunity to work there for two years after my studies. This gave me a good understanding of the healthcare environment there.

As a family we moved to Oxfordshire in 2015. I worked for around 5 and a half years as a trauma inpatient physiotherapist at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Though I worked for Oxford University Hospitals NHSFT, I relied on many of the services provided by Oxford Health NHSFT for the ongoing care of my patients. This gave me an opportunity to understand the challenges of the health needs of residents of Oxfordshire.

A combination of reduced funding for services and staffing shortages have led to a climate where it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide evidence based patient centred care. Having experienced this as a service user as well, the need of the hour is to innovatively think and listen to the public of Oxfordshire on how we can improve access to services that directly and indirectly affect them and their families.

Chronic health issues mean I have 25 years of lived experience of being a patient in the NHS.  This has left me passionate about our publicly funded healthcare system as well as the values its staff strive to demonstrate on a daily basis. A huge improvement in my health conditions three years ago have left me with a particularly keen interest in contributing to conversations about how services can be strengthened in order to best meet peoples’ needs.

I have a first class honours degree in psychology and am currently studying an MSc in health psychology. I have particularly enjoyed lectures on public health, the use of evidence to inform practice and health promotion. I am also working part-time as a stop smoking advisor, where I am working with a variety of people with different needs who are all working hard to better their health.

I love the opportunity to put what I’m learning to good use as a governor. I have a strong interest in leadership but also really relish working as part of a team and learning from others’ expertise.

I have served as a public governor for Oxfordshire since 2019, and for the years 2021-23 have been elected as Lead Governor. I stood for re-election in 2022 to contribute further to governance and improvement of the Trust’s services.

In my first elected term as a public governor, heavily disrupted by the pandemic, I worked to enhance the effectiveness of the Council of Governors and to increase representation of patients, carers and staff. I’ve forged links with partner organisations in Oxfordshire such as Mind and Healthwatch, and with governors at other trusts with whom OHFT will collaborate in the new Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Integrated Care System – and especially with Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT.

I’m trying to ensure the Trust and wider NHS engages with patients and the public to shape the services provided, and to ensure that patient and carer experience is fully addressed. Having initiated links between governors and the Oxfordshire Youth Board, it’s my intention to engage with young people across the Trusts’ area and to support the election of young people as governors.

I was employed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (and predecessor organisations) for nearly 30 years as a Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Psychotherapist, and also served as Trust Medical Director for eight years, so bring extensive clinical and Board level experience to my role as a governor.

I aim to foster further collaboration with Oxfordshire’s NHS organisations, including primary care, and with social care. Joined-up mental, physical and social care is essential for people with complex ill-health, and those with learning disabilities.

The NHS faces major challenges, particularly in mental health and community health services. 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 and the Trust’s wider area. We’ve made progress, but we have much further to go.

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.

I was born and brought up in North London.  I went to the local Grammar School and then on to Manchester University.  On leaving university I worked for some large companies including Esso Petroleum in a variety of roles, obtaining a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies along the way.  I then went into business for myself in the retail trade.  On selling my businesses I taught physics for the ILEA after obtaining a PGCE.  I left teaching after five years to open some car repair businesses all the while maintaining my lifetime interest in property development which I carried on until I retired in the early Noughties.

I have been interested in the provision of health care services in Oxfordshire for some time now as a carer for my husband who has been affected physically and mentally by his service within the Armed Forces.

I believe the NHS provides great services within Oxfordshire, and I am keen to work within Oxford health ensure the needs of all are met. I have previously been lucky enough to contribute to developing services within NHS England Armed Forces and within local government.

I have been with Oxford Health since 2018. I am a physical health RNA and work with Oxford City and North Community Adult Mental Health Teams. Prior to this role, I have been working with district nurses for three years. I am passionate about continuous improvement in patient care, as in my role I see first-hand the health inequalities faced by patients with severe mental illnesses.
Moreover, one of my sons is currently a patient of the AMHT service and previously also has been under the CAMHS service for many years. This lived experience as a carer drives my commitment to improve our services and support the staff in achieving this.
I have lived in Oxford for more than two decades and I have years of experience in the voluntary sector, working with many local charities such as Oxford Hub, Refugee Resource and Asylum Welcome, providing practical support to vulnerable residents in the community. Additionally, I am a primary school governor and a trustee at the Donnington Doorstep Family Centre. I have also served as an Oxford City Councillor and my role will came to an end in May 2022. I feel I can bring a variety of understanding and experience to the governor role and will support the board in building a thriving working environment, where equality, fairness, career progression, and the wellbeing of the staff is at heart of every decision making.

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.

Martyn has been a member of Oxford Health NHS FT for almost 10 years. He started off as a Support, Time and Recovery Worker in the South East Bucks (now Chiltern) CMHT in 2012. He holds a BSc in Human Psychology from Aston University.

He is now a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and Step 2 Team Lead at Healthy Minds, Buckinghamshire’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Service, where he has worked for nine years. He started there as a Trainee Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and has followed the IAPT career pathway as well as working as a Referral Co-ordinator in the Buckinghamshire Psychological Therapies Pathway Single Point of Access.

Outside of work Martyn is a keen softball player and ‘Cat Dad’ to Albus Dumblepaw as well as being a long-suffering Aston Villa fan.

Martyn put himself forward as a Governor as he wanted to ensure all voices are heard across the Trust, particularly from Buckinghamshire Mental Health Staff Members of the Trust to help the Trust meet its’ core values and help it evolve into an organisation of Outstanding People delivering Outstanding Care.

I joined Oxford in January 2022 as a Senior Programme Manager within Community Dental Services which I am absolutely loving. Previous to this role I’ve managed many different teams and departments for corporate companies. I have moved across to the NHS because I want to make a difference in the work I do, and I believe being a governor will support this goal even more. I’m passionate about empowering colleagues through clear communication, and I will support this as much as I can as a governor.
I am proud to work within Community Services and passionately talk about my role and the amazing work my colleagues do to anyone that listens. Being a governor will help me openly talk about the work that is happening behind the scenes to more stakeholders within our community. I am passionate that any project or innovation that is taking place, patients should always be at the heart of any decisions made, and as a governor I will support this key priority.
As a full-time working mum of two, I know the challenges faced around work/life balance and will endeavour that health and wellbeing for staff is integrated into future strategies that the Trust creates.

I believe I can be an effective staff governor as I know I can be the voice of those who don’t feel they have a voice and to speak from the very heart of Community Services. I want to be able to influence Community Services and to champion the work that may go unnoticed, whilst working with other governors to make Oxford Health an inclusive trust.

Having joined Oxford Health in 2017 I quickly became aware of the issues around communication and cascading of information across all staff and services. Because of this, I set up a group in 2018 titled ‘Quality Champions’ for Community Services

It spans across all of Community Services and is open to everyone. The objective of the group is ‘come, talk, listen and see what’s going on’. We meet monthly, just for an hour. It is a place to network and share information, with staff groups that may never normally cross paths; dietitians sharing stories with respiratory nurses, district nurses asking an administrator from podiatry how to do something, as a couple of examples.

I share Trust news that may not have been cascaded and they go back to their teams and share/inform their colleagues. I absolutely believe information sharing should be bottom up as well as top down. This group has continued to grow and the feedback about empowerment is fantastic to hear.

I know I can positively represent Community Services.

As Head of the Forensic Recovery College, I am positioned within secure services but slightly outside the mainstream. College courses are delivered via co-production, and in my role I engage with patients and staff on a different level, which includes both the individual and informal.  Having an ear to the ground means that I am well positioned to act as a link, voicing the concerns of patients and staff, and, as a representative of the governors’ team, feeding back to both the board’s decisions.

I am well experienced in a strategic role, having developed the Forensic Recovery College from its inception. As well as developing systems and ensuring that, as a business, the college runs smoothly and effectively, my role has involved understanding and championing needs, fostering working relationships, actively listening to and valuing the contributions of very different people, asking questions in a constructive manner, and above all, finding creative solutions.

I welcome the opportunity to work with the governors’ team, highlighting issues, bringing ideas and helping the voices of patients and staff to be heard at the heart of the decision-making process.

It is a core value of mine to serve the people where I live with exceptional and appropriate health care. I qualified as a registered nurse for people with a learning disability (LD) in November 1992. Currently I am waiting to start a new role within Oxford Health as the Learning Disability Nurse Consultant.

I have two grown-up children still living at home and finding their way in the world, a supportive husband and recently two lively puppies (Black Labradors) who are keeping all four of us (and our elderly cat) very busy. I was recently awarded the Queens Nurse title and made a pledge to raise the profile of learning disabilities, so that all services respond equitably to those who require a more flexible approach to care. I believe this extends to all those served by Specialised Services as we often work with some of the most marginalised of individuals who are complex and often misunderstood.

Being a Governor will enable opportunities to raise awareness of and for our vulnerable service users.
Oxford Health is mine and my family’s health care provider. My family and I are users of the systems in Oxfordshire, and I also work within them. If it doesn’t work for us and the learning disability population I serve, it just won’t work at all. I want to feel assured that if I or my family need to, they can use the services without question or concern.

I work alongside some amazing people across Oxford Health, and I am always totally blown away by the empathy, commitment and determination that I witness. I would like to ensure that the staff have a voice, that Specialised Services has a voice, that we have opportunity to influence and scrutinise the direction of travel of Oxford Health, because I know that our staff make us more than what we aim to be.

I wanted to become a staff governor to support the Trust in its endeavours to provide excellent, equitable and positive healthcare and provide support to the staff who deliver this to the people of Oxfordshire.

Penny has been Chief Executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and sister charity Action for Carers Oxfordshire since 2017.  She trained as a teacher and has worked in education, in social care and in the voluntary sector. She has taught social work students and spent 10 years as Chief Officer of Oxfordshire Community Health Council (CHC), then the ‘patients’ watchdog’ on the NHS. In this role, Penny developed a strong understanding of the NHS from the perspective of people using NHS services, with a particular focus on community health services and mental health. Penny also supported many people who had concerns or complaints about the NHS.

Penny joined Age Concern Oxfordshire, as it then was, in 2000 to undertake a study of the needs and aspirations of older people in rural parts of the county, which resulted in a report published in 2001, Lilac from the Garden. She was invited to stay on to work alongside older people and local communities to implement the recommendations of the report. This resulted in the organisation developing a strong outreach and community development approach, which continues to grow. Penny is passionate about person centred care, about ensuring older people have a voice and about challenging the age discrimination that is endemic within our society.

As a nominated governor on the Council of Governors, Penny is keen to give a voice and be an advocate for those older people and carers who may not otherwise be heard. She hopes to be able to strengthen integration between the Trust and the voluntary sector, to ensure that through increasing opportunities for working together outcomes for older people and carers can be improved.

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.”

A post-doctoral scientist, livestock farmer and business owner, Graham has lived and brought up his family in West Oxfordshire over more than 35 years. He is Lead Governor of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and OUH publicly-elected Governor for West Oxfordshire. Previously Chairman of the Nuffield Practice PPG in Witney, Graham led the Public and Patient Partnership for West Oxfordshire under the auspices of the OCCG.

Graham is Founder and Chairman of Oxford PharmaGenesis, a 24-year-old independent communications consultancy, which is twice winner of the Queen’s Award for Exports and employs over 500 people.

Graham is Chairman of Northmoor Parish Council and is proud to have received the High Sheriff’s Award for Community Service.

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.