Become our new Chair

Welcome from Lead Governor, Dr Simon Walford

Dear candidate   

Thank you for your interest and choosing to find out more about this exciting opportunity to lead the Board and Council of Governors at North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust as our new Chair.   

We are a values-led and patient-centred organisation, providing vital lifesaving and life-changing services to a population of 2.7 million people living in rural, coastal, and urban communities from the Scottish Borders down to North Yorkshire. At the heart of the NHS in the North East, we are the gateway to receiving care for the people living in our region, as the provider of emergency ambulance care, patient transport services, and an integrated 999 and NHS 111 call centre.    

For many, we are your first contact with the NHS, making what we do vital to our local communities, and their interaction with our health services. The combination of our services from frontline emergency care to our critical call-centres which start each patient journey with the NHS, offers real complexity and challenge. Even in the most challenging situations we strive to perform to the highest clinical and professional standards in a spirit of collaboration and teamwork. Our benchmarked performance standards are generally better than average, giving our very committed workforce much to be proud of whilst clearly indicating where more improvement work needs to be done.   

Our Chair, Peter Strachan, will be stepping down from the Board at the end of his term, after a successful six years, and we are now seeking to appoint a new Chair to lead our established and very capable Unitary Board and Council of Governors. Our new Chair will be leading the organisation into an important new era for the NHS with many opportunities to restore trust and confidence. Our new Chair must be someone prepared and able to support our colleagues as they help us to deliver excellence and shape the future of emergency services provision for the communities in which we serve. 

We are keen to hear from exceptional and compassionate leaders who share our ambition and values, and who are passionate about the North East. This role offers an exciting opportunity to make a visible impact across our region, and drive integration and innovation in the context of a changing regional and national picture.  

Within this website you will find further information about this exciting opportunity and more about who we are. If you recognise yourself in our vision, values, and the role description, we very much look forward to hearing from you. We are keen to welcome applications from leaders who are committed to inclusion, and we value the different lived experience of all our Board members. 

On behalf of the whole Council of Governors, thank you for your interest in this role. We look forward to meeting you during the process.  

Dr Simon Walford 
Lead Governor