LHC Procurement Group profiles education-sector non-executive director Emma Chawner

LHC Procurement Group has published a Board Spotlight profile of Emma Chawner, the multi-academy trust finance lead who is the only one of the eight non-executive directors on its governance page to come from the education sector.

The Q&A, written by Zoe Lamb-Jarman and published on 15 October 2026, says the group is "proud to have appointed" Chawner. Companies House records Emma Louise Chawner as a director of LHC Procurement Group Limited with an appointment date of 6 October 2025.

LHC said Chawner's experience in education is intended to help it gain a deeper understanding of that sector and its challenges.

Emma Chawner, non-executive director at LHC Procurement Group, said: "My role at LHCPG, as a non-executive director, is to provide strategic expertise from within the education sector."

Her background

Chawner told LHC she has worked in children's services for more than 20 years, including local government policy and strategy work on safeguarding. For the past eight years she has held a strategic role at a multi-academy trust, leading its finance, resources and business operations, including procurement.

LHC's governance page lists her as Director of Finance, Resources and Operations at Tees Valley Education. The Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register records her as the trust's chief financial officer from 23 September 2017. The register lists Tees Valley Education as a multi-academy trust that opened on 9 June 2015 and runs five academies in Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, including Brambles Primary Academy.

Chawner said she was drawn to LHC by its not-for-profit status and its generation of social value. Her aim, she said, is to help the group gain a stronger foothold in education and its broader sectors by having those organisations use its frameworks for their commissioning.

She added: "I am also supporting and promoting LHCPG as a trusted brand across the country in what may be an already saturated market."

Asked what framework providers should prioritise, she said they should be as simple as possible to use, particularly on quality, guarantees and price.

The board

LHC describes itself as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, with more than half of its board appointed by bodies governed by public law. It says it reinvests surplus funds into community benefit and social value projects.

In 2023 LHC announced eight new non-executive directors, an announcement that also signalled its move from a joint committee structure to a company limited by guarantee, with a name change effective 1 April 2023. LHC described those directors at the time as senior figures from public sector organisations across Great Britain, all of them from housing associations.

Its governance page now names Dame Maria Miller DBE as chair and lists eight non-executive directors. Apart from Chawner, the other seven come from housing associations or an AI and innovation consultancy.

LHC appointed Dame Maria as chair from 14 October 2025. Clive Feeney, chief executive of LHC Procurement Group, said at the time that the new chair had a mix of commercial and public sector backgrounds and a strong social value ethos.

Companies House also lists James Richard Gardner and Aled Bath as directors appointed on 25 June 2026. Neither is named on LHC's governance page.

Education frameworks

Education is already an established part of LHC's workload. In a January 2024 article, chief operating officer Jennifer Castle said the group's PB3 schools refurbishment framework had been used by 98 organisations for 192 education projects over 12 years, with total spend of £633.5m.

The Chawner Q&A is the latest in LHC's Board Spotlight series of director profiles. An earlier instalment, in April 2025, covered Craig Glasper.