Trish took the role of Chief Executive Officer on 1 November 2024 following the retirement of Prof Joe Rafferty CBE.
Trish had previously held Chief Nurse, Chief Operations Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Clinical Services roles at Mersey Care since her appointment in April 2018. She was previously Director of Integration with the Trust, a non-voting position on the Board.
Trish has worked in the NHS for over 30 years in various nursing leadership positions in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester in both provider and commissioning roles and joined Mersey Care from NHS England, where she was Director of Nursing for the Lancashire and Greater Manchester Sub Region.
She was responsible for professional nurse leadership, quality, assurance and clinical leadership in transformation service change programmes. Trish has a passion for ensuring that care is delivered to the highest quality and patients, service users and their families are at the centre of care.
Qualifications: RGN, BA Health Studies
Noir was appointed on 6 March 2020 and took up this post on 1 April 2020. Noir is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist. He obtained his primary medical degree from UWCM in 2000, membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) in 2005 and completed higher specialist training in 2009. He retains a clinical caseload at Ashworth Hospital, where he has been a practicing consultant since 2009. He is currently working towards completion of a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
He has held clinical and educational supervisor roles for core and senior trainees alongside undergraduate medical students. He remains an appointed member to the Board of Examiners for the RCPsych membership examinations.
Noir has held a number of leadership and management roles across the Trust since 2011. Most recently, as Associate Medical Director and Responsible Officer leading on medical appraisal, revalidation and professional standards. He is a trained case manager and investigator for the Revalidation Support team alongside PPAS. He has trained as a Caldicott Guardian. Since late 2019, Dr Thomas held the role of Interim Medical Director for Operations prior to being appointed Executive Medical Director.
Noir is a member of the Quality Committee and the Resources Committee.
Qualifications: MBBCh (UWCM, 2000), MRCPsych (2005), MSc (UCLan, 2011).
Amanda was appointed in August 2013, initially as a non-voting member of the Board, prior to her appointment in January 2015 as Executive Director of Workforce. She joined the NHS in 1998 from a private sector Graduate Trainee Scheme.
She has previous experience as HR Director at two other NHS trusts and as board director since 2008. Since joining Mersey Care she has transformed the way the Trust delivers its workforce function and has received endorsement from the highest levels in her profession, leading her team to win Organisational Development Team of the year in 2019. During the previous year, Amanda's team also won the Workforce Wellbeing Award, Best Learning and Development Award from the CIPD while Mersey Care won the National SPF Award for Partnership Working for the implementation of the Just and Learning Culture at the HPMA Awards. Amanda also won the HPMA Human Resources Director of the year in the same year and had previously, in 2016, led the team to win the CIPD Award for Best Improved HR capability at the HPMA awards.
Amanda has also supported a number of national publications on Just Culture and has worked in partnership with Northumbria University to develop and deliver an accredited transforming culture programme about Restorative Just Culture in action.
In 2020, Mersey Care won the Public category in the Business Culture Awards for the civility and respect campaign and won two further national awards in 2022 - for Diversity and Inclusion at the HFMA and Excellence In Organisational Development by HPMA. The Resorative Just Culture in Practice: Implementation and Evaluation (Dekker, S, Oates, A, and Rafferty, J) book was also published in 2022.
Amanda was awarded companion status by her professional body, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which is one of the highest levels of recognition within HR circles.
You can follow Amanda on Twitter: @amandajoyoate: Impls
Amanda is a member of the Charitable Funds Committee, People Committee and Quality Committee.
Qualifications: BA (hons), MSc Strategic HRD, C.C.I.P.D.
Rob Collins was appointed Executive Director of Finance in July 2022. He joined the NHS in 1999 and previously worked at Wirral and West Cheshire Community NHS Trust and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Chartered Institute for Management Accounts.
He has worked in various senior finance roles within trusts across the Cheshire and Merseyside region and took up the role of Deputy Director of Finance at the former Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust in 2013.
Rob played a key role in the successful improvement journey for services at Liverpool Community Health Trust, and transferred to Mersey Care in 2018 as part of the acquisition process where he has worked as Chief Finance Officer.
Rob is a member of the Charitable Funds Committee, Commissioning and Partnerships Committee and Resources Committee.
Qualifications, Chartered Accountant, Chartered Institute for Management Accounts.
Lee is a registered nurse with over 30 years experience in the NHS. A large part of this time was spent in clinical and senior clinical practice.
He has held a wide and varied operational portfolio in his career and has gained experience through academic positions, senior clinical roles and director positions at board level. Lee has worked in community physical health, learning disability and autism, secure mental health, children and young people and adult mental health services.
When Lee joined the Trust, he spent two years as Chief Operating Officer for Specialist Learning Disabilities Division, overseeing the acquisition of those services into Mersey Care and the improvements that led to an ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating.
In 2018, Lee was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Community Services Division, overseeing their transition into Mersey Care. He worked with his team to ensure strong clinical governance, improvements in approaches to patient safety, improvements in performance and worked towards better care coordination and integration of physical, mental health and social care services.
Lee became Director of Operations for the Trust in 2022 and led work to realign clinical divisions to support our patient pathways and strengthen clinical oversight. He is currently leading and implementing a programme of Clinical and Operational Excellence as part of the Trust's strategic goals.
He has a track record of leading significant quality improvement and is passionate about patient safety and supporting staff. Lee is part of several system level meetings ensuring system flow and improved patient safety and has chaired system meetings to ensure improvements in capacity and patient flow.
Lee was appointed Chief Delivery Officer in December 2024 and attends the Resources Committee.
Qualifications: DipHE (RMN), BA (Hons)
Jenny took up her post in May 2018 as Deputy Director of Nursing and Director of Infection, Prevention and Control. Prior to working at Mersey Care, Jenny was seconded from Aintree Foundation NHS Trust in April 2016 to her role as Deputy Director of Nursing at Liverpool Community Health.
She transferred into Mersey Care via secondment in May 2017 as Deputy Director of Nursing, before becoming Deputy Director of Nursing and Director of Infection, Prevention and Control a year later and led the Trust through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jenny has worked in the NHS for over 30 years in various nursing leadership positions across Liverpool and joined Mersey Care from Liverpool Community Health, where her role was to support the transaction process into Mersey Care. She has a passion for making sure that care is delivered to the highest quality and patients and their families are at the centre of care.
Jenny is a member of the People Committee and Quality Committee.
Qualifications: RGN, BA Hons Health Studies.