Nicola Yarnall

I began my career as a student Audiologist back in 1988 at St Johns hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. Once qualified I supported people by diagnosing and treating hearing loss including babies as young as 4 hours old to adults over 100 years of age. I gradually moved from a student audiologist to audiology manager, I was also part of the implementation team for Universal Newborn Hearing Screening programme in 2003.

In 2005 I left the Hospital to join the Community Health Service (which is now known as Provide Community) to set up a community-based ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) service and Paediatric Audiology team. In 2011 Provide Community was formed as an employee owned organisation.

In 2016 I joined the Council of Governors within Provide Community so that I could understand more about the organisation, be in a position to influence change and give a voice to our colleagues. I was voted in as the Chair of the Council in 2019 and have been a Board member since then. This has given me a wealth of experience in the operation of a large organisation. It has also given me the opportunity to lead the process for the appointment and review the remuneration of the Chair of Provide Community and Non-Executive Directors. This is in collaboration with the Board and Council and can include subject matter experts when required. In recent years we have seen a significant improvement in our colleague engagement and a real shift in the importance of our colleague voice.

The council has grown by over 40% and our membership is over 99% of the entire workforce. The Governors now support over 1,200 members, have a voice in the direction of the organisation and facilitate a large proportion of our charitable giving which amounted to £851,000 in 2023-2024. It’s been a real pleasure visiting charities to hear about the impact we can make when making a generous donation to them who in turn support the communities in which we live and serve.