Say hello to our Lay Members…
A lay person is a member of the public who sits on our Governing Body and acts as an advocate for public interests. They are not employed by the CCG and offer alternative viewpoints from being a member of the local community.
At North Lincolnshire CCG we value public transparency and are delighted to have three lay members who boast a wealth of experience and knowledge about our local area.
It is imperative the CCG’s communications and engagement team works closely with lay members, and their respective skills, to maximise its understanding of the population it is communicating and engaging with.
The team has developed a strong working relationship with all three as it aims to deliver key health messages, in the best possible way, to as many of its 170,000-strong population as possible.
Janice Keilthy – Lay Member for Public and Patient Involvement
Janice is chair of the following groups:
Primary Care Commissioning Committee; Quality, Performance and Finance Committee; Remuneration Committee; Patient Participation Group Chairs’ Forum; Patient and Community Assurance Group and Health and Wellbeing Board for North Lincolnshire.
Janice is vice-chair for the following groups:
Integrated Audit and Governance Committee and Planning and Commissioning Committee.
Janice joined the CCG as she wants to use her skills and experience to ensure North Lincolnshire residents can be assured that all times the CCG makes strong decisions to provide the best quality health provision
Janice has lived and worked in Lincolnshire for almost all of her career and takes an active role in the community – including being a director at Citizen’s Advice in Scunthorpe.
Janice has a passionate interest in North Lincolnshire and, following her time as a deputy principal at a local college, has lectured both regionally and internationally about best practice in Lincolnshire education.
Janice said: “It is important North Lincolnshire CCG engages with the public to ensure their thoughts and ideas are taken into account when decisions are being made.
The new communications and engagement team has introduced innovative new ways to bring the CCG and the population of North Lincolnshire together to achieve the best outcomes for our local population.
Heather McSharry – Lay Member for Equality and Inclusion
Heather is Chair of the CCG’s Equality and Inclusion Group and sits on the Equality and Inclusion Forum with partners across North Lincolnshire. She is also the lay lead for safeguarding at the CCG and a member of the Patient and Community Assurance Group (PCAG).
Heather has been passionate about making a difference since joining the CCG board in November, 2016.
The full-time mum’s working background has involved disability support and local authority services for adults. Heather said: “I am pleased with the extent to which our communications and engagement team want to get to know the North Lincolnshire population and reach out proactively, and creatively, to do this.
“The CCG has seen some good results from the team – particularly in the number of people connecting with us on social media and the response rate to the recent consultation as part of plans for a new urgent treatment centre.
“From and equality and inclusion perspective I am keen to hear how the CCG engages with seldom heard or marginalised communities and how representative our input from the local public is in terms of protected characteristics.
One way we are working to improve the dialogue between the CCG and our different local communities is by cross-referencing methods of engagement with equality monitoring data to see which methods are most useful to which communities. This will help plan future engagement work.
“The communications and engagement team is also working with the CCG’s Equality Group to develop plans for a panel of experts by experience, alongside other relevant stakeholders, representing the different protected characteristics to give insight to the Equality Impact Assessment of new service plans as part of the CCG’s integrated impact assessment process.”
Erika Stoddart – Lay Member for Governance
Erika is the Chair of the CCG’s Integrated Audit and Governance Committee.
Erika is a qualified management accountant and boasts a particular interest in risk and governance – having worked in the private, public and charitable sectors in her career. She joined the CCG because she wanted to be part of a team that ensures North Lincolnshire residents can lead long and healthy lives. Erika said:
We have changed the way we connect with our population.
“This means we can reach further and get more diverse opinions on what our health priorities should be. This helps the audit committee gain assurance we are investing where needed.”
We would like to speak to you!
If you feel the CCG is yet to visit and speak with your community, or if you wish us to visit again, please get in touch with Engagement Manager, Kirsten Spark at kirsten.spark@nhs.net or 01652 251067.
