Health & Wellbeing Committee
The VSS Board has established a Health & Wellbeing Committee as a Committee of the Board to support them in their responsibilities in relation to clinical governance, risk management, staff health and wellbeing, and in ensuring best practice and evidence based service delivery.
The Health & Wellbeing Committee meets four times a year. The Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Committee may convene additional meetings, as they deem necessary. The Health & Wellbeing Committee will also review its own effectiveness annually and report the results of that review to the Board.
In This Section

Dame Sandra Horley
Health and Wellbeing Committee Member
Dame Sandra Horley was appointed to the VSS Board in October 2022. Born and raised in Canada, Sandra was educated at McGill University, Montreal, and Birmingham and Oxford Universities in the UK. Over four decades Sandra worked in the field of homelessness and domestic abuse in the UK. For 38 years she was Chief Executive of Refuge, the national charity, supporting 7,000 victims and survivors each day. Sandra grew a single shelter for abused women and children into the UK’s pre-eminent provider of support services for victims and survivors of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, stalking, forced marriage, ‘honour-based violence’, modern slavery and human trafficking. She used her position at Refuge as a platform to advocate for change, and worked closely with the police, the legal profession, and government, both in the UK and overseas, to deliver legal, institutional, and attitudinal reform. Previously, Sandra worked as director of the Haven Project in Wolverhampton supporting homeless women and children. She has been a homelessness officer in Shropshire and a housing advice worker for a local authority in London. Sandra is currently a board member of Bromford Housing Association providing social housing for 100,000 people. She chairs its Customers and Communities Influence Network, giving customers a say in the design and delivery of services. In 2021, Sandra was conferred a Damehood for her contribution to the protection of women and children and promoting greater understanding and awareness of domestic abuse.

Patricia Haren
Health and Wellbeing Committee Member
Patricia was appointed to the VSS Board on 1 April 2015. She has over 14 years’ experience in Senior Management positions in the Voluntary Sector, including as Director of the Bytes Project (2000 to 2004) and as Director of the Women’s Support Network (October 2004 to January 2014).
Minutes of Health and Wellbeing Committee Meetings 2021 | ||
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23rd February 2021 | Remote via Zoom | Download Document |
4th May 2021 | Remote via Zoom | Download Document |
7th September 2021 | Remote via Zoom | Download Document |
9th November 2021 | Remote via Zoom | Download Document |