2016 Conference

Review of our speakers and video footage of their presentation at the event.

Jackie Smith was appointed the NMC’s Chief Executive and Registrar in October 2012. Jackie joined the NMC as the Director of Fitness to Practice in August 2010, where she led a department of over 100 staff with the responsibility of driving forward improvements to meet the NMC’s goal of safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the public. In December 2011 Jackie was then appointed the NMC’s Acting Chief Executive and Registrar.

Jackie has a Law degree from Wolverhampton University, qualification in Six Sigma and a diploma in Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy. Jackie’s background is in law and she spent many years working for the Crown Prosecution Service at the Old Bailey and in the Director of Pubic Prosecutions Office.

Jackie has extensive experience in healthcare regulation. She worked for the General Medical Council (GMC) for over 10 years where she was the Assistant Director of GMC Liaison prior to joining the NMC. She led the roll-out programme for introducing affiliates to every Strategic Health Authority (SHA) in England and in the other three countries, after successfully leading the GMC Affiliate Pilot in London. She set the vision for affiliates and developed the strategic plan for how they will work with the NHS. Jackie headed up the GMC’s Investigation Unit for six years managing and investigating complaints and monitoring standards for doctors, under the scrutiny of the Government, the profession and the public.

Jackie also sat on the West Midlands Pathfinder Steering Group and worked with representatives from the Re-validation Support Team, the BMS and the SHA. She was a member of Re-validation Project Group for the London SHA and worked closely with the clinical lead responsible for delivering re-validation in London.

Catherine Picton BSc MBA FFRPS FRPharmS

Catherine is an experienced healthcare and policy consultant who has worked with the Department of Health, NHS England, local and national NHS organisations, professional bodies and organisations, and health policy think tanks. Her particular areas of interest include health policy that supports the optimal use of medicines, with a focus on practical application and sustainability (policy to practice)

She has authored and co-authored an extensive range of reports, policy guidance and tools that support health policy implementation. She led the development of the profession specific Prescribing Competency Frameworks for non-medical prescribers published by the National Prescribing Centre. She is lead author of the single competency framework for all prescribers published in 2012 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and recently the updated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Previously, Catherine was Managing Editor of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. Prior to that, she worked as a practice research and hospital pharmacist.

Dianne Hogg is currently seconded to NHS England as AHP Medicines Project Lead. Her substantive post is as non-medical prescribing lead for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) for all the non-medical prescribing professions and co-chair of the North West Non-medical Prescribing (NMP) Leads’ Network.

The network includes NMP leads from all organisations employing NMPs and providing NHS care and programme leaders from the universities in the region.

She is a health visitor by profession, and in 1999 became one of the first nurse prescribers in her employing PCT. She was involved in the inception of staff nurse prescribing (V150) which led to nurses from East Lancashire being on the first course in the country. In her North West role, Dianne has had a leading role in the continuation and further development of non-medical prescribing in the region. She has given presentations on a wide variety of aspects of non-medical prescribing around the UK.

For the last two years Dianne has worked with NHS England on the AHP Medicines Project; advising the project team and the professional bodies of all four professions involved- radiography, paramedics, dietetics and optometry; in particular she worked closely with the Society and College of Radiographers on the documentation and garnering support for the case of need. She has co-authored a number of published papers including several about both therapy and diagnostic radiographer prescribing.

Shelagh Morris, OBE DipCOT, BA, MBA, FCSP (Hon). Deputy Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, NHS England

Shelagh trained as an occupational therapist at The Liverpool School of Occupational Therapy. She has experience working in both health and social services and with a range of client groups. She has been actively involved in facilitating joint working across health and social care, in leadership development for allied health professionals and in promoting patient and service user involvement in improving and developing services.

Shelagh joined the Department of Health on 1 April 2003. She was previously Director of Allied Health Professions within an acute trust. Her particular responsibilities within the AHP team at DH included use of Patient Group Directions by AHPs, self referral to physiotherapy and service improvement in a range of AHP services to reduce waiting times and improve access for patients. She was the policy lead for taking forward independent prescribing by physiotherapists and podiatrists which required changes to legislation.

Shelagh joined NHS England as Deputy Chief Allied Health Professions Officer on 1 April 2013. The main focus of her work is improving rehabilitation services and further work on AHP medicines projects – paramedics, radiographers, dietitians and orthoptists. Her work with Health Education England includes Advanced Practitioners.

She was awarded OBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours and is based at Quarry House in Leeds.

Roy Lilley, health policy analyst, writer, broadcaster and commentator on the National Health Service and social issues.

Roy was the vice-chairman of West Surrey and North East Hampshire Health Authority and formerly a Conservative member of Surrey Heath Borough Council where he was Mayor in 1988/89. Between 1991 and 1995, he was the chairman of the Homewood NHS Trust, Chertsey Surrey. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Management School, Imperial College London, and at the Centre for Health Services Management at the University of Nottingham.

He has written for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, journals and management periodicals including a regular column in Pharmaceutical Marketing magazine. He runs the nhsManagers.network which produces an opinionated free newsletter four times a week which is claimed to reach 100,000 NHS managers inboxes. He is the author of over twenty books on health and health service management. Because his newsletter is regarded as influential those attacked in it can be defensive.

He was an active opponent of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and during the campaign produced a draft NHS Emergency Powers Act giving an alternative approach to NHS reform. At this time, he was widely credited for introducing the nickname “La La” for Andrew Lansley, the then Health Secretary and architect of the reforms.

In 2013 he chaired the People’s Inquiry into London’s NHS. In March 2014 he was reported as saying, in connection with the care.data controversy that better use of data was vital to improve the quality of care but that politicians had made it more difficult for the public believe their commitments about the future use of the records, because previous ministers’ pledges – such as a promise to have no top-down reorganisation of the NHS – had been broken

For five years Tommy Whitelaw was a full-time carer for his late mother Joan who had Vascular Dementia, and in 2011 Tommy undertook a walk around Scotland’s towns and cities to collect hundreds of life story letters detailing the experiences of individuals caring for a loved one living with dementia.

Since then, he has engaged with thousands of carers through his ‘Tommy on Tour’ blog and as Project Engagement Lead with the Health and Social Care Alliance’s Dementia Carer Voices Project, conducting frequent talks to health and social care professionals and carer organisations across Scotland, to raise awareness of the impact of dementia on families and the importance of empowering carers in carrying out their difficult but vital role.
Tommy’s passion for his work and the Dementia Carer Voices Project has not gone unnoticed. He was the winner of the ‘Age Scotland Jess Barrow Award’ in 2013; Finalist Campaigner of the year 2013 for ‘The Herald Scottish Politician of the Year Awards’ and won the NHSGGC Chairman’s Ambassador Award 2013.

Most recently, in January 2015, Tommy was awarded the ‘British Citizen’s Award for Services to Healthcare’ in recognition of his work to raise awareness of dementia and promote a fuller understanding of the carer journey.

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