Mary is one of five Non-Executive Directors at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).
With a long and distinguished career in children and family welfare behind her, Mary has spent 40 years as a practitioner, academic and policy advocate.
Past experience
Previous roles have placed her at Barnardo’s, ChildLine, social services, Edinburgh and North London Universities and the National Family and Parenting Institute. She currently works as an independent consultant, evaluating family support services, and is a member of several boards.
Links to GOSH
At GOSH, Mary sits on the clinical governance committee as a Non-Executive Director:
“I have always been interested in the care of children in hospital and my own son was treated here as a baby. When I saw the vacancy advertised with a requirement for child welfare experience, I jumped at the chance and was lucky enough to be successful.
The right questions
"As Non-Executive Directors you have a responsibility to ask the right questions so that you can be sure that the hospital is doing the best possible clinical work and that patients are safe here. This means we can assure the board we have reviewed safety and clinical outcomes in depth and asked for improvements where they are needed.”
Mary is also the designated senior officer for whistleblowing, meaning GOSH staff can raise concerns with her as a last resort when other channels have failed.
Highlights
The highlights of her role are plentiful:
“Just being in this role at GOSH is a privilege. There are so many highlights – working with a brilliant team in one of the most wonderful hospitals in the world; but most of all hearing about the children who are helped.
“I feel so much pride in the care that the doctors, nurses, social workers and play and music therapists give to patients and families, and the work of the backroom staff who do so much to make that happen. I don’t think I have ever had a job with so many highlights.”
