Our trustees

In August 2006 Sally was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer at St Helens CVS, following a number of years running the same organisation in Epping Forest in Essex.

Sally has experience of working across a range of sectors and organisations with officers, members and stakeholders at all levels. Sally now leads the merged local infrastructure organisation Halton and St Helens Voluntary & Community Action, which provides advice, information, support and practical services to VCSE in St Helens and Halton. Alongside having overall responsibility for the running of the organisation, Sally’s key role is to undertake the influence and voice functions on behalf of the local sector and works with partners to achieve this. Alongside this she spent 11 years as a Non-Executive Director on an NHS Community Foundation Trust.

Sally is currently a board member at the Saints Community Development Foundation, the Chair of Voluntary Sector NW and Vice-Chair of VS6 the Liverpool City Region VCSE sector partnership. She is an Institute of Directors (IOD) certified Company Director. Sally was awarded an MBE in the 2022 Queen’s Jubilee Honours List for services to the community in Halton & St Helens.

Gill has been the Chief Executive of Merseyside Youth Association since 2004. She has worked in the Voluntary Sector for 34 years with experience in youth and playwork, disability issues, volunteering, young women’s work, advice, support and counselling. She is a safeguarding lead and has a wealth of experience and skills in strategic and operational leadership, financial monitoring and accountability, programme management, fundraising, and income generation.

Gill strategically advocates for children and young people across the city region. She is a VCFS representative on the Cheshire and Merseyside NHS Children and Young People’s Committee, and a member of the Cheshire and Merseyside VCSE CYP Network group which seeks to connect the wider sector with the ICB and to identify and address priority issues across the ICB footprint. She is a member of the Liverpool Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Board, Health Watch Community Engagement Group and the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Social Care Leadership Group, supporting the engagement of the VCS in the Health agenda across the region, representing the needs and issues of young people.

She is also part of the Combined Authority’s UK SPF providers group, Economies for Healthier Lives, Liverpool City Council Fairer, Healthier Liverpool Group and Knowsley Children and Families Board.

Circle Steele is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Wai Yin Society, where she has extensive experience involving and collaborating with diverse and community-based organisations.

Beyond her role at Wai Yin, Circle actively contributes as an executive on a number of boards and frontline networks, passionately advocating for cultural diversity, health equality, and bringing social change, while championing under-represented groups. Her lived experience as a public contributor with health and well-being issues further fuels her dedication to ensuring equitable access to healthcare and support for East Asian and ethnically diverse communities.

In 2022, Circle was recognised as an advisory group member of the Uncertain Futures Project, led by Manchester Art Gallery, which won Promotion of Equality and Social Justice Award at The Manchester Culture Awards. In 2023, as a member of the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Research Advisory Group (BRAG), working with Vocal, Circle received Community Initiative of the Year at the National BAME Health and Care Awards. In 2024, Circle was recognised at The Spirit of Manchester Awards, as an inspirational and influential individual who has made Manchester her adopted home.

Circle Steele is a sector leader fully committed to promoting equality, inclusiveness, and social justice in the UK.

Margaret enjoyed a career, in HR and Organisation Development, working for Cheshire based businesses before joining Cheshire Community Foundation (CCF) in 2019. In her role with CCF, Margaret worked to develop effective relationships with public sector organisations, other grant funders as well as the local infrastructure organisations and charities to build an understanding of local need. This supported the CCF team in their work with donors and in ensuring effective local grant making. She sees the vital role the VCSE sector and the difference made when organisations within the sector work together and have productive relationships with external partners, including the public sector.

Garth is a strong believer that communities should be at the heart of their own transformation. He is a keen advocate for inclusive sustainable growth and advocate for the public, commercial and social economies working together to enable their local communities to create their own futures. CEO at Community CVS since 2004. Chair of Lancashire Association of CVSs (LACVS).

Prior to working in the voluntary sector he was a regeneration practitioner that developed holistic approaches to making communities better. Garth believes volunteering and serving your community should be a part of everyone’s life. He has experience in setting up and growing new charities and social enterprises.

Garth has more than 20 years’ voluntary experience at the board level in governing local charities, social enterprises and public institutions within his home town of Blackburn. As well as experience in representing the sector on partnership structures at the local, sub regional, regional and national levels. He is keen for VSNW to help the communities across the North West to be heard and have a voice in the conversations that matter to them and their future.

Yak is a trained Community Youth worker with over 30 years of working and managing within both statutory and voluntary sectors in the Lancaster District. Having lived in the district all his life, he has extensive experience managing projects with communities, children, young people, and he has a wealth of experience in managing community buildings & projects, contracts and funding.

He is the chair of the Lancaster District VCFSE Leadership forum, chair of the Health & Well-being partnership board and a representative on the Lancashire Placed Based Partnership Board, Director for the Lancashire Association for CVS’, Coordinator of the Community Action Network project and Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Multi-agency Forum. Yak is passionate about the work of the sector and he looking forward to bringing his knowledge and experience to support the work of VSNW.

Duncan is the founder and Chief Executive of We Are Survivors, the leading male specific charity in the UK providing support for boys and men impacted by sexual harms.

As a survivor himself, Duncan combines personal insight with professional expertise as a psychotherapist and leader to influence national policy and service delivery. He has worked extensively with the Government, NHS, CPS, and UK police forces, advising on major cases such as Reynhard Sinaga and contributing to strategic initiatives including the End to End Rape Review and the UK Victim Strategy. Duncan sits on multiple advisory boards, including the Victims Commissioners Advisory Board and Greater Manchester’s Gender-Based Violence Board and Justice and Rehabilitation Board. Duncan is also an independent member of the Police, Crime and Fire Panel.

Over the last decade, he has been a script consultant for ITV Coronation Street, BBC Eastenders and Casualty, and Channel 4 Hollyoaks. He has been a media advisor and speaker, raising awareness through television, theatre, and film. Internationally, he supports governments and academics on the needs of male survivors. Duncan was awarded an OBE in 2020; presented with the Medal of Honour from the University of Manchester in 2022 and named Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Criminology in 2023.

Ben Whalley is Chief Executive Office of Gaddum, one of Greater Manchester’s oldest charities, established in 1833. He is a qualified Social Worker, Social Work Practice Educator, accredited trainer and holds ILM qualifications at Level 5 and Level 7 in Leadership and Strategic Leadership.

He is deeply proud to have joined VSNW as a trustee in September 2025.

Ben has dedicated his career to championing the VCFSE sector, and brings with him extensive experience across mental health, housing, multiple and complex needs, HIV prevention and prevention, co-production and community development.

Having held senior leadership roles for many years, Ben has a proven track record in driving strategic change, strengthening organisational and sector resilience, and ensuring charities remain rooted in the communities they serve. Ben is also an appointed governor for VCFSE partnerships at Pennine Care Foundation NHS Trust. Through these varied leadership roles, Ben works alongside others to use his expertise in governance, safeguarding, equity, and co-production.

A passionate advocate of the principle “no decision about me, without me”, Ben is committed to embedding co-production in service design, delivery, and evaluation – ensuring the voices of people and communities directly shape decisions that affect them. He has led the development and implementation of programmes in volunteering, peer mentoring, prevention and support services Nationally, across Greater Manchester and in areas West Yorkshire.

As a practice educator, Ben ​has practice educated more than fifty Social Work students across his career, and as a leader he brings a balance of operational governance, policy insight, strategic thinking and visionary leadership.  He is always guided by a belief in the power of collaboration to create lasting social change.