Adrian is lead governor, currently serving his second term as an appointed governor for Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, where he has actively supported, and where appropriate, challenged the Trust to better meet the needs of carers as well as the outcomes and experiences of service users, patients and staff.

Adrian’s ethos as lead governor is to focus, with governors, to unite their passions and ambitions to work together in partnership, whilst respecting each other. This approach ensures governors can better represent our members, enabling the best outcomes for all service users and carers. He believes that governors collectively and individually can support and drive trusts to become outstanding by ensuring that our own valid views are heard, understood and considered.

Anne served on the previous Governor Advisory Committee 2018-21 and is delighted to be re-elected. She retired from full-time work eight years ago and is a carer who has worked with other carers and carer organisations for the last 20 years.

In Anne's election statement she stated that she believes that the previous GAC was instrumental in enabling governors and staff to work together to develop processes for the benefit of improving effective and efficient services, for the whole spectrum of individuals with mental health and disability issues. She believes that her experience and enthusiasm will further benefit the GAC.

As a psychiatric nurse, Howard has excellent communication skills and is very experienced at using these skills to untangle difficult issues to their component parts and help provide clear information. He often uses these skills to ensure that projects run smoothly. Howard has been a governor at Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust for six years and lead governor for the past two years.

Howard stated in his election statement that he sincerely believes the public voice and the voice of those who use our services needs to help coproduce decisions going forward. By identifying areas of positive working or concerns is a priority we can enable council of governors to work effectively.

Prior to being a governor, John was an NHS chief executive for 22 years. During this time, he was chief executive of Sheffield Children's, Sandwell and West Birmingham (an integrated acute and community trust) and finally the University Hospitals of Leicester, from which he recently retired.

In John's election statement he stated that he was keen to become a GAC member as he believes that governors play a very important role in the foundation trust model, ensuring that there is a strong connection with the population served by the trust and with the staff who work for it.

John is a very experienced governor and was a member of both of the previous Governor Advisory Committees (2015-2018 and 2018-2021). He is lead governor at a large community and mental health trust and is a strong advocate for those services which often do not have the profile of acute services. In 2016 he established a regional network for lead governors in the East of England.

In his election statement he stated that he gets most satisfaction from making suggestions for improvement and these being accepted and implemented. These can make a real difference to the experiences of the patient, and it is satisfying to look back at that and say to yourself, “I did that”.

Loretta is a retired Consultant Community Paediatrician who has worked in the acute, community, mental health and General Practice areas of the NHS. She was attracted to become a Governor in South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) from her experience of this amazing sector. She started her second term in March 2021 and is deputy chair of the Membership and Engagement Committee. Representing the interests of the general public and trust members has been one of her main concerns and despite COVID-19 preventing public engagement in person, SCAS have developed some exciting new initiatives to engage with their constituency using social media and other technologies.

Loretta is an enthusiastic team player and welcomes the opportunity to share her governor experience with a wider group of fellow governors and in turn learn new ideas that would benefit all trusts.

Miriam began her career in local government, working in management roles at the centre of large councils and in social care.  She developed her interest in policy and influencing work at the Local Government Association working on securing support and autonomy for councils to drive their own improvement.  Miriam joined NHS Providers in 2012 and has supported and led their policy and influencing programme on behalf of trusts since that time, with a particular recent focus on system working, and collaboration between trusts and their local partners.  Miriam has been director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers for the last two years.  She holds specific responsibilities for driving organisational strategy, and leads a strong team of professionals across analysis, policy and public affairs.

Peter served on the previous Governor Advisory Committee 2018-21. Peter's background is in further education teaching as well as in senior management and he is now retired. He is a graduate economist with further qualifications in education and in management studies.

In his election statement, Peter stated that he is keen to continue to be a GAC member and help develop a more effective dialogue between trust governors and the committee. His experience of chairing discussion groups of governors at the 2020 Governor Focus conference was that any chance at dialogue with other governors is seized upon.

Stephen works for Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust, a large community and mental health trust.  He is the Trust’s Complaints and PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) Coordinator, and also a bank mental health support worker.  Stephen has been a staff governor for five years, with staff wellbeing a key priority.  In his election address, Stephen observed that NHS Providers’ vision and mission to support members to deliver high quality, sustainable NHS care for patients and service users is closely aligned to Dorset HealthCare’s vision to be ‘better every day’.  Stephen stood for the GAC because he passionately believes the governor’s role matters and he wanted to use his experience to help support governors of member trusts.

Suzy chairs Keep Britain Tidy and always encourages everyone to help keep our NHS Estate tidy! Suzy helps to facilitate governor events. She is the chartered director lead examiner for the Institute of Directors.