Non-executive Board member

Carolyn Hirst

Carolyn Hirst joined the Board on 13 April 2020. She has her own business, Hirstworks, where she works as a mediator, investigator, complaints reviewer, trainer and independent researcher.

Based in Scotland, she is the mediation practice supervisor for Cyrenians - a charity working with people who have few choices. She also mediates for both the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and Edinburgh Sheriff Court. As an experienced board member, she carries out governance reviews and is currently a nonexecutive Board member of NHS Lothian, the vice-chair of Midlothian Integration Joint Board and a trustee of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.

She has tribunal experience as a former member of Employment Tribunals (Scotland) and of the First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Carolyn previously worked parttime as a lecturer in ombudsman and complaint handling practice at Queen Margaret University, where she is now an Honorary Research Fellow. She was deputy Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for five years. Before that she worked in social housing for nearly 20 years, which culminated with being deputy director of a housing and care organisation.