Board of Directors
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is run by a Board of Directors made up of Executive and Non-Executive Directors.
Like any other large organisation, we need a ‘top-level’ group of people who meet and take decisions so that everyone works together towards common goals, ensures the safest care of our patients and spends our money in the best way.
Our Board of Directors does this and each Director has a specific area of responsibility.
They meet every month in public and documentation for these meetings can be viewed here.
The Board does, however, have to discuss some matters in private (for reasons set out in the Freedom of Information Act 2000) and holds a separate private session. The papers for this meeting are not published.
A Declaration of Interest Register (Updated March 2021) is also available to view.
Non-Executive Directors
Prof. Steve Field - Chair of the Board
Non-executive director
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Professor Field holds a number of roles at various organisations including Chair at the Royal Wolverhampton NHST Trust, Trustee at Nishkam Healthcare Trust, and Trustee of Pathway – Healthcare for Homeless People.
Steve was the Chief Inspector of General Practice, Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). He has held several Board positions in the NHS including, Non-Executive Director at University College London Partners Academic Health Science Partnership Board, Deputy National Medical Director at NHS England, Regional Postgraduate Dean for NHS West Midlands, and Chairman of the Government’s Inclusion Health Board. He also held the position of Chairman of The Royal College of GPs, and has been a faculty member at the Harvard Macy Institute of Harvard University in the USA.
He has been awarded a number of honorary degrees and also holds academic appointments at the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick.
Chair of the Board
John Dunn, Non-Executive Director and Chair of Performance, Finance and Investment Committee
Non-executive director
Appointed February 2015
Voting position
John’s professional life was spent almost exclusively in the Telecoms sector and he has extensive experience in the field of operations, and customer service. His career includes 20 years experience at divisional board level in a variety of executive and non-executive roles and his last position with BT was as Managing Director Openreach. As MD, he was responsible for the delivery and repair of customer service and for the provision and maintenance of the local access network for the south of the UK. Away from the boardroom, John is a keen walker and cyclist and enjoys nothing better than hill walking with his red setter.
Non-Executive Director
Chair of Performance, Finance and Investment Committee
Junior Hemans - Non-Executive Director
Non-executive director
Appointed February 2021
Voting position
Junior Hemans has significant years of experience within the public and voluntary sectors. He previously worked for the Housing Corporation for 10 years as a regulation manager and as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers for ten years, and is a Non-Executive Director at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
Junior was a founding member and the first treasurer of the African Caribbean Community Initiative Mental Health Project, which provides support to individuals and families that are experiencing mental health issues. He has also served as treasurer to the West Midlands Caribbean Parents & Friends Association and to the Heath Town Senior Citizens Welfare Project.
Junior currently runs his own small consultancy and is a property developer/landlord. He specialises in governance, business start-up, business development and social housing and regeneration.
Junior is also a vising lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton Business School, lecturing in strategic management, marketing, leisure and operations.
Non-Executive Director
Chair of People & OD Committee
Anne Baines, Non-Executive Director
Anne has had near 40 years experience within the NHS in the West Midlands. Before taking (semi) retirement in 2017 she had spent the last 15 years in and around Board level roles in both providing and commissioning roles covering strategy, business development and transformation, communications and HR. She was the Director Strategy at Walsall Healthcare Trust from 2010-2014 and is happy to have returned as a non-executive member as she has fond memories of the Trust and colleagues working there. Anne is a member of the Quality and Saftey Committee and has been appointed the NED lead for the Freedom to Speak Up policy.
Non-Executive Director
Pam Bradbury, Non-Executive Director
Pam Bradbury was a Registered Nurse for 40 years and worked in the NHS for the majority of her career, she spent 4 years as Nursing Officer at the Department of Health, providing professional advice on policies related to improving access to Primary Care, including the development of nurse led services to include NHS walk-in centres and NHS Direct.
Pam is well known in her field for challenging existing practice to improve outcomes and experience for individuals and has been recognised for her contribution to developing integrated, patient focused services.
Since retirement Pam has continued to champion the voice of local people and spent 5 years as Chair of Healthwatch Dudley and Committee Member of Healthwatch England and People Champion at the NHS Leadership Academy.
Pam is Chair of the Quality, Patient Experience and Safety Committee and a member of the People, Organisation and Development Committee and is NED lead for Freedom to Speak Up.
Non-Executive Director
Ben Diamond, Non-Executive Director
Ben has recently retired from the Fire Service after over 30 years working in emergency response and senior management positions throughout the West Midlands.
During his time in the Fire Service, he developed many innovative partnerships, all focussing on prevention of incidents and ill health. Ben’s focus is on prevention being better than cure and he is keen to influence partnerships to develop this principle at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.
Ben also has a keen interest in Organisational Development and equality & diversity with considerable experience of influencing change and positive culture in organisations.
Non-Executive Director
Paul Assinder, Associate Non-Executive Director
Paul is one of the most experienced and respected finance professionals working in healthcare in the UK. He was elected as National President of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), the leading professional body for finance staff working in UK healthcare, in December 2009 and has more than 25 years’ experience at board level in both the public and commercial sectors.
Doubly qualified as an accountant, with a University background in both economics and management, he trained and worked with Ernst & Young Co in the UK after graduation, before specialising in the healthcare and technology sectors.
Paul is a graduate of the Senior Managers Course at Insead (French Business School) and was one of the first FDs to be selected to join the elite NHS Top Leaders Programme in 2010. Paul has a broad portfolio of financial and business experience most recently as European CFO of the US transformational genomics provider Nant Health Inc. In the local NHS Paul has advised policy makers on transformational change through the NHS STP Programme and has also served as Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive of Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust. Before that he held similar positions at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham City Hospital NHS Trust and a number of other board-level appointments in the NHS and private sector.
He is committed to the development of the next generation of healthcare leaders and holds the position of Senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton Business School and with others, founded the MBA qualification in Business & Finance for the HFMA Academy in 2017.
Qualifications:
· Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA)
· Qualified Member of Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
· Fellowship of Healthcare Financial Management Association
Associate Non-Executive Director
Sally Rowe, Associate Non-Executive Director
Associate non-executive director
Sally Rowe has been a qualified social worker for 30 years, working across children’s and adults services in different types of local authorities and in frontline and management roles. She has also spent time as Her Majesty’s Inspector of local authorities and a senior manager within Ofsted. She is now Director of Children’s Services in Walsall, a Non-Executive Director of a Health Trust and a Trustee of a national charity Grandparents Plus.
Associate Non-Executive Director
Rajpal Virdee, Associate Non-Executive Director
Rajpal or Raj, as he is known, has 30+ years of being being involved in both the public and voluntary sector. Initially, a social worker rapidly moving through to senior management in Dudley Social Services and latterly at Birmingham Social Services.
He has extensive experience with health care bodies, in the capacity of a Non-Executive Director, which included East Birmingham Primary Care Trust, Walsall Primary Care Trust and Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group.
Amongst his many achievements as a Non – Executive Director include, the development of Castle Vale Health Care Centre, Pelsall Medical Health Centre and Walsall Hospice where he was the Chair of the project.
Another passion of Raj is the provision of affordable housing and he has been involved with numerous hosing associations, including Black Country Housing Group where as Vice Chair he lead the development of numerous affordable housing schemes, to the benefit of local families.
Raj was appointed in 2002 by the Judiciary to sit as as a Lay Member at the Birmingham Employment Tribunal, which deals with employment disputes between employers and employees over employment rights.
A personal passion of Raj is the delivery of equality in both private and public sector organisations, such that his wide experience and knowledge is often sought prior to implementing organisational change.
Raj will be a member of the People and Organisational Committee, and the QPES (Quality, Patient Experience and Safety) Committee for the Trust. He will also chair the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Raj’s past-times include music and yoga, and he also enjoys cooking.
Associate Non-Executive Director
Executive Directors
Daren Fradgley - Acting Chief Executive
Executive director
MSC Managing Organisational Performance
PG Dip Professional Development
Daren joined the Trust in February 2015 after holding numerous operational and director posts at West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. A paramedic by background Daren joined WMAS in 1994 on frontline operations initially in the Black Country and then Birmingham before moving to the Emergency Control Rooms in 2005. He then went on to manage the Trust Performance Improvement team including informatics and BI team. In 2013 he became the A&E Operations Director before moving to NHS 111.
Daren is responsible for the Trust’s transformation and cost improvement program together with strategic and business development. Originally coming from Walsall, Daren lives locally with his partner and three children.
Acting Chief Executive
Dr Matthew Lewis, Medical Director
Executive director
Matthew was previously Consultant Gastroenterologist at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, where he has also been a Divisional Director. As Medical Director at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, his key areas of focus are to further develop our service integration with primary care and other hospitals, to improve medical engagement in quality governance and patient safety and to better link service plans to medical workforce plans. Matthew is also the organisation’s Caldicott Guardian. Patient Safety and quality of care are key priorities for Matthew in ensuring that our clinical outcomes for patients are of a high standard.
Medical Director and Caldicott Guardian
Ann-Marie Riley, Director of Nursing
A resident of the Black Country, Ann-Marie hails from Lancashire originally and has worked in senior nursing positions in both Birmingham and the Black Country before starting her four-year stint as the Deputy to one of the most respected and experienced chief nurses in the country, Mandie Sunderland.
Ann-Marie has vast experience and has implemented some award-winning innovative ideas such as #NUHmemorymenu as well as being one of the key people behind the national #endPJparalysis campaign. Follow Ann- Marie @AnnMarieRiley10 on twitter to learn more.
Director of Nursing
Ned Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer
Chief Operating Officer
Ned graduated from the University of Nottingham with a first class degree in Pure Mathematics before joining the NHS Graduate Management Training scheme in 2008 in the West Midlands region. He completed his Masters in Health & Public Leadership from Birmingham’s HSMC in 2011 and has carried out a variety of operational management roles – predominantly in the acute hospital sector and within mental health.
Ned’s previous role was as Director of Operations for the Division of Surgery, Women & Children at Dudley Group NHSFT where he delivered the fifth best elective 18-week Referral to Treatment waiting times in the country.
He has a passion for clinical leadership, having written his dissertation on this subject, and has lectured to medical students and doctors in training on leadership in the NHS. He also has a keen interest in Quality Improvement and the use of comparative clinical outcome measurements to improve patient care.
Ned lives in Shrewsbury with his wife and daughter and, having been born and bred in Oxford, is a keen Oxford United supporter.
Chief Operating Officer
Russell Caldicott, Director of Finance and Performance
Executive director
Appointed July 2015
Voting position Full member of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.Russell lives locally and has in excess of 20 years’ experience of working within the acute sector of the NHS, formerly undertaking roles such as Senior Divisional Accountant, Associate Director of Finance and Deputy Director of Finance. A Qualified Accountant and advocate of continuing professional development, Russell occupies the role of Executive on the Board of the West Midlands Healthcare Financial Management Association, providing support and opportunities for development to the finance teams of Central England.
Director of Finance and Performance
Catherine Griffiths, Director of People and Culture
Catherine has a background in local government and more than 20 years’ experience of HR and large-scale service transformation and redesign. Her expertise lies in employee engagement and empowering those around her to make positive changes for the benefit of the organisation and its service users.
She joined the NHS for the first time in 2015 where she took on the role of Deputy Director of HR as part of Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
Catherine then made the move to Walsall Healthcare in September 2018 and now sits on the Trust Board as Director of People and Culture – overlooking HR and Organisational Development.
Her focus is to ensure a positive and inclusive culture amongst the workforce to ensure staff have the support they need to develop their own talents in order to improve patient experience. Her role also means ensuring staff are living by the trust values (Respect, Compassion, Professionalism and Teamwork) and are supported to be happy and healthy while at work.
Catherine has lived in and around the West Midlands for more than 25 years and is qualified at Masters level in Strategic HR management and holds an LLM in Employment Law.
Director of People and Culture
Jenna Davies, Director Of Governance.
Executive director
Details to follow.
Director of Governance
Glenda Augustine - Executive Director of Planning and Improvement
Executive director
Glenda was previously the Head of Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Innovation for RightCare, an NHS England and NHS Improvement transformational programme. She has a wide and varied career in the NHS, training as a general nurse, midwife and health visitor, working as a clinical nurse specialist, lead nurse and specialist midwife in haemoglobin disorders and with the National Screening Committee as National Lead for Child Health Screening Co-ordinators. During this period Glenda was also a bank midwife at Walsall. She has maintained her long-standing interest in haemoglobin disorders and she is currently chair of the National Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Advisory Group.
Her interest in prevention, population health and inequalities led to the completion of a Masters in Public Health at the University of Nottingham, before joining the Public Health Training Scheme in the East Midlands. She was a Consultant in Public Health in Stoke and Wolverhampton prior to her post in RightCare and she has maintained Public Health registration alongside nursing registration.
Glenda is responsible for Planning and Improvement for the Trust and is keen to work across the organisation to improve quality and outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation and inequalities through the intelligent use of data, evidence-based planning and Quality Improvement.
Director of Planning and Improvement