Des Kelly OBE, Executive Director, NCF
Des Kelly is Executive Director of the National Care Forum. He was appointed to this new post when the organisation was formed in 2003. The National Care Forum (NCF) is a membership based organisation established to promote quality care outcomes for people receiving care and support services through the not-for-profit sector. The NCF has become the leading voice for not-for-profit care providers in the UK and now represents in excess of 50% of the sector. Des represents NCF with the main national sector bodies.
Des was previously Partnerships Director with BUPA Care Homes from 1998 to 2003 and held the posts of HR Director with Care First Plc (which was at the time the largest Nursing Home group in the UK with a staff of 14,500) and Court Cavendish Plc. Des has a background of working in the residential care sector with both older people and other adults and has written extensively for the professional press with over 150 articles published. He was the Editor of the journal Social Caring for 10 years (until 2009), News Editor of the monthly magazine Care Management Matters and sits on the Editorial Board of several journals in the care sector. He is the author of five books on social care and management.
Des was appointed Associate Fellow at the University of Warwick School of Health and Social Studies in 2003. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He joined the European Committee of IAHSA in June 2005. He is a governor of the Centre for Policy on Ageing, Director of the Residential Forum and chaired the Steering Group of the Help the Aged ‘My Home Life’ programme. He is currently chair of the Care Providers Alliance – which brings together the 11 umbrella representative bodies in adult social care. Des was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2007 for services to social care. He was Care Personality of the Year in the National Care Awards in November 2007. He held the honorary position of President of the Social Care Association 2007-08.
Amanda Sherlock,Deputy Director Frontline Operations, Care Quality Commission
Having started her career as an occupational therapist, Amanda Sherlock worked in management positions in health and social care, latterly as a director in CSCI, the predecessor social care regulator.
She has a strong interest in understanding the role of the markets in driving up standards in care by taking an integrated approach to health and social care service user experiences.
Helga Goutcher, Head of Operational Compliance, BUPA
Helga Goutcher is Head of Operational Compliance for Bupa Care Services for 300 care homes. This is a National Role. She has dedicated 11 years of her career with Bupa.
Helga’s role includes leading a group of senior nurses in developing clinical excellence in Bupa Care homes. Responsibilities she carries out include implantation of the quality framework, enabling improvements in the quality of care and experience residents receive and developing resident/nursing care policies. One of her recent achievement was the development and roll out of a complete set of care documentation including a comprehensive assessment tool (QUEST) into 300 plus care homes. Helga is also the key lead for infection control, tissue viability and nutrition.
To add to her list of experiences, it was also her responsibility for implementing a series of SMART cards (Safe Medicine Administration Reference Tool).
Previously she served as the Director of Nursing for a NHS trust and having in excess of 25 years in NHS.
Diane Fossey, London Borough of Wandsworth
Diane Fossey qualified as a social worker in 1992 and achieved a Masters degree in Gerontology from Kings College London.
Diane is currently employed by the London Borough of Wandsworth to project manage the implementation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Responsible for devising and ensuring that appropriate systems are in place, coordinating communications including newsletters, briefings and training for all stakeholders.
As a practitioner and manager she has developed good operational expertise within Adult Care services. She has a strong practice knowledge base, including a good understanding of the transformation agenda, personalisation, the adult safeguarding agenda and valuing people.
Diane has also been employed as Workforce Development Manager – Health and Social Care, for a large County Council. Within this role she demonstrated an in depth understanding of the strategic importance of workforce development, ensuring that programmes and strategies reflected the social care workforce as a whole, working with managers, including those providing care services in the independent sector to identify their workforce demands and developing strategies to meet them.
In her spare time Diane has just completed her NLP Practitioner programme, is active in her local drama group and enjoys reading and walking.
Bev Green, Derbyshire Mental Health Trust
Bev Green qualified as a Psychiatric Nurse in 1983
Having worked in the field of mental health for over 29 years Bev has worked predominantly in inpatient acute assessment wards for older people. Since 2000 Bev has worked as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner/Modern Matron working within day hospital, inpatient wards and in recent years community mental health teams.
Jointly developed Dementia Care Training with a colleague which cuts across acute general hospitals, nursing residential homes, mental health units, which has led on to partnership working with Loughborough College on a Dementia Care Certificate Course.
Kathy Feltham, Derbyshire Mental Health Trust
Kathy Feltham qualified as a Psychiatric Nurse in 1985.
Having worked in the field of mental health over 27 years Kathy has worked within hospital, day services and community settings; predominantly with older people experiencing mental health issues. She spent 14 years working as a Community Psychiatric Nurse.
Kathy has worked as a Modern Matron for the last 3 years, giving professional support and advice to nursing staff. She has a special interest in the field of dementia care as well as providing her support to the partnership with Loughborough College.
Sue Ullmann, Chair, NACC
Sue took over as Chair of the National Association of Care Catering in September 2007. The NACC is a national organisation whose main remit is to support, promote and enrich the standards of catering within the care sector, whether that be catering provided by Social Services or other Caring Agencies. The association promotes the development of professional standards and commissions research into matters relating to the care sector. Sue has been involved in the first ever Nutritional Action Plan, that was launched last year by the DH under the leadership of Ivan Lewis MP, Care Services Minister.
Following a varied career and 17 years at Donisthorpe Hall, Residential/Nursing Home in Leeds, Sue Ullmann took up her post as Chief Executive with Harrogate Neighbours Housing Association nearly three years ago. HNHA has encompassed a lot of change, and more recently has worked in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council in the opening of the Interim Care Facilities and Telecare demonstration suite, and in 2008 improved community services at Greenfield Court, and is now looking at further development plans with NYCC.
Sue is also on the national working group BAPEN/GNASH who have looked at developing a nutritional screening tool and has been involved in the production of a new guide with BAPEN, EROSH, NUTRICIA, NACC and CSHS in a Good Practice Guide - Addressing Malnutrition aimed at getting people to think about malnutrition and how it can be addressed in the community.
In 2008 Sue was invited to join the board of the Independent Care Group who support care establishments in the North, and toured North Yorkshire giving presentations on the importance of good nutrition for the elderly. Sue led the steering group on the production of a Menu Planning and Special Diets Document published by the NACC in 2007, which was launched at the House of Commons.
Sara Stanner, Nutritionist, BNF
Having graduated with a Masters in Public Health Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sara Stanner has been involved in the communication of evidence based information about diet and nutrition in many settings.
She has worked for the University College London Medical School, the British Heart Foundation and the Nutrition Society and is currently the Nutrition Communications Manager at the British Nutrition Foundation.
Her work has included producing a guide for the Food Standards Agency on healthier catering practices, providing training to caterers and employees of a large hotel chain on healthy eating, advising nurseries on catering for young children and giving talks on healthy eating in different workplaces. She has published several books and articles on a wide range of nutritional topics and has recently edited a Task Force report on diet, lifestyle and healthy ageing.
Nigel Lawrence, National Executive, NASHICS
Nigel Lawrence is a Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner and has been the Principal Health and Safety Officer at Wrexham County Borough Council for the past 9 years. He has worked in Health and Safety for the last 14 years and previously worked in the field of Electrical Engineering for a large Utility Company, starting as an Apprentice Electrician in 1978. He gained his MSc in Health and Safety Management at Leicester University in 2004 and has a wide experience of the management of health, safety and welfare within both the private and public sector.
Nigel has spent many years working within the care sector and has faced many challenges to ensure sensible risk management has been applied. One of the many areas of work in this time has been the introduction of specific guidance on safe methods of work, which have evolved from the identification and management of specific hazards applicable to the provision of care. To achieve this, a sensible approach to risk assessments has been employed. Risk assessments are an essential management tool and an important step in protecting employees and others from harm, as well as complying with the law.
Jayne Needham, Senior Public Health Strategy Manager, Derbyshire County PCT
Jayne is a chartered environmental health practitioner with over 22 years experience of working both in Local government and within the NHS. Jayne is currently employed as a Senior Public Health Strategy Manager with Derbyshire County PCT where at a county level she leads on falls prevention, and radon remediation work and locally leads the Older Peoples and Healthier Communities agenda for the LSP.