Touchstone’s trustees are volunteers who have overall responsibility for Touchstone’s work and strategic direction. They come from a variety of backgrounds and generously donate their time to the organisation.
Sam has worked in various leadership roles within the charity sector for 20 years, specifically within the palliative and end of life care area.
She currently leads the Strategy and Impact function at Marie Curie, and has much experience in developing strategies, business planning and performance, measuring impact and evaluation. Equally she is experienced in operational management, service redesign, user involvement and income generation.
As well as being a strategic leader, Sam is also a registered nurse and has over 30 years’ experience of working in a healthcare environment. Through this experience, she strongly believes that mental health and wellbeing services should be available and easily accessible for everyone, wherever and whenever they are needed.
Sam is delighted to have joined the Touchstone team, as she is passionate about help and support being delivered in local communities.
I have been a registered social worker for many years working predominantly in Adults services in hospitals and in the community. I am currently working at the University of Bradford and with the Open University as a Practice Learning Tutor on their social work degree courses, organising and supporting student social workers on placements. In this capacity, I have organised successful student placements at Touchstone and greatly value their contribution to social work education.
In addition, I am member of the national NICE/SCIE Guidance Development group on Social Care services for Older People with multiple long-term conditions, published in 2015, and currently a member of the NICE Guidance Development group working on Social Work interventions for Adults with Complex Needs.
After becoming ill in the 90s and enforced retirement, I decided to give it back to those who have helped me. Thus, I have volunteered within many areas of the third sector for over 25 years, which provided me with wealth of knowledge within health, social care and the NHS.
As an Engineer, I feel I can greatly contribute to Touchstone’s Board of Trustees through problem solving. In addition, I am the Touchstone Service User and also Coproduction champion, and my real passion is to ensure research involves the patient and therefore becoming grounded and true.
In order to support my role within the Board of Trustees, I am a member of Yorkshire and Humber National Institute for Health Research and I Chair the Better Lives Board for Adults and Health. Finally, I believe that my lived experience means I can ensure Patient and Public Involvement is true and coproduction is co not faux.
Finally, I strongly believe that we must live and let live; therefore, I do and always will champion LGBT.
In a varied working career, Stephen has worked in senior management roles in both public and private companies and currently works for several organisations on a consultancy basis, specialising in financial assignments, coaching and mentoring.
A Chartered Accountant with Post Graduate Qualifications in Executive Coaching, he has a passion for developing people and works with individuals and teams to realise their potential. Additionally, he has over 10 years-experience delivering a range of training programmes improving financial awareness, knowledge and management in open course and organisational settings.
He values the opportunity to support Touchstone in its endeavours of providing outstanding work in the community.
Sally is a project and programme manager with 25-years of experience in the IT & digital services industry delivering complex projects and transformation programmes for a diverse range of international clients in the charity, public and private sectors. Throughout her career, she has sought opportunities to use my skills and experience and to apply technology for good. This includes ensuring accessibility is designed into new systems, actively promoting diversity in recruitment, and volunteering to train and mentor young people not in employment. Sally is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion and she tries to be an advocate for inclusivity in everything she does.
She currently volunteers as a mentor for women in technology, and for a local foodbank. She is very much looking forward to using her business, IT and financial skills as part of the Touchstone board of trustees. She has lived experience of both mental health issues and dementia and understands how important it is to provide both support and work to remove any stigma. She was born and raised in Leeds, and now lives in South Yorkshire, which means the communities served by Touchstone are very close to my heart.
I have over 16 years of Compliance and Regulatory experience spent across the Financial Services, Manufacturing (medical devices) and Government sectors and over 11 years’ experience in blue chip financial services companies, which equips me to offer an exceptional mix of knowledge and experience.
The ability to transcend from different environments demonstrates that I can swiftly adapt, absorb information enabling sound judgements at a strategic level. I am proficient in working with the FDA/FCA/FOS/MOJ and other regulatory bodies covering many areas of compliance. What I bring to Touchstone is utilising my work experience, and knowledge in the business sectors, to support the charity with its strategy and ambitions and be there as a touchpoint for progress and direction.
I have more than 20 years of experience working within mental health services, in a variety of roles from service provision, research and development to service user development work, activism and advocacy.
I believe strongly in providing every individual equal opportunity to have a voice to enable them to get their individual rights and needs met.
I have lived experience as a mental health service user and as a young carer for a family member and feel that this gives me a deep understanding of the challenges and struggles of being heard and finding the right support.
As such I very much support, and aim to continue to develop Touchstone’s commitment co-production and provision of needs-led services.