The Board is responsible for setting the strategic direction of our organisation, ensuring due probity and accountability and holding the management team to account in terms of organisational performance. The Board is made up of Executive members employed full time by the Trust and Non Executive Directors who live locally, are employed part time and bring a wealth of business and other expertise to the Board. Our Board has adopted and operates to the NHS Codes of Conduct and Accountability and in line with the Nolan Principles. For more information on these Codes visit the: NHS Improvement website.
Mary Elford, Chair
Mary Elford joined the Trust as Chair on 1 April 2020 and has held a range of director and leadership roles in the public and private sectors.
She is also a board member and trustee for NHS Providers.
Mary was previously Vice Chair of East London NHS Foundation Trust, a member of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel for the NHS and a Non-Executive Director of Health Education England. She has also served on the council of the General Pharmaceutical Council.
Mary’s commercial career was with the John Lewis Partnership, where she held a range of senior executive positions.
Catherine Dugmore, Non Executive Director
Catherine is a qualified Chartered Accountant. She has enjoyed a full-time career as a non-executive director since 2002. She is currently also a Board member with Natural England and Housing 21, and a Trustee at WWF-UK.
Catherine has also previously been a non-executive director with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Trust, Chair of the Audit Committee at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, a Trustee at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Chair of the Trustees of Victim Support, and Chair of the Audit Committee at Action for Children.
Anna Gill OBE, Non Executive Director
As the parent of a severely disabled young adult, Anna combines her former background as a nurse with many years’ experience working as a parent carer representative at national level with both the Departments for Education and Health and Social Care; with NHS England, CQC as an Expert by Experience, and Health Education England.
She is a carer representative on the People’s Advisory Forum at NHS England.
In 2022, Anna retired from her long-standing role as a freelance trainer and policy consultant in the field of SEN and disability which included working nationally as an Associate for the Council for Disabled Children.
Anna was awarded an OBE in 2012 for services to disabled children and their families.
Gary Tubb, Non Executive Director
Gary is an experienced and successful CEO now pursuing an independent portfolio career spanning the private and public sectors, with a passionate interest in Education and Health (Community and Mental Health).
Having worked his way up from being a UCMDS Management Trainee with Unilever to leadership roles in large, complex organisations, Gary brings to the table, clear independent judgement and multiple perspectives.
Gary developed his marketing skills within Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Robinsons Soft Drinks, Dixons Stores and EDF; he co-founded Virgin Home, became CEO for BT Home Communications and CEO for Belkin Northern Europe.
In addition to his successful executive coaching consultancy, Gary is a Cabinet Member for Central Bedfordshire Council (leading on the All Age Skills Strategy) and a Special Advisor for East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).
Fazilet Hadi, Non Executive Director
Fazilet became a Non-Executive Director of Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust in 2019. She chairs the People Participation Committee which oversees patient engagement and equality for patients and colleagues.
Fazilet is an experienced strategic leader with a record of improving equality, engagement and personalised services. She’s held many board roles including being an executive director at RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People). Fazilet started her career as a solicitor and then held senior equality roles in local government. She’s currently Head of Policy at Disability Rights UK.
Dr Richard Iles, Non Executive Director
Dr Richard Iles is an experienced paediatrician who has had strategic NHS roles at local, regional and national level. He was a consultant at Addenbrooke's Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and a lecturer at King's College, London and Cambridge University. He has now retired from clinical service but continues to be active at national level imputting into the NHSE Children’s and Young Person’s Transformation Team, NHSE East of England, and Guy's and St Thomas’ Hospital commercial consulting. He is an associate director of Eclipse, an innovative company providing cost-effective IT solutions within the NHS that evaluates clinical pathways and provides insight enabling enhanced patient care.
Aliyyah-Begum Nasser - Non Executive Director
Aliyyah-Begum Nasser is the second generation in her family to lead Askham Village Community. She has overseen the development of Askham from an elderly home to a thriving community of specialist homes.
Prior to this, Aliyyah was a Consultant at Bain and Company, primarily working on organisational strategy and change across a number of industries.
Aliyyah holds a position on the Eastern Region Brain Injury Forum Steering Committee. Prior to this Aliyyah was a Trustee on the Board of the Spinal Injuries Association, and a founding member on the Trustee Board of Maslaha, a London-based charity seeking to change and challenge the impact of current negative discourse on Muslim communities.
Supporting the goal of improving quality of life across all areas of her work, Aliyyah is a trained mediator – supporting individuals and organisations to overcome conflicts in a positive manner. She has recently completed with Distinction a Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics, and holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
Matthew Winn, Chief Executive (matthew.winn@nhs.net)
Matthew Winn is the Chief Executive of the Trust and has led the organisation since 2007. He represents the organisation on the Cambridgeshire/Peterborough and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Boards.
On behalf of partners, he is the senior responsible officer across Bedfordshire and Luton for community health and integrated discharge and chairs the children and young people partnership in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and is a core member of the Board developing the children's physical and mental health services across Norfolk.
Previously he has chaired the regional research collaborative board (NIHR) and has also been the national director for Community Health and the Senior Responsible Officer for the Ageing Well programme with NHS England.
He has an MSc in public policy and public management, focusing on how organisations can work together.
Mark Robbins, Director of Finance and Resources (markrobbins@nhs.net)
Mark was appointed as the Trust’s Director of Finance & Resources in 2015.
He has worked for the NHS in finance roles since 1992 including Cambridge Health Authority, Huntingdon Primary Care Trust and various commissioning organisations in Cambridgeshire. Mark joined CCS as Deputy Director of Finance in 2012, bringing with him wide ranging NHS experience and knowledge.
In 2007, Mark became a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Rachel Hawkins, Director of Corporate Affairs (rachel.hawkins@nhs.net)
Rachel commenced her career in banking and first joined the NHS in 1992. She has significant healthcare experience across hospital, community and mental health services. Rachel has held a number of Board positions since 2022, leading on strategy, service transformation and operations including at Hinchingbrooke Healthcare NHS Trust and Papworth NHS Foundation Trust.
Rachel joined Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust in November 2019. As Director of Corporate Affairs, she is responsible for governance and resilience, improvement and transformation, and communications. Rachel has an MBA from the University of Wales.
Kate Howard, Chief Nurse (kate.howard4@nhs.net)
Kate Howard joined the Trust on a year’s secondment in October 2020; in September 2021 she was successfully appointed to the permanent Chief Nurse role. Kate joined Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust from Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where she was seconded to the Director of Nursing, Allied Healthcare Professionals and Quality post.
Kate has over 25 years of nursing experience working in community, forensic, educational and in-patient settings, and has a background as a mental health nurse.
She is a qualified teacher and has an MSc in Mental Health Nursing and an MSc in Research. Clinically her specialist areas are community and in-patient rehabilitation and her interests include; quality, safety, equality, co-production and education.
Kate has significant experience of working in healthcare and in previous roles has led and supported a number of large scale clinical and quality based initiatives. Kate has been an external examiner for the University of Bedford and was part of the national team developing apprenticeships for the healthcare sector; she has also been an advisor to the NMC and Universities across the midlands region in relation to pre-registration training developments.
Dr Caroline Kavanagh, Medical Director (caroline.kavanagh10@nhs.net)
Caroline qualified and trained as a paediatrician in Northern Ireland and undertook specialist respiratory paediatric training in Belfast and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. She has been a consultant paediatrician since 2007 with most of her consultant career spent at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Trust (NNUH).
Highlights of Caroline’s career to date include leading the work that enabled NNUH to attain children's cystic fibrosis specialist centre accreditation and leading the emergency department to achieve their first ever CQC 'Good' rating.
Whilst at NNUH she was responsible for doctors’ professional standards and an appraiser for the East of England. She was the Associate Medical Director for urgent care chairing the Central Norfolk Alliance of PLACE boards, leading work to improve care for patients across North, Central and South Norfolk.
Anita Pisani – Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Workforce (anita.pisani@nhs.net)
Anita Pisani has over 20 years' experience of working within the NHS and started her career in the telecommunications industry. She was also a founder Director and Company Secretary of a small design consultancy business. Anita joined Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust in June 2012 from Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust where she had been leading the workforce, communications and OD agendas. Prior to this she worked in NHS Bedfordshire where she was the Workforce and OD Director on both the Commissioning and Provider Board.
She has significant experience of working across the health and social care system and has led a number of large scale workforce change programmes. Anita is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is a former Chair of the NHS East of England Human Resources Director Network.
Dr Steve Bush – Director of Children and Young People’s Services (steven.bush1@nhs.net)
Steve joined CCS as Director of Children and Young People’s Services in June 2022, having previously worked as Clinical and Strategic Lead at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. Steve has held senior leadership roles across health, social care and commissioning and led on service transformation projects designed to focus complex health and care systems around the needs of individuals, families and communities. Steve is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Honorary Lecturer in leadership and child and adolescent mental health at the University of Essex. He has a particular interest in the enablers of integrated care and is undertaking research in this area as part of an MBA qualification.