GambleAware appoints four new trustees to board

The four new trustees, confirmed following an extensive recruitment process, will now join the GambleAware board

Baroness Armstrong is a Labour member of the House of Lords with extensive experience in non-executive leadership roles, including as a board member for Durham and Darlington Hospital Foundation Trust. 

Gibbs currently serves as policy director within Ofcom’s Networks and Communications group, which oversees Ofcom’s work in the postal sector and directs policy projects across Ofcom’s regulatory sectors. She will bring more than 20 years’ experience in operating at board level in both executive and non-executive roles. 

Haq is chief executive of Standard Life Foundation, which funds and commissions research, policy work and advocacy activities focused on improving living standards and addressing financial problems of low-to-middle income earners. 

Dr.Valsraj, is a consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, a senior clinical lecturer at Kings College London and is on the specialist register of the General Medical Council with dual accreditation in Psychiatry of Learning Disability and General Adult Psychiatry with specialty endorsement in Liaison Psychiatry.

“We are very pleased to announce the appointment of four new trustees, each of whom bring with them skills and experience which will help guide and support GambleAware as it works to deliver its new five-year strategy,” GambleAware’s chair of trustees Kate Lampard said.

“Our current board composition is strong on health and public health, but we recognised there was a clear need to increase the diversity of the board and extend the skill base of trustees. 

“With these new appointments, we look forward to building and expanding the board’s expertise that will support the charity in the years ahead.”

Other members of the GambleAware board include Saffron Cordery, director of policy and strategy and deputy chief executive for NHS Providers; Professor Sian Griffiths, past president of the UK Faculty of Public Health and non-executive director for Public Health Wales; Michelle Highman, chief executive of The Money Charity; Rachel Pearce, regional director of commissioning at NHS England South West; and Paul Simpson, chief finance officer and deputy chief executive, Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

Meanwhile, GambleAware has appointed the FutureGov agency to develop a new outcomes framework and service delivery model to inform the future National Gambling Treatment Service.

GambleAware said the new model will help ensure that the service is accessible, effective, desirable and evidence-based. The model will be produced in consultation with existing and potential providers, co-commissioners, and those with lived experience of gambling harms.

The appointment comes after GambleAware this week said awareness for the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS) continues to grow, following a series of recent campaigns by the organisation.

GambleAware in spring last year launched the NGTS awareness campaign, with four bursts of media targeting men and one for women. The project ran across newspapers, magazine, out-of-home advertising, radio and online, with the aim of reaching high-risk gamblers experiencing significant harms.

Major figures from the initiative included that by August 2021, 60% of high-risk gamblers reached through the campaign would contact NGTS as a first step if they had concerns about their gambling, up from 47% in May 2020.