Our Board
Our Board meets in public every month allowing members of staff, patients, the public and the media to attend our meetings and to retain full and effective control over our organisation.
As with all NHS boards, the Board of NCH&C comprises Executive Directors, Non-Executive Directors and a Chair. Together they share corporate responsibility for all of the Board's decisions.
In more detail, the role of our Board is to:
- Be collectively responsible for adding value to the organisation, for promoting the success of the organisation by directing and supervising the organisation’s affairs
- Provide active leadership of the organisation within a framework of prudent and effective controls which enable risk to be assessed and managed
- Set the organisation’s strategic aims, ensure that the necessary financial and human resources are in place for the organisation to meet its objectives, and review management performance
- Set the organisation’s values and standards and ensure that its obligations to patients, the local community and the Secretary of State are understood and met.
Meet our Directors
An experienced and multi-skilled senior executive team is vital to achieving the best outcomes for local patients, motivating our highly valued workforce and delivering the most competitive, high quality NHS services for our commissioners.
The Chair and Non Executive Directors are not full-time members of staff. They come from a range of professional backgrounds, but they share a common interest in wishing to serve the local health system and provide a link with the community.
Executive Directors and Chair
Stephen Collman, Chief Executive
Stephen joined NCH&C as Chief Executive Officer in January 2022 from the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where he had been Executive Director of Operations since 2018.
As well as operational leadership, Stephen has led strategic transformation programmes of work covering acute, community, mental health and learning disability services with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). He was Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) lead for programmes of work including maternity and paediatrics, and was requested by the Integrated Care System (ICS) to lead system transformation on children in mental health crisis.
A registered Mental Health Nurse, Stephen previously worked as Chief Operating Officer at Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, where he led community hospitals, community-based services, children’s services, mental health, and learning disabilities services. In both roles Stephen has led corporate portfolios that included estates, IT and HR.
John Webster, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy and Transformation
John Webster joined NCH&C in early 2021 as our Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy & Transformation. John is with us on a twelve-month secondment from the Norfolk & Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group.
John has a wealth of experience in the NHS (in commissioning and provider organisations) and the Department of Health. Before the merger of the five Norfolk and Waveney CCGs in April last year, John was Accountable Officer for NHS West Norfolk CCG. Prior to this he was Deputy Accountable Officer at Luton CCG and Director of Commissioning at East and North Hertfordshire CCG.
Graham Nice, Interim Chair
Graham joined us in October 2018, bringing with him a wealth of NHS executive management and professional experience. After qualifying as a nurse at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, he specialised clinically in Oncology and Palliative Care, working in many centres including the Royal Marsden and Hospices in Oxford and Cambridge. Since the mid-1980s he has worked in NHS community health and social care and has led operations, change and professional practice in most community services with most professional groups. He has an MBA with a particular interest in leadership development, coaching new and potential talent and is passionate about enabling people to achieve their full potential. He has a track record of governance, workforce and clinical leadership at board level. He has held Executive Director positions in community NHS services, latterly in Cambridgeshire and Sussex, up until 2013, when he retired from full time work and concluded his nurse registration in 2016. He has been a Specialist Advisor for the Care Quality Commission since 2014 and regularly works on inspection teams in Acute, Mental Health, Community and Ambulance services.
Laura Clear, Director of Community Health and Social Care Operations
Laura joined us in 2009 and has been a Board member since November 2018. She is a registered Physiotherapist having trained at the Royal London & Barts Trust and has worked in a variety of clinical roles across the health and social care environment and also has past experience at a regional level as Allied Health Professions lead. Laura has an MBA from the University of East Anglia and a PGC in executive and organisational coaching. Laura moved with her family to Norfolk in 2003 to work in Great Yarmouth and Waveney. Since joining NCH&C she has undertaken several operational role.
Carolyn Fowler, Director of Nursing and Quality
Carolyn joined us in July 2019. Prior to this she led the safety agenda as Deputy Director of Safer Care and Standards at Hertfordshire Partnership University FT and was part of the team that achieved Outstanding for their CQC inspection earlier this year. Her background also includes being Deputy Director of Nursing for East and North Herts NHS Trust, working as a Macmillan Nurse and being Nurse Director for The Mount Vernon Cancer Network.
Andrew Hopkins Director of Finance and Performance
Andrew joined us in March 2016. He has worked for the NHS for most of his career, including the last 20 years as an Executive Director. He has experience in acute, community, mental health and commissioning organisations, as well as working in the private sector with KPMG. Andrew has held Board positions at Huntingdonshire Primary Care Trust and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. In addition to finance and performance, Andrew is also the lead for estates and facilities, IM&T, commercial services, and procurement.
Dr Venu Harilal, Medical Director
Venu has been our Medical Director since September 2017, joining the Trust in 2005 as a Consultant in the Colman Centre for Specialist Rehabilitation Services (CCSRS) and has been the Clinical Lead for the speciality since 2013. He did his medical and postgraduate training in India and joined the NHS in 1997. In 2000, he started the specialist training in Rehabilitation medicine in the Manchester deanery. His experience in building collaboration and communication with colleagues across patient pathways will inform his work in building safe and effective services, working across our Norfolk and Waveney system to ensure optimum pathways and clinically sustainable services for all who rely upon us.
Non-Executive Directors
Andrew Williams
Andrew joined us in September 2017. His Non-Executive Director roles include Chair of the Charitable Funds Committee; Deputy Chair of the Finance and Performance Committee and Senior Independent Director. He is currently active as a volunteer in the charity sector with Headway, for people with brain injuries. Headway provided invaluable support to Andrew and his family when he was involved in a collision with a car whilst riding his bicycle that caused a brain injury that means he has on going cognitive problems including fatigue, concentration and memory. A consequence of his brain injury is that he is unable to manage a full-time working week. He has been an NHS PCT Chief Executive and Local Authority Director of Children's Services and Adult Social Services in East Yorkshire and worked independently as a Director of both NHS and NHS and Local Authority Care Partnerships in Herefordshire and London. He returned to Norfolk in 2014 as Chief Executive of Vida Healthcare GP Partnership in West Norfolk having served as Deputy Chief Executive of a community and mental health NHS Trust in Peterborough and West Norfolk until 2001.
Njoki Yaxley
Njoki joined us in February 2020. She has a law degree and a Master’s in housing with a background in the social housing sector, specialising in governance, risk and project management.
Steve Crowe, Non Executive Director, Chair Finance and Performance Committee
Steve joined us in October 2019. He has been a Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive with a blend of front-line financial, commercial and strategic experience in both the private equity and blue-chip corporate environment, underpinned by a "Big 4" background. He is highly experienced in leading businesses in business strategy, M&A, planning and reporting as well as driving major commercial and business change decisions and execution. Has a first-class record of project delivery, building sustainable senior relationships and developing "high performance" teams within differing business environments.
Jo Parkes, Associate Non-Executive Director
Jo Parkes: In July 2021, NCH&C announced that Jo Parkes, General Practice Nurse Development Lead at Fakenham Medical Practice had joined our Trust Board and committees as an Associate Non-Executive Director. Jo bring new skills, perspectives and experience to our Board, and will enhance our collaborative partnership working with PCNs.
John Kennedy, Non-Executive Director
John returned to NCH&C’s Board as a Non-Executive Director in early 2022. He has experience across the public and private sector in core roles in finance, and has wider skills across, commercial, operations, and sales, where he has held positions including CEO and CFO.
With significant involvement on numerous Boards, and audit, risk, and remuneration committees, John has many years of knowledge in managing regulation, corporate governance and risk. He has driven large strategic initiatives, led strategic reviews and major change programmes, and led mergers and acquisitions and business turnarounds.