County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust: Non-Executive Directors x 4

Closing Date: 9am Wednesday 10^th December 2025.

About the Organisation

County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust serves around 600,000 people living in County Durham and the surrounding areas. The Trust provides a comprehensive range of acute and community based services across two acute hospitals, community hospitals and numerous community bases. 

Recently they publicly reported failures in their Breast Surgery service resulting in physical and psychological harm to patients. An independent review, undertaken to identify missed opportunities and learn lessons, has exposed wider weaknesses in Board-level and floor-to-Board governance, in risk management and organisational culture. Consequently they are now working closely with NHS England and their health and care system, the North East and Cumbria ICB, to build the capacity and capability of their board, in order to address the challenges which the Trust faces.  Their senior leadership team is also undergoing some change with their new CEO, Steve Russell, having joined in September.  

With the extent of the task ahead now clearly defined, they are able to focus on tackling and rectifying the underlying challenges, so as to deliver care of the highest standards possible across their multiple hospital and community sites, as well as in patients’ homes.  They are one of the largest integrated care providers in England and they continue to play a pivotal role as a local partner and a system player, as well as being an anchor institution in their localities. 

About the roles

To help restore effective Board governance and confidence in the Trust’s services they are now seeking four proven, capable, and motivated Non-Executive Directors to work with their highly experienced newly-appointed Chair, Alison Marshall.  They are looking for candidates who are clinically qualified, or financially qualified, or those with experience of cultural change and organisational transformation.

The Trust is keen to ensure diversity both views and representation within the Board and will actively welcome applications from candidates from a wide range of backgrounds.

Please note you must live within the North East, North Cumbria, Hambleton or Richmondshire to be eligible for these roles. 

For more information

For more details of these roles, visit https://www.gatenbysanderson.com/job-search/

For a confidential conversation with GatenbySanderson, please email will.mcalpine@gatenbysanderson.com regarding the finance and culture roles, and eleanor.lawrence@gatenbysanderson.com regarding the clinical role. 

Robin Staveley (via robin.staveley@gatenbysanderson.com) and Emily Smith (via Emily.smith@gatenbysanderson.com) are also available to discuss all roles. 

Timetable

Closing date for applications: 9am Wednesday 10^th December 2025.

Stakeholder session and interviews: either Thursday 18^th December or Friday 19^th December.

Other information

Remuneration: £15,015 per annum.

The total time commitment: Averages approximately 4 days per month, although initially a commitment of 5 to 6 days will be required.