NHS Dumfries & Galloway

NHS Board

NON EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS

Nicholas Morris 
Chair

Nicholas Morris has over 33 years’ experience working within NHS Health and Social care services, with ten years’ experience as Executive Director of a large Mental Health and Social care NHS Trust. He had director responsibilities over that time for Clinical and Corporate Governance, Nurse Director, Strategic Planning and Business continuity. Nicholas originally trained as a Psychiatric Nurse, specialising in acute care and then moved into community mental health care within a social services environment. His career then progressed to a range of strategic planning roles in mental health care, at Health Board, Regional and Department of Health level.

Nicholas has specialised in developing stakeholder approaches to service redesign, with a focus on utilising public health data and community needs assessments in order to drive through increased equality of care provision. He has implemented major service re-design that has ensured people receive the care they need earlier in their care journey. He is a passionate advocate for the integration of health and social care services – built around localities that mean access to care is simplified and the outcomes of care are built around the expectations of the public.

Marsali Caig 
Vice Chair

Marsali Caig was born and brought up in Kirkcudbright. Following legal training at university and Law School in England she worked in Whitehall for a number of years supporting Health Ministers and the Secretary of State for Health with developing their policy  portfolios and parliamentary health & social care business in the House of Commons; this included assisting with speech-writing and attending Health Questions. She gained significant experience of communications, virtual project management and rapid turnaround  of work, as well as building comprehensive knowledge and experience of stakeholder management, analysis, policy development and inter-departmental working (such as the Sure Start programme). She also worked with Special Advisers to the Secretary of State for Health to ensure health policy developments were communicated effectively and timeously to the House of Commons.

She returned to her native Dumfries & Galloway and worked in a number of positions in the early days of Joint Strategic Planning & Commissioning between the NHS and Local Authority before moving to work in Cumbria, leading on a range of areas including business  development, development of clinical care pathways, a turnaround Programme focused primarily on organisational culture and governance, and a major financial recovery programme.

She has been a Trustee of the local charity Food Train, and is currently a Trustee of Dumfries & Galloway Citizens Advice Service.

Marsali is passionate about values based leadership and organisational culture. She has considerable personal experience of health services. 

She has been appointed by the Scottish Government as a Whistleblowing lead NED following the Sturrock Report and recommendations. 

Dr Greg Black

Dr Greg Black has a background in physics and engineering as well as project management, risk and assurance.  He has worked in the radioactive substances industry for a number of years including both the private and public sectors, most recently as a Senior Regulator and Advisor. 

Greg has experience of leading and delivering large and complex projects, managing risk and financial performance.  As a regulator he has experience of auditing on behalf of the public to ensure that organisations’ manage risks to the public and the environment and scrutinising their governance arrangements.

Kim Dams

Kim Dams’ career covers the private and voluntary sector in a wide range of leadership roles, including in finance, risk, compliance and data management. Kim has extensive experience in good governance of boards, risk committees, finance committees and audit committees and has chaired several Board sub committees.

She brings experience in leading and overseeing organisational change, governance in fast developing organisations and of the operational delivery of customer services. 

Kim is passionate about rights-based, person-centred and value driven policies, focussing on people-led decision-making, community engagement, equality, human rights and the intersectionality of rural issues.

Rhianna Davies-McCrorie

Rhianna Davies-McCrorie brings to the Board her wealth of experiences as an autistic patient and service user with chronic and mental illnesses from a very young age.  As well as her experiences as a carer for a person with the same, she is incredibly passionate about bringing the authentic voice of young people and people with disabilities to the Board in order to improve the quality of the delivery of health and care services for everyone.  She has always been passionate about being a voice in her community, and throughout the years Rhianna has worked hard to advocate for people whose voices may struggle to be heard.

She has regularly raised money for charities supporting people with chronic illnesses, and engaged in campaigns for mutual aid, connecting struggling people so they can feel less alone and unseen.  Over the past two years she has been heavily involved in the CAMHS Youth Forum in the area, developing resources and working with other young people to improve the quality of care and understanding for young people and parents.  

Gwilym Gibbons 

Gwilym Gibbons is a social-value creative leader, producer, Lifeboat Crew Member, and former Park Ranger.  He has been Chief Executive of The Crichton Trust a social enterprise in Dumfries since April 2018, where he is leading a bold vision for a new way to work, live, study and play – cross-generational, age-friendly and adaptive, low carbon and tech-enabled while staying highly socially connected. Gwilym was previously Chief Executive of Horsecross Arts, where he led the Perth Concert Hall team and the £16m redevelopment of the historic Perth Theatre.  For eight years prior he was the first Director of Shetland Arts, in which capacity he spearheaded the development and construction of the award-winning Mareel, the UK’s most northerly cinema and music venue.  As a social entrepreneur Gwilym holds several non-executive roles including Chair/Co-founder of the Future Economy Company and Chair of Tourbook CIC.  Gwilym is co-chair South of Scotland SCDI and a former Board Member of Creative Scotland.

Self-educated while growing up in communes throughout the UK, after two experimental years in school, Gwilym found his way into the arts through a youth arts project in Milton Keynes, beginning his career as a freelance drama and circus workshop leader and street theatre performer.  Gwilym is a Fellow of RSA, Chartered Fellow of Chartered Management Institute and was awarded in 2014 an Honorary Fellowship of University of Highland and Islands for his contribution to arts and education.

Claire Holmes

Claire Holmes studied history and sociology at Glasgow University and then qualified as a social worker in 1996; and has maintained her professional registration.  She has always been passionate about mental health services and gained her Mental Health Officer qualification in 1999.  Claire moved to Dumfries in 2002 after securing a team leader post for community mental health services in Stewartry and Wigtown. 

She has significant experience from managing integrated health and social care services for over 20 years.  Claire became an independent consultant/interim in 2012; and over the last 9 years, has focused on service improvement and establishing and leading major transformation programmes in mental health services across England. 

Claire is currently working with a number of NHS Trusts and independent providers in South Yorkshire and NHS England to change the way specialised mental health services are commissioned and delivered.  She has a strong improvement focus to deliver good quality services in the public sector in collaboration with others to ensure better quality outcomes for service, users and families; and will bring this ethos to this new role.

Vacancy

HEALTH BOARD EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS

Jeff Ace 
Chief Executive

Dr Ken Donaldson 
Medical Director

Katy Kerr 
Director of Finance

Valerie White 
Director of Public Health

OTHER REPRESENTATIVES

Bill Irving 
Chair Area Clinical Forum

Vicky Keir 
Employee Director

Chrissie Hill 
Local Authority