With more than four decades of experience across health, social care, and specialist support services, I have built my career around improving the lives of vulnerable people of all ages. My professional journey began in children’s and young people’s services, where I spent 23 years working across a wide range of complex and emotionally demanding roles. This included a decade with the Youth Justice Team in Angus and 13 years with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Dundee. These years deepened my knowledge in safeguarding, multi-agency collaboration, complex needs, and family centred practice, and shaped my belief in the importance of early, compassionate intervention and prevention.
Before stepping into my current role as Independent Sector Lead in June 2022, I spent the previous six years as a registered manager in older adult care homes in Angus, leading multidisciplinary teams and overseeing services that were in high demand. At Kinloch Care Centre in Carnoustie, I managed a permanent residential unit, a respite unit, a seven-day day care service offering up to 84 places per week, and 28 supported accommodation flats. I later moved to Seaton Grove in Arbroath to provide leadership continuity during a period of transition, taking responsibility for both permanent and respite units.
Across every role I’ve held, I have been driven by a commitment to truly understand the challenges individuals and families face, and to ensure that the people I support experience dignity, safety, and a meaningful quality of life.
My qualifications include Leadership and Management for Care Services SCQF – Level 10 and the Social Services and Healthcare – SCQF Level 9.
What are you currently working on
I am committed to meaningful inclusion and co‑design, working closely with providers through my forums, the Dundee Activity Network, weekly communication sways, contract monitoring meetings, and attendance at a wide range of DHSCP strategic groups and projects. This ensures provider insight directly informs planning, decision‑making, and continuous improvement across services in Dundee.
Working alongside my colleagues in Angus and Perth & Kinross, the Independent Sector Leads (ISLs) play a central role within the Tayside Care Home Collaborative Board (TCHCB). They bring the independent sector’s perspective into strategic planning, commissioning, and policy development, ensuring that provider insight informs decision making at every level.
ISLs maintain close engagement with care home managers so that frontline experience directly shapes TCHCB priorities. Through active participation in workstreams and improvement initiatives, they help to drive meaningful co production and support continuous improvement across the Tayside care home sector.
Future Plans ,Areas of Work and Upcoming Events
Dundee HSCP – Multi-Agency Anti-Discrimination Working Group
To address and eliminate racism within the workforce—beginning with Care at Home services—through coordinated, evidence based, multi-agency action. The group will work to ensure that all staff experience a safe, equitable, and anti-racist working environment across the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership (DHSCP) and commissioned providers.
Key functions will include to gather and analyse information on racism, develop and oversee anti-racism actions, establish a multi-disciplinary referral panel regarding incidents, concerns, or systemic barriers related to racism. The panel will also provide recommendations for action, support, and organisational learning to ensure consistency, transparency, and fairness in responses across the sector.
Developing Young Workforce
In partnership with the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Team – Dundee, a successful pilot event was delivered at Baldragon Academy. This event showcased “a day in the life of a care home”. The pilot demonstrated strong engagement from pupils and staff and confirmed the value of immersive, hands-on experiences in raising awareness of social care careers.
Building on the success of the pilot, work is now underway with the DYW Team and local colleges to deliver a large-scale social care careers event in May 2026. This event will include all secondary schools across Dundee and students currently enrolled in college programmes and be supported by providers from Care homes, Care at Home, Learning Disability (LD) services and partner organisations involved in training, qualifications, and workforce development.
