Conference date:
1st May 2008, Harrogate
Advisory Board
The board consists of the following members:
- Dr David Colin-Thomé
- Sharon Grant
- Ruth Eley
- Peter Gilroy
- Tracy Morton
- Lynn Young
- Jane Day
- Keren Down
- Sheila Dent
- Angela Hawley
- Robert Clayton
- Dr Pejman Azarmina
Chairman: Dr David Colin-Thomé, OBE, Department of Health
Dr David Colin-Thomé, OBE. David has been a GP since 1971 and is senior partner at Castlefields Health Centre Runcorn. His practice has been leading-edge nationally over the last 10 years or so, pioneering systematic management of long-term conditions employing managed care techniques.
David has considerable experience in the public sector having spent eleven years as a councillor and formerly senior medical officer at the Scottish Office and Director of Primary care at North West and London Regional offices. He also has been on many overseas advisory visits specialising in primary care development.
- He publishes regularly on primary care reform
- Honorary Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Policy and Management at Manchester University
- Honorary Visiting Professor, School of Health, University of Durham
- Adviser to Central Manchester University Hospital
- He is a devoted Everton supporter
- Married to Christine, two children Mark and Jill, grandfather to Amber, Jacob, Luca, Ryan and Beth
Sharon Grant, Commission for Patient Public Involvement
Sharon Grant was appointed Chair of the Commission for Patient & Public Involvement in Health on 1st January 2003. From August 2002 Sharon worked with the Department of Health’s Patient & Public Involvement team to put in place arrangements for the arrival of the Commission.
A former senior university lecturer in Social Policy, Sharon has considerable experience in community development and tackling social exclusion. She has a long record of campaigning on human rights issues, not least the health needs of women and ethnic minorities - gained as a local councillor and parliamentary adviser.
As a carer for some 10 years, she developed considerable insight into the experiences of patients and their families, and the plight of carers became a particular interest.
She was a member of the Department of Health’s "Having Your Say" Policy Taskforce, and is currently part of the steering group establishing National Voices, to provide a national voice for the voluntary sector in health and social care.
Sharon is a trustee of two charities dedicated to addressing inequalities experienced by black and minority ethnic groups, and has been a consultant to voluntary organisations seeking to build their capacity.
Ruth Eley, Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP)
Ruth is a social worker by training and has specialised in working with older people at several points in her career. She has extensive management experience including as Head of Strategic Commissioning and Protection in Liverpool City Council where she led the development of inter-agency policy and procedures for Adult Protection. More recently she was seconded to Mersey Care NHS Trust to lead the integration of health and social care in the new organisation and to develop integrated community mental health teams. She is a founder member of the Change Agent Team and is currently the National Programme Lead for Older People in CSIP. She has a particular interest in the mental health needs of older people and the use of whole systems data sets to inform service planning and commissioning.
Peter Gilroy, Chief Executive, Kent County Council
Peter is the Chief Executive of Kent County Council and his career has taken him into the public and private sector in the UK and USA. He has worked in Health and Social Care and was Strategic Director of Social Services in Kent before becoming Chief Executive. As Director, Peter took a leading roll on issues related to Drugs and Alcohol and Child Protection. He chairs the South East Centre for Excellence and has a national reputation for innovation. His drive is for outcome based innovation and effectiveness in the public sector. Peter is a member of the Advisory Board for the World Health Care Congress, chairs the Kent Film and Television Board and is a member of the County Executives of America. He has recently been invited to become a member of the Society of Industry Leaders and has just launched an exciting broadband channel, KentTV.com. He took the lead with the Health Service in Kent in commissioning what is now Europe’s largest telehealth pilot – with a thousand people expected to be involved by the middle of the year. He has also been invited to join the Health Innovation Council led by Lord Darzi. Peter has a number of external interests as well, including film and music.
Tracy Morton, Department of Health
Tracy is a Senior Policy Manager in the Long Term Conditions Strategy Team within the Commissioning and System Management Directorate in the Department of Health. She has been a career civil servant for 15 years, working in Workforce Statistics, in Public Health developing the Our Healthier Nation policy and in the Finance and Investment Directorate developing and implementing policy on NHS Income Generation. Her current role involves the implementation of case management and personalised care planning for people with long term conditions.
Lynn Young, Royal College of Nursing
Lynn has been the Primary Health Care Adviser, RCN since October 1990. Before that she was a district nurse in West London.
During her time at the RCN the major part of her work has focussed on the development of primary health care policy and practice within the context of health and social care reform. This includes the development of PHC organisations, clinical governance, commissioning, nurse leadership in primary and public health, public and patient involvement, GMS Contract., the prevention of coronary heart disease, nutrition and tobacco control. Most recent work includes the development of Community Matron, practice based commissioning, the future PHC workforce, 'Commissioning a Patient – Led NHS' and the White Paper, 'Our health, our care, our say'.
She is also facilitating the Working in Partnership Programme (WiPP) work which has 13 projects, two of which are the development of nursing and health care assistants in general practice.
In November 2004 Lynn was awarded an Honorary Fellowship Royal College General Practitioners FRCGP (hons).
Jane Day, Peterborough PCT
Jane started her enrolled nurse training in Peterborough in 1980. Once qualified, she worked in various specialties before moving to work in the community in 1987. She completed a conversion course to first level nursing in 1990 and her District Nursing and Diploma in health studies in 1993. Jane has worked as part of a team of community matrons since November 2005 in a integrated service in Peterborough.
Believing the role does have an impact on long term conditions agenda by enhancing practice but not losing the quality of nursing and its fundamental role.
Keren Down, Foundation for Assistive Technology (FAST)
Keren has an educational background in English Literature and Fine Art, work experience in user involvement and health and social care provision and voluntary sector experience of community development. Before joining FAST, Keren worked as a Care Co-ordinator at the Motor Neurone Disease Care and Research Centre, King's College Hospital and has experience of brokering services for users, facilitating effective multi-disciplinary teams and building links between acute and community services.
Keren moved on to initiate and implement the BUILD project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The project found that people with motor neurone disease, despite being severely disabled and living with a terminal illness, had the motivation and capacity to become involved in planning the services they received. Working closely with service users in their own homes, and developing the first UK online forum run by people with MND, Keren has a good understanding of the users' perspective of assistive technology services and desire for participation in service planning.
Keren became Director of FAST in 2004 and has steered FAST through an exciting phase of development which has seen the organisation developing its role as the executive body of the pan-sector Assistive Technology Forum and as a leading standards setting organisation in Assistive Technology. FAST draws together expert opinion to develop strategic guidance on developments in service provision for assistive technology.
Sheila Dent, Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Sheila Dent has worked in the public and voluntary sector throughout her career; that includes social care, the criminal justice system, the NHS and more recently in the voluntary sector. She has also been a trustee in two charitable organisations. In total she has held senior management posts across those sectors for the past eighteen years, including posts at director and chief executive level for the past seven years. In all of those roles she has encountered people in very stressful and difficult situations in roles as carers. She also has personal experience as a carer.
Throughout her career she has been involved in partnership working through external networks and has project managed a number of multi-agency initiatives where cross boundary policies and procedures had the potential to undermine the spirit of how organisations aspired to work together. Sheila gained a qualification as a social worker at the University of Leeds and was awarded an MBA from The University of Durham.
Angela Hawley, Department of Health
Policy Lead for Self Care at the Department of Health in the long term conditions team, with particular responsibility currently for working with health and social care professional and regulatory bodies to encourage support for individual’s empowerment and self care.
After a number of administrative posts in the private sector, Angela joined Yorkshire Regional Health Authority as a Business Manager in Performance Management in 1994, transferring to the Department in 1996. Angela has worked on a variety of projects focussing mainly on employment issues for NHS staff, including regulation of doctors and the establishment of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board.
Angela joined the Primary Care Team in August 2004 and has been responsible for promoting support for self care within policy development across all parts of the Department. Outside work Angela is a Business Mentor for 15-16 year old students and was nominated Business Mentor of the Year 2005 by Leeds City Council. She is married with two children aged 11 and 8.
Robert Clayton, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB)
Robert Clayton has worked at the Department of Health in the pharmaceutical and technology branch, as an area/district pharmaceutical officer within the secondary care sector, then moving in primary care as a prescribing adviser in several regional health authorities. He has also worked in community pharmacy as a pharmacy manager for a large multiple.
He was appointed lead for long-term conditions and public health within the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Directorate of Practice and Quality Improvement in January 2005. In this newly created role he was responsible for ensuring that the Society was prepared for the implementation of the new pharmacy contract and advising on how pharmacy could deliver on the Department of Health’s public health White Paper, 'Choosing health: making healthier choices easier'.
He was appointed Head of Practice within the same Directorate in January2006. In this position he was responsible for all aspects of pharmacy practice, across hospital, community, veterinary, and the pharmaceutical industry. With the rapidly developing roles for pharmacists in delivering the health care agenda, this has been a very challenging task. Robert recently retired but is still working part-time at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Dr Pejman Azarmina, Pfizer
Pejman qualified as a medical doctor in 1999 and practiced medicine for two years at a general district hospital in Tehran. In the same year, he joined the Academy of Medical Sciences as the executive editor of a peer-reviewed medical journal and published six bestselling books on medical topics for the public.
In 2003, Pejman moved to the UK and in parallel to working for University College London as a research fellow, he worked for the NHS as an IT project coordinator and public health information analyst, whilst completing an MSc in Healthcare Management at University of Surrey. He is a research-minded medical doctor with substantial expertise in the fields of health informatics, home telehealth, medical linguistics, evidence-based medicine and critical appraisal.
Pejman joined the UK Pfizer Health Solution team in 2005 and leads the evaluation plan of the OwnHealth® project, contributes to the publication planning of all PHS programmes and aims to develop standards regarding the evaluation of home telehealth telephone-based disease management programmes.
