Our Team and Programme Board
The Programme Board provides strategic direction to the Coalition for Personalised Care and acts as a conduit for the collective advice and expertise that the partnership generates. It has a key role in maintaining our independence, while also continuing to develop the network.
Our Team
Kim Ryley
Former Chief Executive with lived experience & Coalition Chair
Kim Ryley
Kim is a cancer survivor with a complex history of multiple long term conditions. His experiences of treatment over almost 20 years have given him an insight and lived expertise into how health and care services can be reconfigured to provide a better quality of life for people.
As a retired local authority Chief Executive, Kim has worked closely with a wide range of local and national voluntary organisations and is a representative for MacMillan Cancer Support. In this capacity, he currently contributes to the work of the ‘Expert Advisory Group on Multiple Long Term Conditions’.
Kim is a strong advocate of integrated, community-based, personalised health and care services which empower people to manage their own health care more effectively.
“I have had to acquire my own expertise into how to get the best treatment and support from highly specialised, individual disease-focused health and care services. Being a member of the Advisory Group enables me to share these insights and to influence changes to improve current provision. I would like to see a new framework of integrated, locally-based, personalised support services, with an holistic approach that helps people to confidently take responsibility for managing their own care.”
Katie Clarke-Day
Co-production representative with lived experience & Chair of the Coalition Co-production Subgroup
Katie Clarke-Day
Katie lives with multiple long term health conditions and has always had an interest in enhancing quality of life for people living with long term conditions. She has a number of degrees relevant to the work of the Coalition and has held roles in health psychology and social work.
Katie has worked alongside NHS England, the Health Foundation, local NHS trusts and the voluntary sector on projects that promote the needs and wants of those living with long term conditions. As a member of the Coalition’s Co-Production Team, Katie developed a relationship with The Reading Agency, after being commissioned to support the development of a reading list for people living with long term conditions. She continues to work with them and encourage their enthusiastic dedication to co-production.
The combination of Katie’s lived experience and professional background gives her a great platform from which to contribute.
“I remain invested in the aims and objectives of the coalition and its strong, unique position to bring about change. As a person with lived experience, the coalition is a place that gives equal weight and value to my contribution, providing me with a great platform from which to help and promote personalised care.”
Pip Cannons
CEO, Community Catalysts
Pip Cannons
Pip joined Community Catalysts as Chief Executive in July 2021 after a successful career as a senior business and operational manager in the commercial and public sectors. She is driven by her values and is a passionate advocate for community led support and asset-based models of care.
Pip has worked with system leaders across the UK to:
- influence health and social care commissioning,
- encourage the development of community micro-enterprises and community initiatives,
- promote strength-based practice,
- ensure the system develops and values people’s skills,
- build inclusive and resilient communities.
Prior to joining Community Catalysts Pip worked as a Commissioner in Adult Social Care at Somerset County Council where she led the Community Connect Transformation programme, working with the community sector to develop the nationally recognised Microenterprise Programme and Village Agent service. She also worked alongside social work teams, contact centre teams and primary care to implement strength-based conversations and ways of working to improve outcomes for people with care and support needs. She also worked as an Associate for NDTi supporting local authorities and integrated health and care systems to implement community led support programmes.
“ I am thrilled to be part of this coalition, focussing on what matters to people and ensuring that personalisation becomes a reality for all is so important if we are to tackle social and health inequalities”
Emma Geldart
Programme Manager
Emma Geldart
Emma has worked over many areas of social care including youth work, homelessness, addictions, mental health, criminal justice and most recently within domestic abuse community and residential settings. Emma is a Safelives qualified service manager. Emma is an experienced project and operational manager, gaining her skills within a large social inclusion charity. Emma is also a practiced trainer and educator.
Emma is passionate about embedding co-production within organisations and ensuring communities and people’s voices are heard and listened to.
Emma lives in Darlington and when not busy looking after her teenage children can usually be found rambling around the countryside looking for a hill or mountain to climb, failing that she’ll be stuck to the side of a bouldering wall trying not to fall off.
“As programme manager for C4PC I will facilitate and support organisations within the Coalition to promote personalised care. I will be looking to enable partners to collaborate on opportunities that will benefit the people they support. I am excited to be part of the Coalition and can’t wait to see what C4PC can achieve together, with the outcome of making personalised care truly universal.”
Leah Macdonald
Communications Officer
Leah Macdonald
Leah joined the Coalition for Personalised Care in 2022 to share and amplify the impact of our work, engage key audiences and reach potential new partners.
With many years of experience in communications and marketing, Leah has previously worked in both the private and public sectors and has a strong sense of social justice. She is passionate about promoting personalised care, creating and managing content for the C4PC website, social channels, newsletters and publicity material.
Having recently moved back to the UK after living in Australia, Leah is gradually reacquainting herself with the British countryside and enjoys walking and cycling in her spare time. She is also a keen crafter and visual artist. Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Studies from the University of Bradford and a Master of Arts in Image Studies from the University of Kent.
“I understand through my own experience how vital personalised care is to achieving the best health outcomes and I am dedicated the Coalition’s vision of making personalised care a reality for everyone.”
Karen Waites
Membership Coordinator
Karen Waites
Karen has worked in administration for many years, having joined the Civil Service as a school leaver to work at the local Royal Navy Spare Parts Depot before starting a family. For the last 20 years, Karen has worked in various roles for a local government Adult Education provider.
As the main carer for her elderly father, Karen is thrilled to be part of the C4PC team and is excited about the Coalition’s potential growth and impact.
Outside of work, Karen has a passion for sewing and papercraft and has recently introduced a new member to the Waites family in the form of a Cockapoo puppy Charlie. She can also be found travelling down south to Nottingham on her days off to see her grandchildren.
“I am excited to be working for C4PC along with our Partners. Knowing how important Personalised Care is to the individual, I am dedicated to the Coalition’s vision of making this a reality for everyone.”
Programme Board
Within the Programme Board there are three subgroups
(communications, co-production and community and social prescribing)
which each manage a particular aspect of work.
Anna Denham
Engagement Manager, Disability Rights UK
Anna Denham
Anna Denham joined Disability Rights UK in November 2015 as a Research and Policy Volunteer. Since then she has had numerous roles in the organisation, including Research Associate with the Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Bristol – working on a co-production and change research project – and Project Manager in the Policy Team.
She is currently the Engagement Manager on the Get Yourself Active project at Disability Rights UK. The project supports disabled people to lead change in the social care, health and sport sectors, to improve health and wellbeing outcomes. She is therefore thrilled to be involved in the Coalition for Personalised Care.
Anna has a Masters’ Degree in Global Migration from University College London and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
Dr Brian Fisher
Chair, The New NHS Alliance
Dr Brian Fisher
Brian has been a GP in London for 42 years and has had a keen interest in ensuring that people and communities are involved in shaping health services for a long time. He was instrumental in getting Department of Health funding for the ground-breaking Health Empowerment Leverage Project (HELP) which developed a business case for community development in health and he was subsequently awarded an MBE for community development in 2007.
Brian champions patient record access and is a director of Evergreen Life, a company that enables people in England to access their GP records, book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions and more. The company is on the NHS Digital Framework and Brian believes it has an important part to play in contributing to personalisation. Brian is also Chair of The NHS Alliance which promotes Health Creation through community development and other approaches.
“I am delighted to have been chosen to join C4CC’s Advisory Group. This will enable me and the organisations with which I am linked to understand and influence the process of Personalisation as it grows across the NHS. We see this as vital work that will really benefit people.”
Christiana Melam
CEO, National Association of Link Workers
Christiana Melam
She is an advocate for diversity, inclusion, coproduction, bottom-up approaches, social justice, empowering people and reducing inequality. She believes great leadership is about ‘lighting fire in people’ not on them.
She was recognised by the Mayor of London as one of the women that make London great in March 2019. Christiana was a finalist in the 2019 Social Enterprise UK awards for the ‘Women in Social Enterprise’ category and Birmingham Awards for ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ category.
“The National Association of Link Workers resilient social prescribing link workers are a trusted resource that help the NHS deliver holistic and personalised care services. Universal Personalised Care is an opportunity to have improved care for everyone, so I am committed to contributing to the Advisory Group to ensure that, together, we realise that ambition – ultimately delivering positive wellbeing outcomes for patients.”
Clenton Farquharson MBE
Chair, Think Local Act Personal
Clenton Farquharson
Clenton is Chair of the Think Local Act Personal partnership board. He is an expert in accessibility issues, working in a variety of sectors and disciplines combined with personal experience of living with multiple long-term conditions including, physical disability, mental health issues, diabetes and asthma.
Clenton is a member of the NHS Assembly which was set up to oversee the NHS Ten Year Plan. He is also the current chair of Quality Matters, a trustee of the Race Equality Foundation, ambassador for Disability Rights UK, director of Community Navigator Services CIC, and a Skills for Care Ambassador.
Clenton works as consultant, auditor, trainer, and coach on inclusion, equality, disability, and related subjects and was named in Disability News Services’ list of influential disabled people. In 2014, Clenton received an MBE in recognition of his services to people with disabilities.
“I am part of the Advisory Group because I am passionate about personalisation and co-production. I want to ensure that that we hear the voice of those who are disadvantaged and excluded from society. It is important to me to speak up against structural injustices, address the social determinants of health; the conditions in which we as people are born, grow, live, work and age and which can lead to health inequalities.”
Debbie Hicks MBE
Founder, The Reading Agency
Debbie Hicks MBE
Debbie Hicks MBE is a founder member and Creative Director of The Reading Agency, a charity set up to tackle life’s big challenges through the proven power of reading. Debbie is the strategic lead for the organisation’s health and wellbeing work and manages partnership work with ‘Libraries Connected’, developing and delivering the public library Universal Health Offer which includes ‘Reading Well Books on Prescription’ – providing quality-assured health information and support in 98% of English public library authorities.
Debbie oversees the delivery of ‘Reading Friends’, a UK-wide Lottery-funded reading befriending programme which uses reading to connect vulnerable and isolated older people. Debbie was instrumental in The Reading Agency’s strategy to embed co-production in all its programmes. She is a passionate advocate for personalised care and supporting communities to create and deliver the services that work for them.
“I’m enthusiastic about the health sector’s increasing commitment to personalised care and am keen to work as part of the Coalition to ensure this commitment is turned into tangible, positive action. At The Reading Agency, we’ve committed to embedding co-production into all our programmes, so I hope to share what we have learned about co-creation so far and to disseminate the wider learning from the group across our wide network of partners.”
Jed Boardman
Senior Policy Adviser, Centre for Mental Health
Jed Boardman
Dr Jed Boardman is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Centre for Mental Health and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry. Throughout his career, he has worked mainly in social and community psychiatry and was Consultant Psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley Trust until 2016.
He is the lead for Social Inclusion at the Royal College of Psychiatrists where he advises on employment, poverty, welfare reform, personalisation and recovery. He co-chaired the RCPsych Person-Centred Training and Curriculum (PCTC) Scoping Group with Dr Subodh Dave and was an author of their 2018 report on person-centred care and training. He led the Recovery projects at the Centre for Mental Health and, with other colleagues, set up the ImROC (Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change) project. He has published widely on Social and Community Psychiatry.
“Early on in my medical career I learnt that there are two experts in the doctor’s consulting room – the person with the medical expertise and the person with the lived experience of illness (and both can swap places in certain situations). These expertises can both have an important role to play in the therapeutic process.”
Jude Stansfield
National Adviser, Public Health England
Jude Stansfield
Jude is National Adviser in Public Mental Health to Public Health England (PHE). Over more than 25 years she has worked locally, regionally and nationally to progress effective and innovative public health policy, leadership and practice. Her focus and passion is on addressing mental health and wellbeing as a key determinant of healthy, equitable and thriving communities and organisations.
Jude authored the PHE Leadership & Workforce Development Framework to build staff competence in improving the public’s mental health and wellbeing. She also leads on developing community-centred and asset-based approaches within the public health system and in embedding and addressing psychosocial approaches to health throughout the organisation.
Jude chaired the mental wellbeing expert reference group of the National Mental Health Intelligence Network and works to improve data in mental health, wellbeing and healthy communities. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and a member of their Mental Health Committee. She is Co-chair of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership Council of Public Health Leadership.
Shaun Webster
Project Co-ordinator, CHANGE
Shaun Webster
Shaun is a Project Co-ordinator, at Learning Disability Rights Charity, CHANGE. Shaun has worked both nationally and internationally to tackle the barriers that people with learning disabilities experience.
His exceptional career led to him receiving an MBE for his work improving the human rights of people with learning disabilities and supporting them to have a strong voice and work with professionals, encouraging inclusion for all.
Shaun’s combination of professional experience and lived experience of having a learning disability and a long term health condition equips him with huge expertise in accessibility and communication between health professionals and people with learning disabilities, health inequalities and improving services.
Shaun truly understands the importance of personalised care and how it can benefit patient’s when it is done right.
“Learning disabled people don’t get the same treatment that non-learning disabled people get. Learning disabled people die 19½ years younger than people who don’t have a learning disability. This has to change. We must work together to address this.
I am passionate about personalised care because, in the past I have not always had enough support around my health care. I joined the Advisory Group because I am determined to make things better, for all learning disabled people.”
Ian McCreath
Head of Think Local Act Personal (TLAP)
Ian McCreath
Ian is the Personalisation Lead at Alzheimer’s Society, working within the Research and Influencing Directorate as a member of the Policy Team. Ian also serves as the Operating Officer for the Dementia Change Action Network (#DCAN), which is supported by NHS England & Improvement, Alzheimer’s Society and Coalition for Personalised Care.
Ian had no plans to work in health, social care or the voluntary sector, it just kind of happened. A graduate in film and literature and a stint as a film critic with News of the World aside, Ian’s career has otherwise been exclusively in a range roles working in the disability, or dementia sector. Ian’s experiences with his Nan, who was diagnosed with mixed dementia, and as a support worker in residential and respite care, led him to question why it was so hard to deliver what matters to people when everyone could agree that it is what should be happening. Further roles in community development, campaigning and operations management cemented the sense that solutions can only be found through collaboration and co-production.
Since becoming lead for personalisation at Alzheimer’s Society, Ian has worked on the Care Act guidance, a Dementia Friendly Charter for Personal Budgets, TLAPs Making it Real and most recently with NHSE/I on Universal Personalised Care and dementia. Ian has also been an active member and supporter of TLAP, National Voices and Social Care Future movement, as well as an alumni of the Leadership Empowered and Healthy Communities Programme and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.
“I am committed to playing a continuing role within C4PC and DCAN and ensuring people with dementia are at the heart of the thinking and planning for universal personalised care. If personalisation is to be the answer I think it can be, what are the questions we need to keep asking of each other as citizens, communities, professionals and government to make its path as easy as possible? How do we achieve a sense of common purpose strong enough to drive the changes we all want to see for the people we care about and also for ourselves? I still don’t know the answers but know we get closer everyday by working together in coalitions such as C4PC and I feel happy and privileged to be able to play a part.”
Jo Fitzgerald
Peer Support & Lived Experience, NHSE Personalised Care Group
Jo Fitzgerald
Jo Fitzgerald leads the Lived Experience Team in the Personalised Care Group at NHS England and NHS Experience.
Jo’s son, Mitchell, was one of the first people in England to benefit from personal health budget. It transformed his life, so Jo is committed to ensuring that more people can benefit.
Jo leads the Personalised Care Strategic Coproduction Group and has also led the development of the Peer Leadership Development Programme which aims to develop 500 Peer Leaders by 2023/23. She is a qualified counsellor with an MA in Counselling (with distinction) from Manchester University.
Ronald Amanze
Lived Experience rep from Alzheimer’s Society
Ronald Amanze
Ronald devotes his time to work which focuses on ensuring there is better provision for the BAME communities in dementia service and more involvement from BAME communities in dementia research.
An artist manager and music producer by background he is passionate about the role of creativity in improving the quality of life experiences for those living with Dementia and mental health conditions.
Susie Finlayson
Development Manager, Power to Change & Chair of the Coalition Community Social Prescribing Subgroup
Susie Finlayson
Susie is currently a Development Manager at Power to Change, the national body supporting community businesses. She leads on their health and social care work, supporting community-owned and led businesses delivering health or social care services and working with partners to explore the role of community businesses in the future of the sector.
Susie has previously worked at The Young Foundation, leading a range of projects across sectors including place-based development, health, youth services and providing capacity-building support to charities and social enterprises. Prior to this, Susie worked in physical disability, learning disability and mental health care having completed a BSc and MRes in Psychology.
“The Coalition and its advisory group is a much-needed and timely drive to shift practice and make person-centred, truly collaborative care, the norm for people with long term conditions. I am keen to learn and contribute to the thinking about how different models of community accountability and ownership can deliver more personalised care and the role of co-creating services within this.”
Jim Thomas
Head of Workforce Capacity and Transformation, Skills for Care
Jim Thomas
Jim Thomas is Head of Workforce Capacity and Transformation at Skills for Care, the workforce development lead organisation for adult social care in England. He is also a member of the Social Care Impact Centre’s leadership team.
Jim’s work has included leading national programmes on workforce redesign, the development of principles for workforce integration and skills-led approaches to community development. He currently leads on safeguarding, workforce commissioning, commissioning qualifications, personalisation, exploring workforce wellbeing, workforce productivity and developing the workforce supporting people with learning disabilities and autism. He is an avid explorer of workforce issues related to digital working, learning, information sharing, Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
“Working in collaboration is fundamental to my way of thinking. That’s why the Coalition for Personalised Care is very important to me”.
