Trudy Ward
SAPHNA Committee member
Trudy Ward MSc; RNChild; RNAdult; Queens Nurse
Trudy was appointed to the CHI Board of Directors in February 2024. Trudy has been actively involved in CHI for a number of years, contributing to the European family conferences. Trudy joins the Board as a parent of two daughters, one of whom lives with congenital hyperinsulinism and who is now 25 years old. Trudy also has a nursing and healthcare policy development; service operations, transformation and quality assurance background from a UK perspective.
Trudy worked in the British National Health Service for 39 years, in a range of health care settings such as hospitals, clinics, residential units, schools, hospices and patient homes in London, Suffolk and Sussex. She has worked in adult, children’s, and neonatal intensive care units; acute paediatric neuroscience wards; specialist children’s rehabilitation centres, palliative care and children’s community services. Trudy also worked for 9 years in a joint appointment NHS/ HEI initiative as a Senior Lecturer/Practitioner/Educator.
Trudy’s career as a nurse, educator, strategic and operational leader has spanned primary, community, secondary and tertiary health provider services, as well as strategic regional and national formal networks and commissioning bodies. A key feature of her work has involved collaborations with social care, education and third sector organisations as part of promoting health outcomes for children and young people.
Trudy’s most recent role in the NHS was as Deputy Area Director for specialist services, overseeing 25 diverse community services including: dentistry, specialist childhood disability services; adult neurorehabilitation and wheelchair provision; NHS Talking therapies; adult SALT; dietetics; podiatry; chronic fatigue and ME; Community HIV ; wellbeing services and the Post Covid Assessment service.
Previously Trudy was the Area Head of Nursing & Governance for children’s and specialist services, with a focus on quality, safety and governance and prior to that Head of Children’s specialist & community nursing.
In 2015 Trudy achieved the NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership. In 2016 she was recognised as a Queen’s Nurse for her contribution to innovations and leadership in children’s community nursing. 2018 Trudy, together with the Children’s Community Nursing service in West Sussex, were awarded the RCNi Child Health Award for developing a SEND nursing needs tool, which is used nationally as part of commissioning and provider service reviews and the individual child EHCP process.
Recent national work Trudy has been involved includes: the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcomes and Death (NCEPOD): Children with long term ventilation, as a Steering group member; published in 2020. The National Institute Health & Social Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline Committee member for CYP with severe complex disability- NG 213, published in 2022.
Trudy is a School & Public Health Nursing Association [SAPHNA] appointed committee member and represents SAPHNA on the national Expert Reference Group for clinical interventions in Educational settings. Trudy continues to provide professional supervision to nurses.
Trudy lives in Brighton, Sussex England with her partner Janet Lee.
