Our Board
Bill Ions –
President
Bill is a highly respected chartered accountant who has held senior positions within blue chip organisations up to and including chief executive level here in the North East and was a leading member of the National Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Eventually owning and managing a couple of engineering businesses here in the North East Bill became a well known and respected Businessman in the North East and Nationally.
“Since early retirement in 1998 I have been involved with a number of Charities dedicated to improving the quality of life for others, especially older people, in the North East.
I was Chairman of “Years Ahead” (the former regional forum on ageing) and, together with a number of our current Officers, was involved in closing it down and restarting as the “North East Forum on Ageing” (NEFA) which is now run entirely by volunteers. In 2020 I was elected as President of NEFA.
I have been a director and treasurer of the Elders Council in Newcastle where I was regularly involved with City Council members and officers in social services, transport and the city treasurer. This gave me an excellent understanding of the problems facing older people in health, housing, social and economic needs, lifetime learning and community
I now specialise in Transport and I am the Coordinator of the Transport Working Group of the Elders Council of Newcastle, Vice Chair of the Tyne and Wear Public Transport Users Group and a Member of the Newcastle City Council Transport Forum.
I have been a Governor of the Newcastle Hospitals Trust and I am now a registered Volunteer with the Trust, particularly concerned with improving the Quality of Patient Experience.”
Sue Taylor –
Chairperson
I have worked at executive level in the voluntary sector for over thirty years, and in 2019 retired after 20 years as Chief Executive Officer of Sight Service, the leading voluntary sector service provider for visually impaired people in the north east of England. I recently retired as Chair of Healthwatch South Tyneside, and I am now on the Board of Healthwatch Northumberland (where I live).
For all of my professional life I have championed the needs of visually impaired people, working at local regional and national level, and now is continuing this through my work with Lions Clubs International where I am regional and national lead for Vision/Sight.
My hobbies include travel, classical music, the countryside and gardening.
Valerie Johnston –
Treasurer
I am a retired Civil Servant with wide-ranging experience in the Departments of Employment; Education and Skills; Children, Schools and Families, latterly Education, Tyneside Training and Enterprise Council and ACAS. I have long experience in management roles with teams ranging in size from 7 to 45 staff; including experience in and Training and Development roles; in Contract Management, Procurement, buildings and project management, and a range of outward facing representational roles.
I am an experienced school governor, currently a Director of a Primary School, and Governor of another. I am also experienced in the Charity and Voluntary sector being a Trustee for Age Concern /UK for 25 years and I am currently a Trustee of Tees Valley Rural Action, a Trustee of the North East Pensioners Association and a Director of Healthwatch Darlington.
My qualifications include:
CIPD Certificate in Training, NCFE Certificate in Counselling Skills, ITD Diploma in Training Management, IPM Diploma in Personnel Management, MA Strategic Human Resource Management, ISO 9001/2 Lead Assessor.
Norman Jemison –
Board Member
I am a retired Further Education College Lecturer, having previously served my apprenticeship as a welder at Swan Hunter Shipbuilders. Throughout my working life I was an active Trade Unionist, being National President of the College Lecturers Union – then NATFHE, now UCU in 1998-99.
Since retirement I have been an active member of many older people’s organisations. I started a Retired Members Organisation in UCU and I Chair the Northern Region Branch. I represent the branch on:
– the North East Pensioners Association (NEPA) of which I am a former Chair;
– the Northern Region of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) of which I am currently Chair;
– Northern TUC – Pensions Advisory Group (NTUC-PAG) who elected me to represent them on Years Ahead and now NEFA.
I am one of the group of people who resurrected NEFA from Years Ahead and I am currently Vice-Chair.
Nationally I represent UCU on:
– the TUC Pensioners Committee;
– the National Pensioners Convention, of which I am currently a Vice-President.
Arthur McKean –
Board Member
I care passionately about listening to the voices of older people. I’m very much a people person and enjoy making a difference and helping to bring about positive change for those groups and individuals that we represent. I am also currently the Interim Chair for HealthWatch South Tyneside and have been involved in many pieces of work; Path to Excellence surveys for NHS, Enter and Views in residential homes and work around the Northumbria Ambulance service regarding patient transport. I am the representive for the HealthWatch Team when we’re working from South Tyneside Hospital. I was a volunteer for WEA for 4 years where I supported students, including those with Learning Disabilities, in the class room in subjects such as Photography, Numeracy and Literacy. I have also been employed as a Health care worker for the part 32years; 20yrs within nursing homes looking after the elderly in Dementia care and 12 years within domiciliary care. I am currently semi-retired and now enjoy working part-time.
My hobbies include swimming, travel, model trains and watching Action Adventure films.
Simon Luddington –
Co-opt Board Member – Search
I have been involved with the North East Forum on Aging for a few months now representing Search where I am employed as their Chief Officer. I believe that in the role of Trustee I can bring a wealth of experience from my job history in voluntary and community sector, my knowledge and learning from the various networks and boards on which I currently sit. I am passionate about getting the voice of older people heard and ensuring they can influence things which affect their lives.
As part of my role at Search I am a Voluntary and Community Sector Representative on the Newcastle Safeguarding Adults Board, their Improving Practice Committee, and the Voluntary Sector Liaison Group with Collaborative Newcastle. I am part of a number of other networks in the city such as Age Friendly Cities, Community Organisations Benwell and Scotswood, Patient Provider Engagement Forum, Collaborative Newcastle Dementia Partnership and subgroups of this network. In these forums I represent the voice of the older people Search works with as well as the wider voluntary and community sector across the city.
Lynne Shaw –
Board Member
I have enjoyed been involved with North East Forum of Ageing for the past 6 months , representing the regional ICS Ageing Well Network as a Strategic Workforce Development Lead. Since first registering as a nurse over 34 years ago, I have spent most of my career specialising in the care of older people. I have held a number of roles, spanning a range of acute and community-based settings, including Primary Care and Care Homes so have a good understanding of the experiences of older people, particularly when navigating health and social care both professionally, and personally through family experiences. As an older person’s nurse fellow and a master’s graduate with a focus on practice development, improving and enhancing the outcomes and experience of older people is my passion and I am confident that as a trustee for NEFA, I will be able to use this to represent the voice of older people, particularly those living with frailty and complexity.
Daphne Franks –
Board Member
Daphne taught Communication Skills and other non-clinical topics at Leeds Medical School for many years and still works nationally as a freelance Communication Skills teacher to this day. She elected to join NEFA in order to help older people in the North East area in order to help give them a voice. Daphne and her husband, Stephen moved to Newcastle in July 2023 and are loving exploring the area and meeting new people!
Daphne was unable to prevent her mother, Joan Blass, from suffering a predatory marriage in 2015. She and Stephen raised their fears about the perpetrator with the Police, Social Services, the NHS and a solicitor but no action was able to be taken. She has since been campaigning to change the laws and procedures around marriage to prevent such events happening to others and has found huge overlap with other kind of abuse of the elderly such as grooming, gaslighting, coercive control. Daphne has given over two hundred talks about the issues nationally and the campaign has made significant progress.
If you, or your family should have need of help or information, please click on the link below;
Enhanced Care for Older People: ‘A Story of Predatory Marriage’ – North East Forum on Ageing (nefa.org.uk)
Richard Rook –
Vice President
I am a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. I spent 45 years in public transport, latterly as a Tyne & Wear Transport Co-ordinator for Nexus.
Since retirement I now use my expertise in a number of roles with voluntary and community groups. I am the General Secretary of the Tyne & Wear Public Transport Users Group, for which I organise their Annual Conference. I am also a standing member of the Newcastle City Council’s Transport Forum. I am the note taker for the Newcastle Elders Council and its committees. I am involved in Neighbourhood Planning and a School Governor. I am a founder member of the North East Forum on Ageing.
Violet Rook –
Vice President
I was a nurse and then a midwife, working in Northumberland, Durham, North and South Tyneside. I have also taught healthcare in Community colleges, after gaining an Open University degree and a PG. Cert in Education and Development (Masters level) and I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.
I am a Trustee of Newcastle Elders Council, and the membership secretary of the North East Forum on Ageing. I have a lot of experience and knowledge of the needs and aspirations of older people in the North East and the need for more resources and information in regard to many communities, and I am a Governor in education and on a Foundation Health Trust.