Written Statement - Health Education and Improvement Wales Update on Board Members and timetable for delivery

Following the appointment of interim Chair Dr Chris Jones and the Chief Executive Alex Howells, I am pleased to announce the appointment of six independent members of the Board. The interest in these roles was very encouraging and we have been able to appoint a diverse and high quality group of people from across Wales. The members will be able to bring the voice of the professionals, education and the patient into the discussions of the HEIW Board. The six members of the Board are:

Mrs Tina Donnelly CBE DL FRCN
Tina has been Director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales since 2004, she is a Registered Nurse who also trained as a Midwife, she also completed specialist training in cardiac care, palliative care and clinical teaching/teaching. Tina has held senior management posts in the NHS, Higher Education and she has worked in the Welsh Assembly Government as a Nursing Officer advising on health and nursing policy, regulation, Human Resources, research and education. Tina is an honorary Fellow of the University of South Wales and a Fellow of the Royal College.  

Dr Ruth Hall CB
Medically qualified, Ruth practised in paediatrics and child health before specialising in public health medicine in North Wales, then serving as Chief Medical Officer for Wales from 1997 till 2005.  She has since held non-executive Board and advisory appointments, as a member of NICE’s Public Health Advisory Committee, the board of Environment Agency and currently, Natural Resources Wales. Since 2015, she has co-chaired the Mid Wales Healthcare Collaborative, focused on improving healthcare services in rural Wales. A governor of the Public Policy Institute Wales hosted by Cardiff University, she also holds a visiting chair at the University of the West of England. She is a Council member of the National Trust and of the Canal and River Trust and its Wales Board.

Mr John Hill-Tout
John has 40 years experience in large and complex organisations with the NHS and Government. He served as an Executive Director, and for a period of six-months as Acting Chief Executive of North Bristol NHS Trust. He left the NHS in 2001 to take up a post of Director of Performance and Operations within Health Department of Welsh Government before retiring in 2007. He served as an independent member of Cwm Taf Health Board from 2009 until 2017 where his particular responsibilities were financial matters and he served as chair of the Audit sub-committee and chair of the Finance, Performance and workforce committee.

Mrs Gill Lewis
Gill is currently Chair of Public Services Staff Commission in Wales and has worked in the public sector for most of her career. She is a qualified chartered accountant and held a number of senior positions in the former Audit Commission and the Wales Audit Office. She has more recently undertaken a wide variety of key roles across the public sector in Wales including Deputy Chief Executive, Director of Resources and statutory Section 151 officer and other Director roles in both the Local Government and the Health sectors. Gill has served on Housing Association Boards and CIPFA Council, and specialises in corporate governance, peer review and organisational turnaround.

Professor Ceri Phillips
Ceri is Head of the College of Human and Health Sciences at Swansea University and Professor of Health Economics at Swansea Centre for Health Economics. He is the University non-officer member of ABMU Health Board and been heavily involved in the development of the ARCH Programme and the current Chair of Council of Deans of Health Wales. He is a member of the Ministerial Taskforce on Primary Care Workforce in Wales. He sat on the Panel commissioned by the Minister of Health and Social Services to review the NHS Workforce in Wales and was a member of the Panel that undertook the Review of Health Professions Education Investment in Wales in 2015, along with the Williams review that has led to the establishment of Health Education and Improvement Wales. He was also co-lead of the Review of the appraisal of orphan and ultra-orphan medicines in Wales in 2014.

Dr Heidi Phillips
Heidi has been a GP in South Wales since 2001 and is currently Associate Professor/Admissions Director for the Graduate Entry Medicine and Physician Associate programmes at Swansea University Medical School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Heidi has a special interest in recruitment and retention of GPs in Wales and is leading on the development of a Primary Care Academy. Passionate about widening access to medical school, she sits on the Medical Schools Council Selection Alliance Board and is leading on several equality/disability workstreams.

All Independent Board members will take up appointment in February and tenures have been staggered with members being offered two or three year terms.

Following a request from the Chair and Chief Executive, I have also agreed to a change in some of the dates for the new organisation’s establishment. In the first six months of the 2018/19 financial year, HEIW will now operate in shadow form. The advice from my Programme Board and the HEIW leadership has been that a six month shadow period would allow the new organisation to develop its governance and operational processes, and to work with staff and stakeholders to prepare for the important work ahead.