GambleAware names four new trustees

The independent charity GambleAware has named Baroness Hilary Armstrong, Marine Gibbs, Mubin Haq and Dr Koravangattu Valsraj as new trustees.

UK.- The independent charity GambleAware has named four new trustees. Baroness Hilary Armstrong, Marine Gibbs, Mubin Haq and Dr Koravangattu Valsraj join the board of the charity, which this week reported increased awareness of its treatment services.

Baroness Armstrong, a Labour Party member of the House of Lords, has previously served as a board member for Durham and Darlington Hospital Foundation Trust. Gibbs is a policy director within Ofcom’s Networks and Communications Group and has more than 20 years’ experience in operating at board level.

Haq is chief executive at Standard Life Foundation, which focuses on research and advocacy to improve living standards for low to middle incomes. Dr Valsraj is a consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, a senior clinical lecturer at Kings College London and is on the specialist register of the General Medical Council.

GambleAware’s chair of trustees Kate Lampard said: “We are very pleased to announce the appointment of four new trustees, each of whom brings with them skills and experience which will help guide and support GambleAware as it works to deliver its new five-year strategy.

“Our current board composition is strong on health and public health, but we recognised there was a clear need to increase the diversity of the board and extend the skill base of trustees. 

“With these new appointments, we look forward to building and expanding the board’s expertise that will support the charity in the years ahead.”

Meanwhile, GambleAware has appointed the agency FutureGov to develop a new framework and service delivery model for its National Gambling Treatment Service. It said the model would help make the service more accessible, effective and evidence-based.

Last month, GambleAware expanded its data sharing on problem gambling treatment and support, opening access to its 2019 and 2020 data records through the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC).

It said it was making the data available to the research community to promote a policy of open data and to expand the range of academic stakeholders studying the impact of gambling harms.