The Innove team

Helen has 20 years experience in the NHS. She was a Diabetes Specialist Nurse for eight years and Clinical Manager of the Manchester Diabetes Centre in the early 1990s. As Director of the North West Diabetes Appraisal Programme, Helen managed and delivered 24 whole systems diabetes service appraisals in the North West and West Midlands. She was also a member of the Quality Indicator for Diabetes Services (QUIDS) project team during the same period. In addition she worked with the German Diabetes Association and a Danish EFQM team in designing a national diabetes service accreditation system for Germany as well as being an external advisor to NHS Quality in Scotland in developing a diabetes peer review system.

Helen provides consultancy support to PCTs, Health Authorities, Local Authorities, NHS Diabetes, NHS Kidney Care, pharmaceutical companies and other consultancy companies in undertaking service reviews, developing strategies and service management frameworks. Working with Manchester City Council and North West Development Agency, she developed and implemented the Health Legacy Programme for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In addition, on behalf of the European College of Sports Science, she organised and ran the largest ever sports science conference in Manchester which over 1,000 delegates from around the world attended.

Working in partnership with BT, Innove launched the first whole systems tool to monitor the implementation of the Diabetes National Service Framework. This is available to all PCTs in England through a national contract with NHS Connecting for Health. Helen is currently looking at developing self assessment tools for other service areas.

Helen led the development and implementation of all the training to support the delivery of the Quality Management and Analysis System in England and Scotland.

Heather has led the national NHS Diabetes and Pregnancy Programme since August 2008, managing a portfolio of five projects aimed at improving outcomes for women with pre-existing diabetes and those who develop diabetes during pregnancy.

Since March 2009 Heather has provided support to Skills for Health in the North West in defining their communication and engagement needs including developing an engagement strategy, identifying stakeholders and designing and populating a contacts database.

Over a five year period, Heather led the delivery of the Macmillan Support Programme (MSP) for Primary Care Cancer Leads (PCCLs) in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The MSP enabled PCCLs to fulfill their potential as leaders in the development and implementation of the evolving NHS primary care cancer strategy.

A skilled facilitator, Heather has provided support and advice to a number of NHS organisations in developing strategies for the future. This includes two cancer networks (Greater Manchester and Cheshire and Yorkshire) in the development of their primary care strategies, and Chorley and Preston PCTs and acute trust in developing a diabetes strategy.

She was also responsible for managing a contract with the Department of Health (DH) to coordinate a learning network of nationally funded projects for implementing the general hospital care standard of the Older People's NSF.

Barbara has extensive experience of financial and marketing management gained in the private sector prior to 1998. Following this she moved into the voluntary sector and was the North West Region Manager for Diabetes UK. This role included arranging and delivering training for service user representatives/champions, organising conferences and raising the profile of the needs of people with diabetes and of Diabetes UK. She also managed the Diabetes Development Fund (DDF) for Black and Ethnic Minority Groups - a National Lottery funded project that financed 43 small community projects in the North West of England which resulted in her writing and publishing the final report.

As a member of the North West Diabetes Appraisal Programme management team she led and facilitated eight peer review teams.

Barbara has played a lead role in developing, piloting and implementing the DiabetesE web based diabetes self assessment service which is available to all Primary Care Trusts in England. Each year she is responsible for collating and analysing the data held in DiabetesE and for producing the national reports which are circulated to national health policy leads and organisations, senior health managerial staff at the Department of Health, SHAs and PCTs and clinicians in primary and secondary care. To date, she has led the production five national reports.

Barbara also worked in partnership with the National Diabetes Clinical Director, the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) and York and Humber Public Health Observatory in identifying and developing methodology to integrate elements of the NDA and the PBS Diabetes Prevalence Model into the DiabetesE self-assessment service.

Kay has worked across all sectors of health care provision as a podiatrist and multidisciplinary team member. She has experience in both the private and public sectors.

Whilst working for the pharmaceutical industry, she worked in partnership with Diabetes UK, the RCN and the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists on the "Focus on Feet" campaign designed to raise awareness of diabetes foot problems. Other initiatives include the development of educational materials for professionals and patients, developing and chairing a programme of RCN and RCGP accredited national training days for multidisciplinary healthcare professionals and lobbying parliamentary representatives on the importance of good diabetes management to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes and to reduce the cost to the NHS.

Kay project managed the development of Tier 2 services in a Manchester PCT. She undertook a full service review which resulted in the development of clinical guidelines and protocols, the introduction of triage for secondary care referrals, the recruitment of General Practitioners with a Special Interest and the implementation of a new clinical service.

Working on behalf of Stockport PCT she helped to define long and short-term strategies to improve the quality of patient care and reduce referrals to secondary care. Kay helped to define a service model for diabetes care, the role of a Tier 2 service and identified the steps necessary to achieve the desired model.

Lois is experienced in leading change, developing partnerships, building teams and delivering performance improvements for public, voluntary and, private sector organisations. Her portfolio of commissions include providing a supportive/development role to Skills for Health, advisory role on the design of the Macmillan Primary Care Cancer Lead programme, implementation of the learning network for the general hospital care standard of the Older People's NSF, lay membership of the national Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, a non-executive advisory role with a small group of nursing homes in the North West of England and directorship of a commercial catering business.

As Chief Executive of Morecambe Bay Health Authority she led restructuring of the area's health systems, serving 300,000+ people across 1000 square miles, to a recognised position at the forefront of service improvement and national policy implementation. This included the merger of five NHS Trusts to establish two; the creation of three Primary Care Groups and subsequent establishment of a single PCT with innovative alternative governance arrangements and provision of mental health and learning disabilities services. She introduced robust systems of monitoring, control and thorough risk analysis, and in addition developed partnerships with local authorities across two County Councils and three District Councils, enabling initiatives such as Sure Start, Single Regeneration Bids and Integrated Commissioning for Learning Disabilities (a national best value pilot).

Her voluntary activities include Chairing the Trustees of the Storey Gallery in Lancaster (currently developing a major regeneration initiative) and the Motor Neurone Disease Association Care Development Advisory Panel.

Rachael has over 10 years of work experience in both the public and private sector and has developed a wide range of administrative and IT skills including website design, content/database management and design production.

Rachael has helped many clients maintain consistency across their websites, ensuring styles and content are as effective and as consistent as possible and has also been responsible for managing, publishing and distributing monthly and quarterly newsletters for a number of companies including H. J. Heinz Ltd.

Rachael provides first point of contact for the DiabetesE Help Desk.