Inside the role of an Associate Trustee
We catch up with Rebecca Kirk, our external voice on HR and employment matters
Making sure the right decisions are made is key to every single element of life at St Michael’s Hospice.
Rebecca Kirk is our go-to expert whenever we need external advice on HR and employment matters. She is an Associate Trustee; a voluntary, non-executive role supporting and advising our Board of Trustees on specific areas of governance.
“It’s very much an advisory role, where I bring my personal experience, expertise, knowledge and skills to the Board. It’s a role I love,” said Rebecca, who is a partner at HCR (Harrison Clark Rickerbys) Law and is based at the firm’s Hereford office, on Broad Street.
She has been an Associate Trustee for St Michael’s since 2022, but her connection to the Hospice stretches far longer.
“Ten years ago, when the new Inpatient Unit opened at St Michael’s, HCR raised the funds to furnish one of the IPU’s four-bed pods,” she said.
“This wasn’t long after I moved to Herefordshire and joined HCR, yet I remember being struck by how embedded in the community St Michael’s is. Having played a very small part in developing the IPU 10 years ago as part of HCR’s fundraising efforts, I am proud to be in a position to be able to use my professional skills and experience in order to continue to support the Board and St Michael’s more generally over a decade later.”
Rebecca, who sits on the People & Facilities Committee, is joined as an Associate Trustee by Catherine Davies (Clinical Governance & Care Committee); Diana Holloway (Income Generation, Marketing & Communications Committee); Gavin James (People & Facilities Committee), and Laura Goodrich (Clinical Governance & Care Committee).
“We don’t have the same responsibility as Trustees, in the sense that we’re not legally responsible for the decisions made by the Board, but we support the Board by offering guidance, experience and expertise.
“We sit on one or more of the Board Committees (in my case the People & Facilities Committee) and offer advice, guidance and expertise to the Committee and the Board as part of their decision-making processes. We also attend Board meetings and, in addition to providing support, we also challenge why decisions are being made, where we feel challenge might be necessary,” she added.
“I feel really proud to hold this role. St Michael’s just feels part of the people of Herefordshire. They are rightly proud of it and whenever I attend St Michael’s or talk about it, it is clear to me that St Michael’s remains as important to the community as it was when I first visited the IPU 10 years ago. It’s not often you can say that about an organisation.”