The study Advisory Group chaired by Professor Andree Le May meets every six months.
Our members spread across the region and nationally, comprising:
Andree Le May
Professor Emerita
Andrée le May is Professor Emerita at the University of Southampton. She is has a longstanding interest in implementation, service development and education. Her research expertise focuses on developing and evaluating implementation techniques especially communities of practice, co-producing evidence-based practice/policy change and researching quality improvement skills.
Nick Andrews
Research and Practice Development Officer
Swansea University
I co-ordinate the Developing Evidence Enriched Practice (DEEP) programme in Wales. My work is around supporting a co-production approach to using diverse types of evidence in learning and development using story and dialogue methods. Nick has an advisory role on the SCRiPT study.
Leslie Billie
CEO Viewpoint Herts (Mental health)
I am the CEO of a user involvement charity offering support and community to people in Hertfordshire living with mental health and addiction challenges. We provide a voice for anyone engaged with local health and social care services and/or organisations. My connection to this wonderful project is within my current leadership role promoting and facilitating lived experience involvement.
Sean Bolton
Service user, and member of Creating Links Expert by Experience Group
I am lay advisory group member for SCRiPT. I am a person who has disability and uses Health and Social Care Services. I volunteer in the local community with several local charities, as a trustee and running services which, I have been doing so for over 20 years. I also have a background in working with universities, supporting Health and Social Care courses since 2004 and involved with the University of Hertfordshire since 2017. I also am member of the Hertfordshire Teaching Partnership committee. I am involved with Age UK Dacorum.
Louise Cobb
Service User and Carer Co-ordinator and Visiting Lecturer
I have been a Senior Child Protection Social Worker for 16 years. Now are a service user and carer co-ordinator for Nursing at the University of Hertfordshire, leading on service user/carer inclusion for curriculum design, planning and delivery. I am also a visiting lecturer in adult, child, learning disability, mental health and community nursing having been a service user in each of these five fields.
Marion Cowe
Member of Public Involvement in Research Group (PiRG)
University of Hertfordshire, School of Health and Social Work
Very happy to be associated with the project and have a keen interest in the subject. Have been involved as a member of the Public Involvement in Research group (PIRg) since its formation in 2005 and have been involved as such in a wide variety of projects in the field of a public involvement. My background is in social work, education and training.
Mark Hanna
I am the CEO of Age UK Hertfordshire and have worked in the social care sector for 12 years. As a specialist in supporting older people. I bring a useful insight for the project.
Ruth Hudson
Research Delivery Manager
National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network Eastern (CRN Eastern)
I am involved with the SCRiPT project in an advisory capacity. In my role with CRN Eastern I help organisations to participate in research and promote research opportunities. Social care research is an area I am particularly interested to support
Nichola Lee
Senior Public Health Research and Evaluation Officer (based in Adult Care Services)
Hertfordshire County Council Public Health Evidence and Intelligence Team
I have conducted numerous research projects and service evaluations across three areas within Adult Care Services (complex needs, domestic abuse and assistive technology) over the past three years. My involvement in these service areas has meant I have worked extensively with social care and occupational therapy teams and have a good understanding of the structure and processes that operate within Adult Social care at Hertfordshire County Council, as well as the ten District Councils. I have been heavily involved in setting up a robust ethics process within the Council to enable these projects to run successfully.
Ingrid Richardson
Lead Professional for Social Work and Social Care
Dr Jan Sheldon
Chief Executive
St Martins Housing
I am passionate about the delivery of the best possible social care and support to those who need it. The importance of the role of social care and those delivering it frequently go unrecognised which means that our social care workers are often undervalued for the vital work that they do. Research could help to redress this lack of recognition and to ensure that our 1.6 million social care workers get the recognition they should receive for the work that they do.
Esther Thomas
Workforce Development Lead
NIHR Clinical Research Network Eastern
I have been working in clinical research for over 17 years and moved from delivering front line clinical research to managing research teams across the region to proving training and development opportunities for all research staff. We are now moving our training focus on developing resources for other fields including social care and being involved in the steering group for the SCRiPT project gives me an opportunity to learn from experienced researchers in the social care field.
Dan Skipper
Chief Executive Officer
Age UK Norwich
I am the Chief Executive Officer of Age UK Norwich, working for the charity since 2015. I have an active part of a range of forums focusing on improving the quality of later life in the city and county, including Norwich Older People’s Forum, Norfolk Older People’s Strategic Partnership, and the Norwich Institute for Healthy Ageing. I am a qualified programme and project manager, and a member of the APM, the chartered body for the project profession. Prior to Age UK Norwich, I held a wide variety of senior position within the financial services and education sectors, ranging from product development, marketing, regulatory compliance to customer insights and behaviours.
