Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust appoints New Chair

Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust appoints a new Chair, Baroness Fritchie, DBE, known as Rennie Fritchie. She was educated at Ribston Hall Grammar School for Girls in Gloucester, and has had a long career specialising in training and development. Rennie holds various positions, including President of the Pennell Initiative for Women’s Health in Later Life. In addition Rennie has had wide ranging experience in the NHS being a former Chair of the Gloucester Health Authority and of the South and West Regional NHS Executive, she has also served on the NHS Policy Board.

In the 1970s, she was one of the first full-time women’s training advisers and pioneered the training of staff in the then new Equal Opportunities Commission. She has published extensively on these topics and contributes regularly on them to programmes on television and radio.

She holds an honorary Professorship in Creative Leadership at York University, is a former Pro-Chancellor at Southampton University and currently Vice-Chair of the Stroud and Swindon Building Society. Active in a number of charities, Rennie Fritchie has been awarded honorary degrees by a number of academic institutions. Rennie Fritchie became a Dame in 1996. In 2005 she was made a life peer as Baroness Fritchie, of Gloucester in the County of Gloucestershire, and she sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

The announcement of Rennie Fritchie’s appointment as Chair comes as the Trust embarks on the next stage of its journey after becoming an NHS Foundation Trust. A Foundation Trust gives local people more say over the future development of the services it is responsible for.

Rennie said, “'I’m proud to succeed Robert Maxwell, a man who has made an outstanding contribution to the Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and I am delighted to be joining a dedicated, professional and ambitious team at the Trust. As a Foundation Trust we are able to offer patients and carers more choices in the services they receive, and will also have more opportunities to develop services and make improvements. I look forward to meeting staff and patients over the coming months and to hearing their views. I am also looking forward to working with the Board to deliver the best services for the people of Gloucestershire".

Trust Chief Executive Shaun Clee said, “Rennie joins the Trust at a particularly exciting time after our successful application to become a Foundation Trust. Rennie will bring a wealth of knowledge to our management team along with a strong desire of empowering local people to influence the development of mental health services and of working in partnership with other organisations, both of which will be critical to our effectiveness in the future. Rennie is also deeply committed to driving the development of mental health, substance misuse and learning disability services and will be a real asset to the Trust Board

Shaun Clee, Chief Executive also commented “I would like to thank Robert Maxwell for his unstinting commitment during his period as Chair. In particular for his leadership during the process to gain Foundation status for the Trust. This achievement was the result of months of hard work by everyone at the Trust but certainly could not have been done without the commitment, support and leadership shown by Robert. In recent years we have seen major changes in the provision of mental health services and Robert brought great skill and expertise to tackling issues for service users and staff. He has distinguished himself as a fine public servant and I wish him continued success and happiness in the future.”