New strategic lay forum leadership team
We are pleased to share that our new strategic lay forum leadership team is now in place.
- Co-chairs are Shanaka Dias and Ed Lowther and we are really pleased to continue to collaborate with them. Ed and Shanaka have been lay partners since 2017 and were deputy co-chairs of the strategic lay forum since spring 2022.
- Co-deputy chairs are Stephanie Nash and Phayza Fudlalla who were both previously members of the strategic lay forum.
Ed and Shanaka took over the helm when Trish Longdon stood down after four years as chair at the end of December and Phayza and Stephanie stepped into Ed and Shanaka’s deputy chair roles in January.
The strategic lay forum is the centre of patient and public involvement at the Trust and has both lay partners and Trust staff as members. Together they set a clear vision for patient involvement and enable ways for key developments and strategies to be based on the needs and views of our diverse local communities and patient. Since it was established in November 2015, it has always challenged the Trust to ensure our care is accessible and patient-centred. Through collaboration with the forum we have started work to improve our patient interpreting service and refocused our outpatients plans to include more research and listening into what patients, carers and communities need from outpatient care. Both these programmes will enable us to ensure our care is effective and easier to organise.
