Board
Our board is made up of people from a range of occupations and backgrounds, and they help to shape our strategy and priorities as well as scrutinise us and oversee our work.
Patrick Peal, Chair
Patrick retired in June 2021 from leading the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Before becoming its Chief Executive in 2014, Patrick had been a trustee for many years after helping to found the Charity in 2000.
An engineering graduate, Patrick worked for Group Lotus for twenty years, first as an R&D engineer working on automotive, motorsport and aviation projects, before becoming Group Head of Communications. From there he started a Norwich-based PR agency which went on to become one of the largest and most successful in the east of England.
David Trevanion
David has extensive experience of working across health, mental health and social care A qualified social worker, he also worked in housing and social care for many years in Norfolk and Suffolk and set up new services, including supporting housing for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities, hostels, and a women’s refuge.
He is also a former Governor for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn.
Linda Bainton
Linda has worked for a wide range of national and local bodies including Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Health and Wellbeing Board, Lowestoft College, the General Medical Council, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This helped her develop a number of skills including strategy development, strategic planning, policy development, partnership working, governance, and learning and development. Linda specialises in working with statutory organisations like Healthwatch Norfolk and thrives on constructive challenge, promoting openness, transparency and accountability
Elaine Bailey
Elaine has been a diagnostic radiographer for over 40 years during which time, she gained extensive strategic, governance and operational management experience with the NHS and independent healthcare sectors. For the last 10 years, she has worked on home diagnostic services as well developing in-reach service for prisons and young offenders institutes.
Vivienne Clifford-Jackson
Vivienne has a background in nursing, education, mental health and community services including the voluntary sector. She is a former South Norfolk district councillor, and is a volunteer and supervisor for Cruse Bereavement Care, as well as a board member for Voluntary Norfolk. Vivienne believes in evidence-based healthcare and transparent decision-making.
Willie Cruickshank
Willie has worked across health and social care in Norfolk for the last decade. As the Chief Executive of the Norfolk & Waveney Health Innovation and Education Cluster, Willie brought together organisations from health, care and academia to develop innovative approaches to tackling some of our region’s most pressing health-related concerns. This led to the development of the Norfolk & Suffolk Dementia Alliance which Willie led for 6 years. During this period, Willie contributed to the development of dementia related strategies at regional and national levels and was Chair of the East of England Dementia Network as well as advisor to the Eastern Academic Health Science Network.
Now the Chief Executive of a Norwich-based company providing residential care and supported living for people over 65, Willie has first-hand experience of the challenges facing the social care sector.
Andrew Hayward
Andrew was a GP at East Harling from 1988 until 2015. He is retired from clinical practice but is still in touch with primary care as he carries out GP appraisals for NHS England, giving him a really good insight into current issues for GPs and patients.
His career as a GP was highly varied. In addition to the usual practice work he has commanded a Territorial Army medical unit, taught medical students, delivered babies at home, attended road accidents as part of NARS and been a locality lead for the CCG, and in his spare time acts with the East Harling Theatre Group alongside his wife Jo.
Mary Ledgard
Analysis has been a core theme in Mary’s professional career and in voluntary work since she retired. Mary started out working on international politics and economics as a journalist before moving on to organisation development. This transferable skill has enabled her to follow the development of the health service and to carry out or support research. Although she has experience in both social care and research, Mary sees herself very much as an all- rounder.
Chris MacDonald
Formerly Operations Manager at Healthwatch Norfolk, Chris’s role required her to quickly identify and establish a working relationship with a number of health and social care organisations across the region. At the same time, she developed and implemented all the necessary policies relating to property management, recruitment, governance, finance and communications. Chris was also responsible for successfully gaining charitable status for the organisation, so she has a strong knowledge of Healthwatch Norfolk for her trustee role.
Bridget Penhale
Bridget has a background in social work and adult social care (specifically older people related) having worked as a social worker and social work manager for some 15 years during the first part of her career. Much of that work related to social work with older people in a variety of settings (urban, rural, patch/district-based and hospital-related) and was in several areas of Norfolk. Bridget undertook a mid-career change to academia in 1996 and worked at 3 universities for the remainder of her career. She initially worked at the University of Hull in the Social Work Department, then at the University of Sheffield (School of Nursing and Midwifery) in order to focus more on research and finally held a post at UEA (School of Health Sciences) for the last 10 years of her career.
