Our Chair, Carole Marshall
Carole has spent the past 10 years engaging with the local community, and has previously worked as a Community Engagement Officer for Healthwatch South Tees. Carole fully understands the challenges of navigating our health and care system and the importance of involving people that can influence change in our local area.
After I had moved on in my career, I felt that I could still continue my support with Healthwatch as a board member as I have always been passionate about the local community and want to ensure people using health and care services still have a voice. I believe it is very important as often people don’t know who to turn to or who can listen to and respond to their views and experiences.
I am really interested in empowering people to have their voices heard, and I will continue to be an advocate for better health and care services in South Tees, being a part of Healthwatch gives a voice to those who may not be able to do so!
Vice Chair - Dr Ian Holtby
Dr. Holtby has extensive medical experience, having worked in hospitals in Leeds, Middlesbrough and even Nigeria and, as a GP in Redcar. However, the greater part of his professional life was spent in public health, even returning to this post-retirement to assist in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Hartlepool area. Following his retirement and on hearing of the creation of Healthwatch, he decided to put his knowledge of the NHS in the Teesside area to good use by volunteering his time as a member of the South Tees Healthwatch Board. This has enabled his input into the work needed to improve health service provision for the benefit of our local communities.
Board Member - Andrew Jones
Having previously worked in retail and hospitality, Andrew has spent the last 10 years as Director of Meadowvale Homecare helping people to continue to live independently in their own home. During this time Andrew has gained significant knowledge of many aspects of Health and Care within South Tees.
Andrew has developed his business through listening to his staff and the people who use the service and making improvements using that information.
Andrew has seen first hand how vital the health and care sector is for thousands of people and delighted to be able to support more people through Healthwatch.
Board Member - Femi Abolade
Femi is a dedicated public health intern at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, where he leverages his extensive background in environmental health to drive positive health outcomes. Originally from Nigeria, Femi worked as an Environmental Health Practitioner for over 15 years, gaining invaluable experience in health education and community engagement. His passion for improving public health led him to the United Kingdom, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in public health, deepening his understanding of global health challenges.
During his time at Teesside University, Femi served as the President Wellbeing for the Teesside University Students' Union for two consecutive years. In this role, he championed the welfare, wellbeing, and mental health of students from diverse backgrounds, fostering an inclusive environment that prioritizes holistic health. His commitment to student advocacy also led him to become a Community Champion with Healthwatch, where he represented the voices of students and minority groups in discussions about local health services.
Femi is currently working as a support worker with Community Led regeneration, supporting young boys on asylum and helping them to begin a new life where they can adapt to the British culture, and become useful individuals for their communities.
Femi's current focus is on establishing an inclusion health group within the local health community. He is passionate about ensuring that everyone, regardless of race, background, disability, or socio-economic status, has access to adequate healthcare services and enjoys a positive health experience. With a strong belief in the importance of equity in healthcare, Femi Abolade is dedicated to making a lasting impact in public health. His unique blend of experience and passion positions him as a valuable advocate for positive change, ensuring that every individual can achieve optimal health and wellbeing.
Board Member - Jade Lavan
I am the director of Lavan Dementia Care Services which offers specialist dementia day care services, independent specialist dementia nurse service, at home services, training and education and care consultancy.
I am registered mental health nurse, with over 25 years of experience, skills, and knowledge in health, social care, nursing and education. I have always worked with older adults, dementia and mental health in a variety of roles including nurse, nursing home manager, turnaround manager, educator and commissioning.
I was a Specialist Admiral Nurse from January 2022 - January 2024, covering the South Tees area, supporting carers and their loved ones living with dementia. My dedication, commitment and collaborative working was recognised in April 2023, when I awarded a South Tees Healthwatch Star award in ‘Excelling In Supporting Others’ I am also Healthwatch Community Champion for Dementia Healthwatch Redcar & Cleveland
I established and set up the Redcar and Cleveland Dementia Steering Group Network in May 2022 and continue to chair with support from with Marie Kerr Dementia Action Teesside. A proactive and efficient steering group made up of over 50 professionals from different organisations striving to raise awareness of dementia and improve services.
Due to the unfortunate lack of funding for the Specialist Admiral Nurse, I set up Lavan Dementia Care Services n January 2024, to continue to offer specialist clinical care and support to carers and their loved ones living with dementia in the South Tees area.
I am Councillor for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council representing Zetland Ward, and a member of Adult Health and Well-being Scrutiny, Growth Scrutiny and Improvement Committee, Climate and Environment Scrutiny and Improvement Committee, South Tees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee, Live Well South Tees Board and is a trustee for Social Ties and Butterflies Charity.
It would be a privilege to be a Board Member for Healthwatch, I feel I have a wide range of skills, knowledge and experience to offer which can be demonstrated through my employment and councillor role.
Even when working in a senior management role, I have never lost sight of the basic fundamentals of health, social care and nursing which have driven my passion to strive to make positive changes in service delivery for the benefit for patients, families and carers.
Board Member - Jen Little
Jen has over 20 years’ experience working in the NHS as a Registered Nurse. Her current role is Patient Experience, Involvement and Bereavement Lead / Family Liaison Officer for South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Board Member - Kelly Hodgson
Kelly began her career in the voluntary sector at a Disability Action Group managing on a range of services focused on inclusion in Whitby. Joining MVDA in 2015 to join the Ageing Better Middlesbrough programme leading on volunteering development. She then took over management of Community Connect, a project based on social prescribing with Middlesbrough Adult Social Care. Kelly is now the project lead for We Care You Care, a communication and campaigns project across the South Tees for unpaid carers.
Board Member - Laura Bush
I began my journey as a Youth Worker in a deprived ward of Middlesbrough over 15 years ago and am now a Senior Manager at a Regional Charity (Youth Focus North East) that has the mission to improve the lives of young people. I have worked with young people facing a range of challenges to support them in programmes such as regional youth voice groups, open access, participation workshops etc. I now have the pleasure of managing a team of youth workers who are just as passionate about young people and get to support them in their role. I am passionate about working with others to create a better place for young people to grow and thrive. I have recently developed a new training centre and am working to expand this to offer more training opportunities for youth workers in the North East and wider. I believe that more youth workers are needed in more places to support young people and I am keen to get more people who are passionate about young people to join the sector.
I became a HWST Board Member in Oct 2023. I knew about Healthwatch South Tees through my work and believe in the work Healthwatch is trying to achieve. I want to support the development of health service provision for the benefit of the local communities and ensure young people’s voices are heard.
Board Member - Mandy Capaldi
Mandy has over 40 years experience working in the NHS. She started her career in a GP surgery as a Practice Manager in Middlesbrough, moving into the mental health field over 20 years ago. She helped to set up a specialist GP surgery in Central Middlesbrough to support newly arrived asylum seekers and refugees and through this work developed an interest in supporting the mental health of people fleeing violence and working with the trauma related to this. She moved on to help set up an IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) service in Middlesbrough that supported the whole of Teesside and more recently worked with Secondary Care (TEWV) to help address the gap between Primary and Secondary Care.
Her aim is to improve the quality of the care people receive, bridging the divide between the NHS, Social Care and VCS, in line with the Community Mental Health Transformation, ensuring people receive the right support at the right time. Encouraging services to work together, to support discussions with partner organisations to help with joint working, ensuring that people receive a multi-agency approach if required.
Coming from a clinical background as a Psychological Therapist, alongside her management and leadership skills, she bring a wide and diverse skill set to embrace the challenges this role in Healthwatch brings.
Healthwatch South Tees (HWST) has the following legislative powers:
- To ‘Enter and View’ specific types of premises where care and services are provided.
- To ask for information and expect a response within a specific timescale.
- To make recommendations to service commissioners and providers and expect a response within a specific timescale.
- To refer matters to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) and expect a response.
- To alert the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to concerns about specific care providers.
Overarching objectives
HWST will:
- Fulfil its statutory duties and functions, holding providers and commissioners of health and care services to account.
- Operate as stated in The Health and Social Care Act 2012, embedded in local communities.
- Act as a local consumer champion, representing the collective voice of patients, service users, carers and the public through its statutory seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board and providing robust challenge and scrutiny in the interests of the citizens of South Tees.
- Exercise real influence on commissioners, providers, regulators and Healthwatch England, using its knowledge of what matters most to local people.
- Report concerns about the quality of local health and care services to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
- Provide information to patients and public who need to access health and care services promoting informed choice.
- Support individuals to get information and independent advocacy if they need help to complain about health and care services.
- Build on and utilise existing networks, knowledge, skills and services in support of local Healthwatch rather than duplicate what is already in place.
Past Board papers
We make the papers for our Board meetings available online. We also publish a summary of what was discussed. Check out our past meetings to read more. If you require documents from previous Board meetings, please contact us.
