KENT COMMUNITY HEALTH NHS FOUNDATION TRUST - Key Persons
Executive Director of Health Inequalities and Prevention Ali Carruth Read Bio Appointed December 2022: Previously Director of Participation, Experience and Patient Engagement (non-voting) and Chief Nurse (Board). Ali qualified as a registered general nurse in 1994. She completed a number of postgraduate studies, qualified as a registered mental health nurse in 2004 and graduated from the NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Executive Healthcare Leadership Award in 2014. She has worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, holding a variety of senior posts in London, Devon, Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Ali is passionate about making sure patients and their carers are equal partners in their care and receive the best experience possible. She has a clinical background in acute, community and mental health nursing, as well as holding a national position with NHS England, providing clinical leadership to the National Ebola Team.
Mercia joined as our permanent Chief Nurse in January 2020 following a 13 month secondment from NHS Improvement.
Mercia has worked in the Health Service for 35 years and describes herself as a ‘passionate champion of the NHS and the values it embodies'.
Her clinical experience includes transplantation, coronary care, renal and cardiothoracic nursing. Mercia holds a Batchelor of Science degree in applied and human biology and Doctorate in clinical research.
During her career Mercia has delivered a number of senior leadership roles within the NHS at both an operational and strategic level. She has led a number of large scale national improvement projects and supported the development of a range of tools that have focused on improving the safety of patients. She has worked for a number of provider organisations including University Hospitals Birmingham
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Chief Executive Officer of Kent Refugee Action Network
Razia has more than 26 years' experience in the social sector, public sector and in higher education at the national and local level in
the UK. She has worked on the management and strategic level for the past 15 years and has worked with marginalised communities throughout her career.
Razia is chief executive officer of Kent Refugee Action Network, a regional charity working with separated refugee and asylum seekers in the care system since 2016. She was previously Head of the ESRC Third Sector Research Centre Knowledge Exchange Team, and a member of the Children in Need South East Grants' Panel.
In 2020, she was awarded a PhD in international politics focusing on critical social moments and the capability approach. She has also worked with NICE to develop national guidance on community engagement in health and was a founding trustee of the People's Health Lottery.
Job Titles:
- Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust ( Acute )
Job Titles:
- Chief Finance Officer
- Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants
Gordon is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (FCCA) and has a professional background in NHS finance spanning 39 years. Following an early career with health authorities, his director experience is with acute and community trusts and has been at the trust since 2011.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Kent Community Health NHS Foundation
He has a wealth of experience working in non-executive and executive roles. John is currently also chair of NHS London Procurement Partnership. He was interim chair of Kent and Medway, Integrated Care System (ICS) from April 2020 to November 2021. Formerly, John was chief executive of both acute and community health providers in London. He has been an executive director of NHS London, the strategic health authority for London, plus director of finance at two London teaching hospitals during his career.
As part of his role as chair of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, John chairs the West Kent Health and Care Partnership Development Board and is a member of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Partnership Joint Committee.
He is also co-chair of the Kent and Medway Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Provider Collaborative Board.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Member of the Institute of Chartered Public Finance
Karen has more than 25 years' experience leading research teams examining the challenges facing healthcare and life sciences organisations and publishing her findings in order to improve services for patients, carers and the public.
She established Deloitte UK's Centre for Health Solutions in November 2011. The centre is the independent research arm of Deloitte's Life Sciences and Health Care (LSHC). It practices and combines creative thinking, robust research and industry experience to develop evidence-based perspectives on some of the biggest and most challenging issues to help clients transform themselves and, importantly, benefit the patient.
Before joining Deloitte, Karen was the Director of Health Value for Money Audit at the National Audit Office delivering reports to Parliament on health-related issues. In 2002, Karen received an OBE for her work on Health Value for Money Audit work.
Karen is a member of the Institute of Chartered Public Finance and Accountants and has extensive experience in leading research into healthcare and life-science issues in the UK and internationally. She also spent 10 years as a non-executive director at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, where she chaired the Audit Committee.
Kim Lowe has spent most of her career at John Lewis Partnership and for more than 37 years she has worked across people, customer service, employee engagement, human resources and business.
She progressed through various operational and general management leadership roles, being appointed managing director of John Lewis Bluewater in 2014. In 2007, she was appointed partnership board director and also as a member of the audit and risk and remuneration committees.
Her final role was to lead the pension review at John Lewis before leaving in 2020 to continue to build her portfolio non-executive director career in the public and private sector, including John Lewis Partnership, Central Surrey Health, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, as well as a council lay member at the University of Kent and joint trust chair of a school's academy trust in Medway.
Kim, who lives in Canterbury, said: "I am passionate about employee engagement; I truly believe it lies at the heart of a successful enterprise. An empowered workforce delivers better service and a happier working environment for all. That's why I was attracted to KCHFT, it has strong values and understands the importance of an inclusive culture."
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive
- NHS Director
Mairead is an experienced NHS director with 35 years in the NHS. She is an emergency nurse by background having trained in her native Northern Ireland.
Job Titles:
- Group Human Resources Director
- Non - Executive Director
Nigel is a group human resources director and business transformation consultant with a proven track record in leading contemporary transformational peoplechange UK and globally.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Deputy Chief Executive
Pauline joined the trust from East Sussex Healthcare Trust where she was deputy chief operating officer since 2013.
A trained clinician, Pauline worked as an occupational therapist in the UK, Australia and the US. On returning to the UK, she worked as a therapist and manager in social care. She moved to work in the NHS in 2008 and has worked across a breadth of services, including community, acute and commissioning.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director and Trust Vice Chair
Peter has a background in banking and finance spanning 28 years, latterly as a finance director with Barclays Bank PLC.
He has been a non-executive director with the NHS since 2006, and is currently a non-executive director and audit chair of Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust.
Pippa Barber brings a wealth of experience with a strong clinical background and focus on governance, quality and improvement from 40 years' experience in the NHS. She has spent the past 20 years in various board roles including most recently as a non-executive director.
Pippa has significant executive experience working in clinical roles including chief nurse and Clinical director, with a number of different
organisations across the system - acute, community, primary care, clinical network, mental health and commissioning. She recently completed 6 years working as the independent nurse for a clinical commissioning group in London, where she maintained an essential focus on system learning, health inequalities, quality and performance and is also currently a trustee for a Kent and London -based charity. Pippa lives in Kent.
Pippa is Senior Independent Director at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Victoria has many years of experience in acute, community, primary care, ambulance service and private sector. Before joining Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, she was the deputy director of human resources (HR) at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals. She moved into the health sector in the mid-2000s, when she joined East Midlands Ambulance Service as an HR practice development adviser. She has worked in roles with Wirral Community Trust and East Lancashire Hospitals Trust as head of employment services.
Since 2015, she has held positions including interim hospital director of people for Newham University Hospital leading on complex change initiatives and strategy develop programmes, including the hospital's response to the Care Quality Commission well-led and the Covid pandemic, as well as progressing the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.
Since October 2020, she held interim deputy director of Human Resources and Organisational Development posts at Wirral University Teaching Hospital and St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals, leading the workforce and organisational development teams in organisational culture change, learning and development.
She has a degree in English and a postgraduate diploma in human resource management.