Claire Lea has 13 years of NHS experience during which she has worked across a wide number of NHS providers including mental health services, acute, and community services. She is a qualified Chartered Secretary with the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) and has a degree in Law (LLB-Lancaster). Her experience includes being the company secretary at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which she joined after having advised on the merger with Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust. Prior to that, she was a Company Secretary in the pensions and merchant banking sector.
As a freelance governance specialist Claire has worked with a wide number of trusts, particularly those under intense governance scrutiny by Monitor or the NTDA. Claire is currently the Examiner for the Health Service Governance module for the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and is the author of the industry technical handbook The ICSA Health Service Governance Handbook. She joined GGI as an associate working with boards and governance teams in 2014 and has been an Associate of NHS Providers developing and delivering Governwell, the national training programme for FT governors since its inception in 2012. She also delivers her own bespoke training events for governors and boards of aspirant and foundation trusts.
She is particularly interested in how the behaviour and culture of boards and their organisations impact on the effectiveness of their governance arrangements. She is presently chair of the audit committee and non-executive director of George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust.