Andrew Nicholls

Andrew very sadly passed away in May 2024. Andrew was a great advocate for people with lived experience, challenging stigma and we were very proud that he wanted to be part of Speakers Collective.

Andrew had worked in the voluntary sector for the past thirty years and over this time has witnessed much change in mental health services.

He was a member of the former mental Health NHS trust at non-Executive director level for three years and chaired the audit and charitable funds committees

For the past twenty years, he had been employed by Birmingham Mind in various roles. Including managing Influence and Participation and coordinates the Anti-stigma Associates' Group in Birmingham, formally Time to Change. Andrew's ethos was “nothing about us without us”.

Andrew had battled with his own demons and had lived experience of mental health problems. These began at age nine and continued for most of his life, in his late teens Andrew turned to substance use to help deal with his mental health and is particularly proud of how he had managed to recover his life. Andrew went on to focus on making a positive impact on the life of others.

Andrew was an elected member of Birmingham City Council for eight years. As a cabinet member, he was part of a team that successfully lobbied to gain government approval for the transfer of 95000 council housing stock.

Andrew chaired several committees whilst on the council and chaired the west midlands local government associations housing and environment committee for one year. In this role Andrew introduced the first housing strategy for the area.

He used his spare time in several voluntary roles, chairing the Birmingham council of faiths, a group dedicated to working with all faiths and those with no faith to bring about harmony and understanding in what is a diverse city is.

Andrew was a Buddhist and was ordained as a lay priest in 2018. Andrew was a chaplain for several organisations and used his faith to support others.

If you would like to leave your message of remembrance for Andrew you can do so here https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/y1SFheEJ