News

Colleagues and members joined us face-to-face and online for our Annual Members’ Meeting 2026, to hear about our successes of the past year and our plans for the future.

This year’s meeting was held at Tall Trees, Goldie Leigh in Abbey Wood where attendees were able to enjoy a tour around the site to view the recent art installations created and co-produced by staff, service users and in collaboration with artist Natasha Bird. This was followed by an interactive art workshop using materials gathered from around Goldie Leigh and the unveiling of artwork by artists Diana Jones and Stephen Stockbridge from Creative Nature HQ in the reception area at Tall Trees.

Oxleas Chair, Andrew George, opened the meeting and welcomed members before introducing Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ify Okocha, who spoke about the past year.

Ify said:

We will continue to drive innovation and research – the importance of data is vital in us being able to deliver what is needed. We will continue in our quest to improve quality of services and our performance as well as reducing both waiting times and running costs.

We are constantly looking at ways we can reduce waste, duplication and use technology where appropriate to work closely with neighbourhoods which is the future of healthcare.

Acting Chief Financial Officer, Alex Owoo, gave an overview of the past year’s finances and said we are in a good place, but there are risks ahead to mitigate and we need to find a way to be more proactive, look after our patients while reducing costs and do things differently to build on the progress already made.

Chair Andrew George led attendees through changes to the Board of Directors in the past year and announced his appointment as Chair of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Foundation Trust, which he will do alongside his current Chair role with Oxleas. Jon Devlin, who works for the Community Hospice for the people of Greenwich and Bexley, was announced as a new Appointed Governor.

Lead governor, Tina Strack gave a round-up for membership news over the past year which has included service visits to our music therapy service at Highpoint House, a lived experience practitioner project showcase, the official opening of Off The Ropes’ boxing gym on our Goldie Leigh site and joining service directorate meetings with our three borough Healthwatch which reflect the voice of local people.

This was followed by a Q&A session with questions raised on staff recruitment and staff shortages/vacancies in mental health services; acute admissions to Oxleas House and re-admission levels, and the Government plans for removal of membership/governors. Our trustwide framework for trauma informed response and patient communication and increasing digital letter uptake were also discussed.

View a recording of our Annual Members’ Meeting 2026 via our Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/1226618272