Our Board and NEDs

Our Trust Board is the senior leadership team for the organisation. It is the cornerstone of Trust structures and supports good governance and decision making.

All NHS organisations have this kind of board, a ‘unitary board’ which is made up of a group of senior leaders, known as Executive and Non-Executive Directors, who lead an organisation.

The role of the Board is to:

Set the vision, strategy and goals for the organisation to deliver
Ensure that the organisation delivers on what it sets out to achieve, in terms of goals
Lead on culture and values through the organisation

All directors – Executive or Non-Executive – have an equal part to play in delivering these aims.

How does it work?

In addition to collectively setting and driving strategy, the individual Board members also take on role-specific functions. These are:

Executive Directors	Non-Executive Directors
Manage the day to day running of the organisation to deliver against the strategy, within budget	Independent advisors who help to shape strategy and use their expertise to support the development of sound strategy
Lead and line manage the workforce	Look at the plans established by the Executive independently
Provide robust reports and information to the Board and its sub-committees to help the Board in ensuring things are going in the right direction	Assess the performance of the management team and executive directors in terms of meeting the goals and objectives
Hold specialist executive roles – such as the Caldicott Guardian or the Freedom to Speak Up Executive	Lead and drive the Board Committee Structure, considering risk management to ensure the Trust moves in the right direction
Set policy – how we will deliver on the strategy	Have special interest roles such as the Freedom to Speak Up NED, to provide additional oversight and support in key areas

Non-Executive Directors

Whilst you will be familiar with the Executive Directors as they fulfil a daily role within the organisation, you may be less familiar with the role of our NEDs.

The key to the Non-Executive Director role is independence. The NEDs aim to ensure the Trust conducts its business fairly, holding the Trust to account through the Executive Directors for delivery.

In order to maintain their independence, the NEDs are not full-time employees of the Trust – they work on average 3-4 days per month with the Trust and the remainder of their time is spent in employment in other organisations. Because of this you may not be as aware of who they are, or their special interest roles:

Non-Executive Director	Special Interest Role
Nicola Scrivings, Trust Chair	Fit for the Future Steering Group, Herts and West Essex STP Equality and Diversity Lead
Wendy Thomas	Chair of Quality Governance Committee, Mid and South Essex STP, CQC workstream, EPRR NED Lead Safeguarding NED Lead Patient Safety NED lead Senior Independent Director
Mrunal Sisodia	Chair of the Audit Committee, BLMK STP Freedom to Speak Up NED, Whistleblowing NED, Culture workstream
Neville Hounsome	Chair of the Workforce and Charitable Funds Committees, Norfolk and Waveney STP, EHRC, training and workforce improvement workstreams
Alison Wigg	Chair of the Transformation and Remuneration Committees, Suffolk STP, demonstrating impact workstream Digital/IT NED Lead NED Maternity Safety Champion
Carolan Davidge	Chair of the People Engagement Committee, Cambridge and Peterborough STP, System Partnership workstream PPI NED Lead Sector Engagement NED Lead NED Representative for the CEG
Julie Thallon, Associate NED	Chair of the Performance and Finance Committee, Capacity and Capability workstream

We also have two further associate NEDs.

Kiran Mahil, focusing on workforce and equality, diversity and inclusion through the Workforce and People Engagement Committees.
Victoria Corbishley, focusing on patient engagement and involvement, through the People Engagement committee.

In these roles, Kiran and Victoria are not formal members of the Board but bring invaluable expertise in key areas for us.

You are able to contact the NEDs via the eastamb.nhs.uk addresses, or via Emma de Carteret, Linda Gove or Esther Kingsmill