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.
Non-Executive Directors
Danielle Oum - Chair of the Board
Non-executive director Appointed April 2016 Voting positionDanielle has more than 10 years’ experience of leading public service business improvement and programme management and has also worked extensively in the private sector, building and leading international teams. Danielle’s professional expertise is in stakeholder engagement and transformational change. Her other professional interests are socio-economic inclusion, cross-sector partnerships and regeneration. Danielle joined Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust as Chair in 2014, but has recently resigned to become Chair at our Trust.
Chair of the Board
John Dunn, Non-Executive Director and Chair of Performance, Finance and Investment Committee
Non-executive director Appointed February 2015 Voting positionJohn’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
Sukhbinder Heer, Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee
Non-executive director Appointed September 2016 Voting positionSukhbinder has over 30 years senior management experience in corporate finance and private equity as well as leading one of the UK’s top professional services companies. Over the past few years Sukhbinder has also undertaken a number of non-executive positions in private, public and charity sectors and is currently is also NED and Chair of Audit at Birmingham Community Healthcare Foundation Trust (BCHCFT). Sukhbinder will also be Chair of the Audit Committee at Walsall.
Non-Executive Director
Chair of Audit Committee
Philip Gayle - Non-Executive Director
Non-executive director Appointed November 2017 (Previously appointed August 2016 as Associate Non-executive Director) Voting positionPhil Gayle is currently CEO for Connect West Midlands an organisation that supports those affected by substance misuse. Phil has considerable experience in the health sector and has also worked as a NED for SWB NHS Trust. Phil is passionate about contributing to improving services for patients in particular their experience of care at the Trust and has a strong interest in equality, diversity and ethics. Phil will be the non-executive champion for patient care and also for equality and diversity.
Non-Executive Director
Chair of People & OD Committee
Paula Furnival, Associate Non-Executive Director
Associate non-executive director
Paula Furnival is the Executive Director of Adult Social Care for Walsall Council, and her experience has been gained in working within the NHS and councils who have social care responsibility.
Prior to that Paula was a solicitor working in criminal, youth court and child care law, where she gained a real insight into the social and emotional issues facing many families which led to her gaining her first role in social care in Knowsley on Merseyside over 20 years ago.
She has been a District Director in Staffordshire where she was a commissioner and provider of services across a population of about 150,000, running assessment and care management support for older people, mental health and learning and physical disability services and, care homes, and day services.
In 2010, Paula was part of a small team who helped to form a new provider of community health and social care, the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust; the largest single integrated provider of health and care. More recently Paula has worked for NHS England supporting commissioning delivery and transformation developing CCG five year plans, negotiating on Better Care Fund plans and leading programmes of integrated commissioning, prevention and early intervention support.
She describes herself as an advocate of enabling people to live as independently as possible and works to integrate services to best meet the needs of local communities.
Associate Non-Executive Director
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
Alan Yates, Non-Executive Director
Alan has over 25 years senior management experience in the affordable housing sector in regeneration and development, primarily in the Black Country. He has a particular interest in the relationship between housing and health and he is the Chairman of the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP), the National Housing Federation Regional Investment Group, and Energiesprong UK.
Non-Executive Director
Pam Bradbury, Non-Executive Director
Non-executive director Appointed December 2018 Voting positionDetails to follow.
Non-Executive Director
Dr Liz England, Associate Non-Executive Director
Dr Liz England is a GP working in a busy inner-city practice in Birmingham since 2005, where she leads on mental health and learning disabilities. She is also the Mental Health and Learning Disability Clinical Lead for Sandwell West Birmingham (SWB) CCG. Prior to this, Liz trained as a clinical academic in the Department of Primary Care. She gained her PhD in Mental Health at the University of Birmingham and led the mental health team for a number of years and was principle investigator on a number of NIHR funded research studies exploring the development of integrated primary care mental health service models.
After thirteen years as an academic clinician, she decided to have a more direct influence on mental health service development and took up the post of clinical commissioner in SWB CCG. Working with the Joint Commissioning team for mental health in Birmingham and a range of other partners, including people with lived experience of mental health problems, she has been involved in developing community based integrated primary care mental health services and improving specialist mental health services such as Early Intervention Services. She is especially interested in developing preventative, holistic services that support people’s bio-psycho-social needs before mental health problems develop. This is particularly important children and young people. Important aspects of this role include quality and safety and safeguarding.
She is also currently a national clinical advisor for the NCCMH community mental health team pathway being developed, working with an inspiring group of people from all backgrounds and is the RCGP Mental Health and Whole Person Care Clinical Lead. She wrote the RCGP mental health position statement and has been supporting the development of the mental health curriculum for trainee GPs and provide educational resources for GP colleagues.
Personal interests include a love of cooking, taking her dog for a walk (and carrying him most of the way!) and yoga.
Associate Non-Executive Director
Executive Directors
Richard Beeken - Chief Executive
Executive director
Richard has extensive NHS Leadership experience, including a number of very senior exec roles. As CEO at Wye Valley NHS Trust, Richard led the organisation out of special measures.
He was previously Delivery and Improvement Director for NHS Improvement West Midlands, co-led the Executive Team at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and most recently was the Chief Operating Officer for University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.
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
Dr Karen Dunderdale, Director of Nursing
Karen was born and brought up in Scunthorpe. In 1991 she qualified as a registered nurse and worked on a general medical ward before moving to coronary care.
She became a cardiac nurse specialist developing cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure services and became chief nurse in 2011 in an acute trust. Karen has also held the board level roles of Chief Operating Officer, Deputy CEO and acting CEO for a short spell.
She has a PhD in Quality of Life in Chronic Heart Failure from York University and has contributed substantially to the development of cardiac nursing.
More recently Karen has worked for the National nursing team at NHS Improvement and until recently was the vice chair of her local hospice.
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
Daren Fradgley - Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement
Executive director Appointed December 2015 Non-voting position @WHcareDirStrat State Registered ParamedicMSC 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.
Director of Strategy and Improvement
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
Executive director