My professional experience spans over 15 years across third sector and local authority settings, with a core focus on supporting individuals living with learning or intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, and autism spectrum conditions. In the third sector, I also spent some time as part of a small outreach team providing tailored, specialist support for individuals with a learning or physical disability living within care home environments or transitioning into community-based living.
Before moving into my current role as an Independent Sector Lead in January 2025, I served as the registered manager for Perth and Kinross HSCP’s Perth-based learning disability day opportunities services. This included oversight of a purpose-built day service for adults with a wide range of health and social care needs, a community-based service supporting individuals to participate in activities and community life, and a social networking and befriending service that enabled more than 150 individuals to build peer connections and access their local communities during evenings and weekends.
I am deeply committed to meaningful inclusion and involvement, consistently promoting opportunities for co-design and co-development. I am passionate about supporting our social care workforce and fostering positive team cultures. My interests also include the use of digital technology within care provision, enhancing the inclusivity of community spaces, and promoting truly person-led commissioning so that people receive support packages aligned with their needs and preferences.
Some highlights from my training and qualifications include my SCQF Level 10 Care Services Leadership and Management qualification and graduating from the Care Experience Improvement Model (CEIM) programme.
Providers are at the heart of everything that I do, and here in Angus I provide ongoing support to Care Homes, Care at Home services, Supported Accommodation, and Day Care providers. Over my first year in post, I have focused on building strong and trusting relationships with providers through the delivery of tailored support, regular provider forums, and the facilitation of events designed to strengthen connection and visibility across the sector. I also issue weekly SWAY newsletters to Care Homes and to Care at Home/Day Care providers, ensuring clear, consistent communication and a reliable route for sharing updates, opportunities, and resources.
Alongside this, I have promoted and facilitated independent sector involvement within a wide range of Angus and Tayside projects, workstreams and short life working groups that have helped shape commissioning and sector development. I act as a representative for the Independent Sector in Angus across both operational and strategic spaces and as a member of Angus Integration Joint Board, ensuring that provider insights meaningfully influence decision making and future planning.
Working alongside my Independent Sector Lead colleagues in Dundee and Perth & Kinross, we play a central role within the Tayside Care Home Collaborative Board (TCHCB). Together, we ensure that the independent sector’s voice is embedded within regional strategic planning, commissioning, and policy development. By maintaining close engagement with care home managers, we aim to ensure that frontline experience directly informs TCHCB priorities. Through participation in improvement initiatives and workstreams, we contribute to meaningful co production and continuous improvement across the wider Tayside care home sector.
Collectively, this work has strengthened provider relationships, improved independent sector visibility, and supported more collaborative, consistent approaches to quality, commissioning, and sector development across Angus and Tayside.
Over the next six months, I plan to focus on strengthening the foundations already built across the last year, while driving forward a series of operational and strategic developments designed to enhance provider collaboration, sector visibility, and the overall quality of support across Angus and Tayside. This period will centre on deepening partnerships, progressing key improvement initiatives, and creating meaningful opportunities for providers, partners, and individuals who access care. The work ahead aims not only to sustain momentum but to build new capacity, influence emerging priorities, and ensure the Independent Sector continues to be a strong, informed, and proactive voice within local and regional planning.
Some examples of future work planned:
•Launch of our newly expanded Angus Activity and Wellbeing Network (previously our Care Home Activity Network) along with planning of our large-scale annual event.
•Planning and Facilitation of an expanded social care awareness event for high school / college pupils following a successful pilot event in December 2025.
•Leading on the development of a Universal Measure around individuals with a diagnosis of a learning/intellectual disability living within Care Homes, under the Tayside Care Home Collaborative Board.
•Exploring GP / Care Home alignment.
•Planning and delivering a Care Home Manager development/visioning day.
•And much more!
