A Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMgr FCMI) with extensive work history within client driven investment banks and not-for-profit organisations.  Held senior and director level positions for 20 years. I have vast experience of working within Social Enterprises, Grass-root Charities and Education settings.  Successfully, led on strategic business development plan and impact, developing and implementing infrastructure, horizon scanning and sustainable business growth. 

Through my leadership roles, I have built vast experience in organisational review, analysis of feedback, development of action plan and implementation; financial modelling and risk management; policy development, gap analysis, leveraging social impact outcomes, improvement and audit compliance and influencing programme development through strategic partnerships and collaborations to add value to business objectives and social impact.  

I am adept in leadership coaching and professional consulting to support small organisations develop their strategic thinking to improve their financial and social outcomes.  Since 2020, I have successfully consulted with leaders of over 60 grass-root and not-for-profit organisations across England to build resilience and reposition their organisation for future opportunities, growth, sustainability, and impact.  Alongside the capacity building, I engage with infrastructure organisations and statutory bodies in high level facilitation of insights into commissioning and procurement of services to address inequity and improve practise and outcomes for minoritised organisations. 

Ashleigh is a qualified RNLD with almost 20 years of experience in healthcare. She is the Director of Transforming Care at LD Network, and is very passionate about the Neurodiversity movement, with a firm belief that different ways of thinking is the key to progression for humankind.

As the Director of Transforming Care at LD Network, she works with care providers, service users and families to help make tangible steps towards getting people back home from hospital placements. LD Network enables transition teams to work with an individual, helping them to move from hospital out into the community with consistency and continuity – avoiding the downfalls of a disjointed approach of going from one environment to another with completely different people.  This model works to combat the reverse too, aiming to avoid hospital admissions for people in crisis by providing very short notice, specialist support to stabilise and secure escalating situations which put home or community placements at risk of failure.

Ashleigh’s dream is to work with like-minded people to win the war on attitude change within our communities. She believes that the inequalities in society must be tackled through open and honest communication and she is determined to play her part in breaking down the complex barriers that prevent people from living the rich and fulfilling lives that they deserve.

Adam is the Managing Director for Burley Inclusive, an alternative post-16 education provision for people with learning disabilities and/or autism based in North Somerset UK. 

Adam is also the lead author of The Core Skill Curriculum (CSC), a new methodology for teaching adults within what is usually labelled as a “social care setting”.

After gaining one years’ experience as a support worker in a care home and four years of teaching in a formal educational setting, Adam and his team began to design a new model of education combing best practice from both settings. 

Learners make tremendous progress when following the CSC and many reach outcomes on their Education Health and Care Plans quickly after their formal educational settings failed to reach them.

Adam is passionate about helping to bridge the gap between education and social care by sharing the development of a new approach. New models of teaching and learning can be embedded into the support packages of people with ISF’s to help them become even more autonomous and in control of their lives. 

Adam is also proud to have started The Steel Squid Collective, a rock band lead by Burley Inclusive learners. They were named as a Dimensions 2019 leader and can be found here: https://www.burleyinclusive.co.uk/the-steel-squid/

I have worked for the Peterborough CVS for nearly 18 years with 15 of those for the Peterborough Direct Payment Support Service.

I started as a Support Worker, before moving on to be the Project Coordinator and then in 2015 becoming the Project Manager.

The project has grown from a 2 person team supporting 50 people who were receiving funding from Peterborough City Council as a Direct Payments to the strong 10 members of staff we have today supporting over 700 people receiving either a Direct Payment or an NHS funded Personal Health Budget.

In 2013 we implanted the Managed Service element as a pilot with 5 people, this allowed people to have the control over their care without having to manage the budget or the financial reporting, since then this element has grown and now has over 500 people.

I am passionate that all individuals should be able to have as much control over their care and support as they wish but without the onerous tasks that make using public funding too difficult to contemplate. They should be able to choose how they are supported and by who.

Clive is the Founder and ex-CEO of the Hub in Yeovil and has over 26 years’ experience of working across the public and voluntary sector in the fields of social care, special education, youth and community development. His work with people with learning disabilities and autism has been based around promoting active citizenship through commissioning led by the individual.

The Hub was inspired following his work with the National Transition Support Programme (NTSP). His work across England was to support new commissioning approaches to improve transition pathways for children with disabilities moving into adult services, recognising the challenges faced by individuals and their families in receiving consistency of support. 

Clive’s work in the independent special education helped him to recognise and appreciate the pressures on local authorities to offer appropriate in-house provision. His work was the springboard into the NTSP where he worked with health colleagues from the Child Health and Maternity Partnership and the National Children’s Bureau to build a national picture of good practice in preparing disabled children for adulthood. Clive’s interest and focus continues to be on creating approaches that empower individuals to be in control of their money and choices with support that is timely, agile and as free from the on-costs of institutional delivery as possible. 

Nikki has always worked within Health and Social Care and promoted the rights of people with a learning disability and/or Autism and their families.  During this time she has developed a significant breadth of experience in setting up, managing and improving support organisations to establish people at the heart of decision making around their own lives.  

Nikki has experience of developing bespoke support organisations and building micro teams around individuals to maximise their choice and control. , Nikki also has experience of working creatively with people and families to make best use of personal budgets via Direct Payment and Individual Service Funds .

Maddy has worked in Community Care for almost 10 years, having experienced different roles within the community she is very passionate about supporting people to live their best life within their own home, with the right support in place (whatever that may be for that person)

For Maddy community care has always been a vocation, and she has worked in various  roles including; Home Care Worker, Care Coordinator, Team Leader, Brokerage Manager, she in 2017 became the Co-Founder and Registered Manager of Love To Care Devon. An organisation supporting people to live well in their own homes, working within self-managed teams, and focusing on what matters most to the people being supported. Love To Care Devon was rated by CQC as Outstanding in their first inspection in 4 out of 5 inspection areas. 

Maddy has gained her QCF Level 5 qualification in ‘Leadership and Management within the Health and Social Care, Children’s and Young Persons services’, winner of a Skills for Care Accolade in 2018 for Best Recruitment – working in partnership with Helen Sanderson and Wellbeing Teams Ltd, Silver Award in June 2019 for Home Care Manager of the Year in the Outstanding Care Awards, and also Bronze award for Domiciliary Provider of the Year. Maddy is an Ambassador for the Proud to Care Campaign, a trustee board member for the Outstanding Care Managers Network in the South West.

Maddy is passionate about giving people true personalisation through autonomy, trust and control, and is excited about how ISFs can radically change the way care is commissioned.

Being an Occupational Therapist is at its core about empowering and enabling individuals to maximise their independence and to live the lives they want. 

Jess has over 15 years of experience volunteering and working in Adult Care and Housing Sectors across 3 Local Authority’s and is well respected for her creative approach to identifying and meeting outcomes for individuals.

Jess is passionate about using creative support solutions to enable transitions from institutional settings to their own front doors. Through good home design, staff training and effective use of technologies lives can be changed for the better. Jess has extensive experience of activity analysis to ascertain the appropriateness of existing support packages and help to target care and support at the most appropriate times for the user. She has also successful utilised passive monitoring to safeguard individuals while enabling them to live independently within communities.

She has a BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy and a PGC in Intellectual Disability Studies.

Robin has been working with a dymanic support provider - New Key for six years and has led on personalisation projects across many areas of the organisation. 

Much of his work has been around supporting people to find their voice and lead on designing their own supports.

He has created platforms that enable people to communicate and influence change - particularly using creative activities to support people to grow and make sense of the world. 

Projects Robin has led on inclide radio production, film making and setting up social and development groups to connect people to their local communities.

He aims to create a support environment where all can flourish, gain independence and move forward in their lives and believes in regularly reviewing supports and evolving these to meet the outcomes of thos epoeple they support. 

His ethos is to provide support that is person centred, transparent, honest and flexible.  Robin is currently leading on an organisation wide programme to offer Individual Service Funds to everyone New Key supports and is passionate about enabling people to take better control of their lives. He is working with a range of provider and commisioners to share learning around ISFs and promote their uptake around the south west.

Tom is an associate consultant, researcher and writer on the commons and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) alternatives. His blogs, essays or articles have been published by the Centre for Welfare Reform, Bristol Leadership and Change Centre, Resilience, and the ‘psyCommons’: an addition to the commons of air, seas, seeds, forests and rivers.

Tom’s recent background is in Health and Social care management, where he has experience of working within commissioning teams as well as senior management experience. Tom is also a Fellow at the Centre for Welfare Reform, as well as a Coordinator at the Citizen Network. 

Tom is keen to gain a deeper understanding of our present socio-economic and ecological predicaments. In particular, to harness the ‘immense generative power of the commons’ and P2P alternatives and their potential to conceptualise and build a more caring, inclusive and sustainable future. 

Tom lives in South Devon with his wife and children and enjoys wild running and wild swimming. 

David Harborne is the co-founder and nominated person for www.love2care.uk   

He has worked in Health and Social Care for over 30 years.  He works closely with his business partner, Maddy Bird to ensure that we provide a high quality, person centred service to the people they support.

In the past he has also worked for the NHS and Social Care as podiatrist, professional lead, and general manager.  Outside the NHS he has worked an registered manager, nominated person and operations manager for different types of organisations such Social Enterprise, Charity and Corporate.

David has studied at Aston Business School and the University of Exeter, achieving a MSc in health and Social Care as well an MBA.  In recent years he has become an accredited coach.

Nowadays, David focuses on ensuring the Love2Care continually innovates and offers high quality care, whilst at the same time he coaches other managers and organisations to become outstanding organisations.

Amanda is an independent researcher, evaluator and service development consultant with over 28 years’ experience in local government health and social care. 

She is keen to see people living the life they choose by getting the right support and by being in control of their personal budget. Amanda sees Direct Payments and Individual Service Funds as powerful tools to accomplish this alongside Circles of Support and developing community-based assets.

 She believes in engaging communities and citizens to find answers and has led innovative co-designed projects which have provided sustainable solutions to issues like loneliness, wellbeing and community safety, and which have improved contracting, quality, outcomes and person-centred practice within services. 

Her experience includes social work, managing teams, stakeholder and citizen engagement, research, training, advocacy, fundraising, evaluation, project and board management, strategic planning, Care and Treatment Reviews, policy development and improving quality.

She is trained in the Art of Hosting, graphic facilitation and coaching. Amanda regularly uses Positive and Productive meetings and person-centred approaches while being particularly skilled at engaging with people who have different needs. She is also an expert at producing easy read documentation to meet Accessible Information Standards. 

Her work focusses on improving lives and shaping services to support independence, rights, equality, wellbeing, choice and control.  

Amanda lives in Lancashire, has an M.A. in Applied Social Science, a Diploma in Social Work and is registered with HCPC. She has written for Community Living and the Centre for Welfare Reform.

Steph is an analyst and researcher with experience working in the public sector and with voluntary and community groups. With a degree in Psychology, she brings a person-centred approach to her work.

Steph’s passion centres around understanding people, their attitudes and behaviour to facilitate change. She has experience of bringing groups together to understand their common goal and work together on achieving outcomes for the people they work with.

She has experience of creating and facilitating systems thinking workshops, using research and intelligence to facilitate change and creating and running a refugee resettlement programme. Steph is a strong believer in choice and opportunity for all and challenging the status quo.

Steph currently lives in Greater Manchester and enjoys all the outdoor pursuits living in the North West of England brings, particularly if there’s a challenge involved. She enjoys live music, sport, exercise and learning (pretty much) anything new.

Steph has a background in commissioning, education and in academic research and is passionate about developing and improving support services.  Steph is an advocate for early intervention and prevention and the principles of informed choice. 

She has worked in a number of senior management roles over the last few years and has experience of programme and project management and in delivering significant organisational change. She specialises in research, evaluation projects, change management and knowledge transfer and is passionate around enabling organisations to learn and to evolve.

Steph, has a PhD in education from the University of Hull and also has extensive commissioning and programme management qualifications.

Steph currently works as a consultant on health and social care commissioning projects around England and is committed to working to achieve positive outcomes with individuals and families.

Clare can support organisations to improve by co-producing systems and processes which transfer real power and control to the people they serve. She has extensive experience of working in the charity sector, from “frontline” support to senior leadership team level. 

Starting out as a care worker, Clare witnessed the significant day-to-day control that organisations can unwittingly assert over “service users”, with the best of intentions. This observation was at odds with her core belief that every person is of equal value, with equal rights.

Clare’s interest in the dynamics of organisations, particularly user-led charities, inspired her to undertake an MBA (Masters in Business Administration), which she will complete in October 2019. This has given her a thorough understanding of marketing, finance, culture, operations, entrepreneurship and strategic HR. 

Clare's experience includes running co-produced Quality Checking and "Experts by Experience" projects. Training for frontline teams focussed on communication skills for supporting people with learning disabilties. Clare has also been instrumental in organisation re-design and the development of impact measures.