Kate Smyth joined Lancashire Teaching Hospitals FT as a Non-Executive Director in February 2019 and is the NED lead for patient experience, social value, anchor institutions, health inequalities and the determinants of health. She is a chartered town planner with extensive experience of economic development and disability in the public, community and voluntary sectors. From 2012 to 2019, she was the Lay Member (Patient and Public Involvement) at Calderdale CCG where she was the equality lead and the lead for deprivation, poverty and housing. She is currently a Lay Leader at Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and in 2019 was appointed to the North West Regional Stakeholder Network, established by the Cabinet Office Disability Unit.

In March 2021, Kate was elected as Co-Chair of the Disabled NHS Directors’ Network.