Your Foundation Trust Contacts

Meet your Membership Team…

We’ve recently made some changes to our Membership Team at the Trust. Company Secretary Pauline Johnson left the Trust in August to pursue other interests and we’d like to wish her the best of luck for the future.

We’ve now appointed a new Company Secretary, Jane Holmes and have also recently welcomed back Gemma Watts from maternity leave, while Lesley Pennington will be taking on the newly created role of Assistant Company Secretary.

The team are your first port of call for any questions, comments or suggestions you have about the Trust or membership. Below, you can get to know the Team a bit better and find out how they can support you, as members of our Foundation Trust.

Gemma Watts, Membership Manager
 

“As Membership Manager my job is centred around our Foundation Trust membership. This includes recruiting new members, ensuring our membership base in diverse and representative of the local population, and also dealing with general membership enquiries. I also provide assistance to Lesley with a number of tasks, such as training and inductions for our Council of Members and planning the Annual Members Meeting.

I’m also Personal Assistant for our Trust Chairman, Bernard Pilkington and our six Non Executive Directors, plus I am responsible for preparing at distributing the Trust Board papers on a monthly basis.

If you have any questions about membership or if you want to find out how you can get more involved with the Trust, I’m your first port of call and will be able to support you to get involved. You can contact me via email at ftmembership@5bp.nhs.uk with any questions or suggestions you may have.”

Lesley Pennington, Assistant Company Secretary

“My new role is largely focused on our Council of Members - made up of 26 Public Member Councillors, 11 Staff Member Councillors and 11 Appointed Member Councillors from partners organisations. The Council is here to represent your views to the Trust Board, so it’s important that they get the right training to enable them to do this. Supported by Gemma, I organise this training and also support the Council of Members to engage with our membership base effectively.

I manage our Council of Members Meetings and ensure that our three sub- committees; Membership & Communications, Compliance with Authorisation and the Nominations and Remunerations all feedback on their activities to the Council of Members. I’m also responsible for planning our Trust’s Annual Members Meeting, something which - as a Foundation Trust - we’re required to hold every year.

I work closely with the Trust’s Communications Team to ensure their communications reflect the input of our Council of Members. Our Membership & Communications Committee has a really important role in looking at how we can better communicate with our stakeholders and engage with our membership.

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a Member Councillor, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’ll be holding Member Councillor Elections again early next year, so if you think you might like to sit on our Council of Members and represent the views of our wider membership, it’s not too late!”

Jane Taylor-Holmes, Company Secretary

“As Company Secretary, my primary role is to provide advanced administrative support to the Trust Board. I am responsible for the agenda for the monthly meetings of the Trust Board and take minutes in these meetings along with ensuring that meetings are held in accordance with the Trust Constitution and corporate governance arrangements.

I also provide support and guidance to Gemma and Lesley with anything connected with Membership and our Council of Members, and I oversee the department to make sure everything’s running smoothly. I’m also responsible for ensuring the Board are interacting effectively with our Council of Members and you, our Foundation Trust Members.

I’m excited to be joining the Membership Team at 5 Boroughs Partnership and really look forward to working with Lesley and Gemma over the next year to support our Council of Members to work more closely with our Trust Board, taking into account the requirements within the Health and Social Care Act 2012 when they come into effect.”

If you have a question or a query for Gemma, Lesley or Jane, or if you’d like to find out more about becoming a Member Councillor, you can get in touch via email at ftmembership@5bp.nhs.uk