VODG Annual Conference 2024

Jonathan Carr-West

Chief Executive, LGiU

Dr Jonathan Carr-West has been Chief Executive of LGIU (Local Government Information Unit) since February 2013 where he leads on all aspects of the think tank’s policy, membership and influencing work.

With over 15 years’ experience, Jonathan is a leading national expert on local government transformation, local democracy and public services. Some of his particular interests are in participative democracy, the evolving nature of public services and devolution. With extensive media profile and sector credibility, he has published on topics as diverse as localism and public service transformation, cognitive and behavioural science, and the politics of cultural memory.

Prior to being appointed as Chief Executive, Jonathan was Director of Policy at the LGIU where he led on research and consultancy, policy development and piloting, best practice dissemination, learning and development.

Before joining the LGIU, he was Deputy Programme Director and Acting Head of Programme at the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Commerce and Manufactures) where he developed and managed projects across a range of issues including environmental policy, water and sanitation infrastructure, offender learning and rehabilitation, community cohesion, education, arts and drugs treatment. 

: https://lgiu.org/about/people/dr-jonathan-carr-west/

Fazilet Hadi

Head of Policy, Disability Rights UK

: https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/team-listing

Richard Humphries

Senior Policy Advisor, The Health Foundation

Richard is a recognised national commentator on social care and health policy and author of  Ending the Social Care Crisis – a new road to reform  published in October 2022. His current roles include Senior Policy Advisor to the Health Foundation and Visiting Professor at the University of Worcester. He was Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund from 2009 to 2021 covering social care and integrated care. He was a member of the Reimagining Care Commission established by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York (2021-2023) and was specialist advisor to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into social care (2017-19). Building on a career in social work, over the past 46 years he has worked in a variety of roles, including as director of social services and health authority chief executive (England’s first joint appointment) and in senior roles in the Department of Health working with ministers and senior civil servants.

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-humphries-b
: @RichardnotatKF

Mithran Samuel

Editor, Community Care

Mithran Samuel is a journalist who specialises in covering social work, social care and local government. He has worked for the leading sector title, Community Care, for 20 years in a variety of roles, and as editor since 2018. Prior to that, he worked for Local Government Chronicle.

Lucy Mavers

Head of Not for Profit Appointments, Peridot

: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-mavers-516a5331/
: @https://twitter.com/PeridotPartners

Gemma Wood

Head of Marketing, PR and Communications, Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (enei)

Gemma is an experienced marketing and communications specialist with a career spanning 15 years across the public and private sectors. She is a qualified marketer with a postgraduate diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Small Business Leadership Mini MBA from Kingston University.

Before joining enei, Gemma was the Head of Marketing and Membership for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), where she lead on the organisational marketing and communications strategy and worked with a range of professionals on initiatives to improve diversity in the Library and Information sectors.

Prior to her move into the not-for-profit sector, Gemma was the marketing lead for TFPL, Sue Hill and ILX Recruitment – specialist recruiters to the information and project management sectors. She was responsible for all elements of the brand and digital strategies for the organisations. Gemma started her career in a PR agency covering high profile clients in architecture, regeneration and the built environment.

Gemma’s background includes a degree in philosophy from King’s College, London and a Master’s from Birkbeck. She is a keen runner and is also learning modern Greek.

: https://www.enei.org.uk/about-us/our-team/gemma-wood/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmawood/

Lynette Lucas

Inclusion and Belonging Lead, NCVO

Lynette supports the development and delivery of an inclusive workforce strategy for the voluntary sector. She also works on our internal people strategy, supporting our transition from inclusion to belonging.

Lynette led research into the representation of Black and global majority communities in our membership. The research looked at how NCVO can identify issues and policies that prevent these communities from accessing resources in the sector.

Lynette volunteers to lead our REACH (Race Equality Achieving Cultural Harmony) staff network. She’s also volunteered with the Charity Smart Works for over eight years.

: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/our-team/people-and-culture/lynette-lucas/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynette-lucas-1b380644

Christoph Marr

Managing Director, Marr Procurement

Christoph started his procurement career with Marks & Spencer after they sponsored him at University and went onto spend six years as Buyer then Buying Manager at the M&S Head Office in London. In 2001 IBM recruited Christoph as Senior Consultant and he was seconded as Head of Procurement for IBM Europe Middle East and Africa to help build the IBM UK Procurement Consulting practice involving procurement projects across the private and public sector in the UK, Europe and the US.

In March 2008 Care UK Plc recruited Christoph to create a procurement function and two years later was invited to join a ten strong team involved in a ￡300m venture capitalist backed management buyout.

In 2013 he was appointed as a judge for the annual Management Consulting Association awards and in 2014 Christoph founded the UK Procurement Leader Care Network, a group consisting of 51 Health & Social Care Procurement Directors with aggregated spend of ￡1bn.

Christoph has a 1st Class BA Honours degree from the Aberdeen Business School where he specialised in supply chain quality and his career ambition has been to create a procurement business which operates with real integrity, which always puts clients first and which only employs extraordinary people who have a passion for procurement – this is what differentiates Marr Procurement.

: https://www.marrprocurement.com/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-marr-2360a31
: @https://twitter.com/christoph_marr

Paul Turney

Chief Financial Officer, Making Space

Paul is an accomplished senior leader and decision maker with 30 years' experience of strategic and operational leadership, and management across varied disciplines. This includes strategic, technical and operational finance, social housing and pension’s administration. His key strengths include being an effective and collaborative leader with strong development people management and communication skills.

Prior to joining Making Space in June 2023, Paul was the Deputy Chief Finance Officer at Bury Council, where he was responsible for leading and empowering the finance team and providing effective financial support and technical advice to elected members, directors and senior managers.

Other previous positions included Finance Manager and Company Secretary of Two Castles Housing Association and Finance Manager at Sure Start Carlisle South, before starting an 11 year career at Cumbria County Council in 2007. In this role Paul provided specialised support and advice to Executive Directors and Senior Managers and responsibility for the financial management of Cumbria Care.

Paul is a fully qualified accountant, a member of CIPFA and a fellow of ACCA.

When asked why he joined Making Space, Paul said: “I wanted to be part of an organisation that has the same values and beliefs as me and in an area I enjoyed working in. I felt that Making Space was the perfect fit for me and within a few days of joining the charity I knew my instincts were right.”

Paul is a strong believer in supporting local communities and has held a number of voluntary roles, with current roles being Technical Official with British Triathlon, Level 1 Coach and Treasurer at Carlisle Junior Triathlon Club and governor roles in schools.

: https://makingspace.co.uk/about/our-people/executive-management-team/paul-turney

Rachael Dodgson

Chief Executive, Dimensions

Rachael has worked in social care for over 30 years. She is a qualified social worker and has worked in a wide range of roles both in the voluntary and for profit sector. She began her career in social care as a kitchen assistant in an older people’s home and has also worked as a registered manager and as operations director in services for adults with learning disabilities and/or autism.

She worked for Birmingham People First (the self-advocacy organisation of people with learning disabilities) and then spent 13 years working for the social care regulator in a number of different posts.  She began her time there as an inspector but her final post at CQC was as Head of Adult Social Care Policy leading on strategy, regulatory frameworks and policy.  She joined Dimensions in 2019 as our Managing Director and in 2022 became our CEO.

Rachael is passionate about ensuring people have choice and control over their lives and delivering high quality support.  She is strongly committed to involving and engaging the people we support and their families, to raising the profile of social care across government, and to enabling colleagues to have great careers at Dimensions.

Manuel Hepfer

Research Affiliate, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Dr. Manuel Hepfer is a Research Affiliate at Oxford University's Saïd Business School and Head of Knowledge and Insights at ISTARI, a Temasek-founded investment and advisory firm. Before joining ISTARI, he completed a PhD in Cybersecurity and Strategic Management at the University of Oxford. His research won several awards, appeared in academic and practitioner journals such as MIT Sloan Management Review, and was covered by international media outlets such the Financial Times, Forbes and Fortune. He works with management teams and Boards on building organisational resilience to cyberattack.

: https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/about-us/people/manuel-hepfer

Amanda Marques

Business Solutions Director, Cohesion

Amanda co-owns Cohesion and describes acquiring the business in 2009 as her proudest achievement. She lives and breathes recruitment, explaining “that’s what it’s been all about since I left University”.

As an expert in the field, Amanda works to ensure that we are the best recruitment team our clients have ever worked with. She is passionate about finding, keeping and developing the careers of talented recruiters at Cohesion and describes this as being “just as important for us as for our clients.”

“My favourite thing about working at Cohesion is always understanding the impact of the work we do on the businesses we support. The stories I hear from candidates and clients make me incredibly proud of the Cohesion team and the results we deliver.

: https://cohesionrecruitment.com/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-marques-463b5a3

Maria Mills

Chief Executive, Active Prospects

Joined as the CEO in October 2015. She has an extensive background in the social care and health sectors, having worked in senior positions for a number of national charities and social enterprises, as well more local organisations. She brings with her a deep commitment to enabling people we support to shape their organisations, developing partnerships to provide integrated approaches to meeting needs and looks to create a deeper impact for our people and communities.

: https://activeprospects.org.uk/about-us-active-prospects/#meet-our-team

Sara Thakkar

Chief Executive, Camphill Village Trust (CVT)

Sara is a recognised senior leader. She has rich and diverse experiences within the public, private, enterprise and third sector. Her leadership roles have been grounded in the commitment to tackle injustice and equality and her approaches reflect an ability to work alongside people and communities to develop their roots; to bring a sense of identity, choice and belonging. Sara is equally passionate in her approach to build on individuals and communities wings; co-creating the art of the possible to make a real and lasting positive difference. She recognises that roots keep us grounded and wings give us flexibility and freedom.

Sara began her career in education and family support, working with families with complex needs within communities affected by significant disadvantage.  She has spent the last 20 years undertaking a number of CEO roles in community-focused third sector organisations across the country.  Sara has extensive experience in providing high-quality care and support services, strategic communications and change management, new homes development and land management.

Sara brings a commercial head and a social heart to the Trust. Her business and finance qualifications support her approach to balancing fiscal oversight with clarity of purpose. She is a highly experienced non-executive having held a number of Board and Trustee roles throughout her career and has undertaken a number of governance advisory roles across a range of sectors. She is currently a Board member for a Housing Association and the Chair of a Business Enterprise Agency.

: https://www.camphillvillagetrust.org.uk/about-us/our-leadership-team/executive-team/

Lynette Barrett

Chief Executive, National Star

: https://www.nationalstar.org/about-us/our-team/leadership-team/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynette-barrett-mba-68

Lucy Croxton

Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager, Together Trust

Lucy is the Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns manager for the Together Trust, a North West based charity that supports care experienced children, people with disabilities, autism and mental health differences. For the last four years Lucy has led on SEND-related policy and campaigns. She advocates for children and families to be able to have a say in the decisions which affect their lives and is currently undertaking a joint research project with National Star focused on the issues facing young people as they transition to adulthood.

: https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/
: @https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-croxton-b76055129

Jon Glasby

Professor of Health and Social Care and Director of IMPACT, University of Birmingham

: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/social-policy/glasby-jon

Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green

Early Career Research Fellow, Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford

Dr Caroline Green is an Early Career Research Fellow at the Institute and Research Fellow at Reuben College. Caroline's work focuses on AI and human rights, specifically in the fields of health and social care.  Caroline holds a LLB (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Human Rights from the LSE, a MA in Investigative Journalism from City University and a PhD in Gerontology from King's College London. Prior to joining the Institute she worked as a ARC South London post-doctoral Research Fellow at King's College London. 

Research interests: 

Caroline's research interests lie in the implications of AI on international human rights broadly. Caroline is specifically interested in AI and it's potential to support older people and family carers as well as the human rights and ethical implications of AI on caregiving. 

Selection of publications: 

• Tasioulas, J. and Emmer De Albuquerque Green, C. (2023) The EU’s AI Act at a Crossroads for Rights, AI Ethics at Oxford Blog. Available at: https://www.oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk/eus-ai-act-crossroads-rights.
• Emmer De Albuquerque Green, C.,(2022) The human rights of people living in care homes: never again an afterthought Nature Aging.
• Emmer De Albuquerque Green, C., Scharf, T. & Kessler, EM., (2022) Responding to Covid-19: an analysis of position statements of gerontological societies worldwide European Journal of Ageing. 19, 4, p. 1229-1241.
• Emmer De Albuquerque Green, C., Tinker, A. & Manthorpe, J., (2021) Human rights and care homes for older people: a typology of approaches from academic literature as a starting point for activist scholarship in human rights and institutional care,  The International Journal of Human Rights.

: https://www.oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk/caroline-emmer-de-albuquerque-green
: @CarolineEdAG

Richard Andrews

Co-Founder & CEO at Univa, Founder & former CEO, Healios

Rich is a serial healthcare entrepreneur and passionate about solving the many pain points of health systems worldwide to enable a healthier society.

Rich founded Healios in 2012, his first healthtech company, after witnessing close family members and friends suffering from mental health and neurological conditions struggle to access appropriate support. Rich led Healios to become the largest digital health clinic in the UK for managing the complex needs of children and young people impacted by mental health and/or neurodevelopmental condiHons. He later expanded the company into the US under the brand name Meliora Health.

While leading Healios, Rich became more and more aware of the growing number of referrals to the company that had disordered eating challenges. He felt a new company that was hyper-specialised to tackle the complexity of eating disorder conditions was needed more than ever. In 2024 he co-founded Univa with a mission to create a world-leading eating disorder care platform that can sustainably reduce the devastating rates of morbidity and mortality associated with eating disorders.

Prior to his entrepreneurial path, Rich gained knowledge of global healthcare markets from an international career in launching innovative medicines at large biopharma companies.

Rich is a Board member of the Mental Health Network at the UK’s NHS Confederation and co-chairs their nationalonal Digital Mental Health Forum. He also acts as a strategic advisor to senior leadership teams at digital health companies. Rich is an avid investor in start-ups that have a clear societal impact.

: https://www.nhsconfed.org/people/richard-andrews