Liz Jones has been Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2018. Semi-retired in 2013, Liz worked as a senior manager in Local Authorities and for the Audit Commission.
Serving the people of Bradford, Harrogate, Selby and Craven Districts
Serving the people of Bradford, Harrogate, Selby and Craven Districts
We are always on the lookout for skilled and committed people to join our board.
If you are interested, please email Jen Foster, Executive Assistant (jfoster@carersresource.org) and briefly outline your skills, experience and knowledge and why you would like to be a trustee of Carers’ Resource.
For more information, please see the sections below: “How to Become a Trustee” and “What does a Trustee do?”
Our current Trustees are listed below. Please also note our Register of Members’ Interests.
Liz Jones has been Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2018. Semi-retired in 2013, Liz worked as a senior manager in Local Authorities and for the Audit Commission.
Following University Liz spent two years in The Gambia, West Africa as a teacher with VSO. Returning to the UK she started training as a Chartered Accountant before leaving to do her postgrad teacher training.
She had various roles in teaching and the education services; her final education role was as Assistant Director of Education in York.
Lizjoined the Audit Commission in the early 2000s as part of the new Best Value regime which had a focus on Council services and how they could deliver the best services to local people. Her final role was back in a council as Deputy Chief Executive with responsibility for all support services in the council, such as finance, IT, legal, customer services, human resources and communications.
Following retirement Liz did some consultancy in councils and health services. She enjoys walking, golf and travelling and time in the garden. She also dabbles in making jewellery and cooking.
John Hayward is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors with over 20 years experience in commercial and residential property estate management. His current employment is with Government Property Agency, an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, as an Asset Manager.
In this role he provides strategic asset management for the Government occupied office portfolio across the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
He is a former board member for the RICS Yorkshire and Humber Regional Board and an RICS APC Assessor for graduates entering the surveying profession.
John follows Leeds United FC and regularly attends home matches with his adult son. He also has a keen interest in climate change with net zero goals and sustainability forming a significant part of his job role. He is also a member of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Damian’s principal career was in local government in Essex, London and Merseyside, and finally as Director of Corporate Services for Copeland Borough Council in Cumbria.
After early retirement, he was Clerk to a large Parish Council in Warrington, managing assets of some £2m, and a trainer/consultant, including assignments in public sector governance and financial management in Azerbaijan.
Developing his love of music and singing enabled him to teach singing too for a number of years.
Damian was a trustee of ArtServe, an organisation dedicated to creativity in church settings, and has been for some years a lay preacher, as well as undertaking several volunteer trips to Kenya to work with churches, children and families there. On his wife Pat’s retirement, from her careers as a doctor and then as a priest, a return to his native Yorkshire gave more opportunity to get involved in the voluntary sector and to continue singing, including musical theatre.
Simon has had a wide-ranging career across multiple industries, with the last 20 years being focused on health & social care. Most recently, Simon was the CEO and now Non-Executive Director of Optima Health Group Limited – the UK’s largest specialist occupational health & wellbeing organisation.
Prior to this, Simon led Tunstall Healthcare UK Ltd – enabling people with complex health and care needs to remain living safely in their own homes supported by technology. He was also a Commissioner for the Government’s Commission on Residential Care.
Simon’s focus on caring comes from his own experience in supporting his parents (with help from Carers’ Resource) – both of whom have suffered with Parkinson’s Disease and vascular dementia – as well as his professional experience in leading a UK-wide domiciliary and complex homecare provider.
Simon lives with his wife in the Harrogate area and works hard at keeping fit through running and cycling in particular.
Garry Luxford has worked in many different industries including financial services, utilities, and insurance leading large teams and accountable for large budgets. He specialises in transformation and ensuring organisations are customer focused and up to date with relevant technology appropriate for the business.
Garry is chair of a charity in London that focuses on children, young people and families with a weekly food hub serving the local community. He also does pro bono work for an animal charity and an environmental non-for-profit organisation.
Garry is a keen hill walker and spends spare time climbing peaks and mountains. He is passionate about the environment and supports animal welfare and enjoys football and most sports.
Cathy is a people focused Allied Health Professional leader in the NHS, currently working as the Chief AHP in Bradford District Care Foundation Trust – a mental health and community trust for people across Bradford District and Craven.
Having worked in the NHS for many years, Cathy has built up extensive experience of healthcare services, especially in the field of mental health. Cathy’s passions within her role are around working together, co-production and collaboration to improve services and ensure everyone has a voice in how care can be delivered.
Cathy really values learning from others, listening to individual stories and learning from the different perspectives people bring. Having spent many years as a carer for her previous partner, supporting him with his mental ill health, Cathy is really committed to ensuring carers have the right support for them to care and they are at the heart of decision making with their loved ones.
Personally, Cathy enjoys time with family and friends, being outdoors, walking the hills of the Yorkshire Dales with her husband Steve and dog Frank and cruising the Leeds Liverpool Canal on their narrow boat Starry Nights.
Becky is an experienced CIMA and MBA qualified finance leader whose career started in the energy industry focusing on commercial finance and business partnering for effective financial decision making and management.
For the last 5 years she has been running her own Finance Consultancy supporting a number of large-scale organisations across multiple industries with transformation, financial control and system efficiency and improvement.
Becky joined as a trustee in August 2024 as she wanted to bring her skillset and her lived experience as a young carer together to add value to Carer’s Resource through both lenses.
Becky lives with her partner and four cats and in her spare time enjoys mountain biking, hiking, collecting vinyl records and playing for a grassroots local women’s football club. She also volunteers as an out-of-hours blood and medical sample transport driver.
If you have an interest in our work and think you can make a contribution, we are keen to hear from you. We particularly want to encourage younger people, people with disabilities and members of diverse ethnic minority communities to apply.
We consider all applications as soon as we receive them. If we think candidates would add to the trustees’ diverse range of skills and experience, we invite them to an informal meeting with a small group of existing trustees.
If you wish to register an interest in becoming a trustee, please write to Jen Foster, Executive Assistant (jfoster@carersresource.org) and briefly outline your skills, experience and knowledge and why you would like to be a trustee of Carers’ Resource. You can also send a CV, but this is not essential. You might be put on a reserve list until a suitable vacancy occurs, otherwise, the full board will reach a decision at their next meeting.
If you are appointed as a trustee, we will carry out a Disclosure and Barring Service check (previously known as a Criminal Records Bureau check).
If you would like to find out more before you apply, we would be happy to have a chat with you and answer any questions you may have. Please contact our CEO Heidi Watson by email: hwatson@carersresource.org
You can also download the Trustee Role Guide below.
Our trustees are responsible for the governance of Carers’ Resource. They shape our plans, agree budgets, provide advice and support to the Chief Executive Officer and monitor our work throughout the year.
Trustee meetings last around two to three hours every other month, commencing at 4pm on Thursdays. There will be some time required for reading agendas and reports, thinking and preparing for meetings.
Some items are discussed at every meeting: we always have a finance report, for example, and a comprehensive progress update. In addition, we look in-depth at specific issues and hear about the services provided by our hard-working staff and volunteers.
We expect trustees to come to the Annual General Meeting and at least one planning half day each year. Some trustees also join one of our committees – currently, we have a Finance and General Purposes Committee and a Governance Board, which has special responsibility for care services provided by Care@Carers’Resource.
There is currently no fixed term of office as a Trustee. One third of Trustees are required to resign each year, but they are eligible for re-appointment. The position is unpaid, though we do offer travel expenses to attend meetings.
The following are the interests declared by current members of the Board of Trustees.
