Governance Role and Responsibilities
Action in Mind is a charitable company limited by guarantee. In 1987 it was registered as a charity with the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator (OSCR) and as a company, limited by guarantee, with Companies House in 1994.
We revised and adopted our Memorandum and Articles of Association at the charity’s AGM on 23 September 2015.
For purposes of charity law, the directors of the Board are also charity trustees. They are elected each year and confirmed at the Annual General Meeting. Any trustee and director can stand for re-election. The Board may co-opt to vacancies during the year. The office-bearers (Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer) are elected by the Board.
The Board has overall responsibility for the strategic management of the charity.
A scheme of delegation is in place and day to day responsibility for the charity is carried out by the Senior Management Team.
The Board are responsible for ensuring that the company fulfills its charitable objectives as set out within the strategic plan and that services are delivered to the highest standards of care to people at risk of, experiencing or recovering from mental ill health.
Recruitment and Selection of Trustees and Directors
The Board is committed to ensuring that trustees and directors bring a complement of skills and experience to ensure good governance of the charity, recognising not only their strategic role and purpose but also their legal responsibilities. It is essential for the charity that Board members bring specific knowledge, skills and experience in areas of charity and company law, employment law, financial management and audit, fundraising and income generation, marketing and business development, including setting up trading companies or social enterprises.
We particularly welcome interest of individuals joining the board who have personal experience themselves of mental ill-health as we see this invaluable to keeping us grounded in working towards our charitable objectives.
Our Board of Directors and Trustees
ALISON RICHMOND-FERNS
Chair, Trustee and Director
BETH HAMILTON
Vice Chair
Beth had a long career in Management within the NHS for 42 years prior to retiring. She is an Associate of the Institute of Health Management and achieved an MBA midway through her career. This has covered a wide range of environments including acute hospital management, programme management, establishment of Regional Care Networks, leading mental Health services in Dundee, as well as a secondment to the Scottish Government as Advisor in Mental Health. She was actively involved in the work around integration of Health and Social Care, managing teams of health and social care staff during the pandemic across the city and surrounding areas of Dundee.
After retirement, Beth was appointed to the Board of NHS Tayside and ultimately held the post of Vice Chair. She was Chair of Dundee Integrated Joint Board and Vice Chair of Perth & Kinross Integrated Joint Board. During her four year tenure she was involved in all aspects of Governance and Chaired a range of Committees including Clinical Governance. This period has given her a range of practical and theoretical knowledge across the range of Governance issues.
She worked in the third sector as a Trustee of NHS Tayside Charitable Foundation, was a Chair Trained (Professional Development Award) member of the Children’s Hearing System Panels and, in addition to working with Action in Mind for the last ten years, is currently a volunteer with Victim Support Scotland (VSS).
Beth brings a range of skills covering management of organisations from the Operational, through Governance and delivery of services. She still feels her biggest strength is through the management of people and the genuine pleasure she has in establishing relationships and positive problem solving collaborative working with everyone she encounters – professionally and personally!
Beth has two grown up sons, a wonderful daughter-in-law and a newly formed perfect grandson who are making her proud on an ongoing basis. She has a long-standing love for dogs, currently has four, who are not only her companions but, as she says, her personal exercise coaches. She is passionate about animal welfare and rescues battery hens. Any free time she has is spent reading and the occasional painting when the creative mood takes her.
OLIVIA RICHMOND-FERNS
Trustee and Director
KATIE HESLOP
Trustee and Director
KIRSTY MCGRATH
Trustee and Director
Kirsty McGrath is a qualified solicitor with extensive public sector law experience. After a number of years working as a Reporter to the Children’s panel, she joined the Scottish Government legal directorate in 1999, just as the Scottish Parliament was being re established.
Kirsty worked on a number of ground breaking pieces of legislation including the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the Civil Partnerships Act 2004 and the implementation of the Adult Support and Protection Act 2007.
In 2013, Kirsty moved to work on policy around mental health and incapacity law and developed specialist knowledge in this area. She was the Secretary to the Independent Review of Mental Health and Incapacity Law from 2019 to 2022.
Following the conclusion of the review, Kirsty jointly led the Mental Health and Incapacity Law unit in the Scottish Government before taking early retirement at the end of 2024.
As a trustee of AiM, Kirsty is able to draw on her extensive experience of the law relating to mental health care and support and see it worked out in practice.
Kirsty is widowed and lives with her schnauzer/westie highland terrier cross , Hamish, who is vital for her mental health and wellbeing.
KENNY LAING
Trustee and Director
Kenny is an experienced transformation and customer operations leader with a strong track record in CRM delivery, contact centre optimisation and performance turnaround. Over a 30 year career across Scottish Water and related organisations, he has led major improvements in customer service, operational effectiveness and digital enablement—ranging from strategic CRM implementations to the creation and stabilisation of multi site contact centre operations.
Kenny’s early leadership achievements include transforming an underperforming Customer Service team into a consistently high performing operation, lifting customer service metrics and improving their first time resolution. Throughout this embedding a culture of coaching, accountability and measurable performance.
Kenny’s mission is to make customer experience simpler, smarter and more human—by helping organisations cut through complexity, empower their people and deliver outcomes that truly last.’’’’’
As a senior manager, he has delivered several organisation wide programmes: centralising contact centres, introducing common CRM platforms, establishing virtual multi site service operations, and shaping customer centred processes across billing, operations and service delivery. His work has repeatedly enabled organisations to achieve regulatory targets, strengthen customer satisfaction, and embed a customer first culture.
He brings a practical, operator led approach, simplifying complexity, de risking programmes and helping teams deliver sustainable, measurable improvements.
____________________________________________________________________
ALISON ROWLANDS
Trustee and Director
Our role extends to tackling mental health stigma, including self-stigma and discrimination, through local awareness raising and campaigning initiatives.
Our role extends to tackling mental health stigma, including self-stigma and discrimination, through local awareness raising and campaigning initiatives.
Our Befriending Team works with individuals in Stirlingshire who experience poor mental wellbeing and are socially isolated by giving them the opportunity to regularly meet with a volunteer befriender.
Our volunteer befrienders are locally recruited and offer their free time to the befriending service. They must be 18 years or over and fulfill all of the requirements outlined in our bespoke volunteer recruitment and training program. Throughout their time working with our clients, they are provided with ongoing support from the Service Manager.
Who can use the Befriending Service?
Adults over the age of 18 who are struggling with their mental health and do not live in supported accommodation can access our befriending service. As the service operates in the local community, individuals must be able to leave their home independently. They can be referred by any person working with them in a professional capacity.
What happens in Befriending?
Our service users can expect to be supported by a volunteer Befriender on a one-to-one basis to engage with activities within the local community. Befriending clients are supported to devise their own personal goal plan by identifying key outcomes that they wish to achieve as a result of befriending support. It is the role of Befrienders to help motivate the client to take progressive steps towards achieving these. Befriending support is available to people for 12 months.
Our Befriending Service is only funded to support people living in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
