On the move

Viv Bird has been appointed director of Booktrust to replace Chris Meade when he steps down in September. Since 1994, Bird has worked at the National Literacy Trust and is director of Reading Is Fundamental UK, a reading initiative for disadvantaged children.

Freda Lewis is the new director or the Fostering Network in Wales. Lewis is a qualified nurse, midwife and health visitor and is the Welsh Assembly Government’s adoption and fostering policy manager.

Baroness Valerie Howarth has been appointed chair of Grooms-Shaftesbury, the Christian disability charity formed by the merger of disability charities John Grooms and the Shaftesbury Society. Baroness Howarth was president of John Grooms and previously chief executive of the national helpline ChildLine. Also joining the board of trustees will be Richard Smillie, former chief executive of the Salvation Army Housing Association, and David Harmer, former member of the Executive Committee of the National Housing Federation.

Dr Laurence Buckman has been elected chair of the BMA’s GPs’ committee. Buckman, a practitioner in north London, has been a member of the GPC since 1991, and deputy chair for the past three years. He replaces Dr Hamish Meldrum, who has become the new chair of BMA Council. Leeds GP Dr Richard Vautrey has been elected as deputy chair of the GPC.