Our Board

Our Board includes non-executives, executive directors and partners members from councils and the NHS. 

Other directors of partner representatives attend on a regular basis but are not voting members.

The role of the Board is to make sure NHS Kent and Medway has plans and processes in place to exercise its functions effectively, efficiently, economically and in accordance with principles of good governance and the constitution.

Each ICB has members of the board with specific responsibilities for certain population groups and functions. 

The roles with specific responsibilities for NHS Kent and Medway are:

  • Children and young people (aged 0 to 25) - Chief Nurse
  • Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - Chief Nurse
  • Safeguarding (all-age), including looked after children - Chief Nurse
  • Learning disability and autism (all-age) - Chief Delivery Officer
  • Down syndrome (all-age) - Chief Nurse
  • Mental Health - Chief Delivery Officer

Chair

Cedi is the Chair of NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board.

He has held a number of NHS appointments as part of a 30-year career as a non-executive director in various organisations. He has been chair of North Middlesex NHS Trust, a non-executive director at Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust.

Other non-executive roles include various housing associations, St Johns Ambulance, as a governor (2009-2017) at Canterbury Christ Church University, national and international charities, and a board member of Basketball England.

His 40-year professional career includes senior management roles in local authority housing, plus 25 years at chief executive level in the housing association and social care sectors, including a Kent-based social care provider.

In 2019, Cedi was invited to chair the London Vaccine Legacy and Health Inequalities Board. In 2020, Cedi was asked to co-chair a national BAME advisory committee for the social care sector which reports into ministers and he is also co-chair of the Social Care Workforce and Race Equality Standards Committee. 

Non Executive Director

Liz is an experienced chair and non-executive director and is the Audit Committee Chair for NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board.

Her current portfolio includes board member of the Regulator of Social Housing and Connect Health Ltd, trustee and chair of Audit of the Royal British Legion and independent member of the General Dental Council’s Governance, Risk and Assurance Committee.

Among other roles, Liz was previously chair of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Bromley Primary Care Trust and Queen Mary’s Sidcup NHS Trust; chair of the audit committees of the Royal College of Nursing and the Electoral Commission and a member of the audit committee of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. 

Liz is a founder member of the University of Exeter alumnae group, supporting female graduates through their professional careers. She has mentored several BAME managers on the NHS Next Director programme and regularly coaches and mentors aspiring non-executive directors.

Non-executive director

Gurvinder is chief executive of Kent Equality Cohesion Council and has worked in the in the voluntary sector in Kent since 1999. He established Cohesion Plus in 2008 and is currently its Artistic Director.

Gurvinder has worked extensively across Kent in partnership with community, faith and statutory sectors to promote community cohesion, engagement with diverse communities and to eliminate discrimination. He has worked extensively with Kent Police for over 20 years including roles as Chair of the County Independent Police Advisory Group and an independent member for the Police and Crime Panel.

Gurvinder also sits on a number boards at county level including the Youth Justice Board, Prevent Delivery Board and the Cultural Transformation Board. 

Partner member - Kent County Council 

David has been director of strategy and policy at Kent County Council (KCC) since 2015, having joined the organisation in 2008. He has extensive experience in policy, strategy, planning and partnership working across local public services and previously worked at Westminster City Council, the Greater London Authority and Kent Police Authority. 

Alongside his director responsibilities at KCC, he is also a non-executive director at the Commercial Services Group, a KCC trading company.

Primary care partner member

Peter Harrison is a non-executive director for NHS Kent and Medway and chair of our Productivity and Investment Committee. 

Peter is the former managing director of Siemens' Healthcare business in UK and Irelend, a role he held from 2012 through to 2022. 

He is a former chair of the Association of Healthcare Technology Providers for Imaging, Radiotherapy and Care, having served terms in 2007/8 and 2017/8. He is a trustee of Orthopaedic Research UK, previously served as a trustee of the British Institure of Radiology for six years, and was appointed as a fellow in 2019. 

He has served as a non-executive board member of an NHS mental health foundation trust.   

Paul Bentley

Chief Executive

Paul is the Inaugural Chief Executive of the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board.

Named as one of the top 50 NHS chief executives in the country by the Health Service Journal in 2021, Paul was previously the Chief Executive of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust from March 2016 to January 2022, which he led to being rated outstanding by the CQC in 2019; he also led the trust throughout the global pandemic when KCHFT was the major partner in the Covid Vaccination Programme.

Paul’s NHS career started in 1987, working in London teaching hospitals before being appointed to his first main board role in 1998; he carried out his post graduate studies in the USA. Prior to joining KCHFT, Paul was Director of Workforce and Communications at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Paul says leading the ICB in Kent and Medway is a way to secure the very best care and healthcare and to provide more effective long term well-being for the people of Kent and Medway.

Chief Finance Officer

Ivor was previously Chief Finance Officer at NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group.

He has extensive experience of the NHS in Kent and Medway having joined East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust in 1999. Since then he has worked at the local primary care trust and clinical commissioning groups. He also has worked at NHS England as Director of Assurance and Delivery for Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

In his spare time he is a governor of a primary school, coaches junior rugby and enjoys walking and days out with his family. 

Dame Eillen Sills

Non-Executive Director

Angela has a longstanding career in health and social care spanning national policy, regulation and operational delivery.  

She has extensive experience at chief executive-level, most recently at Camden and Islington Foundation Trust. Angela has a particular interest in developing positive and inclusive culture in organisations and in strategic leadership and she is a qualified executive coach.

Angela will chair the ICB’s remuneration and people committee.

She has been chief executive at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust and has worked as Director of Public Health, Delivery and Performance, at the Department of Health. Angela also led the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for five years.

Angela was a long-standing member of the Council for the University of Kent and has chaired the Kent and Medway Medical School Partnership Board since its inception.

Partner member  Medway Council

Lee-Anne, a qualified social worker, became director of people for Medway Council in 2021 after serving as Medway’s assistant director of children’s social care.

She previously worked in Kent, Luton and Swindon and has a PhD in leadership in children’s services. She believes working with children, young people and families is at the heart of children’s services.

Lee-Anne wants to foster a sense of pride in being a good social worker right across the care sector.

Primary care partner member

Suzie has worked as an NHS doctor for 20 years; she qualified as a GP in 2006 and has been working in east Kent for the past 10 years. She joined The Grange Medical Practice in Ramsgate in 2014. Suzie has experience working across the range of GP roles (partner, salaried, locum and GP in a minor injuries unit). 
 
Suzie also has more than 20 years’ experience giving leadership to a Romanian social care organisation. She is passionate about tackling health inequalities and improving the experience of healthcare and its outcomes for the population of Kent and Medway.  
 
As a GP partner member on the ICB Board, Suzie hopes to improve access to healthcare for vulnerable patient groups while improving the overall quality of healthcare for everyone.  

Image of Pauline Smith. Blonde women in an orange top

Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE) member.

Dr Kate Langford

Chief Medical Officer

Before joining NHS Kent and Medway, Kate was Medical Director Systems Improvement and Professional Standards for the SE region of NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI).

Kate is an obstetrician by background and trained in hospitals in Kent and London before becoming a consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust 2001. She has extensive leadership experience in the acute sector having been a responsible officer and medical director at King’s College Hospital London.

Kate is experienced in working with systems through roles such as medical director of the GSTT Healthcare Alliance, clinical chair of the Local Maternity System in south east London and CCG governing body member in north east London. Kate has held a number of national roles including medical director for the Centre for Workforce Intelligence and national clinical lead with NHS Improvement.

Kate has been working with the system in Kent and Medway as part of her NHSEI role. 

Chief Delivery Officer

Non-Executive Director

A consultant physician in East Sussex, Hugh is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, The European Society of Cardiology and the Royal Society of Arts.

He has 25 years of clinical management experience both in the acute sector, and more recently, as a member for the Governing Body of the West Sussex CCG and the Sussex ICS transition programme. He has contributed widely to the development of evidence-based guidance and leads the development of regional and national quality improvement initiatives. 

Previously a member for the South East England Clinical Senate Cabinet, Hugh chaired a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standards Committee for nine years and is the recent clinical adviser to the NICE Board.

Hugh is a published speaker, journal, academic and clinical service reviewer, with a developing interest in innovation in medicine, philosophy and medical ethics.

Sheila Stenson

Partner member  community and mental health services

Sheila became Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust Chief Executive in November 2023, having previously been the trust’s chief financial officer.

She is an experienced senior finance professional and chartered management account who has fulfilled a variety of roles during her NHS career, which spans more than 20 years.

Sheila has a track record of working within financially challenged trusts and has led and been part of significant change in her NHS career, which includes service redesign, transformation, successful restructuring, and developing financial processes and controls.

Acute hospital partner

Jonathan Wade is chief executive at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust.

Jonathan has a wealth of knowledge of acute hospitals having worked at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust for the past three years, first as chief operating officer before being appointed to chief executive in August 2022. Before this, he was chief operating officer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn.

As an acute hospital partner member, Jonathan hopes to represent the acute sector of the integrated care system in a fair and transparent way, while making sure the acute sector perspective is heard in NHS Kent and Medway discussions.

Jonathan also recognises the need to transform services across Kent and Medway to make sure of equity and fairness for all groups and he is committed to achieving this.

Paul Lumsdon

Paul joined NHS Kent and Medway as chief nurse having been interim chief nurse at NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board.

He has nearly 40 years of clinical and managerial experience in the NHS, 25 years of which have been at director level, either as director of nursing or director of operations working in various settings, including mental health, community services, and general acute organisations.

Paul’s portfolio includes quality, safety and experience, infection prevention and control, vaccinations, safeguarding, maternity and neonatal care and women’s health, as well as continuing healthcare.

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