Staff Governors are elected and sit on the Council of Governors to represent staff members’ views within the four staff constituencies (medical; nursing; other clinical, scientific, technical or therapeutic staff; and non-clinical).

10 Staff Governors

Declan Hyland

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I have been employed as a Consultant in general adult psychiatry in Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust since August 2016.  I work on a full time basis at Clock View Hospital, one of the Trust’s inpatient units, where I look after a caseload of 23 inpatients across two wards.  Having completed almost all of my six years of psychiatry training in Mersey Care, working at various inpatient and community sites across the Trust and in various subspecialties of psychiatry, I always knew I wanted a Consultant post in the trust.  Aside of my clinical role, I hold numerous roles with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and am the lead for undergraduate psychiatry with the Liverpool School of Medicine. 

Whilst I am passionate about medical education, recruitment to psychiatry and training, I am equally passionate about patient care and ensuring that Mersey Care provides high quality and safe care to all of those patients under its care.  I am fully committed to representing my medical staff colleagues in Mersey Care and ensuring their views are heard at Board level.  I relish the opportunity to be an elected governor on the Trust Board and to do justice to this privileged role I have been given.

First term: 1 October 2021 to 30 April 2024

James Savage

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As a Governor of our Trust, I will work together with stakeholders inside and outside of Mersey Care to create a better working environment for our staff and in turn better care for our patients.

I was a student and HCA within NWBH/Mersey Care until I qualified in March last year, for the last 6 months I have been a deputy manager on one of our inpatient wards.

I have always been passionate about helping people, I was previously a senior carer in Northern Ireland and a volunteer youth worker.

In the UK Youth Parliament, I advocated for young people and as Rep in the RCN I advocated for student nurses as they struggled to support the NHS during the pandemic.

I welcome the opportunity to advocate for my colleagues. I hope that I can be a voice for our nursing staff and bring issues they care about to the executive level.

I will support our staff to create a more positive, safer working environment that will in turn deliver a better standard of care for our patients.

As a nurse in Mersey Care, I have developed communication skills which I hope to use to reach out and engage with nurses across our Trust, we are a huge organisation but at the end of the day we are all colleagues with one common goal... to deliver better person-centred care for our patients.

First term 1 October 2023-30 April 2026


Jason O'Flaherty

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I will always live by my values, hope to have courage and be able to speak truth to power.

Being a nurse is an important part of my personal and professional identity. I know the struggles of maintaining a healthy home work balance when looking after a dying parent and of being a single parent for a pre-school child.

I have been a nurse for almost 30 years and outside of nursing I have spent many years in the charity sector, as a Trustee developing and supporting projects in Romania, Africa, and the UK.

I will always speak truth to power, this aspect is so important to me. I struggle to live in a less than honest, open, and transparent world, where equality of opportunity is not available for all. I formally worked for NWBH and now work in a Trust wide capacity. This gives me the opportunity to engage with nurses working across the whole of this Trust, be it in the community, on the wards and across all the different divisions in the Trust.

I feel this unique trust wide insight which few other nurses are privileged to have gives me a more balanced and informed position which I can share with the Trust Board.

First term 1 October 2023-30 April 2026


Ann San

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I am honest, unafraid to ask awkward questions and have the skills to scrutinise and objectively look at the meaningful work of the Mersey Care organisation.

I am employed as a Community Matron working within a community team in Liverpool. I have worked in acute hospital community settings. I am interested in the supporting of and development of key health services, sometimes challenging those decisions in the best interests of patients and staff involved. As a nurse it is a privilege to be involved in patients and their care and to always put patients at the centre of any decisions. I consider this to be the benchmark for any organisation that makes policy or strategic decisions for its patients or service users.

I hope to be able to bridge the gap between the board and its members by taking an active part in the governor role and have a greater understanding of the role of the governors and the executive

board. The qualities I could bring are the qualities I use in everyday life; honesty, listening, compassion, problem solving skills, and a can-do approach to obstacles. I firmly believe if you involve your workforce in discussions and conversation you can gain so much as an outstanding performing organisation. which strives to achieve for every patient “perfect care”.

First term 1 May 2022 – 30 April 2025

Vacant

Election will be held Spring 2024

Sean Doherty

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I care about my work community, and I have 23 years’ experience as a governor, and 2 as a local councillor. My experience of strategic decision making will be beneficial.

I am married and live in Maghull. I have worked in industry and the health service. My current role is as a Senior Pathways Advisor with Mersey Care Life Rooms, and I continue to work with Secure Division as a Health Care Assistant. I was previously representing staff as safety representative for the RCN in secure division, a position I took up because I always want to improve working conditions for both staff and service users. Outside of work I volunteer as an outreach worker helping homeless people in Liverpool and with a charity helping Afghan Refugees integrate into communities. My hobbies are travel, watching Everton and magnet fishing with my grandson.

I hope to gain a greater knowledge of how the Trust works and I hope to use my experience in governance, communication, and strategic planning to help the Trust on a journey of continued improvement for the benefit of all.

First term 1 May 2022 – 30 April 2025


Gie Peneche

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Keeping our service safe – is the driving force for my aspirations of becoming a staff governor. For me, providing safe patient care is not only about evidence based practise but also about the interaction, experience and the psychological safety of both patients and staff. It is therefore my passion to promote ideas and views, representing fellow colleagues and promoting better staff experiences, which in turn will improve the patient’s experience of service.

As one of the Just and Learning Ambassadors I am already part of cultivating an open, just and transparent culture. If elected, I will draw upon these skills to represent staff views, challenge decisions and ensure that issues specific to services will be addressed. Through my experiences, I have amassed and have built resilience that makes me flexible, courageous and well-rounded individual. The challenges that I have personally experienced over physiotherapy career of 20 years, have taught me to find my voice and speak up when I needed to; make my own ethical decisions everyday no matter how much pressure is being placed on me and the lessons I have learnt from colleagues’ experiences. Their wisdom is the reason why I enjoy the opportunity to collaborate.

My personal experiences and attributes have led me to believe that I would be well suited to be a governor and all that it entails. Furthermore, it is just simply to make a difference at a place where everyone is welcomed, and I can only attain that with your support.

Second term 1 October 2021 to 30 April 2024


Gary Rowland

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I'm conscientious, hard-working, and passionate about representing the voice of my colleagues on the Council of Governors. In my professional life, I'm a Chartered Fellow of the Institute for Professional Development and I work primarily in HR for a private company. I volunteer as a School Governor and am also a Magistrate - two of my big passions, and through which, I believe I have gained the skills and knowledge to support in my role as a Governor for the Trust. Originally, I joined Five Boroughs as a Bank HCA and have continued to work primarily on Inpatient and Community teams continuously through to our new chapter as we merged with Mersey Care.

I have years of experience of working with stakeholders to represent their views, change management and engagement. I'm keen to utilise these skills to bring a balanced view to the role of the Governor. All NHS trusts are facing staffing challenges at the moment, and I feel that there is a real opportunity to ensure that Mersey Care staff receive the right representation. I am also keen to understand how our auditing bodies (internal and external) think we can develop as an organisation and how we influence how this is woven into our operational and people strategies.

First term 1 October 2023 – 30 April 2026

 

Chris Boland

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I have 14 years’ experience in Merseycare in Corporate Services and over the past year I have spent most of the year supporting Local Services at Hartley Hospital.

I came to Merseycare as a staff member after a long spell in the Service Users and Carers Forum, where I served on working parties and interview panels and shortlisted candidates.  I have a long history of campaigning on Equality and Human Rights issues in Mersey Care and served as an Assistant Equality Advisor within the Workplace team.  I organised Hate Crime workshops with the Anthony Walker Foundation and administered Unconscious Bias training.  I have brought those experiences to bear in Local Services, supporting both staff and service users. I also helped devise Level 2 suicide prevention training for staff.

I have a long record of public service in Mersey Care and the Civil Service, where I managed teams in the Tax Credit Office and worked as a National Insurance Inspector.  I have an in-depth knowledge of both Health and Welfare issues and experience of working alongside senior management in the Public Service.  I have highlighted Equality issues in Merseycare and have brought it to the attention of managers when work practices have fallen short of those policies and values.  I am able to master policies and briefing documents and highlight ways in which they might be improved.  Above all, I am committed to ensuring that both staff and service users are treated with dignity in the way they deserve.

First term 1 October 2021-30 April 2024


Malcolm Greenhouse

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I work in Estates and Facilities as an Estates Project Officer and can be found in many Trust buildings during the course of my work. I have worked in the NHS for a total of 11 years over two periods and in my first period I was the Joint Union Committee health and safety lead. In between my NHS employment I was National Health and Safety Manager for a PFI provider’s maintenance provision. Further back in my past I have been both a quality auditor and an operational manager. These roles have taught me to drill down and look for the root cause of situations so that lessons can be learnt, and improvements made. I see this as a close synergy to the role of a governor.

I have also worked part time for 21 years as a Tutor for the Open University on their Master’s Degree in Business. Subject tutor on included Financial Management, People and Organisational Management, Statistics, Marketing and Operational Management. During this time many of my students were from an NHS background. Reading their work-based assignments has provided me with a good understanding of the problems faced in Health Care.

So if anyone has any issues they would like me to raise then please feel free to get in touch via my Mersey Care e-mail account and I will come back to you to discuss.

First term 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2025