Shirley became a Hertfordshire LINk board member in July 2009. At the time, she was then still a Hertsmere borough councillor and had been representing the council on the Joint Health Scrutiny committee. Having been on a district/county council topic group on services for the over 50s, Shirley found the opportunity to link health and social care more closely together absorbing and interesting. At LINk Shirley chairs the Older Persons Theme Group, and represents South Hertfordshire for LINk on a committee considering health service provision at the two local North London hospitals. She also sit on two joint NHS/social care committees, including the Integrated Transport Board. Shirley is trained to undertake Enter and View visits. Her board role is to focus on Hertsmere; she sits on the Hertsmere GP commissioning patients group and on their mental health sub-group, and is a member of the Local Strategic Partnership's Health and Wellbeing Group at Hertsmere.
In her scarce spare time she see a lot of her daughters and two grandsons, one of which is often performing in amateur shows across the county. Her husband works part time at the local school, where she is a governor, and they help run a young people's club nearby. They enjoy walking their two dogs and playing table tennis with the family. When she undertook a social policy course at the Open University, it opened up the subject to her and she is now an avid reader of social history from across the globe.