I am registered nurse, practising for over 35 years. During that time, I have had the privilege of working in various community and hospital settings, as well as mental health and learning disability services.

I have worked at Director level for over 12 years, in operational, clinical development and nursing roles. I have always had an interest in the improvement and development of health and social services which I have pursued through formal and informal studies, implementing significant developments in practice, many across multiple organisations through collaborative working. Some examples include: health and social care system wide programme development of long term condition management; stroke care, services for older people and more recently person centred dementia services.

As the organisation lead for quality, many of the improvement projects I have led have focussed upon quality assurance and governance, patient safety, service user experience, social inclusion and staff development.

I have a particular interest in the role of community hospitals, integrated care across health, social care and the voluntary sector and the development of new ways of delivering care in the community with improved person centred outcomes for those accessing services. I am also interested in improving equality of access of services to those who chose not to or seldom use them.

I am a Committee member of the Community Hospitals Association (CHA) and a Trustee of a charity whose aim is to build a sense of belonging in the county for people who have a disability.