We are delighted to have recently welcomed three new trustees to our board. They all bring a wealth of experience, skills and energy and will be a real asset to the charity. Over the next couple of weeks we will introduce them and they will share their stories.  This week we are featuring Annie Cook.

Having spent the majority of my career working within a Learning & Development environment I retired in November 2021 as Career Development Manager at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is the largest local Acute NHS Hospital in Norfolk & Waveney. In my role I was responsible to establishing the Apprenticeship programme which transformed how the Trust recruited; introduced new talent into the workforce and opened up new career pathways for people living in our local community.

My team were also responsible for creating different learning opportunities for the 10,000 staff through a wide variety of different education programmes, helping staff to reach their full potential and ensuring the Trust had a well trained workforce. This required significant partnership working with all local schools, colleges, and education providers, as well as other health and social care partners and Health Education England.

Over the years I have interviewed many young carers for apprenticeship posts within the hospital and I have always been struck by their limitless skills, and their lack of self-awareness of those skills, they just do what they do as part of their day to day life. I really wanted to be a  Trustee for Norfolk Family Carers so that I could in some small way support this amazing charity and these incredible young people with things such as career advice and guidance to help them as they grow and develop their career.