Lauren Harkins

As Assistant Director of Programmes in the Transformation Directorate, Lauren works to ensure that digital health technologies deployed in the NHS are safe for patients to use. The DTAC Programme supports the NHS and innovators by setting the baseline standards that technologies need to meet.

She supports projects under the Partnerships Award to maximise value.

Lauren has a commercial, governance and procurement background and is passionate about getting technologies to patients and the system.

Rhod Joyce

As Deputy Director of Innovation Development within the NHS Transformation Directorate, Rhod works to support the ecosystem in the development, assurance and deployment of digital tools and services at scale.

Key programmes include the Digital Health Partnership Award, the Digital Health Technology Assessment Criteria and drives support for patients to access digital health apps to support the management of long term conditions. He also leads the Transformation Directorate’s Partnerships team.

He brings with him extensive experience from the private sector including politics and finance to media, marketing and creativity leading large scale digital transformation.

@rhodjoyce

Janet Lindsay

Janet Lindsay is CEO of Wellbeing of Women, the leading charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of women, girls and babies through research, education, and advocacy.

Dr Lennard Lee

Dr Lennard YW Lee is Associate Professor at the University of Oxford and senior clinical research fellow at the University of Birmingham. He is a Medical Oncologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He works at the NHSE Cancer Programme as clinical advisor for cancer innovations and diagnostics. 

Tom Warner

Tom has just reached ten years’ service in the NHS and recently came into his first specific equality, diversity and inclusion role as Clinical Workforce Equalities Manager for NHS England, Midlands region.

This role works on the development of transformational policy for nursing and midwifery workforce equality. Here Tom has led on the establishment of a Chief Nursing Officer’s and Chief Midwifery Officer’s Ethnic Minority Delivery Group, translating national priorities into Midlands specific actions to improve workforce and patient outcomes.

Kevin Garrod

Kevin joined the NHS in April 2021 having spent time as the Chief Executive of Employ-Ability and as Head of Partnerships for Safe Network, the national third-sector safeguarding unit. He is an experienced leader with a track record of strategic development and implementation, which includes managing the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust Anchor Programme to national prominence. One of his main tasks has been to influence local, regional and national government to reflect the importance of Anchors in their strategic planning to support local communities, including in mid and south Essex.

Ruth Mhlanga

Ruth is a physiotherapist by background and as well as being the interim Chief AHP for South Tees, Ruth is the chair for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officers Black and Minority Ethnicity Strategic Advisory Group (CAHPO BAME SAG). Ruth is an experienced manager of physiotherapists and other allied health professions and has a passion for social justice.

Anne

Anne (not her real name), from London, is in her 50s. She tested HIV positive at her local emergency department in April 2021 following an opt out test.

Mary Hill

Mary is Head of Policy for Healthcare Inequalities Improvement at NHS England, where she has oversight of policy development and delivery on a range of strategic health inequalities priorities including health inequalities legal duties, the Core20PLUS5 approach, and utilising data to inform practical action and improvement.

Mary has spent over 17 years working across a range of policy and programme leadership roles in the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector. Mary’s experience spans partnership working, strategy, service reconfiguration, large scale change, and the integration of health and social care, as well as a range of policy briefs, including child poverty and children’s social care.

Karol Leszek Kuczera

Karol Leszek Kuczera is the Senior Healthcare Policy Manager for the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, where he is responsible for development and implementation of policies aimed at reducing healthcare inequalities, with a particular focus on digital, and inclusion health groups.

With over 15 years in the NHS, Karol’s experience spans strategic policy development, service transformation, and integrating clinical insights into health strategies. His background as a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist drives his commitment to reducing inequalities. A Darzi Fellow alumnus and RSA Fellow, Karol is dedicated to advancing healthcare equality and sustainability.

Lucy

Lucy is 11 years old and lives in Salford, Greater Manchester where she cares for her Mum and her younger brother.

To relax, Lucy likes to play football with her friends and enjoys art and other creative pastimes.

Katie Matthews

Katie Matthews is a Learning Disability Network Manager in NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Her team works to improve the engagement between NHS England and Improvement and people with a learning disability, autism, or both and their families and carers.

Her work includes co-producing easy read information to support engagement, quality checking easy read information for colleagues, and promoting accessible communication.

As her team’s social media lead she has responsibility for one of the most important ways of keeping in contact with the network of people interested in the NHS’s work about learning disability and autism.

Guest blogs

Occasionally we invite guest bloggers to write posts for NHS England. Those posts are marked as authored by “Guest blogs”.

Dr Sohail Abbas

Sohail has been working in the NHS since 2003 and has previously worked as the Clinical Chair of Bradford City Clinical Commissioning Group and Clinical Director of Community Services in Salford Royal Foundation Trust. He is also a GP partner in Bradford City and a GP with special interest in diabetes. He holds the fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners, membership of the Royal College of Physicians, MSc in diabetes and an executive MBA.

Sohail is passionate about system working and harnessing the power of communities. In Bradford District and Craven, he is working with organisations, community partnerships and primary care networks to embed a population health management approach to reduce health inequalities and develop the district inequalities action plan alongside public health colleagues and system partners to address the wider determinants of health. As the Chair of the Integrated Care System Health Inequalities Network, he is working across places to raise awareness and build the capacity and capability in the system to tackle health inequalities.

Sala Abdalla

Sala Abdalla is a Consultant General and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeon based at the London North West University Healthcare Trust.

She is an advocate for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and has made significant contributions to medical education.

She is faculty on several royal college of surgeons accredited courses and is the author of numerous publications in the field of surgery, including two textbooks.

She has a passion for humanitarian work and is director of a surgical charity that performs lifesaving and function-restoring operations in underserved communities around the globe.

Basit Abdul

Basit, a Healthcare Scientist specialised in clinical engineering, holds two part-time roles within NHS England. He is a Clinical Programme Lead in the Pharmacy Integration Fund team, leading the evaluation of the Hearing Health pathway pilot in South West London Integrated Care Board. Additionally, he acts as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Clinical Fellow in the Chief Scientific Officer’s team, leading the development of a national EDI strategy for the healthcare science workforce.

He is currently enrolled in the Oxford Executive Strategy Programme at Said Business School, University of Oxford. He holds two MSc degrees in medical electronics and in healthcare leadership, and a first degree in electronics engineering. He has received many awards for engineering, innovation, and project management.

Dr Ruw Abeyratne

Dr Abeyratne is a consultant geriatrician and recently joined University Hospitals of Leicester as their first Director of Health Equality and Inclusion. She has a personal and special interest in workforce wellbeing and is an active member of the Midlands’ Charter Board.

Dr Abeyratne has campaigned for improvements in organisational approaches to addressing discrimination and is involved in regional work to tackle inequalities in the workplace as well as being a certified health and wellness coach.

Caroline Abrahams

Caroline is Age UK’s Charity Director and oversees all the charity’s influencing and marketing. She is a member of the NHS Assembly and was formerly a SRO for the Ageing Well strand of the NHS Long Term Plan. She is also co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance (70+ charities campaigning for decent social care for all who need it). She has been at Age UK for a decade after other roles in the voluntary sector, the LGA, and as a civil servant and adviser in Government and Opposition.

Dr Chitra Acharya

Dr Chitra Acharya is a Patient Leader at NHS Nottingham City CCG and is a member of Nottinghamshire My Life Choices and graduate of NHS England’s Peer Leadership Academy. She is also a computer scientist with research interest in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and patient safety, as well as a trained dancer, volunteer, advocate and campaigner.

Nigel Acheson

Nigel Acheson is Regional Medical Director and Higher Level Responsible Officer for the South Region of NHS England. With a population of 13.4 million, the Region stretches from Cornwall to Kent and includes the cities of Bristol, Oxford and Southampton.

Born in Belfast, Nigel trained in Birmingham and was appointed as a consultant gynaecological oncologist in 2002, moving to the Royal Devon and Exeter (RD&E) Hospital in Exeter to help develop the Gynaecological Cancer Centre there and learn to sail.

From his time as a National Advisor and Clinical Lead to the Department of Health’s Enhanced Recovery Partnership Programme, Nigel actively promotes the involvement of patients as partners in their care. Whilst Medical Director for the Peninsula Cancer Network in the South West of England, Nigel helped to re-establish the patient and public group with the chair and vice-chair becoming members of the network Board.

Sue Adams

Sue Adams is the Chief Executive of Care & Repair England.

Care & Repair England is a national charity established in 1986 to improve the housing and living conditions of older and disabled people. Sue has contributed to successive governments’ policies concerning housing and ageing. She currently chairs the national Housing & Ageing Alliance & the Home Adaptations Consortium and has served on DCLG’s Housing Sounding Board, DWP’s Age Action Alliance and DH’s Ministerial working party on the future of Adult Social Care. She is a fellow of the World Demographic Association and has written extensively about housing and older people. She was awarded the Foundations Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and an OBE for services to older people’s housing in 2010.

Victor Adebowale

Victor Adebowale is currently Chief Executive and company secretary of Turning Point. He is a cross-bench peer and Visiting Professor and Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute, an associate member of the Health Service Management Centre at the University of Birmingham and of Cambridge University Judge Business School.

He is a director of Leadership in Mind and THP Innovate and Chair of youth charity Urban Development. Victor is on the Board of Governors for the London School of Economics, and is President of the International Association of Philosophy and Psychiatry.

His previous roles include being the Chief Executive at Centre Point, the youth homelessness charity and membership of the United Kingdom Commission for Employment and Skills.

Follow Victor on Twitter @voa1234

Jacqui Adeniji-Williams

Jacqui Adeniji-Williams first received a piece of equipment from Whizz-Kidz when she was seven years old – ‘a purple sparkly manual chair’. Jacqui has been involved ever since and as she has got older decided to give something back and take on a volunteering role. In doing so, she has gone on to inspire, support and bring fun to the lives of many disabled children and young people.

Jacqui volunteers at her local Ambassador Club, takes part in local and national campaigns and acts as a mentor to young people at Whizz-Kidz Camps.

Adebusuyi (Ade) Adeyemi

Ade is Co-Chair for the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Staff Network of NHS England and NHS Improvement and was awarded an MBE for services to Global Health policy.

He is currently supporting a number of commercial activities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, including PPE procurement for COVID-19 and establishing the NHS Long Term Plan ambition for the NHS Export Collaborative, exploring the ways the NHS can collaborate around their innovations and engage overseas.

Ade is a Global Health policy expert who is also a Director at the Think Tank Chatham House, where he supports Ministry of Health stakeholders across Africa, by strengthening their leadership and policy development capacities.

He is also the Managing Director of the world’s biggest Global Health Jobs platform www.globalhealthjobs.com. Ade is also the founder and Executive Director for the African Healthcare Hackathon (www.ahhack.com), an annual hackathon (an event typically lasting several days where a large number of people collaborate intensively on a project) that has worked on developing solutions for organisations such as WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children and UNICEF.

He has also served on the National Executive Committee of the Fabian Society (Britain’s oldest political think-tank) and was Chair of the Young Fabian’s (the under-31 section) Health Network.

Ade is also studying for a Doctor of Philosophy in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London.

Dr Veena Aggarwal

Dr Veena Aggarwal is a Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellow and is based in the Primary Care team and the Greener NHS team at NHS England and NHS Improvement. She is a GP speciality trainee in South West London. She has practiced medicine in the UK and New Zealand, and is passionate about sustainable healthcare, global health and preventative medicine. She is also a co-chair of Greener Practice, South London.

Professor Sanjay Agrawal

Professor Sanjay Agrawal is the National Specialty Adviser for Tobacco Dependency at NHS England, Chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory group and Consultant in Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine.

Over the past decade Professor Agrawal has highlighted the need to address the treatment of tobacco dependency and is now supporting the NHS Long Term Plan programme to implement tobacco dependency treatment services across the NHS.

Dr Shahed Ahmad

Shahed Ahmad, National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England.

Dr Shahed Ahmad is an NHS England Medical Director in the South East Region where he is the Responsible Officer for over 3000 GPs. Shahed was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and University College and Middlesex School of Medicine. Shahed did his MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his leadership training at the London Business School. Before working for NHS England and NHS Improvement, Shahed was a Director of Public Health and led on cardiovascular risk reduction in a number of boroughs. Since joining NHS England, Shahed developed the NHS@2030 programme for GPs in South Central (a number of whom are now clinical directors of primary care networks) and developed the Hampshire Thames Valley Leadership Forum.

Dr Linda Aiken

Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN is the Claire Fagin Professor of Nursing, Professor of Sociology, Director of Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

Dr Aiken conducts research on the use of performance measures to demonstrate relationships between health care workforce and patient outcomes in over 30 countries.

She is the author of more than 300 scientific papers, and is the recipient of the Lienhard Award of the National Academy of Medicine and the Individual Codman Award from the Joint Commission.

Dr Aiken is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a fellow and past President of the American Academy of Nursing, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

Mat Ainsworth

Mat Ainsworth is the Assistant Director for Employment (Strategy, Policy & Delivery) at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Mat is responsible for the delivery of the employment elements of GM’s groundbreaking devolution agreement and the Greater Manchester Strategy priority around good jobs for people to progress & develop. The key elements of this include the development of a whole population Working Well system to ensure people have the support and opportunities to secure and progress in work; developing a world-class jobs and progression service, working with Jobcentre Plus; and developing a GM approach to managing welfare reform that delivers job progression and addresses low pay.

The role includes significant joint working with partners across GM, especially those working in health, skills and economic development, as well as with central government departments, academics and Think Tanks.

Mat has previously worked for Salford City Council, Nottingham City Council, Jobcentre Plus and as a teacher and freelance translator in Slovenia.

Susan Aitkenhead

Susan Aitkenhead is a Deputy Chief Nursing Officer to Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer for England and supports CNO on matters linked to professional regulation, education, research, and collective leadership. This is in addition to the work with ministers, government officials, professional regulators, royal colleges, professional bodies and the Devolved Administrations to help shape policy and decision making.

Susan was previously a Director of Nursing at NHS England leading on a range of work aligned to system and service transformation at national, regional and local levels.

Susan is a registered nurse with extensive clinical, operational and strategic experience within healthcare across a variety of settings; and provider and commissioning executive and non-executive Board roles within both the UK and overseas.

She has also worked in a variety of other national roles such as at the Department of Health providing advice and support to ministers and policy officials across central government departments, and in professional regulation across the UK at the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Twitter: @SAitke
E-mail: susanaitkenhead@nhs.net

Bola Akinwale

Bola Akinwale, Deputy Director, National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme, is a health policy professional and has worked in a variety of national policy and strategy roles across the health and care system. She has a PhD in public health and is a member of the government social research profession.

Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi

Movement, community and nutrition are three cornerstones of Dr Al-Zubaidi’s personal and professional life. He is a lifestyle medic and long-distance triathlete. He is the Royal College of General Practitioners lifestyle and physical activity lead as well as a Swim England clinical advisor. He runs a pioneering NHS based fitness club and lifestyle clinic helping to educate and support patients to eat better, move more and connect with their community.  He heads up the social prescribing team at the Leamington Primary Care Network which assists people holistically to promote, protect and improve their health. A key passion is to use lifestyle to tackle health inequalities. Hussain volunteers at the mental health charity Run Talk Run as the West Midlands regional leader, where they use movement to help forge conversations and peers support. It is his strong belief that lifestyle can be a powerful tool in the fight against many conditions both physical and mental, while being a great way to socialize and stay connected with our community. He is a keen triathlete and UK Athletics leader in running fitness and tries to use his own personal journey of taking up physical activity from a previous sedentary lifestyle and improvement in his own nutrition and knowledge of food to promote its benefits for our wellbeing. He delivers numerous talks and lectures to various audiences both professional and public including a regular slot on Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4.

Instagram: @irondoctorhaz | Twitter: @zubaidihussain | Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/hussain-al-zubaidi-402b141a7/

Sarah Aldridge

Prior to working as a counsellor, Sarah Aldridge worked in media, mainly in TV and newspapers including The Guardian and MTV.

In 2010 she completed her training as a Psychodynamic Counsellor and then worked in the voluntary sector, a cancer charity and set up private practice.

Later roles include clinician and casework, Tavistock and Portman Primary Care Psychotherapy Consultation Service (Hackney community team).

In 2016 Sarah joined Ealing Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), West London NHS Trust and she is a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and BPC accredited counsellor.

Caroline Alexander

Caroline has significant nursing leadership experience at director level across a breadth of portfolios – healthcare provision, commissioning and system leadership.

She was director of nursing and therapies for Tower Hamlets PCT and then director of nursing and quality For NHS ELC, then NHS NEL clusters of primary care trusts. Caroline was regional chief nurse for NHS England in London for three years before taking up her current post as Chief Nurse for Barts Health.

She graduated as a nurse in 1987 from Edinburgh University (BSc/RGN) and has an MSc in Nursing Studies from South Bank University. Caroline was a 2008 Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholar and is a Visiting Professor at Bucks New University.

Dr Ayesha Ali

Dr Ayesha Ali, Medical Advisor to Highly Specialised Services at NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Dr Amar Ali

Dr Amar Ali Graduated from university of Sheffield in 2005. Completed GP training in 2010 and joined Oakenhurst Medical Practice as a partner. He has a active interest in diabetes research and education. Currently works at the community diabetes service and is the CCG lead for diabetes. He is also working as clinical lead for the Lancashire and South Cumbria NDPP

Salma Ali

Salma Ali is a Liaison & Diversion Practitioner, specialising in working within people with Intellectual Disability. She has worked in Liaison & Diversion for the past 6 years, and has been integral in the development of a screening and assessment pathway for offenders with Intellectual Disability within the offender care service at the Central & North-West London Foundation Trust, as well as the development of the ‘RAPID’ screening tool.

Yasmin Allen

Yasmin Allen is a dentist who has worked in emergency dental services in a dental hospital environment and within London.

She continues to work within the Emergency dental service and Urgent Dental service.

In her day job she works in Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex as dental programme manager.

Joy Allen

Joy Allen is the Registered Manager at Hemsworth Park Care Home.

Joy manages the care home in Pontefract, with a 93 bed capacity for elderly nursing, residential, and adults up to 65 years of age.

Dr Martin Allen

Dr Martin Allen is Interim National Clinical Director for Respiratory Medicine, GIRFT National Clinical Lead for Respiratory Medicine and National Specialty Adviser for Physiological Science.
 
Martin is also Consultant Respiratory Physician at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, one of the largest respiratory departments in the country. He currently chairs the National Expert Group on Respiratory Coding and sits on the Royal College of Physicians Commissioning Advisory Group and the British Thoracic Society Board.

Dr Dan Alton,

Dan is a GP at Wargrave Surgery in Berkshire, combining this with his local role as Berkshire West CCG Population Health Management (PHM) Clinical Lead, as well as National PHM Clinical Advisor to NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Dan’s work focusses on using Population Health Management methodology to drive the development of transformative approaches that lead to proactive, integrated care.

He has been instrumental in helping design and deliver multiple large-scale system transformation projects and longer-term strategies to create the governance and data infrastructure that enable this cultural change within systems.

Sarah Amani

Sarah Amani is Senior Programme Manager at the EIP Programme (South of England) and currently seconded to NHS England (South) mental health priority programme. With experience of leading complex programmes spanning multiple organisations to deliver measurable results, her role involves supporting 16 providers and 50 clinical commissioning groups to implement the new national target for psychosis, whilst supporting NHS England managers to assure delivery of robust service development and improvement plans.

Khudeja Amer-Sharif

Khudeja Amer-Sharif, CEO Shama Womens Centre.

Khudeja has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in Finance, Education and Voluntary Sector; leading diverse teams of professionals in new levels of success. Khudeja is experienced in implementing organisational change, spearheading the Equalities and Diversity agenda. As CEO for Shama women’s Centre, Khudeja has pioneered a innovative mental health support programme, exceeding KPI’s, improving outcomes in education, work and health inequalities. Khudeja is an advocate for patients through various Board Lay Roles within NHS, and is Prince 2, MBA, MCIM qualified.

Adam Anderson

Adam is the Head of Commercial Medicines Unit in the Commercial Medicines Directorate of NHS England. Adam is responsible for the overall tendering and supply chain strategies for secondary care. His team works very closely with the trusts, suppliers and trade bodies to ensure appropriate category frameworks are implemented and supply chain resilience is achieved for secondary care

Clare Anderson

Clare Anderson is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the CAMHS Crisis and Liaison Team in Durham & Darlington in the North East of England.

She is a paediatric nurse with Tees Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust and helped develop the Crisis & Liaison service from its conception in May 2014. She has been involved in developing national guidelines for emergency care of young people with mental health problems. She has also visited other areas of the country to share the Durham model and help shape newly developing CAMHS crisis services. She has worked in various clinical settings including acute paediatrics and Accident & Emergency before spending the majority of her career in CAMHS.

Carol Anderson

Carol Anderson is an accomplished senior nurse leader with 30 years’ experience in the NHS. Her recent roles have included Director of Nursing and Interim Managing Director of Mid-Essex CCG, where she championed the role of the nurse on the governing body and its importance in advocating for patients. As Chief Nurse for the Mid and South Essex STP Joint Committee, she has provided oversight of all contracts delegated to the Joint Committee on behalf of the five CCGs in Mid and South Essex as well as delivering professional leadership for nursing across the STP.

Tim Anfilogoff

Tim Anfilogoff is Head of Community Resilience at Herts Valleys CCG, and NHS England’s Social Prescribing Regional Facilitator for the East of England.

Tiziana Ansell

Tiziana Ansell is a registered nurse, independent nurse prescriber and Darzi Fellow.

She specialised in continence care in 1999 and has been working in the field since.

Tiziana works for the Health Innovation Network on a two-year project to reduce catheter-associated urinary-tract infections (CAUTIs) in South London. She has 20 years’ clinical and managerial experience working in the UK across community, acute and private sector.

Prior to moving to the UK she also worked in Italy as a volunteer and paramedic in the ambulance service and underwent work experience in Slovenia in neuro-surgery intensive care unit.

Dr Waheed Arian

Dr Waheed Arian is an emergency medicine doctor based in Chester.

He has been recognised with several awards for his innovation and humanitarian work, including awards from the United Nations, UNESCO and UK Prime Minister.

You can read his story in his autobiography, In The Wars and find out more about his global and mental health work, Arian Teleheal and Arian Wellbeing at www.drwaheedarian.com.

Dr Amit Arora

Dr Amit Arora is a consultant geriatrician in the North Midlands, Clinical Director for the Emergency Care Improvement Support Team of NHS England and a Vice President (Workforce) for the British Geriatrics Society.

He is the founding Director of the National Frailty Academy and creator of the National Deconditioning Awareness and Prevention campaign and is now leading the national mission to #ReconditionTheNation.

John Ashcroft

John is currently Director of NHS IMPACT and Pathways at NHS England. John has held a number of posts in both the NHS and private sector healthcare and was previously Chief Executive of Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and University Dental Hospital of Manchester Trust. He has also worked at Great Ormond Street and the Royal Free London hospitals. John has expertise in leadership, strategy and operational delivery both within and across organisations in health and care.

Richard Ashworth

Richard Ashworth has been with NHS England for four years and is a Senior Insight Account Manager in the Insight & Feedback team. He leads work on PROMs and also on other major projects such as the annual NHS Staff Survey.

Alison Austin

Alison Austin is Deputy Director of Research in the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Group within NHS England and NHS Improvement. Her role is to raise the profile of research across NHS England and NHS Improvement and ensure we take a cross organisational approach to supporting research in the NHS. Her work focuses on improving patient outcomes by embedding research in healthcare practice across all NHS settings, and increasing the number and diversity of people accessing and taking part in research.

Alison has worked on health, medical or research related policies in a number of government departments including the Department of Health, the Medical Devices Agency, the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Treasury. She is a qualified nurse with 13 years front line experience and has a degree in molecular biology and a PhD in molecular endocrinology.

Professor James Bainbridge

Professor James Bainbridge, Consultant Retinal Surgeon Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Lesley Bainbridge

Lesley Bainbridge is Lead Nurse at Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group.

Lesley trained as a nurse and midwife in Gateshead in an apprentice style training that she loved. She says she laughed through all the student years while making lifelong friends and importantly being privileged to work alongside, and learn from, nurses and midwives she still regards to be among the best in the business. Since then she has complimented her training with graduations from Northumbria University.

Professionally there are two things that get Lesley out of bed every morning and they are nursing in its fullest sense and the care of older people. She is very much looking forward therefore to progressing all of the clinical components of the Care Home Vanguard programme so as to make a positive contribution towards improving not only the lives of older people and their families; but the working lives of the staff providing the services also.

Dr Berge Balian

Dr Berge Balian has been a full time GP in a large semi-rural practice in Somerset with approximately 11,000 patients for the past 20 years, having completed his medical training at St Thomas’s Hospital in London.

Berge has a career long interest in medical politics and has been a representative of the South Somerset GP practices on the Somerset Local Medical Committee (LMC) for the whole of his GP career – including a period as Chair of the LMC. He has been Associate Medical Director for Primary Care at Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust since 2013 and was elected to the role of Chair of the Symphony Programme Board in April 2015.

Dr Roger Banks

Dr Roger Banks FRCPsych FRCGP(hon) FIPD is a Consultant Psychiatrist with more than 30 years of experience of working with people with a learning disability, autistic people and their families. In 2020 he was appointed as National Clinical Director for Learning Disability and Autism.

Roger is a previous Vice-President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Fellow of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability. He is Vice President of the Association for Research and Training on Integration in Europe (ARFIE) and a past President of the European Association for Mental Health in Intellectual Disability.

In 2009-10 he was jointly responsible for drafting “Better Health – Better Lives” the World Health Organisation’s Declaration and Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People with Intellectual Disabilities and their Families and he continues to work as a consultant to WHO-Europe on intellectual disability issues.

Dr Wasim Baqir

Dr Wasim Baqir is currently on secondment to NHS England to lead the care homes medicines optimisation scheme.

He was the lead pharmacist for the Northumberland PACS Vanguard where he led an integrated team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, working collaboratively with doctors, nurses, social care and other professionals to develop and test services for patients across Northumberland.

Before this, he was the R&D and quality improvement pharmacist, leading on several projects including the Shine project; optimising medicines in care homes.

He has a passion for quality improvement and sits on the Trust Quality Laboratory and recently was successful in joining the Health Foundation’s Generation Q Network. Nationally, he is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Innovators’ Forum and the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists’ National Professional Committee.

Follow Wasim on Twitter: @wasimbaqir.

Judith Barlow

Judith Barlow works as a community midwife in London, as well as working with the National Elective Care Transformation Programme site delivery team.

She has been part of the team working on all the specialty based specialty waves, case studies and handbooks.

‘Using the rapid implementation approach we were able to implement good practice in several sites for women needing care to support them through a significant life change which can be individually challenging’

Angela Barrago

Angela Barrago is the Project Manager for the Spice Time Credit project in Chorley, Lancashire.

Spice develops Time Credit systems that value everyone’s time and are proven to improve outcomes for individuals, organisations and communities. Over 25,000 people have earned Time Credits, and approximately 450,000 Time Credits have been issued across England and Wales.

Spice works with a network of over 1,200 organisations and services across the private, public and voluntary sector in England and Wales.

Jonathan Barrow

Jonathan Barrow started his working life at 13, cleaning the local supermarket at 4.30am every morning.

At 15 Jon faced a no-brainer decision, was he to finish school, or take a job in a Butchers shop? So a Butcher he was to be, well at least for a couple of years then, he says: “I found the cold just too offal.”

By 18 he was married to his best friend’s sister, living on a notorious estate, set to be a father.

With no money, and little to look forward too, he took a job working nights on the Underground.

Over the next 15 years he educated himself, gaining extensive knowledge of signalling and qualifications in management. He spent the last 20 years as an operations manager, dealing with contracts in excess of a million pounds.

In this time he suffered traumatic events – the most devastating being when he lost his mum when aged just 24, and she was only 53. His next traumatic situation came when his soul mate of 30 years, Deb, began the painful, daily battle to cope with primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

The method of blotting out the pain Jon had put so much faith into, resulted in him spending two years shut in his bedroom unable to cope or face the world, too frightened to leave the room.

His long journey back took five years. Along the way he gained a degree with the Open University.

Jon now takes care of his wife but, having a real desire to share his coping skills, he started up a new charitable incorporated organisation for anyone with a health condition that feels they could benefit from peer support.

After just five months in operation Jon received the 2015 Volunteering through Adversity Award from Basildon Council.

Joanne Barrow

Joanne Barrow lives in Wigan, Greater Manchester. She is the parent to three adult children. Her youngest son Tom has a personal health budget which she manages. She is chairperson of Embrace Wigan and Leigh, an organisation which provides support to disabled people and their families. Through personal experience, Joanne believes that personalisation has been extremely positive both for her son, and for her family

Jon Bashford

Jon is an experienced senior manager, researcher and teacher with over 30 years’ experience working in health, social care and education in the public, independent and voluntary sectors. He is particularly known for his work on mental health, veterans, drug and alcohol use, offender health and equality and human rights. Coming from a practitioner background as a Registered Mental Nurse Jon has been able to successfully bridge the gap between research, innovation and practice. He has worked extensively as a senior manager on programmes for health and social care improvement including service user, carer and community engagement. In particular Jon has a reputation for ensuring that engagement and inclusion are at the forefront of mainstream organisational change management.

Betsy Basis

Betsy Basis is Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant she has extensive experience leading complex, customer-facing organisations across the private and public sectors. Before joining NHSBT in March 2019, she was the Chief Operating Officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Betsy spent 12 years at Centrica/British Gas in a range of senior roles, including Strategy Director for British Gas.

Rachel Bassett

Rachel is 47 and lives with her husband and her dog. She has now been sober for 18 months.

She volunteers with the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust working with the alcohol team that saved her life. Though she feels she can never repay them enough, it is her way of saying thank you for all the hard work they do and hopefully, helping patients that are in the same position as she was.

She is enjoying life again. Has started baking again and is happily sleeping in her own bed. Her mood and physical health are so much better and she is enjoying the feeling that the people she loves are not having to worry about her anymore.

Neel Basudev

Neel Basudev is Senior GP Partner at Springfield Medical Centre in Lambeth, Clinical Director Diabetes at Health Innovation Network (South London Academic Health Science Network) and Out of Hospital Lead.

Juliet Bauer

Juliet was previously NHS England’s Chief Digital Officer. Tara Donnelly is due to take over the role of CDO at the beginning of February. She will oversee a portfolio of digital services including the NHS website, NHS ‘assured’ apps library, and the development of digital services to empower patients to better manage their health and care, including long-term conditions such as diabetes.

Dr Noel Baxter

Dr Noel Baxter is a GP in Southwark, London. He has been the respiratory champion there for the last 10 years, working with both primary and secondary care colleagues within a population based integrated respiratory service. He is also Clinical Director for Quality and Service Improvement at NHS Southwark CCG.

He is the Executive Chair of the Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS) and is a clinical advisor to the British Lung Foundation. He recently led the primary care workstream of the Royal College of Physicians’ asthma and COPD audit in England and Wales and was a member of the recent National Institute of Clinical and Care Excellence clinical guideline group for asthma management.

Passionate about tobacco harm, Dr Baxter is a member of the board of trustees for Action on Smoking in Health (ASH) and recent co-lead of the London respiratory strategic clinical network from 2010 -16 and the London Clinical Senate ‘Helping smokers quit’ delivery team programme.

Joanna Bayley

Jo is a GP and the chief executive of GDoc Ltd, the countywide GP provider in Gloucestershire and of Gloucester GP Consortium Ltd, which provides urgent and primary care to deprived communities. She was until recently the National Medical Advisor on Urgent and Emergency Care to the Care Quality Commission.

Jo was previously the medical director of a community provider, Gloucestershire Care Services, and of a mental health provider. Before becoming a GP, Jo trained in emergency medicine and intensive care, with membership of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Jo was awarded an MA in medical law and ethics from the University of Manchester and has studied transformational change in healthcare at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Tracey Bayliss

Tracey Bayliss has worked for nearly 30 years in various admin and clerical roles for two acute NHS trusts in the West Midlands. Currently she works as a Senior Project Manager at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust. As a member of the Service Improvement and Programme Management Team, established to oversee, challenge and support the trust’s transformation workstreams, she is responsible for managing and delivering multiple complex projects; helping to embed use of the trust’s own programme management tools; and providing assurance of delivery to the trust’s Transformation Delivery Group. Tracey recently completed the Improvement FUNdamentals Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and would like to recommend it to others.

Professor Lisa Bayliss-Pratt

Lisa was appointed as Chief Nurse at Health Education England (HEE) in 2012 and in this role she is responsible for leading national policy, workforce planning, and multi-professional education and training commissioning for the non-medical healthcare workforce.

Key achievements include delivering transformation of nursing education and training (Raising the Bar), the successful test site programme for the Nursing Associate role, development and piloting of pre-degree care experience for aspirant nurses and leading the ‘return to practice’ initiative.

In 2017, in addition to her Chief Nurse role, Lisa was appointed to the as Interim Regional Director for London and South East. As the Regional Director Lisa is responsible for approximately £1billion of investment in education, training and workforce development across London. Her role also includes providing support to five Sustainability and Transformation Plans within the capital.

Professor Juliet Beal

Juliet is the Director of Nursing: Quality Improvement and Care for NHS England. She is responsible for ensuring that care, compassion and patient experience are at the heart of nursing and midwifery in the healthcare system.

Juliet is responsible for the implementation of ‘Compassion in Practice’ the vision and strategy for nurses, midwives and care staff. Juliet provides clinical and professional leadership for mental health, midwifery, children’s health and leadership for the nursing and midwifery contribution to the five domains of the NHS outcomes framework.

She has over ten years Executive Director of Nursing experience in several acute trusts, and was the Cluster Director of Nursing at NHS Outer North East London. Juliet also has Acting Chief Executive, Director of Operations and Director of People and Organisation Development experience. Juliet was included in last year’s Health Service Journal top 100 clinical leaders.

Juliet’s particular areas of expertise and interest are quality improvement, patient safety and experience, clinical standards and outcomes, complex organisational change, sustainability, leading teams to provide excellent standards of care whilst improving financial and patient care standards.

She has a BSc in Sociology and Social Administration from Southampton University (1982) and an MBA from Henley Management College (2005). Juliet was awarded a visiting professorship by the Faculty of Health and Social Care at London South Bank University in 2011 after holding a joint post with NHS Barking and Dagenham and London South Bank University from 2009. Juliet qualified as a registered General Nurse in 1986 and a Registered Midwife in 1988.

Paula Bee

Paula Bee is Chief Executive of Age UK Wakefield District.

Throughout her career in the health and voluntary sectors Paula has developed a passion for changing the lives of older people, recognising that we all have an important part to play if this is to become a reality.

Training as a physiotherapist involved her in the well-being of older people. Now, as Chief Executive of Age UK Wakefield District and member of the Age England Association Executive Group, she has been fortunate to be at the forefront of local and national changes that have the potential to alter the experience of ageing for us all.

At Age UK Wakefield District, Paula is responsible for ensuring the changing needs of older people are met throughout the district. Integration into the new model of care has brought Age UK some fresh challenges but has significantly improved the service it provides. As a result it is able to place the expertise gained over many decades alongside other health and social care professionals to significantly alter and improve the lives of older people.

Paula also chairs the Wakefield Assembly (the local voluntary and community sector board for voice and influence), and is on the board of Nova (the support agency for voluntary and community groups in Wakefield district). In addition, she is a member of the local Health and Wellbeing Board and part of Wakefield Provider Alliance.

Elizabeth Beech

Elizabeth Beech is a National Project Lead for Healthcare Acquired Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance at NHS England, and also works as a pharmacist for NHS Bath and North East Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, where she has been based since 2007.

She qualified from Aston University and trained as a junior pharmacist at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington before continuing to work in a variety of roles within the NHS. She has worked as a Regional Clinical Pharmacist with the North Thames Regional Health Authority, as an academic teacher/practitioner and health services researcher at London University, and established an academic research and development support unit in Swindon on behalf of the South West Strategic Health Authority.

Amanda Begley

Dr Amanda Begley is Director of Innovation and Implementation at UCLPartners. She supports work across the organisation by building partnerships and expertise to deliver innovation at scale for patient and population benefit.

Most recently Amanda co-wrote the national guidelines for Clinical Commissioning Groups on their duty to promote innovation, on behalf of NHS England. She also currently works part time as a GSK Fellow, supporting the generation of collaborative solutions between pharma, academia and the NHS to achieve even greater outcomes for patients.

Following an educational psychology PhD, Amanda joined the NHS as an Assistant and Trainee Clinical Psychologist. She has worked as a commissioner and senior manager across primary, community and secondary care, and has led the implementation of policy. Before joining UCLPartners, Amanda worked as Head of Innovation at NHS London.

Poorna Bell

Poorna Bell is an award-winning journalist and author. She has written a book, Chase The Rainbow, an account of life with her husband Rob who struggled with depression and took his own life in 2015. Poorna has since campaigned around mental health – particularly men’s mental health – speaking on radio, TV and at events. She is also a judge for this year’s Mind media award.

Dr Ilan Ben-Zion

Ilan is a Clinical Psychologist working at St Pancras Rehabilitation Unit – Inpatient Wards and Hertfordshire Neurological Service – Community team – Outpatients

I feel very privileged to be able to say I love what I do and always have, ever since I started volunteering for ChildLine in 2007. Following this, I’ve had experience working with a wide variety of individuals including children, young people, adults, older adults, military personnel, individuals with learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders and neurological conditions.

Currently, I’m based across two teams, one at St Pancras Rehabilitation Unit, where we support individuals to recover from various difficulties from strokes and brain injuries, to falls and occasionally unknown conditions. In my other post, I work at Hertfordshire Neurological Service where we see individuals as outpatients in order to support them with a variety of neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease and strokes.

I am passionate about mental health, as this something we all share and an area where there is real potential to make a positive impact in the world. I hope the #ihavementalhealthcampaign will contribute towards helping people better understand this part of themselves.

Ruth Bender Atik

Ruth Bender Atik qualified as a social worker in 1973 as has worked in both the UK and in Israel. She has been National Director of the Miscarriage Association since 1993.

Professor Jonathan Benger

Professor Jonathan Benger is National Clinical Director for Urgent Care for NHS England.

Jonathan is the Director of the Academic Department of Emergency Care at the University of the West of England, Bristol and a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. He also has extensive experience of pre-hospital care, having previously contributed to the establishment of a pre-hospital critical care team for Great Western Ambulance, and does regular clinical work in both the Emergency Department and ambulance service.

Jonathan has led or collaborated on 28 grant-funded research projects with a total value in excess of £8million, and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. His main research interests are the evaluation of new technologies and techniques, service configuration and workforce, emergency airway management, resuscitation and pre-hospital care.

Until May 2013, Jonathan chaired the Clinical Effectiveness Committee of the College of Emergency Medicine, and served on the Council and Executive of the College. He has been closely involved with guideline and policy development in the UK, alongside international initiatives to define and improve the quality and safety of emergency care.

Simon Bennett

Simon Bennett is Deputy Director Quality Framework Team at NHS England

Simon works across the clinical directorates of NHS England to ensure that a coherent, aligned and strategic approach is taken to improving quality in all five domains of the NHS Outcomes Framework. Simon has lead responsibility within NHS England for a range of quality ‘levers’, including NICE Quality Standards, Quality Accounts, the national clinical audit programme and clinical governance policy. He also leads NHS England’s programme of work on seven day services in the NHS.

Simon has worked in the NHS Commissioning Board/NHS England since January 2012. He has previously worked in the Department of Health, as well as in the Department of Trade and Industry and the Cabinet Office. He also spent several years seconded to a Strategic Health Authority.

Laura Bennett

Laura Bennett is Carers Trust’s lead on policy and public affairs, including external relationships with stakeholders such as parliamentarians, government departments, NHS England, local government, and voluntary sector organisations. She has worked for the organisation since 2015.

Laura – who tweets as @LauraBWork – is a public policy professional, with experience of policy, public affairs and campaigns, supported by her background of project delivery, frontline work, partnership and strategic working. She has worked in a variety of local, regional and national voluntary sector organisations, as well as charities using the experience of service user experience and service delivery as evidence for change. These policy areas and organisations include end of life and palliative care, mental health, advice and information, volunteering, older people, Sense (where she led on their work as part of the Campaign to End Loneliness), and a local Mind.

Jon Bennett

Jon Bennett is an Honorary Professor of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, a Respiratory Consultant at Glenfield Hospital Leicester and Chair of the British Thoracic Society Board.

Sam Bennett

Dr Sam Bennett is Head of the Integrated Personal Commissioning programme and the Personal Health Budgets team at NHS England. He is passionate about personalised care and support and has worked on implementing personalised systems in health and social care at local, regional and national levels for over 10 years.

Dr Phillip Bennett-Richards

Dr Phillip Bennett-Richards is clinical director of the GP care group and chair of THIPP and Tower Hamlets Together.

Keith Bentham

Keith Bentham is a Senior Programme and Project Manager with over 25 years’ experience of working for and with the NHS.

His health career began as an Information Systems Manager at a hospital in Manchester, and has since progressed through various pre-sales, project and programme management roles.

In 2008, he was a medallist at the prestigious British Computer Society Project Manager of the Year Awards for his work in the Lorenzo Release 1 Project.

Within the last five years has worked in a very senior capacity within the Health Informatics team in University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Richard Berman

Dr Richard Berman FRCP is NHS England’s National Clinical Lead for Enhanced Supportive Care, and a Consultant in Supportive & Palliative Care based at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Giles Berrisford

Dr Giles Berrisford is Associate National Clinical Director for Perinatal Mental Health for NHS England.

Dr Giles Berrisford is the Clinical Lead at the Birmingham Perinatal Mental Health Service at BSMHFT – leading one of the largest inpatient Mother and Baby Units in the country. He is the Chair of the national charity Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP) – working closely with women and families directly affected by postpartum psychosis – the most severe form of perinatal mental illness. He is committed to bringing about improved access to maternal mental health services and reducing the unwarranted variation in care currently seen across the country.

Marc Berry

Marc Berry qualified as a physiotherapist in 2006 from the University of Brighton.

He began his career at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and in 2010 became a band 7 in Critical Care. Marc then secured a NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Fellowship, where he researched non-invasive lung imaging for ventilated patients.

This led to further research work around physiotherapy in Critical Care. Marc returned to clinical practice in 2014 at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a physiotherapy clinical lead for Acute Care. The work outlined above was part of Marc’s QI Fellowship at the Wessex School of Quality Improvement.

Jonathan Berry

Jonathan Berry is Personalisation and Control Specialist in NHS England’s Person Centred Care Team. He took up this post in November 2015, and leads on policy development with regard to Health Literacy and Shared Decision Making.

Prior to this Jonathan was the Director of the Community Health and Learning Foundation, a national voluntary organisation that specialises in delivering Health Literacy programmes in deprived communities. He has an extensive health background and was Executive Director for Health for five years at the national charity, ContinYou, where he project managed the development of the national Health Literacy Programme, Skilled for Health.

Trevor Beswick

Trevor Beswick started his career in hospital posts before joining the South Western Regional Health Authority in education and training and medicines information.

In 1993 he took up the post of South West Regional Pharmaceutical Adviser, followed by a post at Bristol Primary Care Trust as Head of Medicines Management and then as Associate Director of Primary Care Commissioning.

He took a specialist regional pharmacy role in medicines information and education and training at South West Medicines Information and Training and then joined HEE’s South Region in August 2017 and has been working on a range of national and regional projects including:

• Advanced Clinical Practitioner Framework
• The review of pharmacy education and training
• Reforming pre-registration pharmacist support in HEE South
• Education quality
• Medication safety education and training
• Supporting advanced and consultant pharmacy practice
• Apprenticeships for pharmacy technicians
• Pharmacy workforce data and intelligence.

Adrienne Betteley

Adrienne Betteley, Strategic Adviser for End of Life Care for Macmillan.

Adrienne is a nurse by background and has worked in a variety of settings including care homes and hospital but most of her nursing career was spent as a District Nursing Sister and Practice Educator working in Cheshire.

Adrienne then went on to do a number of different roles which were all focusing on End of Life Care in a variety of settings such as a Primary Care Trust, Cancer Networks and Strategic Health Authorities. She also undertook some national work on Advance Care Planning as part of the team leading on Preferred Priorities for Care in England.
Adrienne was also a trustee at her local hospice for 4 ½ years and a trustee of Care2Save for 2 years. She was also an elected Board member for the North West RCN Board for 2 years from 2006.

In 2011, Adrienne joined Macmillan Cancer Support and has worked there in a variety of roles, mostly focusing on End of Life Care. Her current role commenced in January 2020 as Strategic Adviser for End of Life Care, which is UK wide and provides expertise and advice internally and externally. Adrienne represents Macmillan on several national groups in England such as the Ambitions Partnership of which she was elected as co-chair in January 2019 and she also sits on the National End of Life Care Programme Board for England.

To find out more about the reasons she is passionate about End of Life Care, you can read this article or listen to her on the “You, Me and the Big C” podcast.

Mike Bewick

Dr Mike Bewick is Deputy Medical Director at NHS England.

Chandraa Bhattacharya

Chandraa Bhattacharya is the national lead for Core20PLUS5 and the wider healthcare inequalities agenda for those in contact with the criminal justice system working across NHS England Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).
Previously, she was the Head of HQ Diversity and Inclusion in HMPPS leading on age, disability, equality analysis, Public Sector Equality Duties addressing disproportionate outcomes for prisoners, people on probation and staff. Chandraa has extensive public health experience having previously worked at various local public health teams, regionally and nationally at erstwhile Public Health England and the Home Office.

Liz Biggs

Liz Biggs is Programme Lead – Children, Young People and Maternity at Herts Valleys CCG, one of 90 CCGs, six STP footprints and four NHS England regions that make up 20 proposals that were selected for wave 1 of the Perinatal mental health community development fund. Liz leads the Children young people and maternity programme in Herts Valleys CCG. She has worked in Hertfordshire for over 15 years and her previous roles have been in the county council in both Children’s Services and Public Health.

Dr Jo Black

Dr Jo Black is a consultant perinatal psychiatrist with Devon Partnership NHS Trust, SW regional representative on the perinatal faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Chair of the Regional Reps Committee. She has developed an integrated community perinatal mental health service, with perinatal expertise embedded in the three maternity units serving families in Devon.

Jo has experience of working with teams, bringing together clinical, management and commissioning colleagues from primary care, acute and mental health services, women, families and colleagues from the third sector. She looks forward to bringing her energy, experience and ideas to this national role.

Sharon Blackburn

Sharon Blackburn CBE, RGN RMN, has worked in the independent care sector for over 28 years, having previously spent 10 years in the NHS in a variety of roles. She has held the posts of director of nursing and director of quality assurance in one of the largest UK care providers and was the managing director for Heart of England Housing and Care until 2009.

She has served on a number of national policy groups, where she seeks to bridge the gap between policy and practice. She is director of the Residential Forum, a director of CommonAge and Vice Chair of NAPA.

Sharon began her role at the National Care Forum in 2009 as Policy and Communications Director. In addition to representing members at national and international events, Sharon has developed skills in social care and health policy and regularly works with directors and boards on the successful management of change.
Sharon was awarded an CBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for services to nursing and the not-for-profit care sector.

Dr Claire Bloomfield

Dr Claire Bloomfield, Director for the Centre for Improving Data Collaboration.

Claire is based at the Centre for Improving Data Collaboration. She oversees development and delivery of NHS coordinated investments in health data for R&D, to support the ambitions of the Life Sciences Vision and Vision for future of UK Clinical Research Delivery. Prior to joining CIDC Claire was the CEO of the world-leading UK National Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligent in Medical Imaging (NCIMI), at the University of Oxford. NCIMI is a launchpad to improve the healthcare industry through the use of AI.

Dave Blowers

Dave Blowers is an advanced paramedic with North West Ambulance Service, covering West Cheshire and the Wirral. He started his paramedic training with London Ambulance Service and the University of Hertfordshire in 2000. He currently lives with his partner and two cats in Chester.

Frances Blunden

Frances Blunden has been an elected patient governor at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust since October 2014.

She also chairs the NHS Providers Governor Policy Board.

Frances has had a career as a highly experienced policy analyst and adviser, with particular expertise in health and regulatory issues. She has established a reputation as an authoritative and effective advocate for consumers with a long-standing commitment to improving the quality and safety of healthcare, strengthening complaint-handling and achieving effective patient and public engagement.

Marie Boardman

Marie Boardman is a Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner with Mental Health Matters, which is partnered with Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust to provide IAPT services in South Staffordshire. She spent 20 years employed by a housing association within Care and Support services. She later set up a pilot programme at Sandwell to help hard-to-reach groups access primary care mental health services. This led to her following a career in IAPT – training with Wolverhampton Healthy Minds before moving to Birmingham Healthy Minds. In her present role Marie has been instrumental in developing community engagement initiatives and developing the West Midlands Senior PWP Forum.

Karen Bonner

Karen is the chief nurse at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

In her 25 years qualified nursing career, Karen has worked in a number of large and complex NHS organisations in London. She holds a diploma along with a BSc (hons) in Nursing and a MSc in advanced practice leadership from Kings College University. She is a graduate from the NHS Leadership Academy Senior Leaders and Nye Bevan programme for aspiring directors.

Karen is a member of the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) strategic advisory group and works with the Prostate Cancer UK, to educate and raise awareness of the disease.

She is also a trustee of the Mary Seacole Trust and leads the diversity in leadership programme and was highly commended by the Nursing Times in 2019 for her work in diversity and inclusion.

Tony Bonser

Tony Bonser is a trustee of St Catherine’s Hospice, Preston and the National Council for Palliative Care, for whom he chairs the People in Partnership User Group.

He is also the North West Local Champion for the Dying Matters Coalition. He speaks and writes on end of life care issues, and campaigns for better communication between professionals and patients. He has broadcast on television and local and national radio. He is a member of the Independent Review Panel for the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Alison Boreham

Alison Boreham is an expert by experience working in the broader field of mental health service provision.

Her main interest is in secure services and mental health within the criminal justice arena.

She is currently volunteering as a peer support worker within Bristol and Taunton courts supporting people with mental illness through the court process.

Alison also works extensively with her local clinical commissioning group as an expert by experience and has also worked with NHS England at a national and local level by providing a lived experience perspective to meetings and consultations.

Juliet Bouverie

Juliet has been chief executive of the Stroke Association since June 2016. Prior to joining the charity, Juliet worked at Macmillan Cancer Support for 16 years in roles including head of planning and policy, director of corporate development and executive director of services and influencing. In this last role she led a staff team of over 800 people, managed a budget of £150m and oversaw a programme of award-winning innovations and service design across the UK. She also secured important government commitments to improve patient experience and post-treatment support through the 2015 Cancer Strategy for England.

Prior to Macmillan, Juliet worked at the British Red Cross in strategy and service evaluation, the Community Development Foundation in fundraising and a political consultancy. She was a trustee of the Long-Term Conditions Alliance and chaired the Cancer Patient Experience Board for University College London Hospital (UCLH) from 2011 to 2014.

Juliet has a degree in modern languages from Oxford and a postgraduate diploma in management.

Caroline Bovey

Caroline Bovey BEM RD, Chair of BDA

Caroline is an HCPC registered Dietitian, who has been practicing for 16 years, with practice experience in acute hospital settings, community rehabilitation, and more latterly Public Health.
Caroline was appointed to the role of Chair of the British Dietetic Association in 2018. Throughout this time Caroline has been instrumental in leading a Governance review and implementation phase for the Association. As a strong advocate for the benefits of Professional Association membership Caroline advocates for the diversity and breadth of practice for dietitians and challenges the Board regularly to work creatively within a strong governance framework to advance the Association and the profession.

Caroline qualified as a Dietitian in Cardiff, Wales in 2004 and has Master’s Degree in Post Compulsory Education. She is currently a Professional Doctorate Candidate at Cardiff University. Her research interests are in professional identity and professionalisation with a focus on developing individual and collective leadership for the profession. In 2016 Caroline was awarded a BEM for Services to Equality in NHS Wales.

Joyce Bowler

Joyce Bowler is a Registered Nurse by background, and has been Programme Lead for personal health budgets for the three Clinical Commissioning groups of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland since June 2014.

Joyce first became interested in PHBs back in 2013 when she was Head of Quality Contracting for the CCGs and had Continuing Healthcare in her portfolio.

She is a passionate advocate for personalisation and believes that people should not only be given the choice of care and services, but they should be able to access novel ideas to create packages that are outside of what is traditionally commissioned by the NHS that best meet their needs.

Rebecca and Colin Bowman

Bekki Bowman is a 30-year-old mum of two young children. Until recently she has been a stay at home mum, but has just begun a degree in adult nursing. Her experience of a mental health illness has spurred her to get involved with the development of perinatal services, and NHS development in general.

Bekki is excited to see where her degree will take her, and is looking forward to seeing her children grow and achieve new things.

Colin Bowman, 38, works across Lancashire for a charity called Ncompass. In his role he raises awareness of their Carer’s hub project which provides support for unpaid carers.

Colin is passionate about a number of things, support for partners, mental health awareness, aeroplanes and Derby County Football Club.

Paul Box

Paul Box is a volunteer with Black Health Agency Skyline.

Adrian Bradley

Adrian Bradley is Head of Health and Wellbeing at the EFL Trust – the national charity that represents, advises and supports 72 charities linked to professional football clubs across England and Wales.

Adrian is responsible for a wide ranging public health offer including an expanding portfolio of person-centred support services in non-clinical settings designed to encourage healthy choices and self-management of conditions. These include health education in primary schools, adult testing and screening programmes, cancer recovery services, dementia support groups, drug and alcohol recovery services, adult mental health support groups, services tackling chronic loneliness in older people, the FIT FANS adult weight management programme, and Extra Time Hubs – a shared interest community of people in their retirement who meet on a weekly basis to socialise and to do the things they enjoy.

He has over 25 years’ experience in local government and the charity sector. Prior to joining EFL Trust in 2016 he held senior roles as Director of Strategy for the Child Migrants Trust and at Alzheimer’s Society where he was National Lead for Young Onset Dementia.

Dr Michael Brady

Dr Brady was appointed as the National Advisor for LGBT Health at NHS England in April 2019. In this new role Dr Brady works across NHS England and NHS Improvement, with the Government Equalities Office and a wide range of stakeholders, partner organisations and the LGBT community to address health inequalities for LGBT individuals and improve experience in the NHS. Michael is also an HIV and Sexual Health consultant at Kings College Hospital in London and the Medical Director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.

David Bramley

David is Deputy Head of NHS England’s Long-Term Conditions Unit. 

He started his public sector career working for the Ministry of Defence before moving into Health around 10 years ago. David has worked in a range of roles supporting organisational change and collaboration including diversity policy in the Armed Forces through to overseeing the smooth closure of Arm’s Length Bodies for the Department of Health. In NHS England, David’s main focus is clinical strategy and policy on frailty and multimorbidity.

Magda Branker

Magda Branker is GP Partner and GP Trainer at Amersham Vale Training Practice.

Paul Breckell

Paul Breckell is the Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss.

He has been in this position since August 2012 and has worked for the charity since July 2007. Action on Hearing Loss is the new name for RNID; the charity working for a world where hearing loss doesn’t limit or label people, where tinnitus is silenced and where people value and look after their hearing.

Prior to this, Paul was the Finance and Corporate Services Director of the Church Mission Society for seven years and the Head of Finance at the HIV/AIDS healthcare charity Mildmay for three years. He is a chartered public finance accountant (CIPFA), having trained whilst working with the Audit Commission. Paul is a past Chair of the CIPFA Voluntary Sector Panel and a past member of CIPFA Council.

Paul is a Trustee of the Roffey Park Institute, a Commissioner on the ILC Commission on Hearing Loss and the Chair of the NHS England Working Group on the Early Diagnosis of Hearing Loss. Paul a former Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium and the Charity Finance Group. He writes and speaks on a number of topics in relation to hearing loss and disability as well as on leadership, organisational development, governance and finance in the ‘beyond profit’ sector.

He was named one of Cityweath Magazine’s top 10 charity Chief Executives of 2016.

Kate Brintworth

Kate Brintworth RM, BSc (Hons) MSc is the Chief Midwifery Officer for England and has worked strategically across many parts of the maternity system, including as Regional Chief Midwife for London, Head of Maternity Transformation at the Royal College of Midwives, and Head of Maternity Commissioning for East London.

In East London she led the delivery of the Sustainability and transformation partnership maternity plan, the East London ‘Better Birth’ pioneer programme and development of the local maternity system. As Regional Chief Midwife for London, Kate led the implementation of the successful Capital Midwife Ethnic Minority Midwives Fellowship to support band 6 and 7 midwives from global majority groups to move into leadership roles, with Kate and the Capital Midwife team subsequently receiving an equality, diversity and inclusion award at the Royal College of Midwives in May 2023.

Kate has also been part of national and regional maternity networks, including the London Local Supervising Authority, national expert reference groups for commissioning, postnatal and continuity of care, and research steering groups for complex programmes of research.

She has worked in multiple roles as a midwife including as a community midwife, labour ward co-ordinator and manager. Her special interests are reducing inequalities for both service users and staff, coproduction, system working, the reorganisation of services, tariff and women making complex care choices.

Emma Brookes

Emma Brookes – Head of Soft FM Strategy & Operations

Emma has been with the Estates and Facilities team at NHS England since the end of July 2017. Emma is responsible for policy and strategy development for soft facilities services across the NHS in England, with a portfolio which includes cleaning, catering, portering, security and linen and laundry.

Emma holds a master’s degree in Healthcare Leadership and has a career which spans 28 years in the world of Facilities management 19 of which have been in the NHS as both a provider and a direct employee and has led projects including National Standards for Healthcare Cleanliness, Provision of non-sterile PPE during the height of the Covid pandemic, EU exit preparations, NHS Chef competition and the National Standards for Healthcare Food.

Sian Brookes

Sian Brookes is a Project Manager in the Integrated Care team at Age UK.

She is currently working on the Integrated Care Pilot sites in Sheffield, Redbridge, Barking and Havering and Kent and is also working on developing new models of care.

She also provides project management support in the Programme’s Communications Strategy and most recently established a series of pilot programmes focused on Wellbeing Co-ordinators.

Dr Abbie Brooks

Dr Abbie Brooks is a GP at the Priory Medical Group in York.Dr Abbie Brooks is a GP partner at Priory Medical Group in York – a large, nine-site practice with a practice population of over 55,000 patients.

Abbie trained locally at Hull York Medical School and went on to complete her postgraduate foundation jobs and GP training in Yorkshire. She enjoys the variety that general practice brings but has a passion for communications and making healthcare accessible to all in a variety of ways.

You will often find Abbie running her practice social media accounts and publishing videos or blogs on specific health problems and wider issues.

Dr Andy Brooks

Andy is a practising primary care doctor and Clinical Chief Officer for the Frimley Clinical Commissioning Group. He is currently on secondment to NHS England and NHS Improvement as a National System Policy Advisor.

Poppy Brooks

Poppy is the Lead Nurse for Cardiac Support Services at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Northern services). Poppy practices as a Heart Failure Specialist Nurse in an integrated heart failure service, covering both in-patient and community care.

Poppy has worked in cardiology for 20 years, initially on the coronary care unit at Southampton General Hospital, before moving to North Devon to specialise in heart failure in 2015. Poppy has completed specialist post registration education at Masters level and is a non-medical prescriber.

Poppy is Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure (BSH) Nurse Forum and also volunteers on the BSH policy and media committee. Poppy has written articles and editorials both independently and on behalf of the BSH. She previously represented the BSH on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing.

Poppy is passionate about highlighting the essential role of the heart failure nurse specialist (HFSN), particularly the urgent need to grow the specialist workforce in heart failure and meet the needs of this complex group of patients.

Ailsa Brotherton

Ailsa Brotherton is the Executive Director of Improvement, Research and Innovation at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Professor at the University of Central Lancashire.

Prior to joining the trust, Ailsa was Director of Transformation for the Single Hospital Programme at Manchester Foundation Trust. She has also held the positions of Interim Clinical Quality Director for the North of England with the Trust Development Authority/NHSI, Associate Director for Quality Improvement Programmes at the Haelo Innovation and Improvement Centre based at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and post-doctoral Senior Research Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire.

Ailsa is a Health Foundation Generation Q Fellow, graduating from Hult Ashridge with a Masters degree as part of this improvement fellowship. Her PhD and programme of research were in the field of clinical nutrition. Ailsa has experience of designing and delivering quality improvement and large-scale change programmes at national, regional and local levels.

Ailsa has a particular interest in system level improvement, working across organisational boundaries. She is currently working with the improvement directors and clinical leads across Lancashire and South Cumbria in collaboration with Professor John Clarkson FREng, University of Cambridge, to test the Engineering Better Care framework across the ICS. As part of this collaboration, the team is designing a bespoke Improving Improvement Framework, building on the learning from their initial work at system level.

Emma Brothwood

Emma Brothwood is part of NHS England communications team, working as a Digital Audio Visual Technician, producing video and graphics for the organisation.

Her experiences of bereavement have opened a path into working with charities to help raise awareness and support to families who have lost a child.

Colette Brown

Colette Brown is the Social Prescribing Coordinator for Southmead Development Trust in Bristol and for SPEAR (Social Prescribing for Equality and Resilience).

SPEAR is a partnership of community anchor organisations in Bristol working together to address the health inequalities in low-income areas of the city. Together they use an assets-based approach to health and wellbeing, using social prescribing link workers based in GP practices.

Each SPEAR partner (Knowle West Healthy Living Centre, Southmead Development Trust, Wellspring Healthy Living Centre and The Care Forum) is embedded in and trusted by their local community.

Email: colettebrown@southmead.org
Web: www.spearbristol.org

Matt Brown

Matt Brown is passionate about working to improve services and outcomes for patients, having spent 15 years working in the NHS around the country, particularly in Cumbria and the North East.

During that time, Matt has worked for a number of commissioner and provider organisations, across a range of strategic and operational roles, latterly as Head of Primary Care and Head of Strategic Planning for NHS England.

Sue Brown

Sue is the CEO of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA), a role which she took up in February 2017.

ARMA is an umbrella body representing the breadth of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions and professions. Its vision is that the MSK health of the population is promoted throughout life and that everyone with MSK conditions receives appropriate, high quality interventions to promote their health and well-being in a timely manner.

Sue has over 20 years’ experience of policy work in health and social care. Before joining ARMA, she was Head of Public Policy at deafblind charity Sense and Vice-Chair of the Care and Support Alliance and previously worked for Mind. Sue is also a trustee of VoiceAbility.

Oliver

Naval Officer Oliver was 29 when he was diagnosed as living with HIV. Since his diagnosis, Oliver has been campaigning to lift the blanket ban on people with HIV being able to serve for their country.

Stuart Brown

Stuart Brown currently works as an antimicrobial pharmacist at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and has spent the last 10 years working within Secondary care.

He is a keen advocate of antimicrobial stewardship, presenting on this at both local and national conferences.

Stuart works closely with his colleagues in primary care and is the current chair of the Antimicrobial Pharmacist Group in the North East of England. He is currently seconded to NHS England as a national project lead for AMR and HCAI’s.

Jenny Brumby

Jenny Brumby is a married mother of two boys and has a holiday home business in Millom.

She is one of the Editors of Around The Combe Magazine and a steering group member of Millom Health Action Group. The group works on behalf of the community with the NHS to make decisions about health services.

Beverley Bryant

Beverley Bryant was previously Director of Digital Technology, since the publication of these blogs she has left NHS England.

Ruth Buchan

Ruth Buchan is a pharmacist who works as Community Pharmacy Clinical Lead at West Yorkshire ICB. She was previously Chief Executive Officer at Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire.

Laura Buckley

Laura Buckley is a Primary Care Network Pharmacist in Hull, having taken up the post in December 2019. Laura is the regional ambassador for the Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA) in the North East and Yorkshire. She is currently studying on the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway course, led by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education.

Prior to taking up her current role, Laura was a community pharmacy manager. Since March 2019, Laura has also been freelance writing for a variety of platforms about topics within pharmacy. She also runs her own blog with the hope to provide insight into the pharmacy profession for the general public.

Kate Buffery

Kate Buffery is Head of Personal Health Budgets and Personal Wheelchair Budgets in the Primary, Community and Personalised Care team at NHS England.

Kate originally qualified as a Registered Nurse and has 20 years’ experience working in the NHS.

Kate spent the majority of her nursing career working in the community as a District Nurse, before moving into commissioning. Kate has commissioning experience within continuing healthcare, urgent care and health and social care, and before coming into the team Kate held a varied portfolio of community services which included commissioning wheelchair services.

Dr Dan Bunstone

Dr Dan Bunstone is Clinical Director of Warrington Innovation Network in Warrington, Cheshire and lead GP at a new and expanding surgery in Chapelford.

He has an interest in innovative models of care delivery and digital healthcare.

Dan is Chair of an NHS Confederation design group exploring data and digital in primary care.

Alistair Burns, CBE FRCP, FRCPsych, MD, MPhil

Alistair Burns is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at The University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. He is the National Clinical Director for Dementia and Older People’s Mental Health at NHS England and NHS Improvement.

He graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1980, training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London. He became the Foundation Chair of Old Age Psychiatry in The University of Manchester in 1992, where he has variously been Head of the Division of Psychiatry and a Vice Dean in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, with responsibility for liaison within the NHS. He set up the Memory Clinic in Manchester and helped establish the old age liaison psychiatry service at Wythenshawe Hospital. He is a Past President of the International Psychogeriatric Association.

He was Editor of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry for twenty years, (retiring in 2017) and is on the Editorial Boards of the British Journal of Psychiatry and International Psychogeriatrics. His research and clinical interests are in mental health problems of older people, particularly dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. He has published over 300 papers and 25 books.

He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2016, received the lifetime achievement award from their old age Faculty in 2015 and was awarded the CBE in 2016 for contributions to health and social care, in particular dementia.

Christine Burrows

Christine is from Wigan, Greater Manchester and is passionate to give back and make things better for carers. She has been Mark’s carer for five years. She is now also working as part of NHS England’s Personalisation and Choice Lived Experience Team, where she is part of the National Personal Health Budget Peer Network and the Integrated Personalised Commissioning Strategic Co-production Group.

Mary Busk

Mary Busk is one of two new Family Carer Advisers in the Improving Health and Quality Team, part of the Learning Disability Programme. They are both working on the new #AskListenDo project about concerns and complaints.

Mary is also involved with the children and young people part of the Transforming Care programme. Mary previously co-founded the National Network of Parent Carer Forums and was the Steering Group member for London.

Jennifer Bute

Jennifer Bute is a former GP.

Amy Butler

Amy Butler is a patient safety partner working as a lay person to support the NHS London region team, by providing a patient voice and sharing their insight from their experiences of NHS care, to help improve patient safety across London.

Olivia Butterworth

Olivia Butterworth is Head of Public Participation for NHS England and NHS Improvement.

She ensures the NHS works with citizens and communities to have a voice that influences the development, design and delivery of our health and care services.
Olivia is the national lead for the People and Communities workstream of the Primary Care Networks programme and was named in the HSJs Top 50 Innovators and the Top 50 Integrators in 2014. In 2018 she was named as one of the Top 70 NHS Stars.

She has a background in Community Development and education with a passion for empowering people to be their own change.

Olivia has worked with a wide and diverse range of voluntary sector organisations, both in paid and voluntary roles, providing support with organisational development, developing services, engagement, involvement and fundraising. Olivia is very proud to be a Trustee of Manchester based LGBT Foundation and a Non-Executive Director of Local Care Direct.

You can follow her on Twitter @LiviBF

Jeni Caguioa

Jeni Caguioa qualified in 1994 as a nurse in the Philippines, and worked in a government hospital for 5 years. She was among the first Filipino nurses who came to work in the UK in 1999.

She started in Haematology at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital (now Heart of England) and have worked in the NHS for the last 21 years.

Jeni pursued her passion on health care and leader ship as an MSc in 2016 . As BAME Network Engagement Lead, she believes in equality and the strength of diversity so that teams can deliver the best care for our patients.

In 2018, she initiated Project KINs (King’s International Nurses) How are we doing? which focuses on supporting the care and well-being of newly arrived overseas nurses. This led her to a secondment post with NHS England and NHS Improvement as the first Filipino Chief Nursing Officer’s BAME Nurse Advisor for COVID19 in 2020. Her workstream relates to work on addressing the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on our ethnic minority workforce and improving their pastoral care and support.

Currently, her substantive post at NHS England & Improvement as Nurse Advisor supports programmes of work related to the outcomes and experiences of internationally recruited and ethnic minority nursing and midwifery staff and the formation of a network for international nursing associations across the UK.

Tom Cahill

In October 2021, Tom took up the position of National Learning Disability and Autism Director with NHS England. Tom works alongside National Mental Health Director Claire Murdoch to lead work on driving up standards of care across the health service and independent sector for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

Tom began his career as a mental health nurse and held several senior posts before joining Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust (HPFT) as Chief Executive. At HPFT, he has overseen the development of new models of care, new facilities and the trust’s culture. Under Tom’s leadership, HPFT was rated as ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission in 2019.

Dr Catherine Calderwood

Dr Catherine Calderwood is National Clinical Director for maternity and women’s health in NHS England. She is also a medical adviser for Scottish Government and an obstetrician and gynaecologist working in Edinburgh.

Catherine has a special interest in high risk pregnancy, particularly in those women with complex medical problems and continue to have an obstetric medicine antenatal clinic. She carries out a number of teaching and training roles in both obstetrics and gynaecology and in general medicine. Research interests include thromboembolic disease in pregnancy and she is an investigator on the AFFIRM study which will study the effect of the introduction of a standardized education and management plan for the care of women presenting with decreased fetal movements in hospitals throughout the UK and Ireland.

Catherine is chair of the UK maternal, newborn and infant Clinical Outcome Review Programme – the new process for confidential enquiries into maternal, newborn and infant deaths and severe morbidity run by MBRRACE-UK.

Ian Callaghan

Ian Callaghan is the Recovery and Secure Care Manager at the national mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness, where he delivers a national network of involvement groups for people in secure mental health services called Recovery and Outcomes.

Ian is also a Patient and Public Voice partner with the NHS England Adult Secure Clinical Reference Group. Ian was the Rethink Mental Illness Member of the Year in 2012 and in February 2015 was awarded the Deputy Prime Minister’s Mental Health Hero Award in recognition of his role with Recovery and Outcomes.

Ian was also recognised as one of the top 50 Patient Leaders by the Health Services Journal in July 2015.

Neil Calland

Neil Calland is a Senior Programme Lead in the Operations and Information Directorate within NHS England.

He is leading the development of an STP-led investment programme focused on the digitisation of secondary care providers, and the business adoption and transformation workstream of the Digital Child Health programme.

Previously for NHS England, Neil has managed the Nursing Technology Fund and led the Local Digital Roadmaps agenda.

He has worked extensively across public services, including health, social care, youth justice, welfare to work, parenting support and education.

Shelley Cann

Shelley, is 50, lives in Brighton and has a 14 year old daughter, Faye. She has always been very active with a healthy lifestyle and a very positive outlook but suddenly, in 2014, she was diagnosed with stage IIb high grade serious ovarian cancer.

Fiona Carragher

Fiona Carragher is the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for England, supporting the head of profession for the 50,000 healthcare science workforce in the NHS and associated bodies – embracing more than 50 separate scientific specialisms. A Consultant Clinical Biochemist by background, Fiona has a broad portfolio of policy responsibilities, providing professional leadership and expert clinical advice across the health and care system as well as working with senior clinical leaders within both the NHS England and the wider NHS.

Fiona has a strong background in both public health and treatment & care, having led and worked in multi-professional teams for two decades at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh and Kings College Hospital, London – with a focus on providing high quality, innovative laboratory services. More recently she led a number of specialised laboratories for the diagnosis and monitoring of inherited metabolic disease and was Director of Newborn Screening for the South East Thames Region.

She has led a number of broader healthcare science projects including technology adoption and leadership development, and created a proactive scientific and diagnostics network across London that supports quality improvement and effective commissioning.

Julie Carrick

Julie was successful in becoming the Director of Nursing for GPS Healthcare in 2015, when six individual general practices across Solihull merged to become one. She started her journey in primary care back in 2007, when she was employed to provide care for patients who had diabetes.

Julie attended Birmingham City University to complete the Return to Nursing course, as she had been a midwife for 20 years previously, and could not become a practice nurse without obtaining a nursing qualification. Since qualifying as a nurse, Julie has not looked back and had enjoyed every moment of her journey so far.

Janet Carter

Dr Carter is a Senior Clinical lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry at UCL Division of Psychiatry.

She works for as a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry for NELFT in Havering where she runs a community mental health team and a Cognitive Disorders clinic with a fast track service for under 65s. She is member of the Steering group for the Young Dementia network.

Andrew Carter

Andrew Carter is the Stockton-on-Tees Integrated Personal Commissioning Communications Workstream Lead.

He is an experienced public sector governance and communications officer who has worked in local government, central government and the NHS.

Andrew has worked in the NHS for five years in varying roles including for acute providers, primary care trusts and currently for Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Group.

Dominic Carter

Dominic Carter is a Policy Officer with the United Kingdom Homecare Association.

He joined the sector three years ago through the Skills for Care Graduate Management Training Scheme and previously studied at Leeds University.

Emily Carter

Emily Carter has worked in the field of public engagement and patient experience for 12 years in a range of settings – voluntary sector, Primary Care Trust, Strategic Health Authority and a community healthcare NHS Trust provider.

Emily has worked as Regional Head of Patient and Public Voice at NHS England since April 2013- working with the Area Teams and Clinical Commissioning Groups across the South of England.

Follow Emily on Twitter: @NHSEmily.

Rachel Cashman

Rachel Cashman, Head of Collaboration for Excellence, NHS England

Rachel leads on creating the conditions and incentives for the behavioural changes needed to foster a culture of collaboration and excellence within NHS England, across the wider NHS and between healthcare stakeholders, demonstrating new ways of working to deliver health outcomes, quality care and economic growth.

She utilises evidence and research of network leadership to spread new ideas, build and orchestrate communities that foster learning and knowledge exchange, and achieve effective cooperative action and peer support. Rachel coordinates across NHS England and its industry, third sector and social care partners the Integrated Care for the 3million lives programme enabling new investment and operating models for the self-management of long term conditions and clinical collaboration underpinned by new technologies.

Prior to joining NHS England, Rachel was the Head of the Innovation Health and Wealth (IHW) programme in the Department of Health have worked as part of the NHS Chief Executive’s Review of Innovation and co-authored IHW. This was a role on secondment from worldwide pharmaceutical company Pfizer where Rachel lead on policy and public affairs in the areas of UK R&D and Science Policy, Oncology, inward investment and Life Sciences sector engagement with UK Department of Business and Department of Health, product and strategic value proposition and QIPP, NHS partnerships and advising the business on the strategic operating environment in the UK.

Dr Diana Cassell

Dr Diana Cassell is Clinical Director at the South London Partnership, CAMHS programme having worked as a child psychiatrist since 1987.

She became a consultant in 1987 in a community tier 3 team and currently her clinical sessions are in CAMHS Neurodevelopmental Disorders. She has held additional management roles with South West London and St George’s since 2007, and is Clinical Director for CAMHS at the trust.

Throughout her career Diana has championed and raised the needs of young people, and has developed effective local services; recently including providing mental health input to the development of Child Sexual abuse services, and roles for the NHS England CAMHS Tier 4 Clinical Reference Group.

Richard Cattell

Richard Cattell has been a pharmacist for 28 years with a career mainly in acute hospitals in the South West, Cardiff and the West Midlands.

He most recent roles have included Chief Operating Officer and Chief Pharmacist.

His current role is the Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for NHS England and NHS Improvement. In this he focuses on supporting trusts with their care quality, driving the improvement in 7-day pharmacy services, developing aspiring chief pharmacists and providing the senior medicines leadership to the Medicines Safety Programme.

He is passionate about supporting patients and the healthcare team in getting the best from medicines, reducing harm and improving care.

Professor Mark Caulfield

Professor Mark Caulfield is the Chief Scientist at Genomics England. After graduating in Medicine in 1984, he trained in Clinical Pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts) where he developed a research programme in molecular genetics of hypertension and clinical research.

In 2000 Mark successfully bid for £3.1m to create the Barts and The London Genome Centre at the Queen Mary University of London and subsequently became Director of the William Harvey Research Institute.

Since 2008 he has directed the Barts National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit/Centre. He is a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians, has been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences and became a Senior Investigator for the NIHR in 2013.

Katy Chachou

Katy Chachou works part time for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust as a Recovery Peer Support worker. She also works voluntarily at the Barberry Mother and Baby Unit in Birmingham. As someone who’s had experience of their services, she provides manicures and peer support for mums there, and gives talks to medical audiences so people can learn from her story.

Dr Nav Chana

Dr Nav Chana, National PCH Clinical Director, National Association of Primary Care (NAPC).

Dr Nav Chana has served as NAPC Chair for four years and has been integral to the development and roll out of more than 200 primary care home (PCH) sites across England. He has been a GP at the Cricket Green Medical Practice in South West London for over 26 years.

Previously Nav was Clinical Adviser for Workforce Redesign for the new care models programme, Director of Education Quality for Health Education South London and Postgraduate Dean for General Practice and Community-Based Education.

Nav featured in Pulse’s Power 50 list of the most influential GPs in 2018.

Simon Chapman

Simon Chapman joined NHS England as a Deputy-Director in the Personalised Care Group in April 2018. He has over 15 years’ experience in the voluntary sector campaigning for people to have better choice and control over their care, particularly in relation to the end of life. He was most recently Director of Policy and External Affairs at the National Council for Palliative Care, where he also led the Dying Matters coalition. He has also served as a trustee of the National Voices charity which advocates for person-centred care.

Dr Margaret Charleroy

Dr Margaret Charleroy is the Head of Strategy at the NHS England Centre for Improving Data Collaboration (CIDC), leading strategy and policy development to shape digital and data-driven innovation across the NHS that ensures the greatest benefits for citizens, patients, and workforce across the health sector.

Prior to joining the Centre, Margaret held senior strategy roles in the public sector, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), where she led her council research and policy response to the covid-19 pandemic. She has held academic positions at universities in the United States and United Kingdom, focusing a research career on data management and evidence-based care to improve health outcomes in criminal justice settings.

Dr Linda Charles-Ozuzu

Linda Charles-Ozuzu is NHS England’s Director of Commissioning in the North West.

She was previously NHS England’s Director of the Elective Care Transformation Programme, and Assistant Director/Associate Medical Director in NHS England Midlands and East.

Her other senior healthcare management roles include extending the Department of Health’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Programme to people with long term conditions, severe mental illness and medically unexplained symptoms.

Linda is a member of the Royal Society for Public Health; a recipient of the NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership and an alumnus of the Global Health Leadership Forum.

Rebecca Charlwood

Councillor Rebecca Charlwood is the Chair of the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board and has been the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adults for Leeds City Council since May 2016.

Councillor Charlwood moved to Leeds at the age of 20 for university and has called the city home ever since. After university, she was determined to pursue a career that could genuinely make a difference to the lives of others. So, she became a mental health support worker, with a focus on peer support. Her four years in that environment had a profound effect. She then went on to work for a national charity for a further four years as a quality officer. This role reinforced just how important it is that people receive the right support at the right time, in order to help them work towards recovery.

Councillor Charlwood then began a Masters degree in public policy and management. This led to her decision to get involved in politics, with a commitment to making sure the right people were making the right decisions about how best to support those who need it most.

Following completion of her Masters, Councillor Charlwood continued to work within the third sector, as a UK compliance advisor for a care provider. She was then elected to represent Moortown and Meanwood ward as a local councillor.

Kate Chartres

Kate Chartres is a registered Mental Health Nurse with around 18 years post-qualification experience.

As the Nurse Consultant at Sunderland Psychiatric Liaison Team, she has provided clinical practice and professional leadership for the nursing team, research, training and development. The service has been accredited by the RCP with excellence (PLAN).

Previously, she worked for nine years within crisis services, Primary Care, EIP and Clinical Management of the Psychiatric Liaison Teams within NTW.

Chris Child

Chris Child is Communications Manager for NHS England’s Primary Care Digital Transformation team.

He was a journalist and health correspondent with a major regional newspaper before working for over 10 years as a Communications Director for the Government in the North East.

He latterly led on communications for a national heart charity.

Professor Frank Chinegwundoh MBE

Professor Frank Chinegwundoh MBE MBBS MS MML (Med Law) FRCS (Eng) FRCS(Ed) FRCS (Urol) FEBU, is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, the Honorary Visiting Professor at City University of London, School of Health Sciences, Chairman of Cancer Black Care, Trustee of TACKLE (National Federation of Prostate Cancer Support Groups) and an advisor to Prostate Cancer UK. Frank was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list 2013, for services to the NHS. The opinions in this blog are Frank’s own.

Teresa Chinn MBE

Teresa Chinn is a Registered Nurse, and Professional Social Media Community Development and blogger for WeNurses.

Teresa was an agency nurse who found herself professionally isolated and reached out to social media to connect with other nurses.

Teresa runs WeNurses which is primarily a Twitter-based real time weekly discussion that enables nurses to share ideas, information, experience and expertise around a predetermined subject.

WeNurses has grown and developed significantly and now has a following of nearly 75,000 and uses a range of social media to engage them including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Vimeo, Blogs and Prezi.

In addition to running WeNurses Teresa has become a social media specialist and now works with healthcare organisations delivering workshops, seminars, speaking at conferences and providing social media consultancy.

In 2005 Teresa received an MBE for services to nursing .

Teresa tweets as @AgencyNurse and @WeNurses.

Professor Prathiba Chitsabesan

Professor Prathiba Chitsabesan is National Clinical Director for Children and Young People’s Mental Health, NHS England.

Prathiba is a Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry working in a large mental health and community trust (Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust). Lead consultant since 2005, she became Clinical Director in 2015 and continues to work clinically within a community child and adolescent mental health service in South Manchester. She graduated from Medicine (University of Manchester) before completing her MD, inspiring her interest in the needs of children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system.

Over the last 12 years she has published in journals and books and contributed to national reports and guidance for the Youth Justice Board and Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

She has contributed to the development of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool across the youth justice secure estate for the Department of Health and NHS England and continues to be research active as an Honorary Research Fellow and Lecturer for the Offender Health Research Network (University of Manchester).

As a clinical advisor (Greater Manchester and East Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks), she has also promoted the development of regional clinical guidance across Greater Manchester.

Dr Shera Chok

Dr Shera Chok is a GP in Tower Hamlets Together vanguard and Director of Primary Care, Barts Health NHS Trust.

Shera is a GP in Tower Hamlets, a member of the Tower Hamlets multispecialty community provider vanguard and Director of Primary Care at Barts Health. Her role involves bringing a primary care voice and perspective to the largest acute trust in England, shaping their clinical strategy, listening to our GP partners, improving patient safety, delivering new models of care and building relationships with primary care and CCGs. Shera is also a member of the national Independent Reconfiguration Panel which advises ministers on NHS reconfiguration, and a Clinical Associate with NHS England’s new care models team.

Shera’s MBA and MA in Inter-Professional Education focused on patient experience and clinical leadership. She won a Nuffield Trust Fellowship on cross-organisational learning and studied at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Improvement (IHI) in Boston as part of the prestigious NHS Executive Fast Track Programme. She has worked in Sudan, Indonesia, Laos and Greece as a clinician with leading NGOs.

Chris Smith

Chris Smith is Clinical Director of Ambulance, Urgent Care and Community Services part of the My Life a Full Life vanguard (Isle of Wight) vanguard.

Chris started his career with West Midlands Metropolitan Ambulance (WMAS) service in March 1979 as a patient transport driver. He moved to the emergency service as a qualified Ambulance Man in August 1981 and became a paramedic in July 1987.

In 1992 he became a supervisor and was then promoted to Area Superintendent in September 1994. He then held a number of senior manager positions and became Deputy Director of Operations in 1997. In 1998 he then became Director of Operations/Head of Training.

He left WMAS in July 2000 and after a brief spell with Warwickshire Ambulance Service he came to the Isle of Wight on 22nd January 2001 as a Clinical Team Leader. In March 2002 he was seconded to Hampshire Ambulance Service as a Director of Operations returning to the IOWAS in July 2003.

Chris became Head of Ambulance in December 2009 and during this time has lead the team on the development of the integrated care hub. He took over ED MAAU and Bed Management in September 2014 and in November 2015 became Clinical Director of Ambulance, Urgent Care & Community along with Clinical Director of Integrated access and Integrated Localities.

Chris currently also chairs the National Ambulance Control group and holds a seat on the National Director of Operations Group and the National Emergency Care Standards Group.

Dr Karen Chumbley

Dr Karen Chumbley has been a GP in North East Essex for 17 years and the Clinical Director at St Helena Hospice for the last 4 years.

In 2018 she was appointed the Senior Responsible Officer for End of Life Care in North East Essex and is chair of the North East Essex Alliance End of Life Board.

Karen led Castle Gardens Practice in Colchester to be one of the first cohort of practices accredited with the Gold Standard Framework Going for Gold award. She was the Clinical Lead for End of Life care for North East Essex from 2013-2015 and as such led the CCG Primary Care End of Life programme promoting the identification of people approaching the end of life, advance care planning, care coordination and symptom control.

In 2019 Karen was awarded FRCGP for her work in end of life care within Primary Care.

Dr Neil Churchill

Neil is Director for People and Communities at NHS England, having joined the NHS after a 25-year career in the voluntary sector. His work includes understanding people’s experiences of the NHS, involving people and communities in decision-making and leading change to improve the quality and equality of care. He has a particular focus on strengthening partnerships with unpaid carers, volunteers and the voluntary sector.

Neil has previously been a non-executive director for the NHS in the South of England, is a member of the Strategy Board for the Beryl Institute and Chair of Care for the Carers in East Sussex. He is himself an unpaid carer. Neil tweets as @neilgchurchill

Nicky Clark

Nicky is a Senior Lecturer, Lead Midwife for Education and the Head of department for Midwifery and Child Health at the University of Hull. Nicky provides professional advice at strategic and operational levels and takes full responsibility for the impact of midwifery practice, midwifery research and midwifery education within the Faculty.

Nicky has significant experience in Higher education, having worked in HE since 1990. Nicky is a member of the NHS England’s taskforce for developing a New Model of Supervision and is co-chair of the education workstream. Nicky chairs the LME strategic reference group; is a member of the NMC Education stakeholder forum to provide input and have oversight of the NMC’s education framework and is a member of the CoDH Midwifery advisory group working on the vision for the future midwife.

Nicky qualified as a registered general nurse in 1982 and her first midwife teacher post was in 1990. Nicky has undertaken many national and international external collaborations, working in the UK and across Europe and Asia providing expert advice on programme approvals in midwifery, and also undertaking institutional quality assurance reviews across the UK and Croatia.

Fiona Clark

Fiona Clark has worked in and around the NHS from ward to Board for more than 30 years, first qualifying as a registered general nurse and midwife and currently sitting on the Board of Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as a non-executive director, a position she has held for 13 years.

She has worked extensively in the voluntary sector developing services and managing projects in healthcare related charities locally, nationally and internationally. Fiona is currently the NHS Programme Director leading the development of Scaling up Shared Lives in Health programme funded by NHS England.

Janice Clark

Janice has been an unpaid carer for over fifty years caring for relatives who could not manage without her help because of disability and illness. Her areas of interest in health and social care are mental health care; dementia care; the care of older people and cancer care. Her sons and grandchildren have been, or are currently, young and young adult carers. This is an area of carer’s needs that is close to her heart, and she champions the rights of families and children who provide care to be recognised and better supported. This involves encouraging education, the NHS and social care to work closely together in a whole family approach.

Professor David M Clark

Professor David M Clark is Clinical and Informatics Advisor: NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression, NHS England.

Professor David M Clark holds the Chair of Experimental Psychology at University of Oxford and is the National Clinical and Informatics Advisor for the NHS Talking Therapies Programme. Along with Lord Richard Layard and other colleagues, he is one of the original architects of the programme.

He is well-known for his research on the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders, especially panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Recognition of his work includes Lifetime Achievement Awards from the British Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association.

Olivia Clark-Young

Olivia Clark-Young is from a seaside town in Essex. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes aged seven.

By day, Olivia works in a post office and in her spare time is a keen baker and regularly volunteers for Diabetes UK to help others living with Type 1 diabetes – particularly children – learn about and better manage their condition.

Follow Olivia on twitter: @livvyinabox

Janet Clarke

Janet Clarke qualified in the 1980s from Birmingham University and went on to work in general practice, but primarily the community dental service in and around Birmingham. She has significant involvement with the British Dental Association, firstly as Chair of the Central Committee for Community and Public Health Dentistry and then as BDA President in 2011. She was a member of the Steele Review team in 2008 and led the production of the Commissioning Guide for Special Care Dentistry that was published in 2015. She is currently Deputy Chief Dental Officer for England, chairs the Local Professional Network for dentistry in the West Midlands and was awarded an MBE for services to dentistry in 2010.

Emily Clarke

Genetic Counsellor working with families for the charity Genetic Disorders UK.

Katie Clarke-Day

Katie Clarke-Day is an expert by experience as a patient living with numerous long term conditions.

She has a background as a social worker and psychologist, but due to ill health, now spends as much time as possible using her skills and experience to advocate for an improved patient experience.

Katie works alongside NHS England on a number of projects and is also the lead governor of an NHS foundation trust. On Thursday, she is taking part in a patient panel session at the Insight and Feedback Conference in Leeds.

Julie Clayton

Julie Clayton is the Head of Communications and Engagement at NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group and leads co-production across the North Cumbria Health and Care Partnership.

She supports the local health and community forums and has worked to involve people, patients, staff and the third sector in service change and developing the future strategy for services in the area.

Siobhan Clibbens

Siobhan Clibbens has worked with NHS England for three years, starting in the corporate PMO, supporting the Strategy Programme Board, moving to the-then Policy Directorate in the Partnerships team.

Siobhan is Senior Information Manager for the Yorkshire and Humber specialised commissioning hub, working with the CSU and specialised commissioning contract and finance leads to ensure contractual relationships with providers are underpinned by good quality data and information.

Siobhan is the inaugural co-chair of the LGBT+ Staff Network at NHS England, alongside Oli Mansell, a post she has held since September 2015

Her previous jobs include Community Networks Coordinator at ARK Housing in Edinburgh, a housing association supporting people with learning disabilities and other support needs; Health Improvement Coordinator at NHS Education for Scotland, and Project Support Officer in Adult Social Care at Essex County Council.

Trevor Clower

Trevor Clower is an unpaid carer living in Nottingham. He is very active organising and running 16 Carers Road Shows each year offering free support for all Carers. Trevor is an active campaigner for both carers and people with learning disabilities.

Barry Cockcroft

Barry Cockcroft qualified from Birmingham Dental School in 1973 and worked for 27 years in NHS general dental practice.

He was elected to the General Dental Services Committee of the British Dental Association in 1990, serving on many sub-committees and working groups before being elected vice-chairman in 2000.

He was appointed Deputy Chief Dental Officer for England in November 2002 and appointed as Chief Dental Officer in 2006.

In 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire for his contribution to the dental profession.

He was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List of 2010.

A year later, Barry was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Faculty of General Dental Practice.

Miriam Coffie

Miriam began her career working for the NHS as a Midwife providing antenatal, labour and postnatal care in both hospital and community settings. She progressed to further specialist community qualification as a Registered Health Visitor, providing support and advice on child and family health and child development.

In her role as a Health Visitor she worked across Luton, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire for many years working with GPs, social workers, children’s centres and a host of other professionals to promote the wellbeing of children under the age of five years and their families. In 2011, Miriam took a role with the local primary care trust to support commissioning of health services in Bedfordshire, primarily working with GPs to ensure services provided were of high quality and demonstrated value for money. Miriam was responsible for the commissioning and reviewing of several healthcare services in Bedfordshire including services from local GPs for people with long term conditions.

In 2017, Miriam moved into a quality assurance role with NHS England as the Head of Quality for the Central Midlands area, leading on a variety of work streams including maternity transformation, enhanced health in care homes and the GP Nursing 10 Point Plan. Miriam is substantively the Head of Nursing for Professional Standards for NHS England (Midlands) and is responsible for a large portfolio including oversight of patient experience and patient engagement activities, the Chief Nursing Officer’s priorities associated with workforce, complaints for services commissioned by NHS England, leadership and support for carers, equalities and health inequalities, and General Practice nursing across the region.

In October 2021, Miriam commenced a secondment to Assistant Director of Nursing and Quality for the locality team and retains several nursing corporate projects such as nursing and midwifery equalities and leadership development.

Here you can read a recent article written by Miriam for Black History Month.

Yvonne Coghill

Yvonne Coghill CBE, OBE, JP, MSc, DMS, RGN, RMN, HV, CPT, Dip Exec Coaching.

Yvonne commenced nurse training at Central Middlesex Hospital in 1977, qualified as a general nurse in 1980 and then went on to qualify in mental health nursing and health visiting. In 1986 she secured her first NHS management job and has since held a number of operational and strategic leadership posts.

In 2004, she was appointed at the Department of Health as Private Secretary to the Chief Executive of the NHS, Sir Nigel Crisp.

Yvonne is currently the Director – WRES Implementation in NHS England, and deputy president of the RCN.

Tina Coldham

Tina campaigns for a better understanding of mental health issues in society, and works to improve service provision. She describes herself as having enduring mental health problems, having used mental health services over many years.

Tina has worked in the voluntary sector, across disability, in academia, with regulators and governing bodies as a trainer, researcher and consultant. In 2001 Tina joined the Centre for Mental Health Services Development England (CMHSDE) at King’s College as a project coordinator, working on the successful national pilot to implement direct payments in mental health.

Since 2003, she has worked for the Health and Social Care Advisory Service (HASCAS) on various national projects including direct payments work, service reviews, independent investigations, and MARD – the review of user and carer involvement in NIMHE (CSIP). Tina also chairs the SCIE co-production network.

Dr Katie Coleman

Dr Katie Coleman is a GP partner at The City Road Medical Centre. The practice was established in 1999 in collaboration with Dr Josephine Sauvage, Chair of Islington CCG and together they developed the organisation into a thriving inner-city training practice.

She is the Islington CCG Governing board GP lead for Patient and Public Participation and the Chief Clinical Information Officer, leading on the development of integrated care records for Islington residents in collaboration with other CCGs across North London Partners in health and social care.

She is the North London Partners clinical lead in Primary care and Care Closer to Home, providing strategic direction on the development of Care Closer to Home Integration networks and Quality improvement support teams (QISTs), Access to GP services and social prescribing.

Katie has recently taken up a GP Director role for the Islington GP federation.

Dr Linda Collie

Dr Linda Collie is Clinical Executive at NHS Portsmouth CCG.

Dr Donal Collins

Dr Donal Collins qualified in Cork, Ireland in 1989 and worked for five years in a busy district general hospital in Limerick.

He finished his GP training in Gosport, Hampshire, before taking on a full- time job at The Highlands Practice in Fareham.

Dr Collins developed his special interest in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) conditions and finished his postgraduate diploma in ENT in 2007.

Following this Dr Collins was part of a group who set up Fareham Area Clinical Enterprise (FACE) Ltd in Fareham and Gosport.

He is now chairman of FACE, which runs ENT, gynaecology and cardiology clinics in the community, at GP surgeries in the area. He is also lead for the community ENT service.

Dr Collins is Clinical Lead for the Multi-Specialty Community Provider in Gosport and Chairman of Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Alliance.

Professor Alf Collins

Professor Alf Collins is NHS England’s Clinical Director, Personalised Care Group.

He was a community consultant in pain management and in parallel worked for a decade with the Health Foundation. He has researched and published widely on self-management support, shared decision making, care planning, co-production, patient activation and patient engagement.

He has honorary fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners and is a Visiting Professor at Coventry University.

Dr Kiren Collison

Dr Kiren Collison is a GP and Deputy Medical Director for Primary Care, NHS England.
Kiren has a focus on strengthening primary care, the interface between primary and secondary care and patient safety. She has previously worked across settings, both as provider and commissioner, and has been the chair of the NHS national long COVID taskforce.

Dr Vincent Connolly

Dr Vincent Connolly is currently Medical Director for the Emergency Care Improvement Programme and Consultant Physician at the James Cook University Hospital.

He has an interest in Diabetes and Endocrinology and a medical doctorate on the impact of social deprivation on diabetes mellitus.

He has been Clinical Lead for the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team since 2010, was a member of the National Clinical Advisory Team and, since 2011, has been Clinical Advisor to the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement Ambulatory Emergency Care Delivery Network.

Dr Connolly was previously Chair of the North East SHA, Clinical Innovation Team for Acute Care, and a recipient of the Hospital Doctor Acute Medicine Team of the Year Award 2004.

Alison Cook

Alison Cook is Director of External Affairs at the Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Partnership. Throughout her role at the Partnership, she helped establish the Taskforce for Lung Heath, which is a coalition of patients, clinicians, charities and health organisations that work closely together to seek and support better ways of improving prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all lung diseases.

Alison earned her PhD researching nervous system signals processing with a focus on pain modulation. She then completed post-doctoral research in colour vision at University College London.

In her early career she worked as a specialist journalist for the BBC as a bi-media correspondent in regional and national news before becoming Programme Editor. She then became Head of Media at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and following that was asked to join the Department of Health as Head of Policy Communications and Special Advisor to Ministers in both the Department of Health and Number 10.

Alison became Director of External Affairs at the Royal College of Surgeons, setting up their communications and policy teams and steering the College through the Health and Social Care Act. She had previously headed the media and public affairs team at Cancer Research UK. Her first role for a charity was as Director of External Affairs for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Lisa Cooper

Lisa Cooper is Chair of the NHS England Child Sexual Exploitation sub-group and Assistant Director of Nursing, Quality & Safety for Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral Area Team.

Simon Corben

Simon Corben is Director and Head of Profession for NHS Estates and Facilities at NHS England.
Simon joined the NHS in May 2017, after 16 years in the private sector, to lead the estates and facilities function which includes both primary and secondary care estate. Building on the Carter Implementation Programme and Naylor Review, Simon leads on work including the Model Hospital, sustainability and ICS Infrastructure Strategies, ProCure23, and delivery of the Health Infrastructure Programmes announced by the Prime Minister in 2019. Simon also led the NHS Estates response to the COVID-19 pandemic including the delivery of the Nightingale hospitals with over 3,500 critical care beds in a matter of weeks.

Derek Corbett

Derek Corbett is a patient safety partner working as a lay person to support the NHS London region team, by providing a patient voice and sharing their insight from their experiences of NHS care, to help improve patient safety across London.

Dr Jacqueline Cornish

Dr Jacqueline Cornish was the National Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Transition to Adulthood in NHS England from 2013 to 2019.

As a clinician she specialised in pioneering treatments for childhood cancer and leukaemia, and brought to NHS England 20 years’ leadership experience in the NHS, having been Head of Division of Women’s and Children’s Services at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, and a former Director of Paediatric Stem Cell Transplant (SCT) at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

The post of National Clinical Director for Children and Young People is now held by Professor Simon Kenny, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool and National Clinical Lead for Paediatric Surgery for the Getting It Right First Time programme.

Caroline Corrigan

Caroline Corrigan has been the National Workforce Lead with the New Care Models Team since November 2015.

Her role is to support and enable vanguards to design and develop a modern, flexible workforce that addresses local population needs. In addition, Caroline continues to work with Health Education England on all aspects of workforce transformation.

Previously Caroline lead Health Education East of England which focuses on the development of people for health and healthcare. Prior to joining HEE Caroline spent six years at the Department of Health. Her roles there included People Transition Director for the NHS, Talent Management Lead and lead for the department’s business plan.

Caroline has worked for over 15 years for NHS Trusts as an HR Director and national organisations, including the Modernisation Agency. She is a fellow of the CIPD and has worked with the Complexity Group London School of Economics.

Follow Caroline on Twitter: @CarolineCorrig3.

Professor Paul Corrigan, CBE

Professor Paul Corrigan gained his first degree in social policy from the LSE in 1969, his PhD at Durham in 1974. He is currently adjunct professor of public health at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and of health policy at Imperial College London.

For the first 12 years of his working life he taught at Warwick University and the Polytechnic of North London. During this period he taught, researched and wrote about inner city social policy and community development. In 1985 he left academic life and became a senior manager in London local government and in 1997 he started to work as a public services management consultant. In 1998 he published Shakespeare on Management.

From July 2001 he worked as a special adviser to Alan Milburn first and then John Reid, the then Secretary of States for Health. At the end of 2005 he became the senior health policy adviser to the Prime Minister Tony Blair. Over these six years he was instrumental in developing all the major themes of NHS reform not only in terms of policy levers buy also in developing capacity throughout the NHS to use those levers.

Between June 2007 and March 2009 he was the director of strategy and commissioning at the London Strategic Health Authority.

Since then Paul has been working as a management consultant and an executive coach helping leaders within the NHS and internationally create and develop step changes within their organisation. In September 2011 he published a pamphlet “The hospital is dead Long live the Hospital” that was recognised by a leader in the Times as an important contribution to reform. He continues to argue the case for NHS reform. From July 2013 he has become a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission. In 2015 he is working with NHS England to help them develop the new models of care.

Follow Paul on Twitter @Paul_Corrigan.

Rebecca Cosgriff

Rebecca is part of the senior team leading the Data for Research and Development Programme on its mission to provide rapid, secure access to the world’s largest linked health datasets.

Prior to joining the Programme, Rebecca was Director of Data and Quality Improvement at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and her experience includes clinical audit in NHS mental health, neurology and ophthalmology.

Paul Court

Paul Court joined Healthworks as their Chief Executive in October 2019. Paul supported the development and formation of Healthworks over 27 years ago and since then has worked at a senior level across the NHS and Newcastle City Council, shaping policy and practice to improve outcomes for disadvantaged communities including children and young people. Previously, Paul has developed and led Sure Start services, been a researcher influencing national policy, NHS board member and a long serving Grant Committee member for BBC Children in Need. Paul is a current volunteer Director for Swim England North East.

Dr Dan Cowie

Dr Dan Cowie, Clinical Director Transformation, Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group.

Dan graduated in 1999 from Newcastle University and qualified as GP in 2004. Over the last 10 years he has worked as a GP in varies roles with a particular focus on elderly care. Dan has also been a part time clinical author of clinical knowledge summaries and writing guidelines for primary care.

He took up a GP partnership at Crowhall Medical Group in 2012 and also started his work within Gateshead Clinical Commissioning (CCG) Group as the Community Services and Urgent Care lead. Recently, Dan has been leading transformation work within the CCG and has particular interest in service redesign.

Duncan Craig

Duncan Craig, Chief Executive Officer and Psychotherapist. FRSA. MBACP ACRED; MA Couns (dist); Cert EMDR.

Duncan is the founder and Chief Executive of Survivors Manchester, a third sector organisation offering therapeutic and advocacy support to boys and men affected by sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation.

He began designing and developing Survivors Manchester’s services in 2009, when he identified a gap in support provision for boys and men, and continues to develop new services today, most recently across the male prison estate.

As a qualified and BACP Accredited trauma-informed psychotherapist, Duncan’s personal and professional experience of sexual violation has presented him with the opportunity to be involved in a number of national inquiries, projects and forums, including The Stern Review; the National Rape Working Group; and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner on the Child Sexual Exploitation in Groups and Gangs.

Duncan has also consulted on a number of projects, including work with male sex workers; and provided input into various media outlets including BBC Crimewatch, Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, C4 Hollyoaks (where he was storyline consultant on the John Paul rape story) and more recently, the ground breaking male rape story on Coronation Street.

He is the co-founder of the Male Survivors Partnership, a consortium of male survivor organisations working together to create quality assured support; and most recently has travelled to New York, Iceland, Portugal and New Zealand to talk about the work he does and supporting others to break the silence.

In 2015, Duncan was awarded The Guardian Charity Trailblazer of the Year and most recently, became a Fellow of the Royal Society Arts.

Simon Cramp

Simon Cramp lives in Chesterfield where he promotes the rights of disabled people at every opportunity.

He has a learning difficulty himself, and works with people with learning disabilities, helping them get the right support and information. He offers expert advice on all issues to do with learning disability and has extensive experience working as a consultant throughout the learning disability sector and was an early member of the National Forum for People with Learning Disabilities.

Simon has a great interest in politics and political structures and has always been keen to get involved to make things better. He is also a powerful advocate on making writings accessible and he worked for several years as a member of the advisory committee on older and disabled people for Ofcom. He has also worked at a senior board level for two major learning disability organisations.

Simon has been an important advocate for personalisation and co-authored a key paper on supported decision-making with Simon Duffy in 2004.

Pete Crane

Pete is a 63 year old grandad who is now retired following many years working as a bank cashier.

Pete is married to Wendy and together they have raised son and daughter Nick and Sarah – both Nick and Sarah have good lives, friends, jobs and mortgages – but Nick has been profoundly learning disabled since birth.

Pete has always regarded both his children as having equal civil rights – equal needs for love and respect – and being equally important to him.

Pete would always ‘swap the labels’ in order to work out what a good life should look like – for example “would I put my 6 year old daughter alone on a bus and send her 20 miles away each day to school ? – no ! – so why would I do that to my son Nick – therefore he should go to a local school like his sister would.”

As Nick’s parents for 35 years, Pete and Wendy have been involved in many ways with the positive changes that have been taking place in civil society for people with a learning disability – most notably Pete was the chair of the national charity IPSEA for many years and in this role gave evidence to both the House of Lords and the House of Commons on various disability related matters.

Following the events at Winterbourne View, Pete was involved as an ‘expert by experience’ in the Care Quality Commission inspections of Assessment and Treatment Centres for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

Recently Pete has been working as an ‘expert by experience’ involved in the NHS CTR program – this is managed and enabled by NWTDT (North West Training and Development Team) / Pathways, an organisation based in Accrington that has various networks and work streams all designed to improve the lives of people and families living with learning disability and/or autism. Pathways is working hard to capture and share the knowledge that self-advocates, families and professionals all have in order to enable civil society to welcome and include people with learning disabilities and/or autism – and at the same time allow us all to benefit from the gifts and talents that everyone has.

Professor Matthew Cripps

Professor Matthew Cripps is National Director of NHS RightCare, a part of NHS England that focusses on population healthcare improvement and helping the wider health service to identify and use techniques, tools and methodologies to increase value in healthcare.

Its focus on increasing value at system level, for individuals and the population, is seen as integral to the delivery of financial sustainability for the NHS.

Jill Crook

Jill Crook is the Transforming Care Lead for NHS England South region.

Jill has been a Director of Nursing for 15 years in a variety of strategic roles including the Chief Nursing Officers directorate at the Department of Health, Avon Gloucestershire & Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority, Gloucestershire & Swindon Primary Care Trusts and the Bath, Gloucestershire, Swindon & Wiltshire Area Team of NHS England. Jill’s clinical background is within both mental health and general nursing with a large focus on community settings.

From February 2015 Jill has been working on a part time basis as the Project Lead for Transforming Care Learning Disabilities and Autism supporting the Chief Nurse within NHS England South Region.

Jill enjoys an effective work life balance and in her personal time enjoys cooking, gardening and walking.

Richard Cross

Richard Cross is 71 years old and spent his working life as an auditor. His wife Sheila has multiple Long-Term Conditions, including COPD, spinal and related arthritic conditions, severe abdominal pains and mental health issues.

On behalf of carers nationwide, he has met David Cameron at 10 Downing Street, had several visits to Westminster to meet other M.P’s, a carers meeting at The Foreign Office (for their staff) and many local meetings with influential representatives of both government departments and regulatory bodies.

Elaine Cross

Elaine is a patient from Sheffield with lived experience of Type 2 diabetes, depression, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis. She has experienced the best and the worst of care as a patient. But, that has motivated her to become first a patient champion in her GP practice and then complete the NHS England Peer Leadership Development Programme which has been life changing.

Locally, she has been involved in the development of a person-centred approach to the management of people with long-term conditions at her local GP practice including the formation and induction of patient peer support volunteers and has been involved in setting up a peer led mental health peer support group.

At national level, Elaine sits on the NHS England Lived Experience Co-production Group, the Perioperative Care Stakeholder Group, and the Primary Care Assisted Recovery Plan Board. Being a member of the NHS England Peer Leader Network has given her some amazing opportunities to have her patient voice heard.

Eddie Crouch

Eddie Crouch is Vice Chairman of the British Dental Association Principal Executive Committee and has worked in South Birmingham providing primary care to patients in dental practices for more than 25 years.

He is active in supporting colleagues locally via the Local Dental Committee and nationally via the BDA , and is a member of the Birmingham Black Country and Solihull Local Professional Network who advise commissioners on patient services.

Paula Cruise

Paula started in the NHS in 1993 working in the private office of the Director of Policy for the NHS Executive. Most of her NHS career has been spent in nursing directorates within Primary Care Trusts.

She joined the NHS Commissioning Board in 2012 has PA/Business Manager in the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s private office. Moving to the Patient Experience team in 2014 and into the Leadership Support Manager role in 2018. This role has specific responsibility for young carers, young adult carers and carers in the armed forces.

You can follow Paula on Twitter: @CruisePM

Mark Cubbon

Mark is Chief Delivery Officer at NHS England. Reporting directly to the NHS Chief Executive, Mark is responsible for driving change across the NHS to support the move to system working and enable delivery.

The team that Mark leads is responsible for the creation of the new NHSE Operating Framework, the establishment of Integrated Care Systems and the continued development of providers, and for the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan. He is also the Senior Responsible Owner for the merger of Health Education England, NHS Digital, NHSX, and NHSE (formerly NHS England and NHS Improvement), one of the largest change programmes across the NHS.

Mark joined the NHS as a nurse 30 years ago and held several director roles in London NHS Trusts before taking on the role of regional chief operating officer for NHS Improvement, working across the Midlands and East of England. Immediately prior to joining NHS England, Mark was Chief Executive at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust

Baroness Julia Cumberlege, CBE DL

Baroness Julia Cumberlege CBE DL was appointed a Junior Health Minister in 1992 and for five years she covered all Health and Social Services matters in the House of Lords.

She has been commissioned by two Governments to produce two national reports: “Neighbourhood Nursing – a Focus for Care” and “Changing Childbirth”.

At the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians, Julia has chaired two working parties. The first report “Doctors in Society” was published in December 2005. The second, “Future Physician, Changing Doctors in Changing Times”, was published in May 2010.

From 2000 until July 2006, Julia chaired St George’s Medical School.

Professor Jane Cummings

Professor Jane Cummings is the Chief Nursing Officer for England and Executive Director at NHS England.

Jane specialised in emergency care and has held a wide variety of roles across the NHS including Director of Commissioning, Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive.

In February 2004, she became the national lead for emergency care agreeing and implementing the 98% operational standard. She has also worked as the nursing advisor for emergency care. In January 2005, she was appointed as the National Implementation Director for ‘Choice’ and ‘Choose and Book’.

Jane moved to NHS North West in November 2007 where she held executive responsibility for the professional leadership of nursing, quality, performance as well as QIPP, commissioning and for a time Deputy Chief Executive Officer. In October 2011, she was appointed to the role of Chief Nurse for the North of England SHA Cluster.

She was appointed as Chief Nursing Officer for England in March 2012 and started full time in June 2012. Jane is the professional lead for all nurses and midwives in England (with the exception of public health) and published the ‘6Cs’ and ‘Compassion in Practice’ in December 2012, followed by publishing the ‘Leading Change, Adding Value’ framework in May 2016.

Jane has executive oversight of maternity, patient experience, learning disability and, in January 2016, became executive lead for Patient and Public Participation.

She was awarded Doctorates by Edge Hill University and by Bucks New University, and she is a visiting professor at Kingston University and St George’s University, London.

She is also Director and trustee for Macmillan Cancer Support and a clinical Ambassador for the Over the Wall Children’s Charity where she volunteers as a nurse providing care for children affected by serious illnesses.

Follow Jane on Twitter: @JaneMCummings.

Dr James Cusack

Since joining Autistica Dr James Cusack has led the development of a research strategy focused on outcomes, leading to their new vision, “a world where all autistic people and their families live a long, healthy, happy life”.

Autistica has also sought to build involvement to every stage of their work, including the launch of Discover: the UK’s first autism research network.

Since James joined Autistica they have also dramatically expanded their portfolio of world class research. He has successfully worked with funders and academics to influence research funding strategy to make sure community priorities and critical issues like early death in autism are on their agenda.

Prior to joining Autistica James undertook a PhD and postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Aberdeen, and while in Scotland has worked in a range of different roles related to autism including the Scottish autism strategy.

Annie-Rose Cutler

Annie-Rose Cutler is a young adult carer and student nurse.

Sir David Dalton

Sir David Dalton was appointed as chief executive of The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in April 2016 in addition to his role as chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, a post he has held since 2001.

Sir David has a strong profile, both locally within Greater Manchester, and nationally in the areas of quality improvement and patient safety. His leadership focuses on a disciplined approach of applied ‘improvement science’ coupled with deep staff involvement.

He is currently involved in two strategic developments: creating a fully integrated health and social care system for the City; and developing the concept of standardisation of best practice and seeking to apply this at scale, through a digital enterprise, across multiple organisations.

Sir David has developed national health policy and advised government in the areas of patient safety, new organisational forms and digital development. He was the founder Chair of AQuA, NHS QUEST, and Haelo: each of which support organisations in their improvement activities.

He is also the Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network and a Governor of the Health Foundation.

Georgi Daluiso-King BSc MSc MCSP MMACP

Personalised Care Lead and Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist in Sussex MSK Partnership Central.

As Personalised Care Lead, Georgi creates and embeds the culture of personalised care across Sussex MSK Partnership Central, with a team of 18 personalised care champions, to galvanise this work with all colleagues through coaching and education.

Personalised Care Lead and Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist in Sussex MSK Partnership Central.

As Personalised Care Lead, Georgi creates and embeds the culture of personalised care across Sussex MSK Partnership Central, with a team of 18 personalised care champions, to galvanise this work with all colleagues through coaching and education.

Georgi works as a First Contact Practitioner within a GP practice in Brighton, through this role she has fostered a closeness, understanding and connection between primary and community care. Georgi also provides her clinical expertise as a spinal and lower limb specialist Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist. Georgi manages contracts with local community and voluntary sector organisations, with a particular interest in social prescribing.

Fiona Daly

As the National Deputy Director of Estates for NHS England, Fiona is tasked with leading the strategies, policies and national programmes to decarbonise of the NHS Estate, improve operational resilience and patient experience, and develop the 100,000 strong Estates and Facilities Workforce; driving innovation, engagement and delivery, and providing healthcare organisations with critical support they need to implement their plans.

Fiona has 17 years’ experience of working in Estates and Facilities Management and is passionate about reducing health and social inequalities, establishing an estate that supports the transition to sustainable models of care throughout the NHS. She is focused on driving the delivery of a healthy, resilient healthcare estate; tackling organisational leadership, investment in the built environment and developing the skills and capacity of the current and future NHS workforce. In 2018 she was made an honorary professor at University College London (UCL) for her contribution in supporting the development of students in her field.

Dr Ron Daniels

Dr Ron Daniels BEM is the Chief Executive of the UK Sepsis Trust where he provides clinical advice to NHS England, the Department of Health and to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Anaesthetists and Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. He is also Chief Executive of the Global Sepsis Alliance, and was instrumental in bringing the Chairman’s concept of the World Sepsis Declaration to fruition.

Blake Dark

Blake is the Commercial Medicines Director for NHS England. He is NHS England’s chief negotiator with the pharmaceutical industry and SRO for the broader cross-organisational Medicines Value Program.

Blake‘s team oversee all commercial discussions with companies in relation to individual drugs: Drugs that trigger the £20 million budget impact test (BIT); commercial arrangements associated with the Cancer Drug Fund (CDF); commercial arrangements relating to NICE’s Highly Specialised Technology appraisal programme (HST); commercial arrangements relating to NHS England’s clinical policy process overseen by its Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG).

Blake also leads a procurement function relating to medicines used in secondary care; Commercial Medicines Unit (CMU).
Before joining NHS England in Oct 2018, Blake held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry for 24 years at Sanofi. Blake has led both innovative pharma and generic businesses in the UK for 15 years and 9 years running innovative pharma businesses across multiple countries in Europe and as Commercial Operations Head for Sanofi’s global generic’s company.

Dr Natalie Darko

Dr Natalie Darko, Associate Professor of Health Inequalities, at the University of Leicester and Director of Inclusion at the Leicester National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre.

Dr Natalie Darko specialises in health research and practice that addresses equality, equity, and inclusion of underrepresented and minority groups. She has extensive experience in leading and delivering research within the field of health inequalities, of which her current research projects focus on maternal health, womb cancer, social prescribing, diabetes, faith-based interventions, and dementia. She supports researchers, organisations and practitioners on how to work collaboratively with and for underserved and minority groups to inform equitable health and research practice.

Dr Charlie Davie

Dr Charlie Davie joined UCLPartners in 2009 as Stroke Lead and subsequently took on the role of Programme Director for Neurosciences.

He was appointed as Director of the AHSN in 2014 and became Managing Director in May 2015. He provides strategic leadership for the AHSN and its integrated programmes, supporting the operational and clinical directors in transforming care for patients and populations.

Before joining UCLPartners, Charlie was the clinical lead for stroke services at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, where he continues his clinical work as Consultant Neurologist. He has also been the stroke lead for the North Central London Cardiovascular and Stroke Network.

Charlie played a pivotal role in redesigning stroke services in London and large areas of England, which has resulted in significantly improved outcomes.

He qualified in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1986 and completed much of his postgraduate clinical training and early research at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. He was awarded a doctorate with honours by University of Glasgow in 1997 and has been a consultant at the Royal Free since 1999.

Kate Davies

Kate Davies CBE, Director of Health and Justice, Armed Forces and Sexual Assault Services Commissioning, NHS England.

Kate is the national director for healthcare services across England for Armed Forces serving personnel, veterans and their families; sexual assault referral centres (SARCs); and prisons, immigration removal centres and secure children’s homes and training centres. Her national role is to assure high quality, consistent and sustained services with a strong focus on health inequalities and outcomes for patients and their families.

Kate has developed and led national partnership agreements with the Ministry of Defence for Armed Forces commissioning, the Ministry of Justice for prisons and the children and young people secure estate and the Home Office for immigration removal centres. These agreements focus on core objectives and outcomes across Government for key patient areas that can only be delivered in partnership.

From a health and justice perspective, she has led the development of the national Liaison & Diversion Programme and Street Triage, the roll out of community sentence treatment requirements and the launch of RECONNECT to support prison leavers transition to community health and wellbeing services. Kate has facilitated the roll-out of increased provision for survivors of sexual violence, the launch of the Strategic Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services and the development of enhanced sexual assault and abuse pathfinder services for individuals with complex trauma mental health needs.

Prior to her current role, Kate worked in a range of senior positions, including the Executive Lead for Prison, Detainee and SARCs Healthcare Commissioning for East Midlands; the strategic director of the award-winning Nottinghamshire County Drug and Alcohol Action Team, where she co-ordinated and delivered the Government’s National Drug Strategy; and the Director of Black and Ethnic Minority Community Engagement at the University of Central Lancashire, International School for Communities Rights and Inclusion. This follows her early career, when she worked as a probation office in the probation service.

In addition, Kate has been a Non-Executive Director on the National Treatment Agency Board and a member of the Government’s independent Board for the Prison Drug Treatment Strategy Patel Review, which implemented the Substance Treatment Service and strategy and delivery across England. She has also been an Ambassador for Diversity in Public Appointments for the Government Public Appointments Commission.

Kate’s strong leadership style and commitment to lived experience, co-production and addressing health inequalities, has led to her being awarded an OBE in 2009 for services for disadvantaged communities and a CBE in 2018, for her work to improve services for some of the most vulnerable groups. She is also an Honorary Doctor of Staffordshire University in recognition of her commitment to health and social equality.

Neil Davies

Neil Davies was thrown out of secondary modern school at the age of 14, with a certificate stating this boy has left school with no qualifications. Neil joined the Parachute Regiment on his 17th birthday and by the age of 19 he’d served on active service tours in the Middle East and North Africa.

Neil left the army with physical injuries and PTSD, and flitted aimlessly from country to country, continent to continent, and job to job; as a logger, steelworker, working on fishing boats, building worker, rank and file union organiser, out-door pursuits instructor and lecturer.

Neil broke into the film industry as a driver and worked his way up, covering all jobs and eventually became an award winning filmmaker; best documentary of the year award for ‘Raw Spice’ – ITV and the huge success of the series; ‘Nights at the Empire’ – Channel Four, ‘Inside RAF Brize Norton’ – Sky One, ‘The Hunt’ – BBC and feature film ‘Dog City’.

Neil is a member of the Soldiers Arts Academy, does volunteer work at the London Veterans Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILS) at St Pancras Hospital and over the last few years scratched an itch for doing stand-up comedy, acting at Shakespeare’s Globe and writing fiction, Falling Soldiers, which was published in April 2019.

Janet Davies

Janet Davies is Chief Executive and General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing.

Janet Davies is the Chief Executive and General Secretary for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the voice of nursing across the UK. The RCN promotes patient and nursing interests on a wide range of issues by working closely with the Government, the UK parliaments and other national and European political institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.

Prior to her current role, Janet was one of the Executive Directors at the RCN and took the strategic lead for nursing and service delivery to its members. Before joining the RCN, she had a long career as a Nurse within the NHS. She was Director of Nursing in West Lancashire and Liverpool and Chief Executive of Mersey Regional Ambulance Service.

Andrew Davies

Andrew Davies is Director of Hospital Pharmacy, NHS Improvement.

Having worked for 17 years as a hospital chief pharmacist Andrew became involved in the Lord Carter productivity programme at NHS Improvement in October 2015, becoming the professional lead for hospital pharmacy and medicines optimisation in January 2017 and director of hospital pharmacy in October 2018.

Dr Helen Davies

Dr Helen Davies is a GP clinical lead for community and population health management in Calderdale which is part of West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. Follow her on Twitter @HelenDa21136593 and connect with Helen on LinkedIn.

Kieran Day

Kieran Day enjoys playing video games (twitchy and YouTube), seeing friends , cinema, and spending time with other young carers.

Dr Stephanie de Giorgio

• Portfolio GP in Kent with an interest in Women’s Health
• Perinatal Mental Health National Clinical Lead and Advisor to NHS England
• Works with Perinatal Mental Health Network to promote education via social media
• Writes and presents the Women’s Health course for NB Medical Education
• Is part of #obsmuk and works with EASO to promote education about and reduce stigma around obesity
• Working with NHS England and charities to help develop evidence based postnatal care in the community.
• Runs Resilient GP, an online peer support and educatino forum she co-founded to support primary care staff
• Likes a nap!

Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy

Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy is President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), having been elected in May 2018 for 3 years.

Jeanelle’s priorities as ADPH president are to continue to develop the Association as a well-respected and vibrant voice for prevention and public health. She is passionate about ADPH advocating for equality in all its forms.

Jeanelle is also Director of Population Health for Tameside and Glossop Strategic Commission, an integrated NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Local Authority organisation, led by both local politicians and NHS clinicians. She has a role in leading population health system reform developments in Greater Manchester.

Ruth Dearnley, OBE

Ruth Dearnley OBE became Chief Executive for STOP THE TRAFFIK in May 2008 having participated in its formation in 2005.

With a law degree and background in education, she inspires and enables people to transform the world around them.

Ruth believes that STOP THE TRAFFIK’s working model demonstrates the unique power of bringing people and technology into a harmonious relationship for good for all, imagining a different future where good can prevail.

Ruth was honoured with the award of an OBE in the 2014 British New Year Honours.

For more information on STOP THE TRAFFIK, please visit the STOP THE TRAFFIK website.

Paul Deemer

Paul has been a HR professional for over 30 years. He has worked in local government, the voluntary sector and the health service – with particular experience in the fields of recruitment, employee relations, employment law and diversity. It was whilst working for the charity Barnardo’s that he took on the role of national equality and diversity manager, further utilising the experience and knowledge gained in this role when he was seconded into the Department of Health’s equality and diversity team in 2000 to help them develop their national strategy in this area. Paul currently works for NHS Employers – which represents and supports NHS trusts across England – and is helping NHS organisations to embed diversity and inclusion good practice across the NHS.

Dr Karen Deeny

Dr Karen Deeny works in the national Patient Experience Team and is leading a work programme to drive improved outcomes and experiences for patients through improving staff experiences of care.

With a clinical background in speech and language therapy and an enduring passion for improvement, Karen has worked as a clinician, manager, researcher, author and coach in health, education and social care.

Karen’s doctoral research involved working with members of more than 200 healthcare teams to understand theirs and their patients’ journeys and using this learning to drive improvement through experience based co-design in the UK and internationally.

Paris Dehghani

Paris Dehghani is a proud and committed mum who was born in Iran.

She is passionate about empowering vulnerable people and an advocate for volunteering.

Joe Dent

Joe Dent, MCPara, MSc Post grad Cert, BSc, is an Advanced Practitioner for Stroke, working at the Salford Royal Hospital. He is also Lead for Stroke at the College of Paramedics.

He has worked in healthcare for 28 years, 26 of those spent working for the ambulance service.
In his current role at Salford Royal, Joe is developing a training package for universities and ambulance trusts to improve education around pre-hospital identification and treatment of strokes.

Joe has an interest in data sharing and management and is a working party member and scientific member for the UK Stroke Forum.

Joanna Dervisoglu

Joanna Dervisoglu, Treasurer and Trustee of Knitted Knockers UK, is a Teaching Assistant, a mum of four and grandmother of three.

Laura Devlin

Laura Devlin is a general practitioner based in Somerset. She is the GP for Inclusion and Homeless Health in Mendip and Yeovil, and Yeovil PCN lead on reducing health inequalities. Since qualifying as a GP in 2008, Dr Devlin has worked in substance misuse and homeless health services in Glasgow, London, and Somerset.

Dr Mo Dewji

Dr Mo Dewji is a partner and trainer in a ten-doctor urban practice in Milton Keynes.

He was the PCG and then PEC chair of MKPCT prior to his appointment as the Head of the National PMS Development Team.

He was then appointed as the Clinical Director for Strategy and System Reform at South Central SHA.

He is now the National Clinical Lead (Primary Care) within the Medical Directorate of the NHS England, where he has been advising on the support of the Friends and Family Test in General Practice.

He has also acted as the clinical lead in the benchmarking of care across health systems and the active use of data to develop and deliver high quality care.

Between his work at the SHA and his recent move to the NHS England he headed the Primary Care QIPP Workstream at the Department of Health.

He has been actively involved in the development of new commissioning models supporting CCG’s and practices, and acted as an advisor to the development of the Diabetes NSF and was one of the founder members of the National Resource Framework Group.

His clinical interests lie in Paediatrics and GP Training.

Dr Martyn Diaper

Dr Martyn Diaper is the Head of Patient Safety (Primary Care) and the chairman of the Primary Care Patient Safety Expert Group at NHS England.

Born and raised in Southampton, Martyn trained at St Thomas’s Hospital and worked in the UK and Australia before settling with his wife in Winchester, where he was a GP for nearly 20 years. During that time he gained an MBA with the Open University and worked with the NHS Institute for innovation and improvement as clinical lead for patient safety.

In 2011 he trained as a Patient Safety Officer in Boston MA at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Martyn worked as Clinical Director for South East Hampshire ISD at Southern Health from 2013 to 2014, and later became Southern Health medical director until July 2015.

He has also worked for NHS Improving Quality as clinical lead for patient safety and commissioner development in its delivery team.

Niall Dickson

The former head of the General Medical Council, Niall Dickson, was appointed Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation in February 2017.

During his time at the GMC from 2010 to 2016, Niall delivered a raft of reforms. These included an expansion of its responsibilities for medical education and training; the introduction of revalidation in 2012; the introduction of language checks for doctors from Europe in 2014, and the establishment of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service to provide a clear separation between the GMC’s investigation of complaints and the adjudication of hearings.

He worked as Chief Executive of the King’s Fund from 2004 to 2009 before being appointed as Chief Executive and Registrar of the General Medical Council in January 2010. Niall also led the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA) until 2016.

He was the editor of the Nursing Times from 1983 to 1988 before joining the BBC as health correspondent and progressing to the position of social affairs editor for BBC News from 1995 to 2003, broadcasting mainly on the BBC1 Ten O’clock News and Radio 4’s Today programme. Niall was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017.

Dr Vin Diwakar

Medical Director for Transformation and Secondary Care National Medical and Transformation Directorates NHS England.

Vin Diwakar is the Medical Director for Transformation in the National Transformation Directorate and leads on the secondary care portfolio in the National Improvement Directorate. He provides clinical leadership to improvement and transformation programmes including those which use improvement science, technology, digital, and data. He leads teams which are supporting improvement and transformation of a number of different clinical areas including diagnostics, urgent, emergency, acute and planned care and is responsible for improving clinical effectiveness.

In his previous role, he provided clinical leadership to London’s health and care system and was a key member of the multiprofessional regional team which led the capital through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben Doak

Ben Doak is the Head of Innovative Treatments at NHS England and has worked for the NHS since 2005 in a number of roles supporting evidence-based patient care. With his team, Ben is responsible for ensuring that services are in place so that patients can benefit from licensed Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) recommended by NICE (the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence) in the NHS in England.

Since commencing his current role in 2020, Ben has overseen the expansion of CAR-T services in England, as well supporting access to ATMPs such as Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy, Libmeldy for metachromatic leukodystrophy and Upstaza for AADC deficiency. He maintains an active interest in horizon scanning of ATMPs and other innovative treatments.

Dr Mary Docherty

Dr Mary Docherty is a Clinical Quality Improvement Fellow in the Mental Health Strategic Clinical Network and Specialty Registrar at the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust.

She currently holds a Darzi Fellowship supported by the Healthy London Partnership and is taking a lead role, through Healthy London Partnership, in a London-wide initiative to reduce the premature mortality of people with serious mental illness.

Mary came to medicine with previous degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, completed a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Academic Foundation Programme at the Institute of Neuroscience in Newcastle and an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). She undertook her core training and specialty training on the Maudsley Training Programme following a year secondment in the Research and Development team at NICE on the Chief Medical Officer’s Clinical Advisors Scheme.

As Clinical Fellow at the IoPPN her research interests are in service improvement, treatment and service gaps in UK Mental Health provision and cognitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. She co-authored a national review chapter on Parity of Esteem in the Chief Medical Officer’s 2014 report on Public Mental Health. Mary also developed and ran with the National Psychosis Service the first specialist clinic dedicated to the assessment and treatment of cognitive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

She is involved in clinical research, service development initiatives and a Kings Health Partners strategic academic network aimed at exploring and addressing the mortality gap in people with serious and enduring mental illness.

Sarah Dodds

Sarah has been the Director of Nursing at Weston Area Health NHS Trust since February 2018.

Prior to this role, she was the Deputy Director of Nursing at North Bristol Trust. She has worked in a variety of senior nursing roles at both University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.

Her clinical experience has been in Respiratory Medicine and Emergency Care.

Professor Brian Dolan, OBE

Professor Brian Dolan OBE is Director of Health Service 360, UK, Visiting Prof of Nursing, Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Research and Honorary Professor of Leadership in Healthcare, University of Salford.

With Lynda Holt, CEO, Health Service 360 he recently co-hosted the 72-hour #EndPJparalysis Global Online Summit, in collaboration with Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, ECIST, NHS Horizons, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, US #EveryBODYmoves and Safer Care, Victoria, Australia.

All the presentations can be viewed free at https://endpjparalysis.org

Linda Dominguez

Linda Dominguez has been a counsellor at One in Four since 2005 and also became director of One in Four on a voluntary basis in 2009.

Her counselling experience includes working with ex offenders, mental health issues, children, bereavement and substance abuse. Her passion is working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sharing their journey to become the person who can be all they can be.

She is a qualified supervisor in counselling. In her day role she is Head of Safeguarding, for St John Ambulance.

Tara Donnelly

Tara Donnelly is the interim Chief Digital Officer at NHS England.

She oversees a portfolio of citizen facing digital services, including the NHS website, NHS App and the development of digital services which meet people’s needs, target prevention and offer a personalised experience.

Tara is on secondment from her role as Chief Executive of the Health Innovation Network. She has led the Health Innovation Network for over three years and is also a non-executive director at the Nuffield Trust.

She has an extensive background in leadership roles within the NHS and the voluntary and community sector and has spent the past 18 years at board level. She has worked in the NHS for 30 years, with her first role being as a Ward Housekeeper when she was 18.

Darren Dooler

Daz (Darren) Dooler has worked for Live Well Wakefield for 18 months as a ‘Self Help Support Worker’.

Live Well Wakefield has been commissioned by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, through Nova Wakefield and South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWYFT). They work with anyone in the Wakefield and 5 Towns area struggling with their wellbeing.

Daz is a time-served mechanical and electrical engineer and has worked at a senior level of management in the UK and abroad. Due to long-term health conditions, including Generalised Anxiety Disorder, he then struggled with employment for several years.

Having become involved in the Expert Patients Programme (formerly part of SWYFT) and completing the General Self-Management Community Course, he moved forward to become a volunteer for the service and trained to become a tutor. He then went on to become a governor at SWYFT and started his own community group The S.M.a.S.H Society. Here he ensures social prescribing continues to improve lives in his community with health conditions, particularly those struggling with their mental health.

Karen Dorey-Rees

Karen Dorey-Rees is the Assistant Director for Specialist Services in Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust. Karen qualified as a mental health nurse in 1989 and since then has worked in a variety of clinical and operational management roles in the South East of England.

Throughout her career Karen has been involved in developing services and has lead on key projects within adult mental health community and inpatient services to support the transformation of services to ensure improvements in the quality of care.

Over the past 2 years Karen has taken a lead role in the development of Perinatal Mental Health Services. This has included major expansion of the Community Perinatal Mental Health Services in Kent and the successful development of a perinatal mental health Mother and Baby Unit to serve women from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Karen champions the involvement of service users and carers and co-production has been at the heart of these service developments and continues with subsequent service delivery.

Felicity Dormon

Felicity Dormon is the IAPT programme lead at NHS England. Prior to joining NHS England she worked at the Health Foundation as a Senior Policy Fellow. She has also worked for the Department of Health, undertaking policy roles in strategy, mental health and cancer in addition to a secondment as a social care commissioner in local government. She previously worked in defence research. She has a Masters in Health Policy from Imperial College, and a degree in Physics with Computing from the University of Warwick.

Mark Doughty

Mark Doughty co-founded the Centre for Patient Leadership (CPL) in 2011 where he is responsible for designing their model of patient leadership.

This was shortlisted for the Guardian Healthcare Innovation Awards in 2013. He was also a finalist in 2012 for the International Ashoka Changemakers Innovation for Health Award.

Since 2012 Mark has facilitated leadership development programmes for more than 500 patient leaders. He has also coached and supported lay assessors for the CQC, the People Champions on the board of the NHS Leadership Academy as well as CCG and Healthwatch chair and board members.

Libby Dowling

Libby Dowling has been a clinical advisor at Diabetes UK for 7 years. Her background is in nursing and she works across all aspects of diabetes care to provide the most up to date advice.

Dr Amanda Doyle OBE

Dr Amanda Doyle OBE took up the post of National Director for Primary Care and Community Services on 13 June 2022. Amanda joined NHS England as North West Regional Director on 2 August 2021. Previously she was the Chief Clinical Officer for West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG. Amanda was also the Integrated Care System Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria, leading a large health and care transformation programme across the patch.

Amanda has been a GP for more than 20 years, practising in a large practice in a deprived area of Blackpool, which, in addition to primary medical services, provides a range of urgent care services for patients across the Fylde Coast.

Amanda was the Co-Chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners from 2013 to 2018.

She was Senior Responsible Officer for the primary care component of the Long Term Plan and was involved in the leadership of the health inequalities, prevention and personalisation elements.

She was part of the national General Medical Services (GMS) Negotiation team in 2018 which delivered the reformed GMS Contract. Amanda maintains an interest in urgent care. She was for 10 years a Medical Director of the local GP out-of-hours service.

Amanda was awarded an OBE for services to primary care and commissioning in 2014.

Sean Duffy

Sean Duffy is the National Clinical Director for Cancer. Professor Duffy is also a clinical academic gynaecologist based at the University of Leeds with his clinical practice at the city’s St James’s Hospital. His medical expertise is in endometrial cancer and he has an international reputation in the field of endoscopy surgery and training.

He has had senior academic experience in laboratory and health services research and has had national and regional responsibilities for undergraduate and postgraduate education in obstetrics and gynaecology with senior roles in the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the University of Leeds. For the eight years before he was appointed National Clinical Director for Cancer, he was leading the Yorkshire Cancer Network as medical director and over the last four as director as well.

Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent

Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent has vast experience in healthcare provision and is the first Chief Midwifery Officer in England.

She has worked as a midwife and a nurse and held senior positions in clinical practice, education, leadership and management including: Director of Midwifery and Nursing positions for Women’s and Children’s services at Imperial College Healthcare Trust & Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Academic roles have included: Senior Lecturer, Curriculum Leader, LME and Professor of Midwifery.

Jacqueline was appointed Chief Midwifery Officer in Spring 2019 at NHS England and NHS Improvement and is National Maternity Safety Champion for the Department of Health. She is also visiting Professor of Midwifery at Kings College London and London South Bank University.

Her experience has seen her leading and influencing national maternity standards and guidance. She also influences healthcare, nationally and internationally through research, education and publications and is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences. She is a member of the British Journal of Midwifery editorial board and until recently was an active member of the Maternity and Newborn Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine.

She has joined the Tommy’s Charity National Advisory Board as Midwifery advisor, and the Women of the Year management committee. Her voluntary work currently includes Midwifery Advisor for the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and until recently a trustee.

In 2014 she received the HSJ, BME Pioneers award and in 2015 she was selected from over 100 nominations for inclusion on Nursing Times’ Leaders 2015 list that celebrates nurses and midwives who are pioneers, entrepreneurs and inspirational role models in their profession.

Mike Durkin

Dr Mike Durkin was previously Director of Patient Safety, since the publication of these blogs he has left NHS England.

Jane Dwelly

Jane Dwelly is head of Health and Care Innovation Expo 2015. Previously as head of programme communications at NHS England she led the communications and marketing team for Expo 14.

Before joining NHS England, Jane was head of communications for the NHS Medical Director Bruce Keogh in the Department of Health.

Jane has led communications on a number of high-profile NHS programmes including Professor Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Review in 2007/8 and the NHS Future Forum in 2011.

In the early part of her career, Jane trained and worked as a financial journalist.

Follow Jane on Twitter @janedwelly.

Jacqui Dyer

Jacqui Dyer is an independent health and social care consultant with a background in adult mental health commissioning as well as community and family social work.

Jacqui has worked with a wide range of vulnerable care groups and has a strong passion in grass roots community empowerment. As an experienced counsellor, trainer, personal and professional development coach and group facilitator, Jacqui brings many dimensions to her insights.

As a mental service user and carer for the past few decades Jacqui’s experiential knowledge of mental health services is extensive and her commitment to this agenda is personal, political and professional. Currently she is a senior management board lived experience advisor for the ‘Time To Change’ anti-stigma and discrimination campaign. Additionally Jacqui was an appointed member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Mental Health chaired by the Minister for Care and Support, which oversaw the implementation of the national mental health strategy and a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Mental Health.

Jacqui was vice chair of England’s mental health Taskforce, which collaboratively developed the 5 Year Forward View for Mental Health. Jacqui is currently the Mental Health Equalities advisor for NHS England and co-chairs the Mayoral ‘Thrive London’ programme.

Jacqui is also an elected Lambeth Labour Councillor where she is cabinet member for health and adult social care and is the chair of Lambeth’s Black Thrive; a partnership for improving black mental health and wellbeing.

Jacqui is also an advisory panel member of the Mental Health Act Review and co-chair of its African & Caribbean Working Group (MHARAC).

Rob Dyer

Dr Rob Dyer is the Medical Director for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and also the Lead Medical Director for the Devon Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.

A Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist, Dr Dyer trained in Birmingham and Newcastle and has been a consultant since 1994, first in Northumberland and Newcastle, and from 1998 at Torbay Hospital. His clinical specialisms are in diabetes, endocrinology and thyroid problems.

Dr Dyer also holds the position of Associate Medical Director for Long Term Conditions and Transformation and has a long-standing interest in integrated care models, patient self-management and prevention in long term conditions. He has experience of management of acute medical admissions and sub-specialty endocrine and thyroid cancer management.

As Medical Director he plays a key role at Board level, and as part of the Executive Team, in influencing and shaping the Trust’s strategic direction and in driving improvement in quality and safety.

In his Lead Medical Director role for the Devon Sustainability and Transformation Partnership he chairs the Clinical Cabinet, which brings together medical directors and clinicians from across the health system.

Lisa Dymond

Lisa Dymond is a Clinical Services Manager and PCN Clinical Lead in South and West Norfolk. She is a registered nurse and a mental health and approved mental health professional working for Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust..
Twitter @lisalivelife_

Sally Dyson

Sally Dyson is Voluntary Services Manager at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and East Anglian Hub Chair for the National Association of Voluntary Services Managers.

Chris Dzikiti

Chris Dzikiti joined Care Quality Commission in October 2022 as Director of Mental Health, following time as a Deputy Director for National Retention programme at NHS England. Previously Chris has also worked as a Programme Director leading on mental health transformation in London. Chris is a multiprofessional leader, registered mental health nurse and an experienced programme and project management professional with 20 years’ experience of working in healthcare transformation, delivery and commissioning.
Between 2017 and 2021, Chris was a Global Healthcare Consultant for Health Education England in India, providing technical support for Mental Health Services there.
He is also a published author, having contributed a chapter on psychiatric intensive care to the book Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing – The Craft of Caring. Chris is passionate about coaching and mentoring colleagues and young people from a Global majority background.

Dr Karen Eastman

Dr Karen Eastman is a Clinical Director for NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG and a GP Partner at The Brow Medical Centre in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. She also enjoys a role as a GPwSI in Pain Management.

With a passion for high quality, person centred and innovative patient care and services provided in local community settings, Karen became involved in Practice Based Commissioning in 2005 and remained active in representing frontline patient and clinician experience right through to the formation of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in April 2013.

She is now a Clinical Director for the CCG formed of 23 GP Practices, responsible for the health and wellbeing of more than 225,000 people. She also leads the clinical input into Long Term Conditions and Planned Care for the CCG and feeds into NHS England’s Person Centred Care Working Group, and is a RCGP Champion for Care and Support Planning and sits on the NHSE PAM Learning set.

Karen has been a GP for 19 years, having trained at The Royal London Hospital Medical College.

Emma Easton

Emma Easton is NHS England’s Head of Voluntary Partnerships. She leads on developing more inclusive partnerships with the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, including through a close working relationship with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to support the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Programme.

Emma’s team also develop and lead the approach to increasing high impact volunteering opportunities in health and care.

Prior to joining NHS England in 2014, Emma worked for Regional Voices, a network of regional VCSE organisations, supporting the VCSE sector to be more involved in health and care policy development, for example in supporting the sector’s response to the Marmot review, the transition from LINks to Local Healthwatch, and involvement in the Health and Social Care Act, 2012.

Dr Simon Eccles

Dr Simon Eccles is the Chief Clinical Information Officer for Health and Care. The role spans the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, NHS Improvement and the arms-length bodies. He is accountable for delivery of the Personal Health and Care 2020 programme, and the whole of the central NHS IT expenditure.

Simon still practices one day a week as a consultant in Emergency Medicine at St Thomas’ Hospital.

Former roles have included: Programme Director for Emergency Care Pathways transformation at Guys and St Thomas’, including overseeing the building of a new Emergency Floor on the St Thomas’ site; joint Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care for NHSE London; joint SRO for Urgent and Emergency Care in South East London and a reviewer with CQC, the MPA and NHS England. He has been SRO for Interoperability within the P2020 programme and for NHSmail, providing secure communication across the NHS.

Simon was a first wave graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy at the Said Business School, Oxford sponsored by the Cabinet Office. He was previously the Medical Director for NHS Connecting for Health, where he had responsibility for clinical engagement in health informatics as a driver for clinical quality and productivity improvement. He was the clinical lead for the NHS Information Strategy in 2011.

Simon Eccles qualified from the London Hospital Medical College in 1994. He has previously chaired the BMA Junior Doctors Committee; leading in addressing the challenges of changing doctors’ post-graduate training and the European Working Time Directive. He has held a number of strategy and policy advisory roles within the Department of Health, including clinical lead for the Hospital at Night programme.

Simon Eccles is co-author of the Oxford Handbook of the Foundation Programme and joint editor of the best selling careers guide ‘So you want to be a brain surgeon’.

Amy Edmondson

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 and was honoured with the Talent Award in 2017. She studies teaming, psychological safety, and leadership, and her articles have been published numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organizational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities. Her new book,The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley, 2018), offers a practical guide for organizations serious about success in the modern economy.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organizational behaviour, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.

Nigel Edwards

Nigel Edwards is Chief Executive at the Nuffield Trust. Prior to becoming Chief Executive in 2014, Nigel was an expert advisor with KPMG’s Global Centre of Excellence for Health and Life Sciences and a Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund.

Nigel was Policy Director of the NHS Confederation for 11 years and has a wealth of experience in health and social care. He joined the organisation from his former role as Director of the London Health Economics Consortium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he remains an honorary visiting professor.

Nigel has a strong interest in new models of service delivery and a practical focus on what is happening at the front line as well as a wealth of experience in wider health care policy in the UK and internationally.

Nigel is a well-known media commentator, often in the spotlight debating key policy issues.

Nigel is currently working with the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on developments in health care provision in Europe.

Ellen Devine

Ellen Devine is a Training Officer for the National Osteoporosis Society and has worked in the health and social care charity sector since 2008 including roles with the British Red Cross and The Care Forum.

In her free time she enjoys running and is a run director at Chipping Sodbury parkrun. Ellen believes that patients should be at the heart of decisions about their own care and advocates for patient leadership in the development of health and social care services.

Carol Elliott

Carol Elliott is the SeaFit Programme Manager. She has worked extensively in the Voluntary and Community sector in the UK, as well as spending 9 years overseas in Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Cambodia. Much of her work has focused on health and well-being, education strategies, mitigating loneliness and poverty, specialising in collaborative partnerships, dementia support, and strategic development.

She also spent 2 years as a volunteer with Voluntary Services Overseas in Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, as a Management Advisor providing strategic advice and training Central Government Planning Department to manage the change process of decentralised planning mechanisms and developed the Capacity Building Working Group within the Directorate of General Education. She has a Masters Degree in management and her dissertation focused on effectively managing change in the workplace, one of her greatest passions is helping others to fulfil their full potential.

Sarah Elliott

Sarah Elliott was appointed as the Regional Chief Nurse for NHS England (South) in April 2014 and also leads a number of national commissioning work streams including continence.

Following qualification, Sarah practiced as a nurse in a range of hospital settings including intensive care. She later developed an interest in health promotion and public health and trained as a Health Visitor and Practice Teacher in Brighton.

She has held several Director of Nursing posts in a number of organisations within the South in community/mental health Trusts and commissioning organisations.

In addition to leading the agenda for commissioning for quality and safety in NHS services across the south, Sarah has initiated multiple patient and public involvement activities.

Alongside Sarah’s professional working life, Sarah has undertaken voluntary work with Youth Offending teams and the Alzheimer’s Society. She is also an accredited coach and special advisor to the CQC.

Garrett Emmerson

Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service.

Garrett joined the London Ambulance Service as Chief Executive in May 2017 at a time when the service was in special measures. Driving forward the change needed to help the organisation become a primary integrator of urgent and emergency care in London, the Service was rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission and subsequently came out of special measures in May 2018.

Prior to joining the London Ambulance Service, Garrett was at Transport for London as Chief Operating Officer for Surface Transport for eight years. In this role, he had overall responsibility for TfL’s road management including strategy and planning and the operation of the capital’s major road network. Before Transport for London, he was the director of a transport consultancy.

Clare Enston

Clare Enston is NHS England’s Head of Insight and Feedback. Working alongside NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health and Social Care, she leads on ensuring the views and experiences of patients and staff England are captured in order to drive improvements in patient experience and outcomes.

Clare’s team also explore new areas of insight not supported by the current national survey programme, along with developing thinking on insight and feedback approaches in the healthcare system.

Prior to joining NHS England in 2013, Clare worked in both the customer service and civil service sectors before moving into the work of NHS service improvement – latterly at Yorkshire & Humber Strategic Health Authority, where she had a regional role in health informatics.

Dr Marie Anne Essam

Dr Marie Anne Essam is a GP in South Oxhey, social prescribing ambassador for the Herts and West Essex STP, and supports regional, national and international development of the link worker role. South Oxhey is an area of significant deprivation in South West Hertfordshire.

Sharon Eustice

Sharon Eustice is a Nurse Consultant at Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s the Bladder and Bowel Specialist Service. She specialises in the diagnosis and conservative treatment of urinary and bowel continence conditions for all populations.

Kath Evans

Kath Evans, RGN, RSCN, MSc (Nursing), PG Dip (Education), BSc (Hons), PG Dip (Management), Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Accredited Coach, is NHS England’s Experience of Care Lead – Maternity, Infants, Children and Young People.

She is a registered general and children’s nurse and her career has included clinical, educational, managerial and service improvement roles.

She is committed to ensuring the voices of children, young people, families/carers and maternity service users are heard in their care and in the design, delivery and commissioning of services.

Paula Evans

Paula Evans works for Sherwood Forest NHS Foundation Trust which provides hospital services for 420,000 people across Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark, Sherwood and parts of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.

Paula has been a sepsis nurse since 2012 providing direct clinical support to teams caring for people with complex infections and sepsis. She also works with both primary and secondary care teams to improve sepsis care at a strategic level.

Harry Evans

Harry Evans is a senior programme manager in the Primary Care and System Transformation team in NHS England and Improvement.

He works with local systems to develop their population health management capabilities, primarily through the population health management development programme.

Before coming to NHS England and Improvement, Harry worked at the King’s Fund and Ipsos MORI, leading research projects on digital, data and technology.

Navina Evans

Dr Navina Evans MBBS, DCH, MRCPsych is one of the first female, ethnic minority chief executives in the NHS and was appointed CEO at East London NHS Foundation Trust in August 2016.

She led it to “Trust of the Year” in 2016-17 and to be rated “Outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission.

She was previously the Trust’s Director of Operations & Deputy CEO, and before that Director for Mental Health.

Navina was formerly Lead Clinician for Newham CAMHS and then Clinical Director Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, East London Foundation Trust.

She has involvement in Medical Education at Barts and The London Medical School as Honorary Senior Lecturer, Associate Dean, and Academic Year Tutor.

Her extensive clinical experience is in CAMHS Psychiatry and Paediatrics. Her interests include leadership, improving the way healthcare is delivered and learning from sources beyond healthcare.

Kathryn Evans

Kathryn Evans, RGN, BNurs (Hons), MA, Queens Nurse

Kath is the Deputy Director of Urgent Community Response for the Ageing Well Programme as part of the NHS Long Term Plan in NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Key areas of work include improving the outcomes and responsiveness of intermediate care to meet new national standards. She contributes to the greater work of the programme, which includes continuing the roll out of the Enhanced Health in Care Homes framework including, NHSmail into the independent social care sector and supporting community multidisciplinary teams in improving outcomes for people with frailty and multimorbidity.

Kath’s background includes working as a nurse with over 25 years’ experience in the NHS, in professional leadership, service development and operational management in the community. Kath has worked at a regional level in service improvement and assurance and delivery of CCG’s.

She has led on improving the reduction in Delayed Transfers of Care from hospital and was the Community Nurse lead for NHS England having a background as a District Nurse.

Kath is passionate about partnership working across health and social care and community services.

Follow her on Twitter: @kathevans2015</a

Every Mind Matters Team

Every Mind Matters is the national platform for good mental health, from the NHS and Public Health England. It aims to make it easier for everyone to look after their own wellbeing and improve their mental health, by providing a digital hub full of advice, tips and resources and a new online tool to help everyone create their own action plan.

Matt Fagg

Matt Fagg is the Director responsible for the Prevention and Long-Term Conditions Programme in the Medical Directorate at NHS England.

Matt has over 25 years’ experience in management in the healthcare sector. His health service career began at the Dept. for Health and he has worked in NHS England since it was established in 2013, initially as Director for Reducing Premature Mortality. Matt held the post of Programme Director for the Diabetes Programme between 2016 and 2020, as part of which he delivered the world’s first nationwide prevention programme, the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. He took on the role of Director for Prevention in 2020.

Sherree Fagge

Sherree Fagge RN, DMS, MBA is the Head of Nursing for End of Life Care, NHS England and Improvement. She began her nursing career as a Cadet Nurse and worked in a psychiatric hospital during placements. She trained at Cuckfield and Crawley School of Nursing.

Sherree held various nurse leadership roles throughout her career, including Ward Manager on a male surgical ward and then on a gynae ward. She was successful in obtaining directorate leadership roles in surgery and critical care and has also worked as a service manager in medicine and a general manager in orthopaedics.

Sherree has previously been responsible for inpatient access, so manging patient flow and admissions both elective and emergency, over three sites and 1040 beds.

She has also worked as Chief Nurse for a large teaching hospital in Sussex. This included the Executive lead for End of Life Care and ensuring patients and carers at the hospitals received the very best care during the last phase of their lives.

Sherree seconded to NHSI to lead EoLC in the nursing directorate and to support trusts to improve care in this area. She continues to work in this substantive role, working with partners across the system to make a difference to patients.

Sherree has now celebrated 45 years in the NHS and has continued to enjoy her nursing career throughout this time. She finds privilege in nursing and caring for people at times of vulnerability.

Jonathon Fagge

Jonathon originally qualified as a Barrister in 2005, and then joined the Pharmaceutical Industry – working across licensing, marketing, finance, legal and compliance. He left the industry in 2001 to set up a consultancy firm, and worked with NHS customers across the East of England – General Practice, NHS Providers; and PCTs. Services were focused on business development and organisational efficiency; large scale procurements; health system development; and GP Appraisal and Revalidation.

In 2010 Jonathon joined Norwich Practice Based Commissioning Group, and managed the transition to CCGs. He worked with the shadow CCG in Norwich as Programme Director, then Deputy Chief Officer. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in August 2012.

Hilary Fanning

Hilary Fanning is the Senior Responsible Owner of the Data for Research and Development Programme.

Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006.

He is Chair of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), the leading voice of the UK’s charity and social enterprise sector. Paul is also a trustee at Lloyds Bank Foundation which invests in charities supporting people to break out of disadvantage at critical points in their lives.

Paul is Chair of the NHS England Mental Health Taskforce – bringing together health and care leaders and experts in the field, including people using services, to lead a programme of work to create a mental health Five Year Forward View for the NHS in England.

Paul has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College Oxford and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

Kate Fayers

Dr Kate Fayers is a consultant diabetologist who leads Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s West Hampshire community diabetes service.

Kate is involved in the Better Local Care (Hampshire) vanguard, working with partners to ensure appropriate access to specialist diabetes care and to promote patient self-management.

Follow Kate on Twitter: @drkatefayers.

Dr Nadim Fazlani

Dr Nadim Fazlani is Chair of Liverpool CCG and has been a GP in Kensington Liverpool for the past 22 years, having worked in the NHS since 1983.

A Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, he was Chair of Liverpool Health Care Practice Based Consortium from 2006 – 2011 and Chair of Liverpool Central Clinical Consortium from 2011 to 2012, before being elected as Chair of Liverpool CCG.

He has also been a long standing GP trainer and an examiner for MRCGP conducted by Royal College of General Practitioners since 2004.

In addition, he is also a performance assessor for General Medical Council, a role he has undertaken since 2005.

David Fearnley

Dr David Fearnley was appointed Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in 2001, at Ashworth Hospital, one of three high security hospitals in England.

He was appointed Medical Director for Mersey Care NHS Trust in 2005, where he was also seconded as Medical Director for Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (May 2015-July 2016).

A former Psychiatrist of the Year (2009) by the Inaugural Royal College of Psychiatrists, David also received the Healthcare Financial Management Association (in association with the Academy of Royal Colleges) ‘Working with Finance – Clinician of the Year’ award (2013).

He was named in HSJs “100 Clinical Leaders List” (2015) as Mersey Care Trust’s driving force behind an international partnership with The Risk Authority, Stanford, and Lockton insurance brokers to manage and predict risk in mental health.

In 2016, David was appointed Associate National Clinical Director for Secure Mental Health and Chair of the Adult Secure Clinical Reference Group, NHS England.

Dr Jason Fee

Dr Jason Fee is the Clinical Director for South West Regional Secure Services New Care Models programme. He is leading the re-design of clinical care pathways and service provision across the South West, in order to ensure that individuals in receipt of secure care are treated as close to home as possible, for the shortest possible period, within the least restrictive level of security.

Jason is an experienced Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Clinical Director within good/outstanding rated secure services, and has worked within healthcare settings both internationally and within the NHS over the course of his career.

Greg Fell

Greg Fell is a Director of Public Health in Sheffield. He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in biochemistry and physiology in 1993. He has worked as a social researcher in a maternity unit; a number of roles in health promotion and public health before joining the public health training scheme. Greg worked as a consultant in public health in Bradford in the PCT then Bradford council. Since Feb 2016 he has worked for Sheffield as director of public health.

Dr Timothy Ferris

Dr Timothy Ferris took up the post as the National Director of Transformation on 10 May 2021.

Dr Ferris, who has served as a non-executive director of NHS Improvement for almost three years, is internationally renowned for his pioneering work on improving health and care in both hospital and community settings.

He will lead the new Transformation Directorate, bringing together the organisation’s operational improvement team and NHSX, the digital arm, to maintain the pace of innovation seen during the pandemic.

Dr Ferris joins the NHS full-time from the not-for-profit Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, where he is chief executive, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He founded the Center for Population Health, which champions the use of prevention and data to improve health, reduce inequalities, and save lives.

David Fillingham

David joined the NHS in 1989 after working in manufacturing. He held several chief executive positions and served as the Director of the NHS Modernisation Agency from 2001 to 2004, where he focused on developing new practices and fostering leadership development across the NHS. He received a CBE for his contributions.
In 2010, David became the National NHS Quality Champion and later retired from the NHS in June 2019 after serving as the Chief Executive of AQuA. Additionally, he held various non-executive roles and served as a visiting Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund. David has particular interests in quality improvement, leadership development, co-production with the users of services and partnership working.

Douglas Findlay

Douglas Findlay has worked with the national Patient Safety team for many years as a patient representative and more recently as a national patient safety partner. Douglas is part of the ongoing Involving Patients in Patient Safety co-design group.

Dr Sam Finnikin

Dr Finnikin is a GP in Sutton Coldfield, a researcher at the University of Birmingham and a National Clinical Specialist Advisor in personalised care at NHS England. Sam has an interest in shared decision-making and cardiovascular disease and how we can better work with patients to ensure they get the most out of healthcare.

Michaela Firth

Michaela’s career started in Milton Keynes Hospital Pathology lab when it opened in 1984. She studied biochemistry and worked in both private and NHS laboratories before taking up roles in customer service, sales and marketing, during which time she gained post-graduate qualifications in marketing and public relations.

Since rejoining the NHS in 2000 Michaela has held various roles from PCTs, to Dept. of Health, including Communications Manager for NHS Direct, Assistant Director for Southern National Primary Care Development Team supporting PCTs with quality improvement and facilitating change. She programme managed for the South Central PCT Alliance including work to determine behaviours of patients utilising urgent care services. She also lectures and trains in social marketing and has contributed to key documents for the Department of Health and the National Social Marketing Centre.

During a secondment to the Department of Health as a National Coach, she worked with Sir John Oldham, supporting NHS QIPP Long Term Conditions and Urgent Care programmes.

Her current role is in NHS England for the Thames Valley SCN, allowing her to capitalise on her networking passion and develop the network for change and improvement in the area of Children and Maternity services – subjects both very close to her heart.

She is closely involved in spreading the messages of NHS Change Day 2014 having been part of the core team for the first NHS Change Day last year.

Dr Jill Firth

Dr Jill Firth is a Consultant Nurse in Rheumatalogy and Director for Service Improvement at the Pennine Musculoskeletal Partnership Ltd in Oldham and was elected President of the British Health Professionals in Rheumatology in 2016.

She has worked in rheumatology since 1997 including a period leading education and research at the University of Leeds (2004-2011) as Senior Research Fellow in Long Term Conditions and Lead Postgraduate Research Tutor for the School of Health care.

Jill has contributed to the development of specialist nursing nationally and internationally through education, research and publications.

Jo Fitzgerald

Jo Fitzgerald is the Lived Experience Lead for the Personalised Care Group at NHS England.

Her role recognises the importance of co-producing and co-designing personalised care and raising the voice of people with lived experience at a national, regional and local level.

Jo’s life was profoundly transformed when her eldest son, Mitchell, was born in 1992 with a severe learning disability and complex health needs. The experience of being Mitchell’s mum has largely influenced the direction of her life; it has shaped her beliefs, values and life choices.

Mitchell became one of the first people in England to have a personal health budget which enabled him to live at home and lead a full life until his death in March, 2015.

Jo is a qualified counsellor and was awarded an MA with distinction from the University of Manchester in 2008.

Bev Fitzsimons

Bev is the Head of Improvement at the Point of Care Foundation. Bev has been with the Foundation since 2015, having been part of the Point of Care team at the King’s Fund, as a fellow in health policy since 2009. Bev is responsible for developing and leading programmes to support staff in the NHS and other care settings to enhance patients’ experiences of care.

Prior to working with the Point of Care team, Bev worked in the Healthcare Commission, Commission for Health Improvement, and Audit Commission, delivering thematic reviews of services including maternity care and care for people with long term conditions.

The Point of Care Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation working to improve the quality of care by putting patients and staff at the heart of care. Our work includes the Sweeney programme, which brings together our quality improvement work; and the Schwartz programme, which delivers training in Schwartz Rounds, a unique forum to help healthcare workers address the psychological and emotional challenges of their everyday work.

Jackie Fleeman

Jackie Fleeman was one of the first learning disability strategic health facilitators in England.

She works in Derbyshire and leads a small team who support GP practices with annual health checks and manages the learning disability acute liaison nurse at Derby Acute Hospital. The team employs three people with a learning disability to support their work with primary care.

Jackie is a LeDer reviewer and has recently completed a project to increase the uptake of screening.

Dr Alan Fletcher

Dr Alan Fletcher is the National Medical Examiner for England and Wales, appointed in March 2019. He was Lead Medical Examiner in Sheffield before this. He pioneered the medical examiner role since 2008 as part of the Department of Health reforms of death certification; personally reviewing over 22,000 deaths. He has overseen the introduction of the medical examiner system in England and Wales. Dr Fletcher maintains his clinical practice as Consultant in Emergency Medicine and General Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

Richard Fluck

Richard Fluck was National Clinical Director for Renal Disease for NHS England.

Richard trained at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and the London Hospital Medical College, qualifying in 1985. Early training was undertaken in the East London area before moving into research at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was appointed a British Heart Foundation fellow whilst exploring the link between cardiovascular disease, calcium signalling and abnormalities of calcium metabolism in chronic kidney disease. He returned to the Royal London Hospital as Lecturer and honorary Senior Registrar in Nephrology

In 1996 Richard took up post at Derby City Hospital as a single handed nephrologist. Over the next decade, the department expanded and developed a strong clinical research and safety programme. As a whole, the department has interests in cardiovascular consequences of CKD and dialysis, infection and vascular access. As part of the team, he is involved in the coordination of two cohort studies looking at chronic kidney disease in primary care (RRID) and the short and long term consequences of acute kidney injury (ARID). More recent projects include the development of PROMs for renal patients and developing home therapies for patients on dialysis.

Within the acute trust he has been clinical lead for renal disease for 15 years and clinical director for medicine. He has been the clinical lead for the East Midlands Renal Network and worked with the DH and HPA on infection in renal disease. He was also the clinical lead for the Kidney Care National audit on vascular access and transport in the haemodialysis population.

Dr Matthew Fogarty

Dr Matthew Fogarty is currently NHS England’s Head of Patient Safety Policy and Strategy. Prior to this he was Head of Patient Safety Policy in the Department of Health.

Matt held a number of roles as a DH Civil Servant, including as a Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Health, and as policy lead on Emergency Preparedness and Urgent and Emergency Care.

Before joining the Civil Service, Matt was a research scientist and gained his PhD in Developmental Neuroscience at University College London in 2006.

Anne Forbes

Anne Forbes is the Programme Director for New Care Models for Devon Partnership NHS Trust and is responsible for directing the transformation programme on behalf of South West Regional Secure Services

Anne has a background in finance, governance and business intelligence and has held various roles as part of executive and senior teams over the past 20 years, within the NHS and commercial sector.

Marion Foreman

Marion Foreman has been a nurse for nearly 50 years and is a personal trainer. She has worked across many areas in the NHS and now focusses on helping frail older people and people on their cancer journey to exercise safely and effectively.

She is passionate about encouraging people to make the most of their health and wellbeing and to do the best they can to remain active.

Claire Foreman

Claire Foreman is Director of Medicines Policy and Strategy for NHS England.

Claire has worked in the NHS for over 20 years, leading work to improve patient access, experience and outcomes in care and treatments. Over the last decade, Claire has focused on developing medicines policy and strategy in specialised commissioning in regional and national roles. Claire joined the Commercial Medicines Directorate in the summer of 2021 to lead our policy, strategy and analysis work, helping drive our efforts on medicines access including innovative treatments, on optimisation and value programmes, and on medicines sustainability and Net Zero. Claire is passionate about the role of medicines in improving patient outcomes and reducing health inequalities and has a particular interest in innovative medicines.

Kim Forey

Kim Forey leads on the personalisation agenda as the Director of Integration. This is a new joint post working across both Gloucestershire County Council and NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Professor Graham Foster

Professor Graham Foster is Professor of Hepatology at Queen Mary University of London and the clinical lead for hepatology at Barts Health.

Professor Foster was the founding President of The British Viral Hepatitis Group, a past President of the British Association for the Study of The Liver and is a trustee of the Hepatitis C Trust.

He was appointed as National Clinical Chair for the Hepatitis C Delivery Networks and NHS England’s Hepatitis C (HCV) Elimination Programme in January 2016.

Aidan Fowler

Aidan Fowler is the National Director of Patient Safety in England and a Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). He was previously the Director of NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and Director of the 1000 Lives Improvement Service for NHS Wales. He had responsibility for QI/PS across the Welsh NHS and was a board member of Public Health Wales.

Aidan was a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon in Gloucestershire for ten years and Chief of Service for Surgery for four before entering the NHS Leadership Academy Fast Track Executive Training Programme during which he worked as an executive at University Hospitals Bristol and subsequently worked briefly as a Medical Director in Mental Health and Community care in Worcestershire. Aidan trained as an Improvement Adviser(IA) with the IHI in Boston and was IA to the South West Safer Patient Programme and has worked on Patient Safety with WEAHSN. He has also worked as faculty with the IHI in the peri-operative safety domain in Qatar, infection reduction in Portugal and teaching improvement and safety in the UK and internationally. Aidan’s surgical training was in the South West, but he graduated in medicine from University College London.

Mike Franklin

Mike Franklin is the joint Director of Equality and Inclusion at NHS England and NHS Improvement, a Non-executive Director at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and he sits on the NHS Equality and Diversity Council Working Group.

He is a former commissioner with the Independent Police Complaints Commission. He was also Her Majesty’s Assistant Inspector of Constabulary and has acted as a specialist assistant inspector for race and diversity across 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Mike was Chair of the Community Police Consultative Group for Lambeth, he previously worked as a non-executive at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and he served on the Trades Union Congress race relations committee. Having grown up in Lambeth and Southwark,

Mike is passionate about advocating for and engaging with diverse local communities, as well championing equality and inclusion in all levels of the workforce.

Jill Fraser

Jill Fraser is Chief Executive and Co-founder of the healthcare charity, Kissing it Better .

She trained at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’ Hospital in London and during her training was awarded a scholarship by The Kings Fund to work in America.

The experience gave her an interest in medical journalism and, before starting Kissing it Better, for 25 years she presented health features for many programmes on television and radio including Woman’s Hour, Newsround and Breakfast Time for the BBC.

Kissing it Better has won The Nursing Times Care of Older People award, and in March this year, Jill won the ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ at The Patient Experience Network National Awards.

As well as regular visits to hospitals and care homes as part of Kissing it Better, Jill speaks at conferences across the country and writes articles for national newspapers and magazines.

James Freed

James Freed is Chief Information Officer for Health Education England and is passionate about digital literacy and the professionalism of health informaticians across the health and care system.

He trained as a molecular biologist for several years before making the move to process redesign and IT. James worked in hospitals in South West London for the Cancer Services Collaborative. He cut his teeth on national IT implementation following a move to NHS Connecting for Health where he worked in pathology, order communications, and prevention, screening and surveillance.

James moved to the Health Protection Agency where he managed an operational Information Management department. He then became Head of Information Strategy at Public Health England.

Amy Frewin

Amy Frewin is the Clinical Transformation Lead for the Personalised Care Programme at Hertfordshire and West Essex CCG.

She qualified as a physiotherapist in 2013 and became involved in the programme by taking part in a 100 day challenge in October 2017.

After showing great enthusiasm and passion for improving the personalisation of care, Amy decided to take on a role within the programme with a particular focus on workforce.

Amy continues to work for a community healthcare trust and enjoys being able to share her experiences across both roles in order to shape the future delivery of services.

Jessie Frost

Jessie is a chartered physiotherapist and has worked in paediatrics since 2008. She worked at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust for six years, most recently as a team lead in the Evelina London community physiotherapy team, working with children from 0-19 years with neurodevelopmental difficulties. Jessie co-leads the Physiotherapy and AHP sustainability networks on the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and is currently a Chief Sustainability Officers Clinical Fellow at NHS England.

Amy Frounks

Amy Frounks is a member of NHS England’s Youth Forum, a young person representative in NHS England’s Children and Young People rehabilitation working group and an NHS service user.

Professor Ahmet Fuat

GP, GPSI in Cardiology Darlington and Honorary Professor of Primary Care Cardiology at Durham University.

Professor Ahmet Fuat has been a GP in Darlington, Co.Durham for 33 years.

He has been a GPSI Cardiology for 20 years having undertaken a Postgraduate Diploma in Cardiology at Bradford University graduating with distinction. He started the first one stop diagnostic and integrated heart failure clinic in the UK in 17 years ago with local colleagues.

His PhD by research in heart failure diagnosis and management including work on natriuretic peptides generated several publications that have informed guidelines and led to the award of an Honorary Professorial Chair at Durham University.

He holds various roles in CVD and research including the Past President of the new Primary Care Cardiovascular Society (PCCS) which he was instrumental in reforming, CVD Clinical Adviser to the RCGP, CVD and Research Leads for Darlington Primary Care Network (PCN) and Federation, Associate Lead for Industry Research at North East and North Cumbria NIHR CRN. He has recently been elected onto the newly formed Darlington PCN Governing body as a GP member, CVD, Research Leads and Chair.

He has a passion for medical education and remains an active lecturer, tutor and researcher. He is on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Cardiology and Primary Care Cardiovascular Journals and a peer reviewer for most high impact Cardiovascular journals and research bodies. His work in community cardiology has been recognised with Fellowships from the RCGP, RCP London and RCP Edinburgh.

Sabrina Fuller

Sabrina Fuller is Head of Health Improvement in the Nursing Directorate.

She leads on health visitor service transformation for Hilary Garratt and Jane Cummings.

Her role in the organisation is to embed prevention in the clinical role of nurses in line with the Forward View and the NHS Mandate, building on her own experience as a clinician and her public health background.

Rodie Garland

Rodie Garland is Policy Adviser at FaithAction, a national network of faith-based organisations involved in social action. She manages FaithAction’s programme of work as part of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance.

Hilary Garratt

Hilary Garratt CBE, BSc, MSc, RGN, SCPHN (RHV), PGCE is the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Hilary leads the implementation of a range of national programmes that focus on safeguarding vulnerable people and programmes that support the professional development and leadership of the nursing profession.

Hilary is a registered Nurse and Health Visitor, with 36 years’ experience of working in clinical, public health and Executive leadership roles in the NHS. Hilary has held a number of Executive Director posts across both commissioning and provider organisations in addition to holding and Deputy Chief Executive post for both. Hilary has been working at National Director level for the last 7 years.

In addition to her professional life, Hilary enjoys volunteering at the front line and also for the third sector. From 2013 – 2017 Hilary worked for BBC Children in Need as a committee member that undertook grant making for the North of England. Hilary also engages in hands on volunteering, working with the homeless and other vulnerable groups in her home city.

Hilary received a CBE in the 2017 New Years Honours for services to Nursing and her national work to safeguard some of the most vulnerable people in society. In 2018 Hilary was nominated as one of the country’s 400 Women of Achievement and Inspiration.

Follow Hilary on Twitter: @HilaryGarratt.

Dr Ed Garratt OBE DL

Ed is Chief Executive of the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board. He is a Visiting Professor of Integrated Care at the University of Suffolk and an Honorary Professor at the University of Essex in the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing. He is a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Suffolk. In 2023 he was awarded an OBE in The King’s first Birthday Honours List for services to the Integrated Care System.

Ed has worked in the NHS for 20 years, largely in senior roles. He was Chief Executive of the NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk, North East Essex and West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), gaining ‘outstanding’ ratings in all three CCGs, before they were closed in 2022. Previously he was Deputy Director of Commissioning and Head of Communications and Engagement at NHS East of England.

Ed supports various national and regional responsibilities. Ed is currently sponsoring the national Primary Care Network Test Sites programme developing innovation in general practice as well as the ICB Coastal Communities network focused on tackling health inequalities. Regionally, he chairs the East of England Mental Health Board and is the lead commissioner of the East of England Ambulance Trust. He has also worked on major national policy by supporting the development of the NHS Constitution (2009) and the Government’s NHS White Paper (2021).

Ed has a published doctorate in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and a first-class degree in History from the University of Sussex.

Nicola Gaskell

Nicola Gaskell, senior clinical advisor for NHS 111, started her nurse training in September 2010 at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk as a ‘mature’ student when her three children were all at school.

She has worked in trauma and orthopaedics at Warrington hospital, intermediate care at Aintree hospital before working in the private sector for a short time. She started her journey with North West Ambulance Service in July 2018 and lives with her three grown up children and two crazy dogs.

Paul Gavin

Deputy Director, Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme.

Paul has worked at senior management level in both the Royal Air Force, (RAF), and NHS England and has been Deputy Director for the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme for almost a year. Paul has had a varied career within the public sector, comprising of differing roles within the Prison Service, the RAF and five of NHS England’s directorates.

A graduate of the government Project Leadership Programme, Paul’s time in NHS England has seen him deliver numerous programmes, ranging from digital developments to complex change initiatives.

Cristina Gavrilovic

Cristina Gavrilovic was appointed as the Anti-Slavery Partnership Coordinator for Essex Police and Kent Police Serious Crime Directorate in 2016. Since her appointment a record number of 500 victims have been identified through her work that saw a number of sectors joined and supported in actively participating in the fight against Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking.

She has the opportunity to address the gaps in our social justice system, ensuring organisations put Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the top of their agenda and that victims are at the heart of decision making. This area of her work was recognised by the British Association of Women in Policing where she was awarded Best Police Staff of the Year.

Cristina’s formative years were in Romania, where she experienced a growing awareness of the injustice of a broken system failing individuals living below the poverty line, experiencing domestic violence, and where children went missing. This is an area where Cristina is a strong Ambassador for having recently won the prestigious award of Women of the Future in the Community Spirit category.

Cristina has been seeking the right education, opportunities and paths that allowed her to develop the infrastructures required to address these issues. She has implemented an inclusive model upon which strong partnerships are build and maintained and this model has won her national recognition from the Marsh Awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Fight against Slavery.

Cristina has recently been invited to become a Fellow Associate of the Royal Commonwealth Society where she hopes that her work will influence and support many communities across the Commonwealth countries and engage with younger generations to build a stronger resilience against abuse and exploitation.

Kye Gbangbola

Kye Gbangbola is Chair of the Sickle Cell Society, a national health care charity for the world’s most common blood disorder.

He wrote the Foreword to the Sickle Cell Care Standards recently launched in Parliament and gave a Parliamentary address, as a call to action for medical professionals and patients, to use the Standard as essential intelligence for better health care.

Kye is an NHS PPV member for the NHS Programme of Care Board for Blood and Infections and the NHS Public and Patient Voice Assurance Group. He was formerly a member of the NHS England Clinical Referencing Group for Haemoglobinopathies. He is an NHS England Care Quality Peer Reviewer and an NHS England Information Standard Auditor.

Kye is also an All Party Parliamentary Group Member for Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia at which he gave a talk on Hydroxyurea, and a more recent talk on access, equality and change. He has been involved in a PPV capacity in clinical trials, scientific advice, and medicines development including NICE, the European Medical Agency, 100,000 Genome project etc.

He has experience of providing a patients perspective from the 70’s when he would speak to clinicians about suffering from SCD, and more recently collaborated with Ambulance Services for the development and training of key staff, and very importantly improving the service the LAS provides.

Dr David Geddes

Dr David Geddes qualified at the Royal London Hospital (Whitechapel) in 1987.

Married to a nurse, he has three children, and lives in York where he is a GP partner in a small (5,200) practice working one day a week.

He has a special interest in mental health and got into ‘clinical management’ in fundholding days, then he was a PCG member. He was PEC member of Selby and York PCT, before becoming appointed initially as medical Director for Selby and York PCT, (2004-2007) then Medical Director and Director of Primary Care in North Yorkshire and York PCT (2007-2012)

He was appointed as head of Primary care Commissioning in the Operations department in November 2012.

He is a medical panellist for GMC Fitness to practice hearings, a non-executive of Medipex – a healthcare innovation hub, and a trustee for a number of mental health charities

Dr Ian Geddes

Dr Ian Geddes moved from Scotland to Sixpenny Handley in Dorset in 1975 to take over a single handed practice. The practice was a dispensing practice, operating at the time from the house, covering 100 square miles. Although very rural in nature, he had a wide range of patients, ranging from the landed gentry to a patient who lived in a double decker bus. He retired from practice in 1993.

Professor Dame Clare Gerada

Professor Dame Clare Gerada is a Co-Chair of the NHS Assembly, and President of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). She has practiced medicine for over 35 years, and has been a driving force behind efforts to provide more wellbeing support for NHS staff. As well as being the first female Chair of the RCGP in 50 years, Clare has held leadership roles with the Department of Health and Social Care, and is on the Council of the British Medical Association.

In the Millennium Birthday Honours, Clare received an MBE for services to medicine and substance misuse, and was awarded a damehood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020. She was awarded a fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians in 2008 and was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in July 2013.

Nicci Gerrard

Nicci Gerrard is a journalist who for two decades worked on The Observer. She describes herself as a novelist, (she writes psychological thrillers with Sean French under the name of Nicci French as well as solo novels in her own name), a humanist celebrant, and now a campaigner. She has four children.

Dave Gerrard

Dave Gerrard works as an advanced pharmacist practitioner for Northumberland Tyne Wear NHS Foundation Trust and is joint pharmacist lead for the STOMP programme at NHS England.

Dave runs STOMP clinics in both Newcastle and Sunderland community learning disability teams where he works in partnership with people having a learning disability, autism or both, their carers and family members together with specialist behavioural nurses to challenge the over-medication of psychotropic medications.

Dave joined the trust as a mental health pharmacist 10 years ago and has specialised in learning disability services for the last seven years.

Bryony Gibson

Bryony has worked as a mental health nurse and manager in the NHS since 1984 and worked with an interest in perinatal mental health since 1992. An RMN by background she has worked as a ward sister with responsibility for a small (now closed) MBU, a CPN in the community and for the past 6 years as perinatal service (and development) manager developing services for Berkshire.

For the past four years alongside developing services in Berkshire she has a perinatal lead role in Thames Valley and for the past 2 ½ years has also chaired the Thames Valley Regional Perinatal Mental Health Network. Bryony retired from her service manager role at the end of March 2018 but will be continuing working part-time delivering SHaRON into new services and continuing as a Perinatal Lead in the Thames Valley.

Jacqui Gibson

Jacqui Gibson is a programme manager at Breaking Barriers Innovations (BBI) and leads a number of projects including the creation of innovative “more and different” career pathways across the UK and BBI’s pioneering Playbook Programme based in various locations including the Isle of Sheppey.

Jacqui previously led on a lived experience career pathway project, designing transformative pathways for people with convictions seeking leadership roles within the healthcare and justice sector.

Zoe Gibson

Zoe Gibson is a mother-of-two and part-time peer support worker (PSW) at KMPT’s Rosewood MBU in Dartford. Prior to her PSW role Zoe was an English for Foreign Language teacher and service user representative on KMPT’s MBU project development board. Zoe has also spoken at various events including the Kent and Medway Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) mental health conference. She lives with her husband and sons, Harry and Jack in Canterbury, Kent.

Debra Gilderdale

Debra Gilderdale is Deputy Director of Bradford District NHS Care Foundation Trust and is responsible for acute and community mental health, CAMHS, IAPT and learning disabilities.

Her role includes the transformation of services across all teams, including acute and crisis mental health, taking a whole-system integrated approach to providing high quality care.

Debra is also leading on the Urgent and Emergency Care Mental Health Liaison Vanguard for West Yorkshire, and is a Positive Practice Mental Health Collaborative specialist lead for Transformation and Improvement.

David Gill

David Gill is one of three learning disability and autism advisers and two learning disability and autism network managers working on the learning disability programme.

He has been with NHS England for four years. During this time David’s main areas of work have been in the Children and Young People’s team, Autism, STOMP-STAMP, Restrictive Practices and Ask Listen Do.

He is also a talented artist and has illustrated accessible pictures for NHS Easy Read documents and presentations.

For his job David uses his experience of going through services, schools and colleges for people with a learning disability, autism or both.

He previously volunteered at Speakup Self Advocacy where he is still a trustee and worked as a peer support worker for Rotherham learning disability services.

Rebecca Gill

Rebecca Gill joined the IAPT Programme at NHS England in September 2016. Prior to this she worked in IAPT services as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner and then as a Senior Practitioner managing the Step 2 service.

In this role Rebecca focussed on equality of access and using data to drive quality improvement.

Simon Gillespie

Simon Gillespie joined the British Heart Foundation in 2013, following seven years as Chief Executive of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society.

He has a family connection with heart disease, and fundraises and volunteers for the BHF.

His early career was in the Royal Navy, including command of HMS Sheffield and advising government ministers. From 2000 to 2004, he was Director of Operations at the Charity Commission. He then moved to become Head of Operations at the Healthcare Commission, where he was responsible for the inspection of NHS and independent healthcare facilities in England.

Simon has extensive national and international experience of charity and non-profit governance as a non-executive director/trustee. He currently holds a number of non-executive roles, including President of the European Heart Network.

Mark Gillyon-Powell

Mark Gillyon-Powell leads the elimination of hepatitis C as a part of NHS England’s response to the World Health Organisation goal to eliminate blood borne viruses as a public health issue.

Mark’s professional background is in provision, commissioning, and national policy in relation to drug and alcohol treatment services, and latterly in public health – especially in relation to secure and detained settings.

David Glover

David Glover became Deputy Head of the Medicines Analysis Team at NHS England and Improvement, in January 2019. Prior to joining the NHS, David worked in central government for over 20 years, including 15 years as an economic adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office for Life Sciences, having also spent six years as a patent examiner at the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Virginia Golding

Virginia Golding is the head of equality, diversity and inclusion at Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust.
She joined the NHS in 1992 as a clerical officer and progressed to become the equality and diversity lead at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2007 she took voluntary redundancy and set up her consultancy Golding Diversity Training. She returned to the NHS in 2013.
Virginia is an active member of the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) frontline staff forum and a member of the NHS Confederations BME Leaders Network.
She has a master’s degree in Human Resource Management and a postgraduate certificate in diversity management.

Ted Goodman

Ted is married and lives with his adult son in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Ted moved to Shropshire from the West Midlands around 12 years ago.

Ted’s career has been in social work, mainly in mental health and learning disability services in the community and in hospital, though at times also working with young children and their families. Ted moved into the regulation of health and social care where he managed the regulation and inspection of social care services for adults and young children in the local authority and later with Ofsted where he managed one of the regional complaint investigation and enforcement teams. Since then, Ted has worked as an expert by experience with CBF (Challenging Behaviour Foundation) supporting CQC inspections and also with NHS England’s Improving Lives team. Occasional private work includes workplace and family mediation and independent reviews of local authority complaints.

Ted has “a busy home life as you would expect supporting our son who is autistic and has learning disabilities”. He enjoys photography, most things to do with computing and a wide variety of good music of most genres. His family love walking and keeping active and most importantly for them, taking every opportunity to get away on weekends or holiday.

Ask Listen Do is a project to develop a series of resources that will support children, young people and adults with a learning disability, autism or both and their families and carers to feel confident in giving feedback, raising a concern or a complaint about care, education or support so that they feel that their feedback, concerns and complaints are proactively received, listened to and acted on in a timely manner.

Dr Andrea Gordon

Dr Andrea Gordon is the Programme Director for the West Midlands Cancer Alliance.

She has held the post since September 2018 following roles working with NHS trusts in the Black Country and at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to this she worked in regulation for over fifteen years, more latterly as Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the Care Quality Commission.

The West Midlands Cancer Alliance has an ambitious transformation programme that spans from early diagnosis to living with and beyond cancer. In order to make a difference; improve services, responsiveness and outcomes, the team has to work with a range of stakeholders to include patients, charities, regulators and NHS trusts and colleagues in primary care.

Chris Gormley

Chris Gormley has worked in the NHS for 7 years and is currently the Acting Chief Sustainability Officer of the NHS, responsible for its commitment to deliver a world-class net zero emission health service.

Previously, as Director of Policy, he was responsible for developing and delivering the Health and Care Act 2022 and negotiating the NHS’s annual mandate with government.

Prior to joining the NHS, Chris spent 12 years working in government on climate and energy policy, including development of renewables incentives, removing barriers to deployment, implementing emissions trading legislation and oversight of carbon budgets under the UK Climate Change Act.

Hope Gorton

Hope Gorton is a 27-year-old Digital Marketing Manager working in the advertising industry. As a member of The Reporters’ Academy, she has worked with the NHS Youth Forum to teach young people valuable media skills. She recently attended the NHS Youth Voice Summit to discuss young people’s mental health.

Diagnosed with Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in 2015, Hope has experienced first-hand the impact of social media on body image and mental health. She contributed to blogs to raise awareness of the condition – her latest work includes a very honest ‘letter to my gut’ which highlights her personal journey towards accepting her body.

Katie Goulding

Katie Goulding is a Personalised Care Organisational Development Facilitator and EMCC trained coach, working with Blackpool Teaching Hospitals.

She works across Lancashire and South Cumbria ICS which is a Personalised Care demonstrator site and is currently studying towards a Masters in health coaching and culture change. She is passionate about people having better conversations within health and care settings.

David Graham

David Graham is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at University College Hospital, London.

He has a specialist interest in Barrett’s oesophagus, oesophago-gastric cancer, endoscopic imaging technologies and interventional endoscopy.

David is part of the expert committee devising the BSG guidelines for the management of the pre-malignant and early malignant lesions of the stomach and is part of an international research collaboration looking at ways to improve the early detection of gastric cancer.

Peter Grainger

Peter Grainger is a Patient and Public Involvement representative at St Mark’s Hospital, part of North West London Healthcare Trust. He and his family are affected by a genetic disease, so when the Trust joined the North Thames Genomic Medicine Centre in September, he stepped forward to explain how genetic science is driving improvements in personalised medicine – and what it means to the Grainger family.

Tracey Grainger

Tracey Grainger is Head of Digital Primary Care Development at NHS England with responsibility for supporting transformation across general practice and child health information services. This includes supporting services with a choice of high quality clinical IT systems, tailored to local requirements, while enabling the flexibility and innovation to meet current and future service needs of our patients and citizens.

She has over 24 years’ experience within the NHS that has involved leading service management, performance improvement and large scale transformational change programmes both enabled through technology and organisational development. Tracey has worked across national, regional and local levels in a variety of health care settings.

She is currently supporting the digital programme within the Estates and Technology Fund to support the delivery of new and enhanced technology solutions that will significantly improve patients’ access to services through innovative care models, making them available through digital enablement to all users of health and care data to support the delivery of better, safer care.

Dr Kate Granger

Kate Granger, 34, was a Consultant in Medicine for Older People at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

Launched in 2014 and presented annually at the Health and Innovation Expo, the Kate Granger Compassionate Care Awards are a lasting legacy to her inspirational #hellomynameis campaign.

Kate was passionate about quality improvement and she used her experiences and observations as a patient to raise awareness and drive up the standard of care delivered by the NHS.

The #hellomynameis campaign, launched in 2013 by Kate and her husband Chris Pointon, came as a result of staff failing to introduce themselves when they were caring for her.

Kate jokingly said she thought the campaign would “amount to one or two tweets and then fizzle out”. Instead it became a national campaign, winning the support of over 130 organisations, including NHS Trusts across England, Scotland and Wales, before becoming a global phenomenon – with #hellomynameis receiving more than 1.5billion Twitter impressions.

Kate, who wrote books as well as posting tweets and blogs regularly about her experiences of illness, also raised £200,000 with her husband which was donated to the Yorkshire Cancer Centre.

Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE

Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE is the Chairman of NHS England.

Sir Malcolm is also Chancellor of the University of York, and immediate past President and Provost of UCL (University College London) from 2003-2013. He is a barrister and a Bencher of Middle Temple.

As an academic lawyer he specialised in planning, property and environmental law, and was Professor and Head of Department of Land Economy (1991-2003) and pro-vice chancellor (2002-03) of Cambridge University, and professorial fellow of Clare College.

He has served as Chair of the Local Government Commission for England, of the Agriculture and Environmental Biotechnology Commission and the Russell Group. He is currently a trustee of Somerset House, a director of Genomics England Ltd and a UK Business Ambassador.

Professor Huon Gray

Professor Huon Gray MD FRCP FESC FACC was the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease for NHS England (2013-2019).

Huon was appointed Consultant Adult and Interventional Cardiologist to Southampton University Hospital in 1989. He was President of the British Cardiac Society (2003-2005) and co-chaired the Department of Health’s National Infarct Angioplasty Project (2006-2008) which led to the subsequent roll out of primary PCI for ST elevation myocardial infarction.

He was Clinical Adviser to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on acute coronary syndromes (2007-2010) and chaired its guideline on ST elevation myocardial infarction (2011-2013). He chaired the International Council of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) (2008-2013) and sat on the ACC’s Board of Trustees (2012-2016).

Huon is Honorary Professor at Queen Mary’s University, and University College, London, and has published on various aspects of cardiology and health service delivery. He was Deputy and then Interim National Clinical Director for Heart Disease at the Department of Health (2007-2012).

Sir Muir Gray

Sir Muir Gray is a Consultant in Public Health in Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust and a professor in the University of Oxford’s department of Primary Care Health Sciences.

He is also a Consultant in Public Health for www.ukactive.com.

He is the author of Sod70! And with Diana Moran the joint Author of Sod Sitting, Get Moving.

Matthew Greene

Matthew Greene graduated in 2013 from the University of Salford with a degree in Finance & Accounting which involved a 12 month student placement at Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

After graduating, Matthew moved to work at NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group where he is now Programme Project Accountant and is studying for CIMA. Matthew is also a Future Focused Finance Value Maker, member of the FSD NW Student Forum and Student Representative on the HFMA NW Branch Committee.

Charles Greenough

Charles Greenough qualified as a doctor from Queens’ College, Cambridge and University College Hospital, London. He trained as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore. Specialist spinal training was also undertaken at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia.

He is also a Consultant Spinal Surgeon, Professor of Spinal Studies at the University of Durham and undertakes lecturing work in the U.K and Internationally. He is Past President of the Spine Society of Europe. He is also Clinical Director of the Golden Jubilee Regional Spinal Cord Injuries Centre at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

In his previous role as National Clinical Director for Spinal Disorders in April 2013 – March 2016 his vision was to promote a seamless care pathway for patients with low back pain or sciatica across the NHS to reduce long term disability and multiple ineffective therapies. He is currently chair of the Improving Spinal Care Project, NHS England. The project aims to implement the National Back Pain and Radicular Pain Pathway, and to give effect to spinal surgery networks.

Principal research interests have been spinal trauma, spinal cord injury and low back pain.

Hobbies include fell walking and family life.

Louise Greenrod

Louise began her role as Deputy Director Data Policy in the Joint Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)/NHS England Digital Policy Unit in October 2022.

She has responsibility for ensuring that the policy and legislative framework for data in DHSC and NHS England is fit for purpose and supports delivery of the commitments and outcomes of the government’s Data Saves Lives strategy, driving improvements in access to health and care data for the benefit of the public and the system as a whole.

Prior to her current role, Louise worked in a number of other Government departments including the Cabinet Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence, as well as being part of the secretariat for an independent inquiry. Her roles have spanned policy and project delivery and have involved close working with government ministers. She has a keen interest in successful policy implementation and the value of data in this. Prior to joining the civil service, Louise worked in local government and holds an MSc in International and European politics from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Jon Griffiths

Dr Jonathan Griffiths is a GP at Swanlow Practice in Winsford, Cheshire, and Chair of NHS Vale Royal CCG.

He qualified from Manchester University in 1994 and worked as a junior doctor in the West Midlands, completing his GP training in South Birmingham.

He then worked as a GP for 7 years in South Staffordshire, where for a while he was involved as a member of the Professional Executive Committee for the local PCT.

In 2005 he moved to work at Swanlow Practice in Winsford.

Jon has been involved in commissioning in Vale Royal since Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) first developed a few years ago, and was Chair of Vale Royal PBC group before the NHS reforms led to the creation of Clinical Commissioning Groups.

He is a member on the board of the North West Leadership Academy.

Jon’s professional interests include GP commissioning and Clinical Leadership.

Outside of work he spends time with his wife and daughters, and enjoys being outside, particularly if that involves walking (or running) up a hill!.

Brad Gudger

Brad Gudger is a member of the NHS Youth Forum.

Diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2013, Brad has extensive experience of NHS services for more than 6 years.

A champion of youth voice and co-design, he has volunteered for various organisations and has worked extensively to advocate on behalf of young people.

His experience includes advising the APPG for Young People with Cancer on various policy changes, petitioning the government to offer more support to young cancer survivors and he has spoken in Parliament numerous times about patient experience.

Brad has been an international advocate for young people as well, working with organisations such as Youth Cancer Europe and being a Young Technical Advisor for a World Health Organisation & Public Health England Collaborating Centre.

Brad founded his own charity in 2018, called Alike. Alike has been created to combat isolation amongst people with cancer using a new digital peer support platform and UK wide peer support groups.

In July 2019, he received a Diana Award for his services to young people and the cancer community.

Erk Gunce

Erk (pronounced Eric, pronouns: he/him/his) is a Turkish Cypriot who came to the UK to pursue higher education. He is an equality, diversity and inclusion practitioner by profession and his academic specialism is inclusive leadership. He is currently on a journey, exploring how impact can be made on others using creative media – blogs, podcasts, presentations, videos, art and more. He works as an expert by experience in NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Mental Health team, embracing, and encouraging others to embrace, vulnerability, equity, dignity in care, patient representation and systems improvement.

Dr Rekha Gupta

Dr Rekha Gupta has been a GP in Leicester since 2006 and specialises in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Declan Hadley

Declan Hadley is the Digital Lead for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System.

Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria is the name for the partnership of NHS, local councils, public sector, voluntary sector and community organisations working together to improve health and care services and help the 1.7 million people in Lancashire and South Cumbria live longer, healthier lives.

Declan leads the Digital Health team, who have worked with colleagues across the local health and care system to co-create a shared digital health strategy for Lancashire and South Cumbria, ‘Our Digital Future’.

He has been a core member of the leadership team behind the development of a Population Health Management approach locally, with Lancashire and South Cumbria taking part in an NHS England sponsored accelerated development programme for Population Health Management in 2019. He is also joint Senior Responsible Officer for the Share 2 Care programme, a joint initiative between Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria and the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership looking at extending shared local health and care records across Lancashire, South Cumbria, Cheshire and Merseyside.

Declan has worked in the NHS for more than thirty years. He started his NHS career as a Psychiatric Nurse, moving quickly into Information Management in the 1990s where he worked in a number of different roles across the North West.

Between 2001 and 2014, heworked as Health Informatics Director at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, where he oversaw the development of innovative mobile solutions, new clinical applications and technology to support an agile workforce. Declan has been leading the Digital agenda on a health and care system wide level across Lancashire and South Cumbria since 2014.

Dr John Hague

Based at The Derby Road Practice in Ipswich, Dr Hague’s main interest is in mental health in primary care, and the provision of high quality mental health care. Dr Hague was GP Clinical Lead for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme at NHS East of England between 2008 and 2011 – a role in which he delivered an IAPT service to between 11 and 13 Primary Care Trusts. He is a General Practitioner appraiser for NHS England. Having gained more than 30 years’ experience as a GP at the Derby Road Practice in Ipswich, he now works there as a salaried GP.

Dr Hague is a member of the Clinical Executive at Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG, and has been appointed Clinical Mental Health Lead for North East Essex and Suffolk STP. He has written a number of professional publications including The Neglected Majority (The Centre for Mental Health), November 2005 (co-author).

Becky Haines

Dr Becky Haines has been a GP partner at Glenpark Medical Centre in Dunston since 2002. She has been the practice lead for diabetes since then, involved at a PCT then CCG level for most of this time and became the Gateshead Clinical Lead for Diabetes NGCCG in 2014. She is also a Year of Care trainer and has helped to implement YOC care and support planning across the CCG. She is an RCGP Champion for Collaborative Care and Support Planning.

Rachel Halford

Rachel Halford is the Chief Executive of the Hepatitis C Trust. She has over 25 years’ experience of working with people at high-risk of viral hepatitis, and liver disease generally, the past 20 years of which have been in senior management roles within the voluntary/non-governmental organisation sector.

Passionate about equality and human rights, Rachel joined the Hepatitis C Trust in 2015 as deputy chief executive officer (CEO), before taking over as CEO in July 2018. Before joining the trust, she was CEO of Women in Prison, a national UK campaigning organisation that provided support and advocacy for women affected by the criminal justice system.

Donna Hall

Donna Hall CBE has been chief executive at Wigan, the second largest council in Greater Manchester, for the last six years.

Despite being the third worst-affected UK council by cuts of £100 million, Wigan has been voted by 72 per cent of its staff as the best council to work for in the UK. Donna is also the accountable officer of NHS Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group.

Donna leads on culture, arts and leisure and supports Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, on public service reform across health, social care and public services.

Donna was awarded a CBE for services to local government in 2009 and has initiated a major programme of reform in partnership with residents, The Wigan Deal. She is a passionate feminist and last year won Transformational Leader at the Northern Power Women Awards.

Rebecca Hall

Rebecca Hall is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Primary Care and Lead Nurse for the E4 Network PCN.

She has completed the coach practitioner programme with NHS London Leadership Academy, a course that holds the European Quality Award conferred by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Professor Sir Chris Ham

Chris Ham is currently Co-Chair of the NHS Assembly, Emeritus Professor of health policy and management at the University of Birmingham, and Senior Visiting Fellow at The King’s Fund, where he was Chief Executive between 2010 and 2018. He served as chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System from 2019 to 2021.

Chris was awarded a CBE for his services to the NHS in 2004 and a knighthood for services to health policy and management in 2018. He is a founding fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and holds honorary fellowships with both the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal College of General Practitioners. He became a companion of the Institute of Healthcare Management in 2006.

Dr David Hambleton

Dr David Hambleton is chief executive officer at South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group.

Before taking up his current role, he was director of commissioning and reform at NHS South of Tyne and Wear and held a number of clinical managerial posts, including head of performance and clinical governance and director of surgery.

Dr Angela Hamblin

Dr Angela Hamblin is currently working as a Molecular Diagnostic Research Fellow with Prof Anna Schuh in the Oxford Molecular Diagnostics Centre. She trained in medicine at Oxford University Medical School and undertook a PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy with Prof Martin Glennie and Prof Peter Johnson in the Cancer Sciences Division, University of Southampton.

She is completing a Specialist Registrar rotation in Haematology in the Oxford Deanery. Dr Hamblin is particularly interested in the translation of next generation sequencing techniques from research into routine clinical practice for patients with (particularly haematological) malignancies in order to improve patient outcomes.

Dr Clare Hambling

Dr Clare Hambling is a GP with an interest in diabetes, cardiometabolic disease and long term conditions.

She is the NHS England National Clinical Director for Diabetes and Obesity.

Dr Julie Hammond

Dr Julie Hammond is a multi-award-winning NHS GP with 8 years of clinical experience.

She is a passionate advocate for women’s health, mental health and health equity. She has worked to raise awareness to support the health of the Afro-Caribbean community and reduce the gap in health inequalities experienced by this community as a steering group member of the London Inspire Programme.

To further her mission to narrow healthcare inequalities and ensure equitable healthcare, she is a Kent Community NHS Foundation Trust Health Governor, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur, Core20PLUS Ambassador for NHS England, member of the Kent and Medway Local Maternity and Neonatal System Equity and Equality Oversight Group as well as a mentor and trustee of West Kent Mind and co-chair of its diversity, equity and inclusion subgroup.

Tricia Handley

Tricia Handley trained as a learning disability nurse 30 years ago. She has worked in a number of roles: community nurse, multiple disability trainer, research nurse, project lead supporting people to move from long stay hospitals, clinical nurse management.

She also enjoyed studying quite a bit during this period, gaining first class honours in Interprofessional Practice at City University and post graduate cert. in Health and Social Care Management.

Tricia is passionate about equality and specifically collaboration, both within and outside the NHS as a means of achieving it. She is currently Lead Nurse for People with a Learning Disability in Barts Health NHS Trust and enjoying the challenge of an acute hospital environment.

Paddy Hanrahan

Paddy Hanrahan is the Managing Director of HelpForce and has experience of start-ups in the health-social space after helping to set up the Centre for Ageing Better over 2015-16. Prior to that Paddy was a managing director at Accenture where he worked for 13 years, mostly with NHS clients.

HelpForce is a Community Interest Company, founded in 2016 by Sir Thomas Hughes Hallett, Chair of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. It was set up to support the development of 21st century volunteering at national scale in collaboration with the NHS, charities and the patients and communities it serves.

Jason Hanrahan

Jason Hanrahan is an ambitious song writer and musician. He writes songs about personal experiences and life in general. He enjoys doing this because it gives him a way to express his emotions.

Jason is also a stroke survivor.

Victoria Harding

Vicky leads the Wellbeing Team for Titan Primary Care Network in the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICS, creating opportunities for patients to receive the best possible support locally. She identifies gaps in local provisions and works with existing or new community groups to create a service that bridges the gap. She has a wide range of community experience in both a healthcare setting and the charitable sector. She is a trained Social Prescriber and enjoys offering support on a one to one basis supporting patients to achieve their goals. She is also a qualified Health Coach and can offer the tools and mindset to sustain the positive changes made by the Social Prescribing interventions.

Professor Nick Harding OBE

Professor Nick Harding OBE is Chair for Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group, actively involved in primary care transformation and leadership development, recognised nationally by awards for its delivery. Nick undertakes a number of roles, locally (Aston Medical School honorary senior lecturer), regionally (LETC member, stroke review, Primary Care Leadership development programme) and nationally (co-chair specialised commissioning, Health Education Advisor, New Models of Care Evaluator and Nuffield leadership panel).

Professor Harding established Modality Partnership (formerly known as Vitality and also a MCP vanguard) with GP colleagues to improve quality of care in the inner city setting of Birmingham, and build a new sustainable type of primary care model for the future. This Super-Partnership is now one of the largest GP provider organisations, with close to 100,000 patients.

Dom Hardy

Dom Hardy is the Director of Primary Care and System Transformation in NHS England, leading the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to create Integrated Care Systems across the country, and ensure primary care provides the strong foundation of those systems so they can provide excellent health care for patients and communities.

He previously held roles at regional level in NHS England as Director of Commissioning Operations for Wessex and as Regional Assurance and Delivery Director.

Prior to that he worked in the South of England and South Central SHA for over 3 years, working with colleagues across the South to establish and then lead the new commissioning system.

Before moving to the NHS he worked in central government in a range of roles, including at the DH with Professor Sir Ara Darzi as project director for the NHS Next Stage Review.

He has also worked at the management consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers and as a policy advisor to Tony Blair and Principal Private Secretary to John Reid and Patricia Hewitt.

Dr Sam Hare

Dr Sam Hare is a consultant chest radiologist at Barnet Hospital, which is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. He is also one of the lead radiologists for the London Cancer lung pathway board, responsible for improving regional lung cancer outcomes and patient experience.

Sam studied medicine at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge and Imperial College School of Medicine, gaining a 1st class honours degree.

After completing formal radiology training in the UK between 2004-2009 he undertook a thoracic radiology fellowship in North America (2009-2010). Sam was subsequently appointed to the position of consultant thoracic radiologist at The Ottawa Hospital in Canada specialising in: (i) complex lung biopsy techniques and (ii) lung cancer screening & diagnosis. He returned to the UK NHS in 2011 and currently runs the innovative ambulatory lung biopsy service at the Royal Free London NHS Trust.

Dr Hare’s technical lung biopsy expertise has been acknowledged as providing earlier lung cancer diagnosis in a wider range of patients. The novel ambulatory lung biopsy service was awarded the inaugural NHS Innovation Challenge Prize for Cancer Care in 2016 in addition to the 2016 BMJ Award for Cancer Care Team of the Year (sponsored by Macmillan Cancer). Sam’s work has also gained national recognition in Thorax, one of the world’s leading respiratory medicine journals, as well as in the Times newspaper and BBC news (August 2015).

Sam is currently focused on leading wider NHS adoption of ‘ambulatory lung biopsy’ and is working closely with NHS England to achieve this. As part of this ambition, he has established a national lung biopsy education course (POBAS) that will train clinicians from other hospitals to use the innovative technique. For more details please visit www.POBAS.co.uk

David Hargroves

David Hargroves is NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Stroke. A consultant stroke physician in East Kent, David graduated from University College London, with a Masters from Kings following a stroke research thesis during his general medicine, geriatric and stroke fellowship training.

Previously the clinical lead for the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) stroke programme and NHS England’s National Specialty Advisor for Stroke, David co-produced the National Stroke Service Model (NSSM), the Integrated Stroke Service Model (ICSSM) and the National Optimal Stroke Imaging Pathway (NOSIP), all published in 2021. He is also a holder of the Life after Stroke Award for Professional Excellence from the Stroke Association.

Dr Linda Harris

Dr Linda Harris FRCGP is Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer of Spectrum Community Health CIC, a not for profit organisation delivering community and health and justice services on behalf of the NHS, local authority public health and other partners in sites across the north of England.

Passionate about integrated care for vulnerable groups and tackling the root causes of health inequality, Dr Harris is the Chair of the NHS England Health and Justice Clinical Reference Group, which plays host to a range of task and finish groups and quality improvement initiatives.

Chris Harris

Chris currently works for the NHS England Medical Directorate on frailty with the aim of supporting the NHS to understand frailty and consider how future patient centre services can be delivered.

Ruth Harrison

Ruth Harrison is a learning disability nurse and busy mum of three with a long history of working with people with complex care needs from day services, private and forensic sector and within NHS primary and acute care trusts.

She now provides direct support in clinical situations but also works at a strategic level to develop improvement plans and monitor progress. Ruth is passionate about equality and the positives of ability rather than the negatives of disability.

Professor Chris Harrison

Professor Chris Harrison is NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cancer and he is Medical Director (Strategy) for The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.

He qualified in Medicine from Manchester and, following experience in both hospital medicine and primary care, trained in epidemiology and public health.

Chris held a series of Director of Public Health Posts in Lancashire before becoming Cancer Director for the North West Region in 2000, and then Medical Director of Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority in 2002.

He became Executive Medical Director at The Christie from 2006 until 2013 when he moved to London becoming Medical Director at Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust before returning to Manchester in March 2016.

Between 2011 and 2013 Chris was seconded part time from his role at The Christie to be Clinical Director for Cancer to NHS London.

Dr Ollie Hart

Dr Ollie Hart is a GP from Sheffield. He is the clinical director for the local primary care network, Heeley Plus, covering 42,000 patients.

He has a core professional interest in person-centred care. Across the last 10 years he has held a range of national roles in this area, co-chairing NHS England’s Strategy Board for Supported Self-management, a national champion for the Royal College of General Practitioners in its Collaborative Care and Support Planning Programme, clinical lead for personalised care for NHS Sheffield, and member of South Yorkshire Social Prescribing Board.

He is a director for Peak Health Coaching (PHC), a company that specialises in health coaching training and organisational development for person-centred care. PHC was the first company nationally to be accredited for health coaching training by the Personalised Care Institute and has trained over 2,000 people in coaching skills.

He is one of two global health and wellbeing ambassadors for parkrun.

If not at his standing desk, Ollie is most at home running or biking in the Peak District.

Daniel Hartley

Daniel is Executive Director of People at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, a role that he loves.

Daniel has over 20 years’ experience in a range of people, organisational development and workforce roles having worked in local government and at NHS England before joining The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust in 2023.

Jenny Hartnoll

Jenny Hartnoll, is Service Lead for Health Connections Mendip.

Email: j.hartnoll@nhs.net
Website: www.healthconnectionsmendip.org
Twitter: @jennyhartnoll

Nick Hartshorne-Evans

Nick Hartshorne-Evans was diagnosed with Heart Failure in January 2010 at 39. His experience as a patient stimulated him into developing the only dedicated patient-led Heart Failure charity in the UK, the Pumping Marvellous Foundation.

After significant learning about not only the condition but also the health system, Nick narrowed his focus to developing and evolving a charity that delivered patient-led solutions developed by the patients themselves. The charities knowledge and value comes from the beneficiaries and is a valuable resource to health economies and has attracted international exposure. Recruiting driven and innovative beneficiaries is a key driver for the foundation. Developing solutions from the needs of patients rather than thinking what the patient needs is a powerful stakeholder position. The Pumping Marvellous Foundation manages the world’s largest online community of heart failure patients through their innovative and rich data communities. This is where the charity gains insights, using it to influence policy decisions.

Nick regularly engages and involves himself in both Global, European, National and Regional patient advocacy along with delivering patient-led collaborative solutions at a local level.

Nick is regularly consulted on the “patient opinion” both by key stakeholders and at conferences. His peers and partners across health channels see him as a “key opinion leader”.

Dr Mari Harty

Dr Mari Harty, Clinical Director of the SLP Forensic Programme, is a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Clinical Director – Forensic, Specialist and National services at South West London and St George’s.

She leads a team of psychiatrists and is responsible for end-to-end service delivery.

Mari has published on a range of forensic issues including the needs of patients in the High Secure Psychiatric Hospitals, community forensic services, prison mental health inreach and service provision for women.

Sam Haskell

Sam works as the Housing and Integration Policy Lead at the Department of Health. He is the organisation’s lead for housing and health/care issues.

His previous role was at Public Health England (PHE) as the national lead for work, worklessness and health. Before joining PHE, Sam worked in the Department of Health and Ministry of Justice in a variety of different roles. Between 2011 and 2013 he completed the Government graduate scheme – The Civil Service Fast Stream – as an internal candidate.

Sam recently completed an MSc in Health Policy at Imperial College London. He received the Dean’s Prize for his dissertation on pet ownership and health in later life. He now lives and works in London with his partner.

Helen Hassell

Helen Hassell is a parent carer, a lived experience partner, and an active member of the My Life Choices co-production group with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board. She has been a member of the NHS Assembly since it was founded in 2019.

Lynne Hawksworth

Lynne Hawksworth is Secretary and Trustee of Knitted Knockers UK and is a retired Head of English, a mum of two and granna of four.

Dr Adrian Hayter

GP Partner Runnymede Medical Practice, National Clinical Director for Older People and Personalised Care, NHS England.

Zara Head

Zara Head is the Lead Nurse for Primary Care Quality at NHS Doncaster CCG and has been in post for two years.

She trained as a nurse at Scunthorpe General Hospital, starting her career in Orthopaedics and Accident and Emergency, working in various hospitals in the north of England.

She has spent most of her career in primary care, first as a practice nurse for a busy GP and prior to her current role, she was a Lead Inspector for the Care Quality Commission for primary and integrated care.

Suzy Heafield

Suzy Heafield, BPharm. Head of Medicines Value and Delivery, NHS England (NHSE) Commercial Medicines Directorate
Suzy is a commissioning pharmacist working for NHSE as the Head of Medicines Value and Delivery. She graduated from Kings College London in 1996 and qualified as a pharmacist in 1997.
Suzy leads the cross-organisational Medicines Value Programme. The programme involves working across both primary and secondary care, aligning clinical and commercial opportunities to ensure that the NHS achieves the best possible value from its significant investment in medicines. This includes supporting patients and clinicians to access the best value medicines to enable the best possible outcomes.

Dr Charles Heatley

Dr Charles Heatley is a senior partner at Birley Health Centre in Sheffield and Clinical Director for Planned Care at Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group. He has special interests in mental health and cardiology.

Alison Hemsworth

Alison Hemsworth has led on many national projects relating to community pharmacy, the most notable being the introduction of the Community Pharmacy Seasonal Flu Vaccination Service.

Her previous roles have included: performance management of community pharmacy and optometry contracts in several PCTs; Service Development Officer for Leeds LPC; Prescribing Support Technician in Bradford; Education and training of pharmacy support staff for the University of Leeds/Bradford College; and Hospital pharmacy in various departments across the country.

In addition to her technician qualifications, Alison has an MSc in Leadership and Management in Health and Social Care, and a Foundation Degree in Pharmacy Services and Medicines Management. In 2016 Alison was a finalist in the Women in the City Future Leaders Award.

Judith Hendley

Judith Hendley became Head of Supported Self-Management at NHS England and NHS Improvement in April 2020, which is part of NHS Personalised Care.  She was previously Head of Patient Safety Policy for the same organisation.  Immediately prior to joining the NHS centrally, Judith worked in health and social care policy for London local government supporting initiatives to help local government and the NHS work more closely together. 

Shehan Hettiaratchy

Shehan Hettiaratchy is the clinical lead for the Veterans Trauma Network.

He is the Lead Surgeon and Major Trauma Director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London.

He has developed the VTN together with Richard Swarbrick, National Lead Armed Forces and Families & MOD Health Transition, NHS England.

Shehan has served in the British Army since he left school and is currently a reservist serving with Airborne Forces. He was deployed to Afghanistan twice.

Jenny Hicken

Jenny Hicken is a Network Delivery Facilitator in the Northern England Clinical Networks, and is part of the Mental Health and Dementia Network team.

She is currently working on projects addressing the wellbeing of vulnerable groups, and represents the Network team on the North East and North Cumbria ICS Zero Suicide Ambition Steering Group. She also keeps a hand in with the Maternity Network team, with whom she has worked closely on a number of pieces of work.

Jenny lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her husband and two young sons, and has worked in the NHS since 2009.

Dr Julie Higgins

Julie has held a number of NHS positions including Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Public Health in PCTs; she led the development of CCGs in Greater Manchester. She has been the Regional Director of Commissioning in NHS England as well as and has been SRO for large scale hospital reconfigurations following hospital merger to improve child and maternity services. Julie was Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Public Health Network which carried out a number of ground breaking public health initiatives including the development of the Greater Manchester Health Commission.

Before joining the NHS, Julie worked at London University in the field of immunology after gaining her PhD. Julie is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. She has a strong commitment to reducing health inequalities and alongside her working life has undertaken voluntary work with Youth Offending Teams.

In her Current role as Director of Transformation/SRO Learning Disabilities she is leading on:- Reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes for people with Learning Disabilities; Improving services and reducing reliance on hospital beds, for people with learning disabilities and/or autism with mental health issues and/or behaviours that challenge.

Professor Dame Sue Hill

Professor Dame Sue Hill DBE FMedSci FRSB FRCP(Hon) FRCPath (Hon) FHCS (Hon) is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for England and a respiratory scientist by background.

Throughout her career she has led on large-scale priority programmes across government and in NHS England including as the senior responsible officer for Genomics in the NHS, introducing a world-leading and nationwide Genomic Medicine Service, building on her work in heading up the NHS contribution to the 100,000 Genomes Project.

She has also played a pivotal role in the national COVID-19 programme leading the development and deployment of testing technologies into use for the UK population and co-directing the whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 programme.

Nikky Hill

Nikky Hill qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1998 after completing her degree at Brunel University.

She started her career in Surrey and London and has always worked in the acute hospital setting.

For the past 14 years she has worked at Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

In April 2019, she moved into her new role as Macmillan Prehabilitation Project Manager to look at the feasibility of developing and delivering a model of prehabilitation with the aim of improving patient’s health and wellbeing before, during and after primary cancer treatment.

Julian Hill

Julian is an experienced nurse with 30 years in the fields of learning disabilities and mental health.

He works independently and is firmly committed to the principles of Care and Treatment Reviews.

He believes that people with a learning disability, autism or both should almost never be admitted to hospital. If there is no other option; then it is only appropriate to admit when the person has very clear treatment outcomes and a discharge package in place

Rachel Hill-Tout

Blood borne viruses (BBV) clinical lead.

Dr Selwyn Hodge

Dr Selwyn Hodge is co-Chair of the Self Care Forum.

Having trained as a research organic chemist, he qualified as a teacher and became Deputy Head of a large 11-18 comprehensive school.

Selwyn then returned to higher education, as a research fellow for a Government technical and vocational education initiative, and a lecturer in chemistry education in initial teacher training.

His next move was into local government, firstly as a schools science adviser and then Chief Education Adviser and Deputy Director of Education. During this timehe was closely involved in public health initiatives.

Later Selwyn became an inspector of schools for OFSTED.

He was previously Chair of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health and a Board member of the National Association of Clubs for Young People. And was also Honorary Editor of the RSPH Journal Perspectives in Public Health.

Currently he is Chair of Ambition, a leading UK youth charity, and an adviser to the Public Health England Well North Programme.

Stephen Hodges

Stephen Hodges is the NHS RightCare Hot Housing Implementation Lead for the North Region.

He has worked in the NHS for 26 years and started his career in nursing. His clinical career has included roles within Intensive Care, transplant coordination and research.

Stephen spent 10 years working in Scotland in clinical, research and public health roles and more recently worked for NICE within their Medtech and Diagnostic programmes.

He has experience of working on national improvement programmes, working for NHS Improving Quality and, prior to joining NHS RightCare was Head of Patient Services at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Isabel Hodkinson

Isabel Hodkinson is a GP principal in Tower Hamlets, where much of the care for people with LTCs is delivered through enhanced service funding for packages of care via GP networks.

She is on the Tower Hamlets CCG board as lead for informatics and is the RCGP Clinical Champion for Care and Support planning.

John Holden

John Holden was previously Director of Policy, Partnerships and Innovation, since the publication of these blogs he has left NHS England.

Lisa Hollins

Lisa Hollins is the Director of Innovation Delivery at NHSX.

Until September, she was Executive Director of Improvement, Informatics and ICT, at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Shelford Group Transformation Directors.

Lisa is an experienced health leader and has worked in the NHS for over 25 years. Until September 2019, she was Chair of the Shelford Group Transformation Directors and has held senior positions in NHS trusts with University College London Hospitals, Barts Health and King’s College Hospital as her most recent organisations.

She has held regional and national roles in quality improvement and previously published a number of articles on quality improvement and efficiency.

Dr Daniel Holman

Dr Daniel Holman is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is currently researching inequalities in chronic diseases, and how they are patterned according to combinations of socioeconomic factors, age, gender and ethnicity (so-called ‘intersectionality’), and how this patterning is shaped by experiences across the life course.

Previously, he worked on a European project on extending working lives, particularly on the relationships between health, age management, pensions and retirement.

Janice Holt

Janice Holt is a retired teacher with a passion for music and a love of dogs.

She volunteered at St George’s Community Centre prior to working with the Care Homes Vanguard in Wakefield.

In addition, Janice also volunteers twice a week at a Wakefield District Housing Independent Living scheme.

Emily Holzhausen OBE

Emily Holzhausen OBE is the Director of Policy and Public Affairs for Carers UK, who she has been with since 1996, and is one of the country’s foremost experts on carers’ issues.

She is responsible for the organisation’s UK and England strategic development and direction of policy, research, campaigning, parliamentary and media work.

Emily leads on advice and awareness for the charity – supporting tens of thousands of carers each year through its Adviceline services. She is also responsible for Carers Week, one of the UK’s biggest awareness weeks.

Emily has developed and led different campaigns which have resulted in new legislation, policy or practice to improve the lives of carers.

She was a trustee of the Fawcett Society for six years and, prior to her role at Carers UK, she was responsible for public affairs work at the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.

Emily was awarded an OBE for services to carers in the 2015 Birthday Honours.

Jo Hooper

Jo Hooper is the Operations Manager for Hampshire’s Integrated Personal Commissioning Programme, which is called My Life My Way.

She qualified as a Learning Disability Nurse and has since worked for the NHS and Local Authority, primarily with people who have lived experience of living with a learning disability, but more recently as a Project Manager and then a Team Manager for social workers supporting young people through transition.

In her current role Jo has worked very closely with families to trial the new processes being championed by IPC.

Jonathon Hope MBE

Over the last 10 years Jonathon has chaired or co-chaired a number of national and local health care improvement projects, and has spoken widely on person centred care, self care, self-management, patient participation and activation

Jonathon was diagnosed with kidney failure in his teens – over 30 years ago. He experienced 15 years on dialysis, much of it on a kidney machine at home. He currently has a fourth transplant which is working well

Jonathon has recently been appointed as co-chair to a national programme looking at increasing activation and self-management support for people living with long term conditions.

Michelle Hope

Michelle Hope trained as a nurse at the University of Chester in 2000. Her nursing career has been focused within the specialties of haematology and oncology and she has most recently worked as a ward sister at University College London Hospital.

The ward sister role is one in which the competing priorities of leader and manager exist. Michelle is now focusing on the leadership element of an exciting new chapter in her career through her Darzi fellowship as Quality Improvement Nurse. The role spans across UCLPartners addressing pressure ulcer prevention, and her vision is to develop a brand, ‘Help Nurses Care’, building upon elements of practice which have demonstrated success and removing those which have not.

Catherine Horbury

Catherine Horbury is a Peer Support Worker for Horizons in Wakefield, in addition to being a Peer Leader on a voluntary basis for Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership.

Catherine is an advocate for people with Learning Disabilities and has her own lived experience of living with a Learning Disability.

Dr Karen Horridge

Dr Karen Horridge is a Paediatrician (Disability) in Sunderland and the Chair of the British Academy of Childhood Disability.

You can follow the British Academy of Childhood Disability on Twitter at @BACD_tweets.

Emily Hough

Emily joined NHS England’s Strategy Group in 2014, taking over as Director of the Group in July 2017. The Strategy Group is focused on supporting the strategic priorities and sustainability of the NHS and was instrumental in the development of the NHS Long term Plan. Emily has overseen programmes including Healthy New Towns, Health and Work and the NHS as an anchor institution. She has also led strategy contributions to a wide range of projects from the specification for Rapid Diagnostic Centers to plans for improving autism diagnosis and support.

Emily’s previous NHS experience includes supporting a major service reconfiguration in North Central London, advising the first Trust Special Administrator appointed to an NHS Trust in South East London, developing a Commissioning Support Unit’s Strategy and Transformation practice and supporting the development of London’s Clinical Commissioning Groups. Prior to joining the NHS Emily was a management consultant, specialising in strategy.

Rachael Hough

Rachael Hough is a Consultant in Haematology and Stem Cell Transplantation at UCL Hospitals and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Haematology/Transplantation at UCL.

As such, she is now the Clinical Lead of the largest teenage cancer service in the UK and has developed an adolescent-focussed transplant practice.

After completing undergraduate training at Nottingham University, she undertook post graduate general medical and haematology training in Sheffield.

She has also established and chairs the BSBMT Umbilical Cord Blood Working Group and is the Chief Investigator of the 2 NCRI-badged national cord blood transplant protocols. She is a member of the BSBMT Clinical Trials Committee and the CCLG Leukaemia and BMT Special Interest Groups and Coordinates the adolescent and young adult appendix of UKALL2003.

Philip Howard

Philip Howard is Consultant Pharmacist in Antimicrobials at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Leeds University, and is currently seconded part time to NHS England as an Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection project lead.

Philip has been active in the field of Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) for many years. He has been involved in the development of national AMS guidance for primary care and hospitals, the national Antimicrobial Prescribing and Stewardship Competences.

He is a member of the UKCPA Pharmacy Infection Network, BSAC Council, ESCMID AMS committee and has represented FIP on the WHO AMR Strategy. He is also a spokesman for the RPS on antimicrobials.

Clare Howard

Clare Howard is Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for NHS England and is leading the work on Medicines Optimisation for NHS England. Clare first started working in pharmacy at the age of 16 and since then has worked with community pharmacists, primary and secondary care.

Sharon Howard

Sharon Howard is an Administrative Support Officer for NHS England’s Strategic Clinical Networks in the Thames Valley. She has worked for the NHS since 2010, starting as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in Biochemistry. She also worked as a Healthcare Assistant in Radiology before moving into her first administrative role in Clinical Genetics.

Louise Howorth

Social Prescribing Link Worker. Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Council for Voluntary Service on behalf of Burnley East Primary Care Network.

Ellie Huckle

Ellie Huckle shared her story with NHS England on what it’s like to live with Type 1 diabetes.

Ruth Hudson

Ruth Hudson is a member of NHS England’s Insight Team, focussed on gathering patient feedback to improve services and is passionate about making feedback methods inclusive.

Lindsey Hughes

Lindsey Hughes is Director of Research and Engagement in the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences (IRLS) Group and Accelerated Access Collaborative at NHS England.

During 27 years of NHS service, including 18 years in frontline service provision as an Orthoptist, Lindsey has held various clinical and professional leadership roles in service delivery, research and education. Lindsey joined NHS England in 2014 and led the Improving Rehabilitation Services Programme prior to joining the IRLS group in 2016 where she developed the research programme before taking up her current role.

Her portfolio includes Research, Horizon Scanning and Demand Signalling, Health Inequalities, Net Zero and Patient and Public Involvement.

Philippa Hughes

Philippa Hughes is regional housing lead for the north region and sub regional housing lead for Yorkshire and Humber working on the Transforming Care Learning Disabilities programme.

As well as this, Philippa is a volunteer for a local community association and hospice and North East regional ambassador for the Housing Learning and Improvement so brings a real passion to her new role.

Rebecca Hughes

After graduating in Psychology and Counselling, with post-graduate studies in Low Intensity Intervention, Rebecca Hughes began her career, in 2007, as an Employment Support Specialist for people with a learning disability in Boston, USA. At South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, she provided community support to individuals in crisis and experiencing common to severe mental health problems. In 2010 she joined Insight Healthcare talking therapies service in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, as a trainee Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP). Rebecca was appointed PWP Team Lead Insight Healthcare in 2014 and Service Lead two years later.

Dr Henrietta Hughes

Dr Henrietta Hughes was appointed in July 2016 as the National Guardian, a key recommendation from the Francis Report.

She provides leadership and support to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians across England in arm’s-length bodies, NHS and Independent sector organisations to ensure that speaking up becomes business as usual.

The National Guardian’s Office undertakes and publishes case reviews when it appears that speaking up has not been handled according to best practice, providing challenge and learning to the healthcare system as a whole.

Previously a Medical Director at NHS England, Dr Hughes continues her clinical role weekly as a GP in central London.

Amanda Hughes

Amanda is Senior Finance, Contracts and Commissioning Manager for the Personalised Care Group at NHS England and Improvement.

Anne Hunt

Anne Hunt has been Lead Sepsis Nurse at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust for 18 months, working on meeting the NHS England Sepsis CQUIN to reduce the impact of serious infections. The easy read leaflet was developed in partnership with Herts County Council Health Liaison Team including The Purple All Stars.

Mike Hurley

Professor Michael Hurley, Clinical Director – Musculoskeletal Programme

Health Innovation Network (Academic Health Science Network for South London)

Mike Hurley qualified as a physiotherapist in 1985. He was Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Physiotherapy at Kings College London until moving to the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at St George’s University of London in 2010.

His areas of interest are devising and evaluating exercise-based rehabilitation chronic joint pain, rheumatic conditions, falls and dementia. He has conducted several large trials in primary and secondary care. He works closely with healthcare users, clinicians and commissioners to ensure the interventions developed are clinically practicable, in order to facilitate wide clinical implementation.

He has published over 65 papers. In July 2013 he was appointed Clinical Director for the Musculoskeletal Programme of the Health Innovation Network South London (an Academic Health Science Network) to promote implementation of best practice for people with musculoskeletal conditions across the twelve South London boroughs.

ESCAPE-pain is a rehabilitation programme for people with chronic knee and/or hip pain. It has an extensive evidence base that shows it is effective, cost-effective and popular, with large potential savings in healthcare. As of August 2016 it was being delivered in almost 30 centres across the UK and over 2000 people had benefitted.

Peter Huskinson

Peter Huskinson is the National Commercial Director of Specialised Commissioning at NHS England.

He joined the NHS in 2003 after a successful career in industry, and has worked in a range of commissioning and transformation roles with responsibility for primary, community acute and mental health care.

He co-chairs NHS England’s National Programme of Care Board for Blood and Infection overseeing the work of clinical reference groups in infection, immunity and haematology.

Dr Farzana Hussain

Dr Hussain is a GP in Newham, East London.

Dr Paul Husselbee

Dr Paul Husselbee is Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) of NHS Southend CCG and has been a GP in Southend for 23 years, having been born and brought up in the town.

He is also co-chair of the Quality Working Group of the NHS Commissioning Assembly, was a member of the Keogh Review Board and sits on the Quality and Clinical Risk committee, a sub-committees of the Board of NHS England.

He has been CCO in Southend since October 2012 – a small CCG with around 180,000 patients, co-terminus with Southend Unitary Local Authority and served by a single acute hospital. He has always had a keen interest in the managerial side of the health service, previously being GP advisor to Southend University Hospital, then Co-Chair of the PEC of Southend PCT.

Will Huxter

Will Huxter is Regional Director of Specialised Commissioning (London) at NHS England and currently chair of the NHS England Gender Task & Finish Group.

Prior to joining NHS England in June 2014, Will worked in a range of commissioning roles within the NHS, and for five years at an NHS Trust.

He has also spent eight years working in the voluntary sector.

Dr Richard Iles

Dr Richard Iles is a consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Previously he was a consultant at Addenbrookes’ Hospital in Cambridge.

He held an Honorary Lecturer post in Health Economics at the School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, UEA in Norwich from 2004-2010.

In 2013 he became the clinical lead for the high impact change asthma project for the East of England SCN MNCYP and is the clinical lead for National Paediatric Asthma Collaborative, NHS England, and is Clinical Advisor to the Paediatric Asthma Quality Improvement Program for the Health London Partnership.

Candace Imison

Candace Imison joined the Nuffield Trust in December 2014.

Candace was previously Deputy Director of Policy at The King’s Fund where she researched and published on a wide range of topics including future healthcare trends, service reconfiguration, workforce planning, polyclinics, community health services and referral management.

Candace has extensive senior management experience in the NHS, including at board level for providers and commissioners. She was director of strategy for a large acute trust and director of commissioning for large health authority.

Candace worked on strategy and policy at the Department of Health between 2000 and 2006, including work for the Modernisation Agency leading a workforce modernisation initiative. She is currently a non-executive director of a large NHS Foundation Trust.

Candace holds a master’s degree in health economics and health policy from Birmingham University and a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University.

Matt Inada-Kim

Matt Inada-Kim is an Acute Medicine Consultant at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.

He is also National Clinical Director for Infection, Antimicrobial Resistance and Deterioration.

Celia Ingham Clark

Celia Ingham Clark is the Medical Director for Clinical Effectiveness at NHS England.

She trained in Cambridge and London and was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Whittington Hospital in 1996.

After early work in medical education she developed an interest in quality improvement and this took her through several medical management roles to become Medical Director of the trust from 2004-2012.

More recently she worked as national clinical director for acute surgery and enhanced recovery, and as London regional lead for revalidation and quality.

For two years from 2014 she was the NHS England Director for reducing premature mortality, and in 2016 became the Medical Director for Clinical Effectiveness.
She was awarded an MBE in 2013 for services to the NHS.

Celia is also the interim National Director of Patient Safety at NHS Improvement.

Elizabeth Iro

Elizabeth Iro started in her role as Chief Nursing Officer of WHO in January 2018.

She is from the Cook Islands, Mrs Iro has served as the country’s Secretary of Health since 2012. She was the first nurse/midwife and woman to be appointed in this position.

In this role, she has implemented legislative reforms to strengthen the country’s health system and developed the National Health Strategic plans (2012-2016, 2017-2021)and a National Health Road Map 2017-2036, among other National policy and strategic documents.

Prior to this role, she served as the country’s Chief Nursing Officer from 2011 to 2012. In addition, for the first 25 years of her career, she was a practicing nurse and midwife, serving in several roles in the Cook Islands and New Zealand.

Jeremy Isaacs

Jeremy Isaacs is a consultant neurologist at St George’s and Kingston Hospitals and is dementia clinical lead at St George’s Hospital. He studied medicine at Cambridge and UCL; his PhD was on the immunology of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Jeremy has a specialist interest in cognitive neurology and dementia. He runs a multi-disciplinary cognitive neurology service at St George’s Hospital offering diagnosis, treatment and support for all types of cognitive disorder, including young-onset and atypical dementias. He has developed a pioneering support group for people living with young onset dementia. He is currently working with the London Dementia Clinical Network to support memory services in reducing waiting times for assessment and diagnosis.

Jeremy is a member of the NICE dementia clinical guideline (update) committee. He is co-authoring the chapter on Memory Disorders and Dementia for the forthcoming Oxford Textbook of Neuropsychiatry. He has published on clinical and molecular aspects of neurological disorders, prion biology and the history of medicine. He has research interests in clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, repurposing of drugs for dementia and delirium and the neuropsychology of functional cognitive disorders.

Prerana Issar

Prerana Issar is the first NHS Chief People Officer. In joining the NHS, Prerana brings a wealth of expertise in leadership development and strategic talent management, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Prior to joining the NHS Prerana was Director for Public-Private Partnerships at the United Nations and prior to that she was the Chief Human Resources Officer for the World Food Programme. During this time leading the development of the United Nation’s first strategic human capital approach, as well as the reform of many key policies. Before the United Nations, Prerana worked for over 15 years at Unilever Plc, starting with them in India and then for several years was in global roles at Unilever’s headquarters in London. Her last role in Unilever was Vice-President HR for the Global Foods business.

Prerana gets her strong service ethos from her parents who were both in public service in the Government of India for close to 40 years. A proud mother to a teenage son and a younger daughter she says they keep her grounded with timely performance feedback on a variety of topics. One of the happiest days of her life was when her daughter was born at the Royal Free hospital in London, giving her first-hand experience of the NHS staff who every day deliver outstanding care to patients.

Mel Ive

Mel Ive is the Hospital Broadcasting Association Regions Manager and Trustee as well as Chairperson for Hospital Radio Wexham. She has over 18 years’ experience in the voluntary sector, and is passionate, that no matter what age, experience or skills a volunteer has, all volunteers have the opportunities to develop, and has the philosophy “whatever you put in, you get out!”.

The Hospital Broadcasting Association (HBA), more formally known as the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations (NAHBO), is the national charity that supports and promotes Hospital Broadcasting in the UK.

Dr Graham Jackson

Dr Graham Jackson is GP Principal and Clinical Chair of Aylesbury Vale CCG and has worked within Buckinghamshire continually since 1988.

He became a partner at Whitehill Surgery in 1991 and still thoroughly enjoys the challenge that primary care provides.

In 1994 he brought together a group of local colleagues to found AYDDOC, an Out of Hours GP co-operative, of which he was Medical Manager for 10 years. He has been an LMC (Local Medical Committee) member since 1995.

From 1992 to 2003 he was a Hospital Practitioner in Psychiatry and Chaired Neurolink (a national board of mental health experts providing educational material) for several years.

Dr Jackson has been involved in health service provision in Buckinghamshire for a number of years having previously been Managing Director of Bucks Urgent Care and former chair of Vale Health (a GP Provider company).

He remains a member of the Formulary Management Group for Bucks, and has joined the CCG Development Group with NHS England, and is a member of the Steering Group for the NHS Commissioning Assembly.

He is also a member of Buckinghamshire Health and Wellbeing Board and the Strategic Clinical Network oversight committee for Thames Valley.

Kate Jackson

Kate Jackson (she/her) is the Head of Clinical Workforce and Quality, Personalised Care Group at NHS England and Improvement. An occupational therapist by profession, she has held clinical and non-clinical roles across national and local footprints.

Kate (@krjacks) was previously the Allied Health Professional (AHP) Professional Advisor to the Ageing Well programme and Discharge and Community Cell as part of the COVID-19 response at NHS England and Improvement. She is married with two children, two stepchildren and two granddaughters.

Tom Jackson

Tom Jackson was appointed as Chief Finance Officer for Liverpool CCG in August 2012.

Before that he fulfilled a number of senior financial roles for NHS Merseyside including Locality Director of Finance for Liverpool PCT and NHS Sefton.

He has worked in NHS financial management for over 20 years. After graduating with a degree in Economics he joined the NHS as a Graduate Financial Management Trainee working in hospitals around Liverpool.

Upon qualification as an accountant he continued to work in Liverpool hospitals before a move to Commissioning in Wigan with the advent of PCGs and PCTs. In 2007 he returned to Merseyside firstly as Deputy Director and then as Director of Finance for NHS Sefton.

Tom is currently the Senior Responsible Officer for the Healthy Liverpool health and social care transformation programme.

Ian Jackson

Director of Contracting and Planning for Specialised Serves in the London region.

Jacq Emkes

Jacq Emkes is a maths teacher and lives in Bedfordshire.

She is a patient advocate for continence care, speaking at events across the UK to raise awareness of issues for bladder and bowel patients.

Jacq is a patient champion for the It’s Personal campaign, which calls for better services and support for people with bladder and bowel problems.

She is also a patient advocate for NHS England’s Excellence In Continence Care Programme Board and has contributed to the Excellence in Continence Care guidance.

Ursula James

Ursula James joined the IAPT Programme in NHS England in June 2016 and has an extensive background in mental health, having trained as a nurse in 1991. She worked in acute mental health care for many years and completed extensive training in therapy before moving into IAPT services in 2009.

Ursula has worked as a Clinical Lead and IAPT Service Manager focusing on quality improvement and, before joining NHS England, was the regional Recovery Lead for the South West IAPT Clinical Network.

Ursula works on national policy developments of the IAPT programme, most notably this year has been the expansion into integrated IAPT services into physical health pathways, and is a specialist clinical advisor for the CQC.

Ray James CBE

Ray brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from a career in local government to his role leading NHS England’s work to transform care for people with a learning disability and their families/carers.

He has served as Executive Director of Health, Housing and Adult Social Care at Enfield Council for over a decade and is a Past President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). Ray was awarded a CBE for services to Adult Social Care in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List.

His Local Government career began in 1984 as a Scale 1 Clerical Officer and after working in three other London boroughs he joined Enfield in 1991 where he was appointed as Director in 2006 . Enfield is a multi-award winning North London Council, it’s growing reputation for adult social care reflected in national recognition in respect of safeguarding, independent living, community involvement and transition amongst other issues. Ray has always championed the insight and expertise of people with lived experience and their families. He has consistently sought greater recognition for the front line care and support workforce.

He has held a number of roles within ADASS including Chair of the London Region, National Lead for the Regions and President. His background in Commissioning has led to extensive work on national policy issues in this area.

Ray was born and raised in the East End of London, his family and Irish Ancestry are very important to him. Ray’s studies have included dual professional qualifications and a Masters in Leadership.

Ann Jarvis

Ann Jarvis is the Programme Director for NHS England’s Alzheimer’s Disease Modifying Treatments programme.

Nicola Jay

Nicola Jay is a consultant paediatrician leading a clinical network in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.

After qualifying as a doctor in London (Royal Free Hospital MBBS, St Mary’s Hospital/Imperial BSc physiology) she trained in paediatrics across three regions (Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham) with post graduate qualifications in Health Care Leadership (MSc) as well as Ethics & Law (PgDip).

Nicola has worked at Sheffield Children’s Hospital as a consultant in paediatric allergy for a decade with research interests being prevention of food allergy as part of the BEEP study, looking at minority population to improve health, moving allergy services into the community to improve access and de-labelling of antibiotic allergy.

She sits on the paediatricians in medical management committee at the RCPCH which advices on national health policies and standards for young people and is a council member for the clinical senate of Yorkshire & Humber which gives impartial advice to clinicians.

Her main additional role is as the clinical lead for the acutely unwell child managed clinical network (MCN) of South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw (Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield and Chesterfield/Mid Yorks NHS Trust). The MCN is a workstream of the Integrated Care System (ICS) aiming to improve equity of access, quality of care and subsequent reduction in inequalities of health for the children in our region by working closely together.

Central to her vision is an NHS that unites across currently recognised boundaries to provide seamless care for all children that need health care.

Paul Jebb

Paul Jebb registered as a nurse in 1996 and has held several senior leadership roles within nursing and operational management in the NHS and voluntary sector.

He supports the development and advancement of nursing by being a Care Maker, member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council professional standards advisory group, and ambassador for the Mary Seacole statue appeal.

Paul now leads on Action Area 2 of the Compassion in Practice strategy, looking at developing  co-production of Always Events within the NHS and works with the national patient experience team delivering NHS England commitment to carers, specifically with a lead on older carers.

Prior to this Paul was the Assistant Director of Nursing (Patient Experience) at Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where he led and implemented improvements within the patient experience team.

Helen Jenkins

Helen Jenkins has worked for NHS Central West Neighbourhood Team, based in Blackpool, Lancashire for approximately two years as Health and Wellbeing Support Worker. She was previously employed in similar roles based in and around Blackpool and has built up a foundation of knowledge of services, groups and organisations to help suitably signpost patients.

The role involves working with complex and diverse patients – some from deprived social and economic communities. During the NHS England pilot scheme – on Population Health Management (PHM) – she worked closely with GPs, the CCG and Blackpool Council.

For her the Health and Wellbeing Support Worker role is about caring, spending time to listen, reacting and supporting people to access the right organisation with a helping hand.

Grace Jeremy

Grace Jeremy is the Engagement Lead and Lead Young Advisor for We Can Talk, the Rights and Participation worker at Off The Record Bristol and Peer Project Coordinator for The Blurt Foundation.

She has been working as a mental health activist, educator and speaker since she was 17. You can follow her at @_graceadele.

Dr Caroline Jessel

Dr Caroline Jessel is the Regional Lead for Sustainability and Health for NHS England, South. She has been a GP for 30 years in Kent and has always had a strong interest in the relationship between the environment and health. She also works for the Kent and Medway area team as Clinical Strategy Lead responsible for facilitating all NHS organisations in the county to develop safe, sustainable and effective services. She is a member of the Kent Surrey and Sussex Clinical Senate Council and supports the Strategic Clinical Networks in the region. Caroline has led the development of the Sustainable Surgery Award Scheme, piloted in Kent and she is co-chair of the Kent Nature Partnership.

James Jeynes

James Jeynes is the proud father of Lewis, 12, who was diagnosed with terminal Batten Disease in 2014.

In his professional life, James is Chief Executive of MemNet Ltd and Executive Office Ltd and also has roles as Associate Director for Advantage Public Services and as a director of the Football Argument Ltd.

James is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and for over 24 years he has been helping to improve the membership and association sectors through his creation of high quality professional networks.

He has previously worked in local and central government including public sector development roles overseas in South Africa, France, Switzerland, UAE, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad.

In his spare time, James is a trustee of The Lewis Jeynes Fund, a board trustee of the Batten Disease Family Association and a lived experience advisor to the NHS England Personal Health Budgets Team.

Hardeep Jhutty

Deputy Director, Strategy and Development, Centre for Improving Data Collaboration, NHS Transformation Directorate
Hardeep is Deputy Director for Strategy and Development in the Centre for Improving Data Collaboration. Prior to this she led Strategy and Policy for Integrated Care Systems, and Pricing Strategy at Monitor/ NHS Improvement. More broadly, Hardeep’s experience has focussed on healthcare strategy and economics in the UK and in the global health arena. She has worked with a wide range of NHS organisations, international actors including the UN and WHO, funders and industry partners to develop and deliver transformative partnerships. Hardeep is passionate about health and enabling research and innovation that has the potential to transform lives and improve equity. She has also held and continues to serve in Trustee roles that are focussed on health and care at home and overseas.

Dr Jagan John

Dr Jagan John, North East London CCG Chair and Clinical Chair Barking and Dagenham, has worked in the NHS since 1999 and is a GP at the Aurora Medcare Practice in Barking. Before training as a GP, he worked in A&E and cardiology. He has a special interest in cardiology and paediatric cardiology.
Jagan has worked in senior roles in various leadership positions locally and nationally in the NHS, NHS England, and Department of Health and Social Care. He is a strong advocate of personalised health care and excellent patient experience. He is the clinical lead for personalised care in London (NHS England-London) and Healthy London Partnerships. He also works as a GP with a Special Interest (GPwSI) in Cardiology.
Jagan is married with two children and enjoys travelling and spending time with his family. He is a keen West Ham United supporter.

Philip Johns

Phil Johns has been Chief Executive of Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board since its inception, joining from the then newly merged Coventry and Warwickshire CCG and has worked in both provider and commissioner roles in the NHS for over 25 years. Phil came to Coventry and Warwickshire from Birmingham and Solihull CCG where he was both Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer. He is a firm believer that the Integrated Care Board must continue with the partnership ethos it developed as the STP and to do that it must continue to involve, and where appropriate devolve to, organisations, professionals and the public in Coventry and Warwickshire in how we deliver our services.

Professor Peter Johnson

Professor Peter Johnson is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton. He was Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK for ten years where he established pilot work in genomic analysis for cancer patients. He co-chaired the CRUK/Royal College of GPs Cancer Clinical Priority Group. He is currently Chair of the Royal College of Physicians/Association of Cancer Physicians joint specialty committee on medical oncology. He was appointed CBE for services to cancer research in 2016.

Jeff Johnston

Jeff Johnston, Associate Director of Operations at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, joined the Trust in December 2005 as the Assistant Director of Finance before moving into operational management in 2009, and has held a number of senior management roles including Divisional Manager, managing all the divisional services within the Trust.

Jeff became the Associate Director of Operations in September 2014.

Prior to joining the Trust Jeff held a number of senior positions in both the NHS and other public sector organisations.

He led the successful Acute Care Collaborations Vanguard application in 2015 and continues to work with the programme team to develop new care models.

Dr Matthew Jolly

Dr Matthew Jolly is National Clinical Director for the Maternity Review and Women’s Health, NHS England, taking up the role in October 2015.

He is an experienced clinician who is committed to providing excellent individual care and to the strategic improvement of maternity services and women’s health.

Matthew qualified at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School and trained as an obstetrician and gynaecologist in the North West Thames region, including two years researching the role of maternal metabolism in fetal growth at Imperial College School of Medicine.

He trained as a sub specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at the Centre for Fetal Care, Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea Hospital. Since 2001 he has worked as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

He has in the past worked as a departmental clinical director and as joint clinical director for The Maternity Children and Young People South East Coast Strategic Clinical Network.

Samantha Jones

Samantha Jones is NHS England’s Director for New Models of Care.

Samantha Jones was appointed as NHS England’s New Care Models Programme Director in January 2015 leading the implementation of new models of care as outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View.

She started her NHS career as a paediatric and general nurse and was a national management trainee. Having worked in a variety of operational management roles, and in the national clinical governance support team, she became the Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier Hospitals NHS Trust.

Following this, Samantha worked in the independent sector before she was appointed Chief Executive of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust in February 2013.

In 2014 she was awarded Health Service Journal Chief Executive of the Year and the trust’s “Onion” was highly commended in the patient safety award.

Suzanne Jones

Suzanne Jones is NHS England’s Project Lead for Personal Health Budgets in the End of Life Pathway. Suzanne began working in the NHS in 1975 as a student physiotherapist, and spent the first 23 years of her career working clinically, both in the NHS and in the private sector. Following the creation of PCTs, Suzanne became a clinical member of North Devon PCT’s Professional Executive Committee, and a year later Head of Physiotherapy. In 2005, Suzanne moved into commissioning, with a portfolio covering older people and Continuing Healthcare. From 2009-2014, Suzanne led Oxfordshire’s work to successfully pilot personal health budgets and prior to moving to NHS England, Suzanne was Programme Director for Community Integrated Localities in Oxfordshire. Outside work Suzanne has enjoyed several volunteer roles, most notably as a volunteer at the London Olympics and as Chair of a local parish council.

Annwen Jones

Annwen Jones has been Chief Executive of Target Ovarian Cancer since its formation in 2008. She is the Vice-Chair of the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition and co-founder of World Ovarian Cancer Day.

Annwen was appointed by NHS England to the National Cancer Drugs Panel in 2014 and currently sits on several clinical trial steering committees, including the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS).

Dr Indra Joshi

Dr Indra Joshi is the Clinical Lead for NHS England’s Empower the Person Portfolio overseeing the national citizen facing digital initiatives within the NHS with a focus on evidence, data, digital health standards and policy for AI.

Indra has a unique portfolio with experience stretching across policy, governance, digital health and marketing, national project strategy and implementation; whilst remaining true to her professional training as an emergency medic.

She is the Clinical Director of One HealthTech – a network which campaigns for the need and importance of better inclusion of all backgrounds, skillsets and disciplines in health technology. Alongside she is a Vice Chair for the British Computer Society (Health), an international speaker and consultant on digital health, an expedition medic, and most importantly a mum to two wonderful little munchkins

Anne Joshua

Anne Joshua is Head of Pharmacy Integration for NHS England and NHS Improvement and is responsible for leading the programme of work supported by the Pharmacy Integration Fund. Prior to this she was Chief Pharmacist at NHS Direct before moving to NHS England in 2013 as NHS 111 Pharmacy Lead supporting the integrated urgent care programme.

Dr Nikki Kanani

Dr Nikki Kanani is a GP in south-east London and is Medical Director of Primary Care for NHS England and NHS Improvement. Prior to joining NHS England she was Chief Clinical Officer of NHS Bexley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Nikki has held a range of positions within healthcare to support the development of innovative models of care, highly engaged clinical, patient and public leadership and is passionate about supporting primary care, improving service provision and population wellbeing.

She is a member of The King’s Fund General Advisory Council and holds a MSc in health care commissioning. With her sister she co-founded STEMMsisters, a social enterprise supporting young people to study science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine. She has two young children.

Luvjit Kandula

Luvjit Kandula, Chief Officer, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Pharmaceutical Committee. Specialist Advisor APPG Diabetes, Chair – PCPA Community Pharmacy Group.

Luvjit is a qualified pharmacist who currently works as the Chief Officer of Leicestershire and Rutland Local Pharmaceutical Committee and was recently seconded to NHS Digital to support digitising medicines and Pharmacy.

Her role involves advancing community pharmacy in the local NHS whilst representing Community Pharmacists interests through integration. Luvjit has extensive experience working as a Community Pharmacist also having worked in hospital pharmacy and industry both in the UK and abroad. Previous roles include Head of Pharmacy Services, Head of the Pre-registration Training Programmes and also Chairing Warwickshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee.

Viral Kantaria

Viral Kantaria is Senior Programme Manager in NHS England’s Adult Mental Health Team.

He used to be a policy lead for mental health crisis care and legislation at the Department of Health. He has been a member of the Mental Health Act Review’s Working Group. You can follow him at @ViralKMH.

Professor Partha Kar

Professor Partha Kar is National Specialty Advisor, Diabetes with NHS England and co-author of the national Diabetes GIRFT report.

He has been a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust since 2008- and pioneer of the Super Six Diabetes Model which is recognised as one of the good examples of integrated care.

He has helped to expand use of technology in Type 1 Diabetes- namely use of Flash Glucose in Type 1 Diabetes and CGM in Type 1Diabetes pregnancy along with online digital self-management platforms- while recently leading on real world data collection on Closed Loops for subsequent NICE review. He has worked subsequently with NICE on updating relevant guidelines in non-invasive glucose monitoring access in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

His other work has involved introduction of frailty into QoF treatment targets, Diabulimia pilot projects in the NHS; championing “Language Matters” and helping to create an overview of Diabetes care in Primary Care Networks. Recent work has focussed on transitional care models- as well as tackling inequalities in technology access based on deprivation and ethnicity.

He is one of the leading users of social media in diabetes care – and writes a monthly blog for the British Medical Journal.

He has also been:

• Co-creator of TAD (Talking About Diabetes) – TED talks from those with T1Diabetes
• Co- creator of Type 1 Diabetes comic (Volume 1 to 4)
• Co-creator of DEVICES (Virtual Reality educational modules in diabetes)

Beyond diabetes, he also recently taken a role in tackling issues of racial disparity in the medical workforce as the Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard lead for NHS England. He has also been named as one of the most influential BAME individuals in healthcare in 2020,2021 and 2022.

Follow Partha on Twitter: @parthaskar

Dr Juliane Kause

Dr Juliane Kause is the care group lead emergency care, lead consultant out of hours care and seven day services University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

Visiting fellow at the University of Southampton

Intensivist and General Physician with interest in service improvement, multi-professional working and recognition & treatment of acute illness.

First full time Out of Hours and Seven Day Services consulant in NHS (to date as far as we know).

Passionate Leader for Seven Day Services and Out of Hours Hospital Care.

Proactive teacher, leader, contributor and learner to the patient safety collaborative.

Research interests include rapid response systems in hospitals, Out of Hours Care Systems and Human Factors.

Professor Peter Kay

Peter Kay is National Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Services for NHS England.

He is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Wrightington Hospital, Lancashire and a former President of the British Orthopaedic Association (2011), British Hip Society (2008) and British Orthopaedics Trainees Association (1992).

Peter is also Honorary Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Manchester and Clinical Professor at the University Central Lancashire and currently serves on the Council of The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

He has produced research publications (scientific and popular) and presentations on orthopaedics and trauma, health service management, modernisation and medico-legal aspects of orthopaedics and trauma, clinical networks, integrated care, workforce development and specialist commissioning.

His clinical interests include hip and knee replacement surgery, revision joint replacement surgery for loosening and infection and knee arthroscopy, multidisciplinary approach to arthroplasty services.

Managerially he has been Director of Research, Clinical Director, Divisional Chairman for MSK (responsible for elective orthopaedics, trauma and rheumatology) and Associate Medical Director in his own Trust (Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS FT).

He has three years’ experience as a full Trust Board Member up to a successful Foundation Trust application and is the clinical lead for the Specialist Orthopaedic Hospital Alliance in the UK.

He has campaigned nationally and internationally for effective and equitable commissioning for musculoskeletal services across the whole of healthcare.

Nicola Kay

Nicola Kay is NHS England’s Deputy Director for Personalised Care Policy and Strategy.

In her role, she develops and leads the approach to scaling up and mainstreaming personalised care, including embedding the relevant IT infrastructure, developing necessary skills across the NHS, identifying new legislative rights and strategic stakeholder engagement.

Nicola leads a team which work closely with local areas to embed new opportunities for personalised care in areas such as substance misuse and neuro-disability. Her team also includes a range of people who bring their own lived experience to the team’s work.

Prior to joining NHS England in 2016, Nicola worked for 10 years as a civil servant in a range of central government policy, strategy and finance roles. She led on health and social care spending at HM Treasury, including the commissioning reforms in the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, the Dilnot Commission and the 2010 Spending Review.

Dr Matt Kearney

Matt Kearney is NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and a GP in Shropshire. He has been working for both NHS England and Public Health England since 2013, and has led development of the NHS Long Term Plan CVD Prevention Programme.

In particular, he has focused on driving system change to help the NHS to get serious about prevention of heart attacks, strokes and other vascular conditions – through clinical leadership, better use of data, and new ways of working that support primary care to improve outcomes for patients and communities.

Previously Matt worked as clinical and public health advisor to the Department of Health respiratory programme, and was a member of the NICE Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee from 2005 to 2013. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Health and is a Fellow of both the Royal College of GPs and the Royal College of Physicians.

Lavinia Kellman

Lavinia Kellman works as the Young Carer Administrator in the Patient Experience Team at NHS England. Young Carers are supported through our Commitment to Carers programme.

Lavinia spent a large part of her childhood caring for older family members.

As a result of her employment with NHS England, Lavinia is hoping to gain transferable office skills and to widen the range of career opportunities open to her.

Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is a 73 year old, retired fireman.

Following 30 years services in the fire service, he spent 10 years working at the Bank of England printing works, where he was in charge of their Fire Section.

Brian’s final employment was as a support worker in the Home Treatment Team for a community mental health team.

He retired last year to care for his wife who has just reached the age of 78 and who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s four years ago. Brian has been a full-time carer for his wife for the last two years.

When his caring role allows, Brian’s interests are D.I.Y, some golf, getting involved in the garden, walking, and generally keeping busy. Brian also enjoys reading and watching TV, when time permits.

Professor Peter Kelly

Professor Peter Kelly joined Public Health England in September 2016 as Centre Director for the North East having previously been the Director of Public Health for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council for 4 years.

Previously he was a Director of Public Health for 11 years in various NHS posts in the North East of England, including two years as Acting Regional Director of Public Health.

His current responsibilities include leading the provision of a high quality, responsive expert public health service to support the work of the Local Authorities and NHS partners in the North East.

Peter started his career as a medical statistician following completion of his PhD in statistics in 1987. He worked as a lecturer at Newcastle University Medical School until 1996 and was the founding director of the Centre for Health & Medical Research at Teesside University until 1999.

He joined Pfizer Pharmaceuticals for a brief spell before joining the NHS in 2000. He also had four years’ experience as an acute hospital non-executive director, including being the trust vice chair and setting up and chairing their original clinical governance committee.

He joined Tees Health Authority in 2000 and has held senior public health roles in the North East since then.

Beth Kelly

Beth has worked in the NHS for 16 years. She is a DSN in Southampton specialising in the care of type 1 diabetes. Beth also has a special love for all things young adults and tech!

Beth is a co-chair for the DSN Forum Team & an editorial Board Advisor for @DRWFDiabetes. She is also about to complete her 1st year in her @MScDiabPrac! Beth also lectures in diabetes subjects and has spoken nationally. She has published various work with leading nursing journals.

The DSN Forum Team won the @QICProgramme award for Healthcare Professionals of the Year in 2018.

Tim Kelsey

Tim Kelsey was previously National Director for Patients and Information, since the publication of these blogs he has left NHS England.

Scott Kemp

Scott graduated with honours in Philosophy and then gained post-graduate qualifications in Fashion Marketing.

He has worked as the Social Media Manager for three years and prior to this, worked at the NHS Leadership Academy within their digital team. Whilst the last three years have been in healthcare, the majority of his professional life has been within commerce.

His background strengths are within healthcare, fashion and apparel industry and the motor vehicle industry, where he has several years of experience, particularly within the latter two industries. Both his industry background and experiences are far and wide, ranging from traditional offline marketing (events/print), project management through to website management and of course, social media management.

Scott can be found on Twitter via @scottaustinkemp

Professor Tim Kendall

Professor Tim Kendall is NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Mental Health. He has been Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists for 15 years and Visiting Professor at University College London for the last eight years.

Tim has also been Medical Director for 13 years and continues as Consultant Psychiatrist for the homeless at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust.

As Medical Director, Tim has set up a service user experience monitoring unit, led the reconfiguration of acute care and rehabilitation leading to the elimination of out of area treatments, the modernisation of the acute and crisis care pathways and initiated the development of NICE recommended personality disorder services within the community.

He chaired the first NICE guideline, launched in December 2002, on the management of schizophrenia and the first National Quality Standard (Dementia) for NICE.

Tim has published numerous articles and papers and often represents the NCCMH, NICE or the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the media. In 2004, he was awarded “Lancet Paper of the Year” for showing the impact of selective publishing by the drug industry about antidepressants in the treatment of childhood depression; and with others was awarded the Paper of the Year Award for the Health Economic Journal ‘Value in Health’ in 2012 for work on schizophrenia.

Annette Kennedy

Annette Kennedy was elected 28th President of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in June 2017 after serving four years as Vice President.

Previously, she held the position of President of the European Federation of Nurses and was active in lobbying the European Parliament, Commission and Council.

A Registered Nurse and Midwife with a BA in Nursing Studies and an MSc in Public Sector Analysis, Annette was the Director of Professional Development for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation for 19 years and established the INMO’s very successful Education, Research and Resource Centre.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is NHS England’s Medical Director and professional lead for NHS doctors. He is responsible for promoting clinical leadership, quality and innovation.

Formerly, Sir Bruce had a distinguished career in surgery. He was Director of Surgery at the Heart Hospital and Professor of Cardiac Surgery at UCL. He has been President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland, Secretary-General of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, International Director of the US Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and President of the Cardiothoracic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He has served as a Commissioner on the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and the Healthcare Commission. He was knighted for services to medicine in 2003.

Follow Bruce on Twitter @drbrucekeogh

Helen Keynes

Helen Keynes is a patient safety specialist in NHS England’s London region team. They support NHS organisations across London to implement the NHS patient safety strategy.

Jasbinder Khambh

Jasbinder Khambh is an experienced pharmacist who has worked in the NHS for 20 years as a pharmacist and a senior manager. Jas has led on various initiatives and programmes of work across London to help deliver the objectives of the strategic QIPP programme and other medicines optimisation initiatives. More recently, she has been working at NHS England as the National Pharmacy Adviser for NHS RightCare, focusing on the national initiatives for medicines optimisation within NHS RightCare.

Dr Shashidhar Khandavalli

Dr Shashidhar Khandavalli has been a GP partner at The Chorley Surgery, Chorley, since 2008 and is now also Clinical Director for Chorley Central Primary Care Network.

Shashi has interests in a number of areas including management and completed an MBA in 2015. He was previously a CCG clinical director and is a GP Partner at a CQC rated Outstanding practice. His passion for improvement and innovation has driven projects such as the PCUST (primary care user support team) which was shortlisted for the BMJ Award for Primary Care in 2018.

In partnership with Chorley Council, Shashi is determined to bring together the local community assets around the Primary Care Network to improve community and individual resilience. He aims to work collaboratively to improve the lived environment and in particular the ability for residents to access real food and nutrition.

Kamlesh Khunti

Kamlesh Khunti is Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, UK. He is Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre and leads a research group that is currently working on the early identification of, and interventions with, people who have diabetes or are at increased risk of developing diabetes.

His work has influenced national and international guidelines on the screening and management of people with diabetes. Professor Khunti is also Director of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care East Midlands and Director of The Real World Evidence Unit and the Centre for Black Minority Ethnic Health. He is a NIHR Senior Investigator and Principal Investigator on several major national and international studies.

Professor Khunti is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and is currently an advisor to the Department of Health, a Clinical Advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Secretary of the Primary Care Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. He is Past Chair of the Department of Health–RCGP Committee on Classification of Diabetes and is Past Chair of the NICE Guidelines on Prevention of Diabetes.

In addition, he is Co-Director of the Diabetes MSc at Leicester University. He has won numerous awards nationally and internationally.

Andrea King

Andrea King is the Local Authority Advisor for Wessex and Thames Valley Regions, having previously spent 20 years in Children’s Services, in the voluntary sector, central government and as a senior leader in Local Authority, most recently as Assistant Director for Safeguarding and Prevention Services in West Berkshire Council. Andrea uses restorative approaches to enable senior leaders and frontline staff to work together to find solutions to improve outcomes for children and families. Andrea is working part-time for NHS England and part-time providing safeguarding improvement or restorative/systems change consultancy across the UK, whilst studying for a Bachelor in Theology at Oxford University.

Nicola King

Nicola King is Head of Commissioning Skills in the Commissioning System Development support team.

For the last year she has been leading a programme of work to support the development of CCGs. One of the things that CCGs have been asking for is support to develop governance arrangements that suit the new organisational form of CCGs and which are light on bureaucracy while being rigorous in providing assurance to their full range of stakeholders.

She has supported a task and finish group of the NHS Commissioning Assembly CCG development working group to commission a piece of work from the Good Governance Institute to assist CCGs with this.

Nicola has worked in the NHS for 25 years. She originally trained as a pharmacist and was a specialist in cardiothoracic medicine before moving into general management roles more than ten years ago.

Ewan King

Ewan King joined SCIE in September 2014 and is responsible for ensuring the delivery of SCIE’s contracted work, attracting new commissions, and supporting co-production with people who use services and carers. Ewan has been Director of Business Development and Communications at the OPM Group, an employee owned research organisation and consultancy.

A social researcher and policy analyst by background, Ewan was previously Director of the research team at OPM and led several large scale national evaluations, policy development projects and research studies for organisations including NHS England, Communities and Local Government, Department for Education, Department of Health, CQC and numerous national charities.

Before joining OPM, Ewan worked as a researcher for the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP. Ewan is a Trustee of the Charity Penrose, which seeks to re-integrate ex-offenders and people with mental health conditions into society, and was educated at the London School of Economics and Warwick University.

Sally Kingsland

Sally Kingsland is the Clinical Quality Manager for North Central and East London and Infection Prevention and Control lead for NHS England (London).

She qualified as a nurse in 1996 and has a degree and Masters in Public Health.

Sally has worked across the acute, community, social care and health and justice sectors and her current role within NHS England’s nursing directorate is to support the quality improvement, system leadership, direct commissioning and assurance functions of the organisation.

She is a member of the national Infection Prevention and Control Steering Group and the NHS England Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy Implementation Group.

Dr James Kingsland OBE

Dr James Kingsland OBE is President of the National Association Primary Care, having previously served as Chairman from 2004-08.

He is the senior partner in a nationally renowned, award winning General Practice in the North West of England and has a wealth of experience in primary care, medical education and medical politics.

James is the co-author of the new care model for the NHS, the Primary Care Home, and is now one of the two national leads for the programme.

He served as a senior GP advisor at the Department of Health to both ministers and the senior civil service from 1999-2002 and from 2009–2013.

Karen Kirkham

Karen Kirkham has been a GP for over 25 years and is now senior partner in a large practice, combining this with a senior leadership role in Dorset.

She also has a national role as Senior Medical Advisor to the Primary Care Provider Transformation team.

Karen is currently focusing on the redesign, transformation and delivery of the integrated community services and primary care component of Dorset’s STP.

During 2018/19 she was a national clinical advisor for primary care with the NHSE System Transformation team.

Simon Knight

Simon Knight is a Special School Leader and National SEND Leader at Whole School SEND, a consortium of organisations committed to enhancing the quality of education for learners with special educational needs and / or disabilities.

He has sat on the Department for Education panels developing both the Professional Standards for Teaching Assistants and the Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development.

He writes features for the TES and regularly contributes comment and content to other publications and conferences.

Follow Simon Knight on Twitter: @simonknight100

Dr Phil Koczan

Dr Koczan has been a GP in Chingford North East London for nearly 30 years. He is a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a member of their Health Informatics Group. He is also a founding fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics.

He has a long interest in medical informatics and has roles supporting shared records, digital primary care and clinical safety at both London and national levels.

His particular interest is around both the application of technology to support care and bringing data together from different care settings to support direct patient care and quality improvement.

Lela Kogbara

Lela Kogbara combines her role as Director of the NHS Learning Disability Employment Programme with being Assistant Chief Executive of Islington Council. She also undertakes voluntary leadership roles with City & Islington College, Action for Southern Africa, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, and Islington Community Theatre.

Mervyn Kohler

Mervyn Kohler is External Affairs Adviser at Age UK, having been Head of Public Affairs at Help the Aged since 1984.

His original role was to manage the Charity’s links with Parliament, Government and the outside world, and to develop the policy positions of Help the Aged.

As the political and social agenda involving older people has mushroomed, Mervyn has increasingly focussed on cross-cutting issues and new developments in policy and practice whilst retaining an overview of the broad policy field, and a long-standing interest in fuel poverty and the issue of keeping adequately warm in winter.

This, with his (nearly) thirty years of long service, means he plays a part too as the public face of the Charity, at conferences, seminars and in the media.

He is, and has been, on the trustee board of a number of charities and on several public bodies, and currently serves on the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group.

Dr Katerina Kolyva

Dr Katerina Kolyva is the Executive Director of the Council of Deans of Health, the UK network of universities that deliver healthcare programmes and research. In this role, she leads the strategy of the organisation, engages with government and parliament across the UK and influences policy in the field of higher education and research. Prior to joining the Council of Deans, Katerina held director roles in UK healthcare regulation and worked with the EU Commission and Parliament as an expert on education and culture policy. Katerina holds a PhD in European studies and MA in international relations from the University of Kent. She held two Marie Curie Fellowships funded by the EU and a national fellowship funded by the Danish Government and taught identity politics and EU policy in Denmark, the UK, Belgium, Lithuania and Jordan. She speaks five European languages fluently, having lived and worked in six European countries.

Dr Priya Kumar

Dr. Priya Kumar has been a GP Partner at Kumar Medical Centre since 2013 and holds a variety of other roles. This includes being the Health Inequalities lead for Slough, Transformational Clinical Lead for Connected Care in the Frimley ICB. She has also recently been named the ‘Digital Innovator of the Year’ 2023 at the Digital HSJ awards.

Priya has been involved in transforming care across the system by working with various stakeholders including the residents, primary care, secondary care, social care, the voluntary sector, and public health. Her main passion lies in developing innovative clinical pathways by using a population health approach and applying digital solutions to improve patient outcomes whilst incorporating the residents’ views and underlying circumstances.

Dr Steven Laitner

Dr Steven Laitner is a General Practitioner with a Public Health and Clinical Leadership background.

As well as practising as a part time GP he is a freelance health consultant with his own consultancy company Programmes for Health which supports a range of healthcare commissioning and provider organisations.

Steven was one of the original architects of the Accountable Lead Provider model whilst working at the Department of Health, where he was also National Clinical Lead for Shared Decision Making.

He is currently supporting a range of organisations on developing accountable, integrated, programmes of care.

During 2016 Steven joined the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) as a Clinical Advisor to their Primary Care Home (PCH) Programme.He has developed a keen interest in Population Health Management, in particular, Population Segmentation and Risk Stratification.

His work also covers new models of care delivery such as telephone triage, referral triage, self management support, care coordination, case management and care planning. He supports commissioners and providers to develop new programmes of care such as Musculoskeletal and Frail Elderly Programmes.

His clinical interests include primary care, frail elderly, care planning, self care support, GP access, patient leadership and shared decision making.

Andrea Lake

Andrea qualified as a nurse in 2008 after working as a healthcare assistant from the age of 18. Andrea’s first role as a staff nurse was on a high dependency unit. She has worked within a split clinical and research role in the speciality of diabetes at Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust for nine years. Clinically, Andrea is a senior Diabetes Specialist Nurse primarily working within the inpatient setting. She also has experience with insulin pump therapy, DAFNE and all aspects of inpatient and outpatient adult diabetes services. Within Andrea’s research role, she is the lead diabetes research nurse and supports commercial and academic research, as required, through all stages of the process from development of an idea through to dissemination.

Andrea has an MSc in clinical research and several publications. She is also the vice chair of the Diabetes UK clinical study group 4 in acute care. Andrea’s personal areas of interest are inpatient diabetes management and how research can improve this, translating research into clinical practice and clinical academic careers for nurses, midwives and allied health care professionals.

Andrea loves to use twitter as platform to share good practice and experience and believe it is important to listen and learn from each other. You can follow her at @AndreaLake1984.

Stuart Lane

Stuart Lane qualified as a chartered physiotherapist in 1998 and quickly developed a specific interest in long term neurological conditions, which has seen him work in a variety of settings across the NHS.

Over the last seven years, Stuart has dedicated his time to supporting the development of personal health budgets and person centred care in the NHS.

In 2014 Stuart created lanes4change limited, working with leading organisations committed to developing new approaches to supporting those with long-term support needs.

Angela Lane

Angela Lane trained as a contemporary dancer and choreographer.

Her career in dance took her to Eastbourne where her second daughter Cherry was born and eventually diagnosed with Rett Syndrome

While her daughter was at school, Angela joined the SEN Forum for East Sussex Education Authority and through her Transition to Adult Services she worked with researchers and consultants to help inform policy in this area, eventually becoming one of the parent carer representatives on ESCC Learning Disabilities Partnership Board (LDPB).

Angela went on to lead projects in Intensive Interaction (Interact Now) with Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, and Person Centered Approaches projects for the LDPB. As creative director of these projects, Angela worked with a team whose aim was to discover the conditions and contexts in which person centered approaches, Total Communication and other contemporary methodologies can be successfully used to complement the inherent ability of individuals and their supporters to have the life they want.

Following completion of a creative writing certificate at Sussex University, Angela went on to become an associate tutor in the service user and carer network at the university, teaching and supporting the development of the social work undergraduate and master’s degrees.

During this time she worked to establish her daughter’s Independent Living Trust and has experience of both the social care direct payments scheme and the new NHS Personal Health Budgets scheme.

With the progression of her father’s Parkinson’s disease and dementia, Angela is interested in developing her skills to support families and people encountering dementia in their lives.

Angela continues to have a deep interest in dance and writing and considers everything in her life to be connected. Now a grandmother to two beautiful grandsons, she feels she is enjoying the rewards of a long life.

Martha Lane Fox

Martha Lane Fox is the founder of Doteveryone.org.uk. Martha was asked by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to recommend practical proposals for the National Information Board on how to ensure increased take-up of new digital innovations in health.

Dr Peter Lanyon

Dr Peter Lanyon is a Consultant Rheumatologist at Nottingham University Hospitals, where he provides clinical care integrated with research, including specialised rheumatology services for rarer autoimmune diseases across the East Midlands.

Peter’s career path is unique for a secondary care doctor, having started training and working in General Practice. In this setting he rapidly became aware of the challenges faced by people living with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases and saw him pursue a new career in Rheumatology. It also led to him undertaking research demonstrating a significant unmet educational need among doctors training in Primary Care.

Since 2013 he has chaired the NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Rheumatology. This team has worked tirelessly to raise the national profile of the needs of people living with rare rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, their access to high-cost treatments, and the delivery of their care in coordinated networks.

He brings this experience, and his unique understanding and perspective of Primary Care, to his current role as President of the British Society for Rheumatology.

Emma Latimer

Emma Latimer is the Chief Officer for NHS Hull CCG.

She has worked in the NHS for 25 years in a range of settings which include the ambulance service, hospitals and health authority, but predominantly as a commissioner.

Emma has led NHS Hull CCG for three years and is passionate about improving local health outcomes by working with patients and other partners to create a healthier Hull.

She is Programme Sponsor for the Hull 2020 programme – a partnership of nine organisations committed to transforming the way public services work to enable the people of Hull to improve their own health and wellbeing and to achieve their aspirations for the future.

Chris Layfield

Chris Layfield has a BA (Hons) in Youth and Community Studies and is a Teenage Cancer Trust funded Youth Support Coordinator at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Jennifer Layton

Jennifer Layton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health.

She works with the Derbyshire Autism Partnership Board as a member with lived experience, to help shape the work being done locally for people on the spectrum.

Jennifer also works with Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust to train and raise awareness of Autism amongst their staff and is beginning a MSc of Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion in September 2017.

She also volunteers for Derby Museums Trust as a co-producer. As well as training to be a Peer Leader, she is also a member of the Derbyshire Personal Health Budget Peer Network and is working towards becoming a member of the NHS England’s Co-production Group.

Peers Leaders play a vital role in helping to co-produce key NHS personalisation programmes, such as Integrated Personal Commissioning and Personal Health Budgets, by providing the essential ‘lived experience’ perspective.

GP Dr Hein Le Roux

Hein is a GP Partner at Churchdown Practice in Gloucester and has recently taken up a role as Deputy Medical Director for NHS England South West as well as being the One Gloucestershire ICS Quality Improvement Clinical Lead. Previously he was the Deputy Clinical Chair for Gloucestershire CCG where he led on ageing well, dementia and end of life amongst other things. He also had a role as the Population Health Management Champion for Gloucester City where he also co-chaired the Gloucester City Integrated Locality Partnership and previously sat on the Gloucestershire Health and Wellbeing Board.

Hein has developed a passion for improving the quality of healthcare experienced by service users and achieved through collaborative working. He has benefited from his experiences of working in several different health care systems including Australia.

Sarah Leach

Sarah Leach is the Personal Health Budget Implementation Manager for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group.

She is responsible for ensuring the personalisation agenda is delivered as one of the key ambitions of the Five Year Forward View – transforming the way in which the NHS empowers patients. This includes leading the expansion of personal health budgets, the delivery of the individualised commissioning, and developing and implementing new models of delivering patient choice and control including in end of life care, mental health and wheelchair services.

Dr Jonathan Leach

Dr (Colonel Retired) Jonathan Leach is a GP in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and chair of the NHS England Armed Forces and their Families Clinical Reference Group.

Dr Leach served for 25 years in the Army including 17 years overseas.

Caroline Lecko

Caroline Lecko is Patient Safety Lead at NHS England.

Caroline has led on nutrition and patient safety since joining the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in 2006 and has subsequently transferred to the patient safety team within the NHS England. Caroline currently leads on projects related to nutrition and hydration, pressure ulcer prevention and primary care.

Since 2006, Caroline has worked on a range of national and international projects to raise awareness of the importance of good nutritional care to prevent avoidable harm to patients and service users.

These projects have included the development of the Hydration Best Practice Tool for Healthcare, the 10 Key Characteristics of Nutritional Care Factsheets and the Dysphagia Diet Food Descriptors.

Caroline has used her interest in social movement methodology to design and deliver two national Nutrition and Hydration Patient Safety focused weeks and is currently working the National Association of Care Catering and Hospital Caterers Association on the plans for Nutrition and Hydration Week 2014.

Caroline has also been involved in many national policy and advisory groups including the development of the Care Quality Commissions Outcome 5 ‘Meeting Nutritional Needs’ standards, Department of Health Nutrition Action Plan, Parliamentary Hydration Forum and recently the Malnutrition Task Force.

Ruth Lee

Ruth Lee is a community learning disability nurse for Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.

She has worked with adults with a learning disability, autism or both who present with behaviours that are considered challenging for six years.

Ruth works with people and their circle of support to use positive behaviour support (PBS). PBS helps us to understand the reasons behind a person’s behaviour.

Her overall aim is to help improve the quality of life of people with a learning disability, autism or both.

Lynnette Lee

Lynnette supports the NHS England Sustainable Improvement teams, with their social media campaigns and digital communications.

Recently she has promoted the Improvement Fundamentals, and the Developing Effective Networks for Change and Improvement; both are online courses. In previous roles, she has supported the Long Term Conditions and Learning Disabilities programmes.

Helen Lee

Helen Lee is a qualified nurse with experience of working in both acute and community settings.

She is currently on secondment with NHS England and NHS Improvement leading the #AlwaysEvents ® programme.

Always Events are those aspects of care that are so important to people using services, their families and carers that they should always occur at every interaction with healthcare professionals and the health care delivery system.

Helen is passionate about people being at the heart of everything we do, quality improvement and co-producing improvements and Always Events are a fantastic way to bring these three things to life.

Follow Helen on Twitter: @helenlee321_lee

Lucille Legiewicz

Lucille is the national lead for the Workforce, Learning Disability and Autism Team.

Having worked in the NHS for over 24 years Lucille has held a wide variety of roles across the health sector most recently within NHS England and Improvement as the National Workforce Lead for the Learning Disability and Autism Programme. Lucille has worked in collaboration with autistic people and people with a learning disability, their families and carers in addition to a variety of health and care partners to agree and progress our workforce priorities. Lucille is passionate about fair, diverse and inclusive workforce approaches and actively promotes and encourages coproduction.

Siobhan Lendzionowksi

Siobhan Lendzionowksi is a Leadership Support Manager for Patient Experience within the National Patient Experience Team, which is part of the Nursing Directorate.

She has previously worked for Leeds Community Health NHS Trust; Yorkshire and Humber SHA, Leeds PCT; ran a community health development charity in Leeds for five years; worked in local government homelessness hostels; a domestic violence department and the private sector.

Siobhan left nursing in 1991.

Her career highlights include setting up a new domestic violence organisation that still runs today.

She has also implemented a patient experience and engagement assurance framework across 65 services.

Other highlights include successfully managing a £500,000 friends and family pathfinder programme of work in a region and successfully producing a nutrition and hydration commissioning guidance document with a group of national experts, CCG commissioners and NHS Colleagues whom were a fragmented group with different opinions and are now working successfully together to make major changes to commissioning.

Belinda Lennox

Belinda Lennox is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in the Early Intervention in Psychosis service for Oxford Health NHS FT. She has been a consultant in EIP services for 10 years. Her interests are in discovering the causes of, and developing more effective treatments for, those with psychosis and in implementing those discoveries into clinical practice. She is Deputy Director for the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research for Oxford, and Clinical Director for NIHR Clinical Research Network: Thames Valley and South Midlands.

Dr Helen Leonard

Dr Helen Leonard is a Consultant in Paediatric Neurodisability at Great North Children’s Hospital.

She is also an Associate Lecturer at Newcastle University, a member of NHS England’s Strategic Coproduction Group and a mother of three, one of whom, Matthew, is a young adult with severe, complex disabilities.

Helen has worked in the NHS since 1993 and has received services from health or social care since Matthew was born in 2000.

The experience with Matthew has influenced her life personally and professionally, including spending two years setting up a paediatric services overseas, as well as being a passionate advocate for families with disabled children.

Vaughan Lewis

Dr Vaughan Lewis FRCPCH: Regional Medical Director, higher level Responsible Officer and Chief Clinical Information Officer | NHS England (South East).

Vaughan trained in Oxford, Bristol and Australia. He was a consultant paediatrician in Exeter from 2002 to 2015 during which time he held clinical management roles including Trust Medical Director and Chair of the South West Clinical Senate. In 2015, he was appointed as the NHS South Regional Medical Director for Specialised Commissioning.

As South East Regional Medical Director his roles include providing clinical leadership and support to NHS organisations and system leaders across the South East including Cancer Alliances, Academic Health Science Networks, Integrated Care Systems, Clinical Networks and Senates as well all NHS provider organisations.

The Regional Medical Director is also the higher level Responsible Officer. This is an important assurance role, ensuring, on behalf of NHS England, that doctors working in any setting in the region are supported to comply with GMC requirements for medical revalidation.

Vaughan is also the Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) and will be working with the regional digital team to deliver a wide-ranging programme to upgrade technology and digitally enabled care across the NHS as set out in the Long Term Plan

Geraint Lewis

Geraint Lewis is the Chief Data Officer at NHS England and an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at University College London. He trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Geraint began his career in acute and emergency medicine, working at hospitals in the UK and Australia over an 11-year period.

After completing his higher specialist training in public health medicine, he was appointed Senior Fellow of the Nuffield Trust (an independent health policy think-tank), then as Senior Director for Clinical Outcomes and Analytics at Walgreens in Chicago, before returning to the UK to take up his current post.

A fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians of London and the UK Faculty of Public Health, Geraint is the lead author of the postgraduate textbook Mastering Public Health and has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals in including Health Affairs, JAMA, Milbank Quarterly and the BMJ. Geraint was a 2007 Harkness Fellow in New York, during which time he received the National Directors’ Award at the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In 2008 he was the “overall winner” of the Guardian Newspaper’s public service awards. In 2011, he was awarded the Bradshaw Lectureship of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Previous recipients include Sir Liam Donaldson, Dame Sheila Sherlock, and Sir Magdi Yacoub. More recently, he has served as an external adviser to the World Bank, and he leads the Care Model Design work-stream of NHS England’s New Care Models Programme.

Dawn Liburd

Dawn Liburd works for NHS England.

Tom Lindley

Interim Deputy Director – Strategy and Business Development Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.
Tom launched his NHS career with a number of roles as a mental health nurse, before joining the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. After roles working for Rotherham, Doncaster & South Humber NHS Foundation Trust; NHS England; and the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network, he joined Airedale NHS Foundation Trust earlier this year and is closely involved in advancing the potential of its expanding range of telemedicine services.

The Foundation Trust has the lead role in the Airedale and Partners vanguard, which is using telemedicine in more than 200 care homes to help reduce GP call-outs and unnecessary hospital admissions for a cohort of more than 7,000 residents.

Professor Nick Linker

Professor Nick Linker was the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease for NHS England (2019-2024). He led on the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan for heart disease, the development of heart disease policy for Specialised Commissioning, and was Chair of the Cardiac Services Clinical Reference Group. He was Clinical lead for the Cardiac Transformation Programme and has responsibility for the national cardiac registries.

He trained in Manchester Royal Infirmary and St George’s Hospital, London and was appointed as a consultant cardiologist with an interest in cardiac electrophysiology at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 1998 and Honorary Professor at Teesside University in 2021. His clinical practice focused on arrhythmia and syncope management and cardiac implantable electronic devices.

Professor Linker was President of the British Heart Rhythm Society and Honorary Secretary of the British Cardiovascular Society. He was integral in developing UK standards for cardiac implantable electronic devices, electrophysiology and lead extraction and developed guidelines on MR scanning in patients with cardiac devices, peri-operative management of cardiac devices and end of life care pathways for cardiac device patients.

Liz Fenton OBE

Liz Fenton (MSc, BSC (Hons), RN, QN) joined Health Education England in July 2015 and become HEE’s Deputy Chief Nurse in October 2017.

Having completed nurse training at Kings College Hospital, London, Liz qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1981 and subsequently held a number of clinical and leadership roles in both acute and community settings including at board level. Liz was awarded the title Queens Nurse in 2017. Passionate about quality improvement Liz works with the Care Quality Commission as a Specialist Advisor and is an elected member of the Community Hospitals Association leadership team.

Liz also acts as a surveyor for national and international peer accreditation, benchmarking services against best practice. Liz has chaired the Leading Change, Adding Value (LCAV) Capacity and Capability Task and Finish Group on behalf of the LCAV Partnership Board, to develop this learning tool which aims to support all nursing, midwifery and care staff to identify and address unwarranted variation in practice.

Dr Steve Lloyd

Dr Steve Lloyd sponsors the NHS England Task and Finish group on CCG Governance. He has been a GP principal in north east Derbyshire for 15 years and prior to this was a maxillofacial surgeon. He is Chair of NHS Hardwick CCG, regional clinical lead on the EMAS urgent and emergency ambulance contract and clinical lead for the National Ambulance Commissioners Group. He is also a sessional operational clinical lead for Derbyshire Health United OOH provider and in the EMAS operations centre and a council member for East Midlands Clinical Senate.

Steve Lloyd is a member of the NHS Commissioning Assembly and has been involved in a number of Working Groups, including on direct commissioning and Urgent and Emergency Care.

Outside of medicine, he was until recently a senior RAF reserve officer. He is a trustee, medical adviser and a chief expeditions leader for British Exploring Society at the Royal Geographical Society.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and Member of the Royal College of GPs.

Carmel Lloyd

Head of Education and Learning, The Royal College of Midwives.

Carmel’s remit is to shape and support the delivery of the RCM strategy and professional activity for education and learning for members of the College. She also takes the lead on advising internal and external stakeholders on regulatory matters and midwifery regulation. She has been working with all four UK countries on the development of their employer-led models of supervision for midwives and co-ordinating the development of the key principles for the education and training of those undertaking the role that will replace the supervisor of midwives.

Carmel joined the RCM in February 2014 from the Nursing and Midwifery Council where she was the Standards Development Manager, in this capacity she led the review of the Midwives Rules and Standards published in 2012. Previously she was the Acting Head of Midwifery at the NMC and prior to that Lecturer, Programme & Curriculum Development Lead, Midwifery & Women’s Heath Studies at Kings College, University of London.

She has extensive experience in healthcare policy and regulation, standards development, education and curriculum development, midwifery practice and the supervision of midwives. She is frequently invited to speak at regional and national conferences.

Dr Jill Loader

Jill Loader has recently been appointed as Assistant Head of Primary Care Commissioning (Pharmacy) for NHS England from her post as Regional Pharmacist, NHS England South.

She has been leading work nationally on making the best use of pharmacy to support pressure on the urgent and emergency care system and has published materials to support local commissioners to use pharmacy more effectively.

Jill worked previously with the NHS Commissioning Board Transition Team as Strategic Adviser – Pharmacy Commissioning to develop proposals with stakeholders for the commissioning of pharmaceutical services in England.

Previously, Jill was Associate Director for Medicines Management in NHS South West for six years and also held posts in Strategic Health Authorities in the Midlands and South West.

Jill has worked on many national groups, including the Steering Group of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to develop Principles for Medicines Optimisation and the Pharmacy and Public Health Forum Task Group, looking at identifying how and where community pharmacies sit in the emerging primary, community, and secondary care and public health systems.

She is particularly interested in patient safety and has worked on local projects with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and on patient safety in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. Jill has worked in strategic roles in the NHS for the past 15 years and has a background working in professional leadership roles, performance management, commissioning organisations, community services, general practice and hospital pharmacy.

Dr José Garcia Lobera

Dr José Garcia Lobera moved from Spain in 2003 and has worked as qualified GP in Southend for the last 15 years at the Pall Mall Surgery in Leigh –on-sea. José is the Chairman for NHS Southend Clinical Commissioning Group CCG and Clinical Lead for Prescribing and GP Clinical Lead for Mental Health and Learning Disability.

Amy Lochtie

Amy Lochtie has been an NHS Assembly member since January 2019 and is West Yorkshire Innovation Hub Director for the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

Vanessa Lodge

Vanessa Lodge RGN, BSc (Hons), MA is NHS England’s Director of Nursing for North Central and East London.

Vanessa qualified in 1983 as a general nurse, and worked for 15 years clinically in acute hospital settings, with particular interest and training in cardiac nursing.

This was followed by roles in Senior Nurse Management, general management and commissioning roles; including a period of time working for the NHS modernisation agency as part of the national team to embed redesign principles in health services.

Vanessa moved to London in 2009 to work for Tower Hamlets PCT in quality and clinical governance. Over the following years the role broadened and the PCT worked in a cluster arrangement with inner and outer North East London PCTs until the reorganisation of health service commissioning arrangements in March 2013.

Her current role of includes within its portfolio adult and child safeguarding as well as continuing health care across London.

Vanessa represents London on the national forum for NHS England and has a particular interest in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), where she represents health services on the Metropolitan Police Steering Group, and chairs the London and NHS England groups.

Caroline Lomax

Caroline is a General Practice Nurse, working at Castleton Health Centre in Rochdale, Lancashire.

She is currently in the process of completing a leadership programme with GP excellence with the NHS England and NHS Improvement CARE (Connected, Authentic, Resilient, Empowered) Leadership and Resilience Programme, as well as undertaking a Quality Improvement Project to evolve and improve population health.

Jane Lovatt

Jane is a physiotherapist who began her career working in the community before progressing on to service management, clinical governance and quality, with a career highlight leading on Covid testing across Surrey during the pandemic. Her diverse career has spanned the NHS, Local Authority, the Clinical Commissioning Group, and now Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership (Integrated Care System). In her current role as Associate Director for Multi-professional Improvement and Engagement, she focusses on health and care professional leadership and improvement. She is passionate about wellbeing, leadership and improvement.

Rosie Lovett

Rosie Lovett is the Head of the Medicines Repurposing Programme> at NHS England. She completed a PhD in Psychology at the University of York and post-doctoral research at University College London, before joining the Technology Appraisals and Science Policy and Research teams at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Dr Anna Lowe

Dr Anna Lowe is Cancer Implementation Manager for the Allied Health Professions (AHPs) at NHS England. This involves supporting the role of AHPs in helping to deliver the national cancer strategy and raising the profile of the contribution of AHPs to cancer care.

Alongside this, Anna is a Physical Activity Clinical Champion at Public Health England.

Anna is a physiotherapist and has had previous roles in higher education, research and clinical practice.

Dr Finola Lynch

Dr Finola Lynch is a Shropshire GP and the Clinical Vice Chair of Shropshire CCG. She leads on frailty and Shropshire’s transformation programme, Shropshire Care Closer to Home.

Vicky Lyons

Vicky Lyons is Head of Workforce Development, Health Education North West London (HEENWL).

Vicky has 18 years’ experience working in a variety of roles within the NHS and currently works as the Head of Workforce Development at HEENWL responsible for a wide portfolio of workforce planning activities and transformation initiatives. She has also lead the pan London workforce planning team for Health Education England as part of a shared service providing support to the planning and commissioning responsibilities of London’s LETB’s.

Prior to this, Vicky worked for 14 years working in senior HR roles at East London NHS Foundation Trust. More recently she worked as the Assistant Director of Workforce and Development with responsibility for the ESR/Workforce functions, Recruitment, bank and Training and Development teams.

Yoryos (Georgios) Lyratzopoulos

Yoryos (Georgios) Lyratzopoulos is Reader in Cancer Epidemiology at UCL, and Cancer Research UK Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellow. Beyond studying variation in cancer diagnosis and other outcomes, he has a substantive research interest in population studies of cancer patient experience. He has acted as an academic adviser to NHS England for the CPES surveys.

Iain Macbeath

Iain MacBeath is Strategic Director of Health and Wellbeing at Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Previously Iain was Director of Health and Community Services for Hertfordshire County Council with responsibility for adult social care, integration with NHS services and adult learning.

Iain started work as a civil servant for the Benefits Agency (as was). He then worked for social services in his home town of Barnsley in both children’s and adult’s services. After moving to Hertfordshire in 1999, he spent five years working for the Probation Service, returned to social services for London Borough of Barnet and became Assistant Director of Adult Care Services for Hertfordshire in 2008. He became director in 2013.

Iain sits on the national Executive Committee of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and is secretary and vice-chair of the eastern region branch. He has served as a governor for West Herts College and volunteers with the Samaritans.

Follow Iain on Twitter: @IainMacbeath.

Henry Mace

Henry Mace is Professional Development Lead at the National Osteoporosis Society.

He is responsible for the implementation and project management of various clinical projects which primarily support health professionals working in the field of osteoporosis and fragility fractures.

Before joining the National Osteoporosis Society, Henry worked for NHS Bristol as a Health Promotion Specialist, and was responsible for contributing to the development, implementation and evaluation of Public Health work programmes on particular topics such as smoking cessation, obesity, physical activity and sexual health.

Henry has worked in the private leisure industry, specifically focusing on the commissioning and delivery of NHS and local authority health services.

Professor Caroline MacEwen

Professor Caroline MacEwen, MD, FRCOphth, FRCS
Chair, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Caroline (Carrie) MacEwen is Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and immediate past President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.

She is ophthalmology clinical co-lead for the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) project, a member of the Right Care Clinical Advisory Group and chaired the Elective Care Transformation Ophthalmology Working Group.

She is Ophthalmology Specialty Adviser to the Scottish Government and leads the National Ophthalmology Workstream in Scotland and is a member of the Scottish National Access Collaborative.

She has published more than 150 papers, written or edited 3 textbooks and written 17 book chapters. Carrie is an Associate Postgraduate Dean in the East of Scotland.

Dr Stephanie Machin

Dr Stephanie Machin is a GP at the Robin Hood Health Centre in Sutton.

She is originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, where she graduated medical school in 2010. After completing her foundation training posts at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and then London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, she joined the St Helier GP Vocational Training Scheme in 2012.

Stephanie qualified as a GP in 2015 and stayed on at her training GP practice in Sutton, where she is now a salaried GP. She has a special interest in care of the elderly and mental health, and is the practice lead for palliative care.

Ann Mackay MBE

Ann Mackay MBE is Director of Policy, for the Care England charity.

Ann has worked in the independent social care sector for over 25 years having started her career as a manager in the NHS.

Care England is a registered charity which represents charitable and commercial care providers meeting a wide range of care and support needs for adults in care home, homecare, housing and community-based settings.

Care England members also deliver specialist care home services such as rehabilitation, respite, palliative care and mental health services.

Ann’s work aims to ensure members have up to date information and that their views are represented in the development and implementation of health and social care policy.

Ann was awarded the MBE for services to social care in 2010.

Dr Arvind Madan

Dr Arvind Madan was appointed as NHS England’s Director of Primary Care in October 2015 with view to him providing clinical leadership for the transformation of primary care provision.

Arvind is a practicing GP based at the Hurley Group, a large multi-site general practice and urgent care provider. He retains this regular clinical commitment looking after patients in East London.

Arvind has a strong track record of using new technology and redesigned ways of working across care boundaries to improve outcomes and deliver better value for money.

Chris Mair

Chris Mair is a former regional newspaper editor. He joined the ‘Better Together’ initiative launched by NHS South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to see if his background in journalism could be of benefit. Retired, he has relocated back to the UK, having lived in France for five years and is acutely aware of the range of pressures the NHS is under; A&E in particular, but also the need to better integrate local health services. A volunteer within the media team at the 2012 Paralympic Games, he currently runs a weekly drop-in for people looking for support with job hunting and also co-hosts a computer course for beginners.

Dr Vincent Mak

Dr Vincent Mak was a Consultant Physician in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Clinical Director for Emergency Services at North West London Hospitals Trust from 1994 to 2013. He was also the Clinical Director of the Outer North West London Integrated Care Programme, and then the Whole Systems Integrated Care Programme Board for North West London, the largest Integrated Care project in the UK.

He took up his current role as a Consultant Physician in Respiratory Integrated Care at Imperial College Healthcare Trust so that he could dedicate more time to developing new models of person centred collaborative care. He now leads a multidisciplinary team bridging many care providers to manage chronic respiratory disease from early diagnosis and prevention, through to advanced care. He is also the NW London Regional Advisor for the Royal College of Physicians.

Oli Mansell

Oli Mansell (far right) is Policy Coordinator in the Policy Support Unit team, based in the Commissioning Strategy Directorate.

He serves as the inaugural co-chair of the LGBT+ Staff Network alongside Siobhán Clibbens.

Prior to joining NHS England, he spent seven years as a higher education administrator and manager for the University of Leeds. Oli has been a volunteer member of a patient assurance group at Leeds North CCG, and is currently volunteering once a week at the A&E of St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

Gisele Marinho

Gisele Marinho is a clinical psychologist with the Redbridge IAPT service in North East London where she has worked since 2011.

She hails from Portugal, but was born in Beira, Mozambique and is of Indian Goan descent, coming to the UK in 1994 and living in London ever since.

Gisele started working in mental health in the NHS as a Nursing Assistant in an acute psychiatric ward in 2003. From 2003 – 2004 she was an assistant psychologist in a rehabilitation unit for people with severe and enduring mental health problems, before becoming a graduate primary care mental health worker. From 2007 she worked for three years as a trainee clinical psychologist before becoming a clinical psychologist. She worked as a clinical psychologist in 2010-11 in two community recovery teams in Redbridge providing psychological assessments and therapy to clients with severe and complex mental health difficulties and working in a multidisciplinary team.

Helen Mariott

Helen Marriott has been the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Medicines Project Lead at NHS England since October 2013, leading the extension of non-medical prescribing and access to medicines for several allied health professions.

Since joining NHS England, Helen has also acted into the position of Deputy Chief Allied Health Profession Officer for seven months.

Before joining NHS England, Helen was the Allied Health Professions Lead and Strategic Workforce Development Manager for Health Education East Midlands, providing professional advice and strategic leadership to the 12 allied health professions. Prior to this role, Helen was the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority AHP lead and a physiotherapy clinical specialist within Rheumatology.

Helen is a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and sits on the Education Committee. She is also a Health and Care Professions Council Partner and physiotherapy panel member at fitness-to-practice hearings.

Helen graduated in Physiotherapy from Sheffield Hallam University and also has a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Leadership.

Donal Markey

Donal Markey is the new Regional Lead for Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy for NHS England (London). He has responsibility for the strategic commissioning of NHS services across all community pharmacies, dental practices and community optometry practices in the capital.

He also leads on the commissioning of all acute, community and urgent care dental services within the London region.

In addition, Donal works within the London NHS transformation programme, the Healthy London Partnership as the Pharmaceutical Advisor supporting the Children and Young People programme.

He is also part of the Asthma Clinical Leadership Group Donal still practices as a community pharmacist in Berkshire.

Fiona Marley

Fiona Marley heads up the Highly Specialised Commissioning Team in NHS England and has worked for the NHS since 1991 in a number of roles, including in primary care and health improvement.

Fiona’s team commissions over 80 highly specialised services, which are typically delivered in small numbers of expert centres. The portfolio includes a number of transplant services, services for patients with rare cancers and services for patients who have rare diseases. Commissioning services in this way ensures that patients have: excellent clinical outcomes; equitable access to services regardless of where they live; and access to clinical trials. In 2021, Fiona commissioned the service to deliver onasemnogene abeparvovec for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Daniel Marsden

Daniel Marsden is currently a Practice Development Nurse for people with learning disabilities at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust.

He supports staff with developing their skills at providing their expertise to people with learning disabilities. This includes delivering training, policy development, project management, clinical leadership, facilitation, research and audit.

Daniel is a keen runner, and joint treasurer of a football team, husband and father of two.

Dr Rachel Marsden

Dr Rachel Marsden is a first five GP from Sheffield working as a salaried GP near the Derbyshire border. She is also involved in undergraduate teaching and out of hours provision and has been the clinical support fellow for sepsis at the Royal College of General Practitioners since April 2017.

Sarah-Jane Marsh

Sarah-Jane Marsh is National Director of Urgent and Emergency Care and Deputy Chief Operating Officer for NHS Engalnd.

Sarah-Jane joined NHS England in January 2023. Previously she was Chief Executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital for over 13 years, achieving an Outstanding CQC rating, before integrating with Birmingham Women’s in 2017 to create Birmingham Women’s and Children’s, the first such organisation in Europe.

In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sarah-Jane was asked to become Director of Testing at the newly formed NHS Test and Trace and during 2021 she Chaired the National Health and Social Care Discharge Taskforce. Sarah-Jane has also led the NHS England Maternity Transformation Programme, the NHS England Children and Young People’s Transformation Programme, and the Genomics England New-born Screening Programme.

In 2022 Sarah-Jane received a CBE for her services to leadership in the NHS and an honorary professorship from the University of Birmingham in recognition of her contribution to science and research.

Her passions are exceeding the expectations of patients and citizens, while supporting leaders from all backgrounds to achieve their full potential.

Shelley Marsh

Shelley Marsh is an educator and parent with an interest in making care accessible.

Alison Marshall

Alison Marshall has worked for NHS East Lancashire CCG as a medicines management care home technician for the last 10 years. She is currently participating in NHS England’s Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes programme.

Qualifying as a pharmacy technician in 1987, Alison’s early career started in community pharmacy. In 1992 she began working in secondary care, where she undertook technical responsibilities at ward level, gaining experience in the different specialities on the wards. She qualified as a prescription accuracy checker in 2008. In 2011 Alison graduated with a FdSc degree in Medicines Management and Pharmacy Services at Huddersfield University with a distinction and was winner of the Chancellor’s Prize.

Claire Marshall

Claire Marshall is Experience of Care Lead in the Patient Experience Team at NHS England. She is responsible for leading the experience of care work for people living with frailty, the NHS Cancer Programme and other workstreams.

Claire joined NHS England in August 2017 on a secondment when she led the national Always Events programme. Before that she was Head of Patient Experience at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. She has spent her 25-year career as a Physiotherapist.

Jeremy Martin

Jeremy is the Programme Director for the Symphony Programme, which is introducing new integrated models of care for the 150,000 population of South Somerset through collaboration between primary care, NHS organisations, the local authority and voluntary sector. In the four years of the programme’s life it has expanded from a project focused on people with the most complex needs, to include the health and social care needs of the whole population. It is one of the nine PACS Vanguard sites.

Prior to becoming Programme Director, Jeremy was Director of Planning and Performance at Yeovil Hospital, where he led on strategy, planning, performance, communications, IT and corporate governance.

Through his career Jeremy has held a wide variety of roles in NHS organisations and the Department of Health in Somerset and London, including policy development, commissioning, operational management, business development, service improvement and performance management.

Mahiben Maruthappu

Dr Mahiben Maruthappu is a practicing doctor and Senior Fellow to the CEO of NHS England. He advises on NHS England’s innovation, technology and prevention portfolio, co-founding the NHS Innovation Accelerator and the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.

He has advised a range of organisations, from start-ups to multilaterals, including the Swiss government and the Experiment Fund and the WHO.

Mahiben has a strong interest in research with over 80 peer-reviewed publications and 50 academic awards. His work has been featured by BBC News and the international press.

He is Chairman of the UK Medical Students’ Association (UKMSA), and has written three medical books. Mahiben was educated at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities and was the first person from British healthcare to be included in Forbes’ 30 under 30.

Alex Massey

Alex Massey is Senior policy and campaigns adviser at the Neurological Alliance. He has previously worked as a policy adviser at ACEVO, the charity leaders’ network, and as a Research Fellow for education at the think-tank Policy Exchange.

Gabrielle Mathews

Gabrielle is a member of the NHS Youth Forum and has consulted on the NHS Long Term Plan, with the APPG on Young People’s Health and various other system transformation projects. She also works as a Young Technical Advisor at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Nursing and Midwifery, which has a focus on maternal and child health.

She is the former Chair of the Young Persons’ Advisory Group at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (2015-2019) and has recently become a member of my NHS Assembly, advising the NHS England and Improvement board on their implementation of the Long Term Plan.

Through these roles and her own healthcare journey, she has developed a keen interest in children and young people’s experiences of care; particularly when transitioning between services, giving consent, receiving difficult news and in safeguarding proceedings.

Gabrielle is a third year medical student at Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM), which affords her another perspective on the NHS. She sits on the ICSM student Union as Vice-Chair of Welfare. Through this and other volunteer roles, she became a #iwill Ambassador at StepUpToServe in 2018.

John Matthews

Dr John Matthews is Senior Partner and a GP Trainer in Park Road Medical Practice, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear where he has worked for the past twenty two years.

He led the setting up of CareFirst which is a co-operative of 18 GP practices in North Tyneside that work together to improve the care of patients, which has now gone on to merge with another group of practices to form a larger federation.

John is currently Chair of NHS North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group which was authorised without conditions.

In this role he sits on the North Tyneside Health and Wellbeing Board which existed in shadow form for two years prior to April 2013. In these two years he chaired the Alternatives to Hospital Admission Partnership Board which focused on promoting integrated care and successfully reducing in-hospital admissions through improved community based urgent care.

Pete Matuszowicz

Pete Matuszowicz has a background in engineering, education and training.

In 1983, at the age of thirty, he suffered a traumatic upper limb amputation while living in the Bahamas. As a result he lost his job and had to rebuild his life. Instead of returning to England he moved to the United States, continued to travel with his work and pursued a master’s degree in Educational Leadership

Pete has presented internationally at various professional development conferences and taught in higher education where his work has been well received. He has a successful leadership record in education and SME business management.

After losing his arm, Pete followed early advice that… “From now on he must work with his head, not his hands”, successfully developing and delivering leadership, life skills and self-management training for corporate, manufacturing, academic, correctional and rehabilitation environments.

Pete has developed self-management for the UK public and private corporate sectors in the form of Manage-Able™, a programme that synthesises these past successes, including that of personal experience.

Paul Maubach

Paul Maubach is Chief Executive of Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group and has overall responsibility for ensuring it meet the needs of Dudley patients, CCG employees, the taxpayer, the wider CCG membership and partnerships, and the law and statute within which the CCG operates.

He has worked in the NHS for over 25 years and is a qualified accountant, with a degree in mathematics from Warwick University and a master’s degree in leadership and organisational development from Birmingham University.

Gail Maund

Gail Maund is a mum of two young children who she describes as ” the most important people in my life”.

She lives in Hampshire with her partner Jason. They enjoy family outings and holidays. Gail and Jason enjoy socialising and eating out when they can.

Dr Elaine Maxwell

Dr Elaine Maxwell is Clinical Adviser at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Dissemination Centre, working to provide clear, accessible, actionable summaries of research that helps decision making in health and social care.

Elaine has previously worked as an Associate Professor and prior to that as an executive director of Nursing and a non-executive director of a number of NHS Trusts in England.

Dame Ruth May

Ruth enjoyed national appointments with NHS Improvement and Monitor, as well as regional and trust leadership roles, before becoming the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England in January 2019.

In June 2022, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Honours, Ruth was awarded a DBE for her services to nursing, midwifery and the NHS since she started her nurse training in 1985. Upon receiving her Damehood, Ruth recognised the expertise of nursing and midwifery colleagues in caring for people at every stage of their lives and the vital role that the professions and care staff played during the pandemic. Ruth has led the nursing, midwifery and care professions’ response to COVID-19 in England and led collaborative work with UK CNO colleagues, the NMC and trade unions to ensure agreement and consistent messaging on key issues.

She is passionate about nurturing the next generation of NHS nursing and midwifery leaders and encouraging professional development opportunities. This includes advocating for improved mental health awareness, championing volunteer activity to support the frontline workforce, and she is a vocal supporter of the WRES agenda and increased diversity across the NHS.

Proud mum to her wonderful daughter, Ruth is a great believer in a healthy professional and home life balance for all.

Find Ruth on Twitter @CNOEngland / #teamCNO.

Peter McCabe

Peter McCabe has been the Chief Executive of Headway – the brain injury association since November 2001. He has 36 years’ experience in the voluntary sector; Chief Executive of QUIT (the smoking cessation charity), held a variety of posts at SCOPE, Relate (the marriage guidance charity) and the YMCA. He has 30 years’ experience as a local councillor. Has served as a Cabinet Member for Adult Social Services, Mayor of Merton, Chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee, Chair of the Standards and General Purposes Committee and in a variety of other posts.

Hugh McCaughey

Hugh McCaughey is National Director of Improvement in the new NHS Executive group.

Hugh helps ensure NHS providers and local systems are equipped to deliver world-class universal healthcare on a sustainable basis.

He oversees the delivery of high impact support to the NHS to help reduce unwarranted clinical variation, improve quality and access, and ensure the most effective and efficient use of resources.

Hugh started in this role on 1 April 2019; previously, he was the Chief Executive of South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland from 2009, where he made quality improvement a key strategy.

He is a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and is a founding member of the Health Improvement Alliance Europe and the UK Improvement Alliance. He is Chair of the Ulster Rugby Academy and a former coach, player and manager.

Joe McCrea

During 2013-14, Joe McCrea combined roles as Social Media Lead for NHS Change Day – the single largest improvement event in the NHS – and Head of Engagement for Tameside Listens, the biggest patient and stakeholder listening exercise in Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s history.

This gave him a unique insight into current contrasting challenges and priorities from frontline and national perspectives.

He is a course tutor for the NHS Leadership Academy’s ‘Nye Bevan Leadership Programme’ and has designed social media strategies for the NHS Confederation and a leading UK local authority.

He has Board level experience in Non-Executive, Cabinet Ministerial Adviser, Parliamentary, Top 5 Consultancy and Senior Civil Service roles. He is a former Special Adviser at the Department of Health, Prime Minister’s Adviser in 10 Downing Street and a member of Cabinet Office Senior Management Team.

A communications pioneer for over two decades, he won numerous innovation awards in 1999 for designing and leading implementation of the world’s first Government-wide integrated policy, strategy and online communities network – the Knowledge Network – years before social media became pervasive.

One of his proudest moments came in 2001, when a word he first coined in 1994 while inventing the Labour Party’s Rapid Rebuttal operation officially entered the English language in the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: “Pre-buttal” (noun) – a pre-emptive response to an anticipated attack.

David McCullough

Royal Voluntary Service Chief Executive.

Dr Ian McDermott

Ian Qualified in Leeds in 1989 and started work as a GP in Leeds in 1997.

Ian Developed an interest in diabetes and started working for specialist diabetes service in Leeds from 2003.

Ian now works for both for the hospital trust and community trust in a specialist diabetes service role and he is currently Leeds CCG clinical Lead for Diabetes, and before that worked for previous CCGs and PCTs in Leeds since 2003.

Sarah McDonald

Sarah McDonald is Sarcoma UK’s Director of Research and Policy.

With more than twenty years of experience working within the NHS, research, and health sectors, she works actively alongside partner organisations including the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS).

Dr Andrew McDonald

Dr Andrew McDonald is a writer and a campaigner. He was born in 1962 and spent most of his career as a civil servant, initially working in the National Archives and, subsequently, in the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice. His last executive role was as Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the regulator established to tackle MPs’ expenses crisis. He took medical retirement in 2014. Andrew’s work as a campaigner has primarily concerned the rights of patients and of disabled people. This work has been sparked by his own diagnosis with Parkinson’s (2007) and prostate cancer (2010). Andrew was chair of the pan-disability charity Scope from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the development of its radical new strategy and reforming its governance. He has spoken publicly about his experience of disability, including the shortcomings of the benefits system. Andrew has chaired the patient advocacy group Chapter 2 since 2015. This has concerned itself with improving the quality of communications with patients. This has been an important theme for Andrew for the last decade. He lectured on this in 2014 and 2016, writing the report The Long and Winding Road, which argued that investment in the communication skills of healthcare professionals was likely to save costs and improve the patient experience. Since 2017 he has been working with NHS England on implementation of these ideas. He is convenor of the Chapter Two Group.

Joanne McDonnell

A published writer and book reviewer with a Masters in Research in Health Sciences, Joanne is Senior Nurse for Mental Health in the Nursing and Midwifery Team at NHS England.

She has won several national awards including Health Writer of the Year and Dementia Care Manager of the Year. She has also starred in numerous promotional nursing films and has been a regular contributor to various national media such as Radio 4.

A member of the Expert Advisory Board for RCN Mental Health Practice, Joanne has extensive experience of presenting at local, national and international conferences. She is currently undertaking a second Masters degree in Healthcare Leadership.