A fond farewell to Emma Whitby, our outgoing chief executive
Goodbye and thanks for everything
Emma Whitby (right) cutting the cake presented to her by Majida Sayam of Jannaty Women's Social Society at her leaving party earlier this week.
This week we said goodbye to Emma, who has been the chief executive of Healthwatch Islington since our launch in 2013. She has left to take up a post at the Integrated Care Board.
Emma has been an inspirational colleague. Here are just a few of her achievements during her time with us:
- Raising over £750,000 for our Diverse Communities Health Voice partners, despite having no fundraising experience when she started the job
- Establishing our digital support service. It was incredibly sad we had to close this, but our volunteers helped so many people and we developed our own knowledge too.
- Our work throughout the pandemic to get information to people about the virus and the vaccine
- Inputting into an award-winning local model for young people’s social and emotional health
- Ensuring the service-user voice was at the heart of a very difficult re-procurement of mental health services back in 2018 that protected a specialist service for LGBTQI+ residents
- Influencing the pathway for people with ADHD so they could access peer support whilst waiting for their care
- Winning national awards for our volunteering. We’ve won several times over the years including for our digital team.
Emma, your departure is bittersweet for us. While we are sad to see you go, we are excited for you and the challenges that await you. On behalf of the staff, the board, the residents of Islington, and all our stakeholders, thank you for 11 remarkable years.
