30th July 2020
Our experts will be sharing their years of knowledge, strategies and tactics in these exclusive seminars.
You’ll also receive an electronic CPD certificate after the event!

Nadra Ahmed
Nadra has been involved in the field of social care for over 30 years. Her background is in training and education, which has been the passion that drives her towards a quality service, underpinned and provided by a skilled workforce. She has been Chairman of NCA since 2001 and is a trustee of SCIE and Parkinson's UK. She holds various positions within voluntary organisations, delivering services to vulnerable people in the community. She has been a member of a number of advisory committees in the DoH including a number at Ministerial level and served on government Task forces. She is a regular contributor to journals and conferences and is frequently called upon by major media networks to represent the views of social care providers. In 2006 she was awarded the OBE for her services to Social Care. She is Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent and a Kent Ambassador and was awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Business Community’

Martin Green
Professor Martin Green OBE has had an extensive career in NGO development, both in the UK and internationally, and is Chief Executive of Care England, the largest representative body for independent social care services in the UK. He is also Chair of the International Longevity Centre – UK and a Trustee of Independent Age, Vice President of the Care Workers Charity, and a Champion of the National Aids Trust. In 2013 he was appointed Visiting Professor of Social Care to Buckinghamshire New University. In 2012, in his role as Department of Health Independent Sector Dementia Champion, he led the development of the Dementia Care and Support Compact for The Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia. In 2008 he was named care personality of the year and was awarded an OBE for Services to Social Care in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Martin writes and broadcasts extensively on social care issues and is on the Editorial Board of Community Care Market News and Care Talk magazine.

Senga Currie
Senga has been a registered mental nurse and registered general nurse for 40 years, working in various areas within the NHS, community nursing, the field of addictions and the private sector. Since 1998 she has been working with care homes, starting as a nursing sister and moving into roles of home manager, regional manager, care services manager and regulation manager. She holds a BSc(Hons) in Health Care, Diploma in Social Science and Advanced Diploma in Food Hygiene. In her spare time, Senga enjoys spending time on the beautiful Isle of Skye where she lives, treasures family time with her husband, two boys, daughter-in-law and grandsons, walking her Springer Spaniel pups and travel. She is a follower of Partick Thistle Football team and was a season ticket holder whilst living in Glasgow. She said this demonstrated commitment, staying power and passion!

Donald Macaskill
Dr Donald Macaskill has worked for many years in the health and social care sectors across the United Kingdom. A particular professional focus has been issues related to bereavement, palliative care and individual human rights. For thirteen years he ran his own equality and human rights consultancy focusing on adult protection, risk and personalisation. He is the CEO of Scottish Care, the representative body for care providers in the independent sector in Scotland. He sits on a number of Governmental committees and working groups and is a trustee of a number of charities.

Yvonne Hignell
Yvonne Hignell is Chief Operating Officer of Cera Care; the tech-enabled care company is one of the fastest growing providers of social care services in the UK. With over 20 years’ experience of working in health, social and community care, the last 12 in senior roles, including start-ups, franchised networks and the public sector, Yvonne understands how challenging and rewarding working in the sector can be. Yvonne is passionate about creating and developing sustainable, innovative and commercially sound organisations, whilst constantly seeking to improve quality and outcomes for customers and colleagues.

Avnish Goyal, Managing Director & Founder Hallmark Care Homes
Avnish Goyal, Managing Director, Hallmark Care Homes Avnish is the Founding Trustee of the Hemraj Goyal Foundation. He set the foundation up in memory of his late father in 2010 and has since donated £1million to worthy causes, making a real difference to the quality of people’s lives. Avnish is the Managing Director of award-winning care provider, Hallmark Care Homes. He has been involved in the care sector since 1997 and was initially attracted to the industry by his desire to make a difference. Twenty years on, there are now 16 Hallmark Care Homes across England and Wales, with more in the pipeline and the company is recognised as a leading, financially stable provider. Avnish started his career as a Chartered Accountant where he completed his accountancy training at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) having gained his BA degree from Newcastle University. He is proud to be the Chair of Care England and the founding trustee of the Care Workers' Charity. Avnish is also the Co-founder of Ultimate You where he designs educational seminars for business, leadership, life and relationships, with his wife - Anita Goyal. He is determined to make a difference and believes in doing everything with passion and purpose.

Deanna Westwood
Deanna has worked for the Care Quality Commission in its various incarnations since 2002. She has worked the Intelligence Directorate supporting the annual performance assessments of local authorities and subsequently the development of analytical tools for hospitals and social care inspection. Following this she spent some years as an inspection manager and then a lead reviewer undertaking local system reviews contributing to the Beyond Barriers publication. She is currently a Head of Inspection for Adult Social Care in Central East Midlands.

Robert D Kilgour
Robert is a Scottish serial entrepreneur, investor and property developer who founded Four Seasons Health Care in 1988, opening its first care home in May 1989 in Fife in Scotland. He left the company in early 2000 when it was operating 101 care homes and employing around 6,500 staff, the UK’s fifth largest care home operator, subsequently making his final financial exit from the company in 2005. Four Seasons is currently the UK’s second largest care home operator with nearly 360 care homes, around 17,000 residents and employing close to 25,000 staff. Robert founded and is CEO of Dow Investments Plc, now in its 30th year. In 2004 he founded and is Executive Chairman of Renaissance Care which operates fourteen care homes throughout Scotland with over 1,000 staff. Robert is a co-founder and Director of video and security systems specialists, NW Security Group (15 staff) and was also a founder shareholder and Chairman of Kingdom FM Radio (13 staff), the local radio franchisee for Fife until he engineered its recent sale. Robert holds several other Non-Executive Directorships as well as several Senior Consultant and Senior Adviser roles. Robert’s first business venture while attending Stirling University, was running a stall selling jeans and t-shirts at Edinburgh’s Ingliston Sunday outdoor market. Robert founded in 2006, the Scottish online political think-tank, Think Scotland and he recently founded SBUK to campaign against a second Scottish Independence Referendum. He has also served on both the CBI Scotland Council and the CBI UK SME Council. Born in Edinburgh, brought up in Fife and educated at Loretto School in Musselburgh, Robert now splits his time between his main home in London and his home in Fife, whenever possible raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support - £2m plus over the last 25 years and he was recently appointed as Macmillan’s first Ambassador - a UK wide role - in December 2018. Relaxation is trying to compete with his four adult children at any sport!

Issac Theophilos
Issac Theophilos, Author, Outstanding Care Homes

Vic Rayner
Vic is Executive Director of the National Care Forum, joining the organisation in 2016. The NCF is the strongest voice for the not for profit care sector and works with it’s membership to drive forward the delivery of quality, person-centred care. As Executive Director she sits on a range of government and national specialist groups with a focus on the social care workforce, digital transformation, new models of care and regulation. Vic is a regular national and international speaker and has extensive knowledge and expertise across a wide range of care, support, housing and social policy agendas. Prior to joining the NCF, she was the CEO of Sitra, a leading national membership body championing excellence in housing, health, care and support. Vic is a Director of the London Housing Foundation, funding innovation and best practice in homelessness provision, she is also a trustee of Hestia, and the Care Workers Charity. Vic is the independent Chair of the Brighton and Hove Fairness Commission, tackling inequalities and promoting social justice within the locality. Vic has an MBA (Distinction), MA and BA (Hons) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Jeremy Walford
Jeremy has been Managing Director and owner of Middleton Hall since accidentally taking over an almost bankrupt, failing nursing home in 1996, planning and implementing a transformation to a multi service retirement village. Middleton Hall provides facilities and services for around 200 residents in three independent living services and three care services. The retirement village has a swimming pool, gym, bowling green, golf course, restaurant, bistro, bar, recreational centre and shop. Middleton Hall's services include the first zero carbon retirement properties in the UK; a medical centre (GP practice) for the local community built with the NHS and a Dutch based small group living service for people living with dementia. Middleton Hall’s care services were assessed by CQC as "Outstanding" in all five areas that CQC inspects in 2017. In March 2019, Jeremy is selling the company to its 180 employees through a John Lewis style Employee Ownership Trust.

Jermaine Harris, Inspirational Speaker, Caring for the Carers
Jermaine Harris, Inspirational Speakers. It took a major car accident – and then one year later nearly having his leg amputated – to turn Jermaine Harris’ life around. Prior to this, Jermaine had been living a self-destructive lifestyle of excessive drinking, over-eating and gambling. At times, he drank as many as 24 bottles of wine and vodka per week, was in nightclubs 6 nights of the week, and was extremely unhealthy. Since then, Jermaine, who has a Psychology BSc (Hons) and MSc (Dist), has read over 400 self-help and business books in the space of 4 years and left behind his destructive lifestyle. In this time; Jermain, lost a stone of Body Fat, put on 10 Pounds of Muscle, cured himself of asthma, ran a Half Marathon and the London Marathon, started a Business, wrote a book, became an award winning speaker, met the woman of his dreams and is now a father. Jermaine is now the fastest growing Inspirational Speaker in the UK, a firewalk instructor and the leading of provider of Empowerment Training in the Care Sector Overcoming, further adversity, Jermaine is a keen fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust after his son was diagnosed with the condition at 4 weeks old in 2015. Jermaine, who is based in Cardiff, has condensed his experience and wisdom into his book ‘THE RUT BUSTER: The Secrets to Taking Control of Your Body, Money, Career and Life’ .

Simon Parker
Simon Parker is a culture-focused management consultant for the care home sector, although his involvement in the sector is far broader than his day job. He is the Founding Partner of SP&P, which is a management consultancy for the care home sector. Him and his team help care home leaders to build high-performance teams, deliver outstanding care and accelerate growth through a mixture of what they call 'culture-first' coaching, consultancy and training services. He is also the founder and host of The Care Home Show - the biggest video podcast for the care home sector and the founder of the Care Leaders Network - an independent group of care business leaders focused on shaping the future of social care.

Jackie Pool
Jackie Pool is the Director of Memory Care for Sunrise Senior Living. She is an Occupational Therapist with over 30 years’ specialist dementia care experience and is well known in the UK and internationally for her work in education, care innovation and leadership, research and publications, including the Pool Activity Level (PAL) Instrument for people with cognitive difficulties and the recently published book: Reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias: a guide to personal cognitive rehabilitation techniques.

Neil Eastwood
Neil Eastwood is a UK-based international speaker on frontline social care recruitment and retention and author of ‘Saving Social Care’. He was also an advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care on their 2019 National Recruitment Campaign. He is founder and CEO of a new EU-funded start-up, Care Friends, an employee referral app for care staff, in partnership with Skills for Care. Neil has spent many years studying the best workforce practices of social care organisations around the world. Previously he was a director at a 10,000-staff care provider and is founder of Sticky People, a sector-focused recruitment and retention advisory business.

Sam Monaghan
Sam joined MHA as Chief Executive in February 2018, drawn to the charity because of its strong values and the quality of care and support it provides to people in later life. His focus is to build on these strengths; increase the connectivity between MHA’s homes and schemes and their local communities; enhance the development and diversity of the organisation’s workforce; as well as reinforce its existing partnerships with others across the sector and with key stakeholders. He also wants to amplify the voice of the older people the charity supports through its care, accommodation and community-based services and membership of NCF, Care England and ARCO. Sam has extensive experience as a corporate director and senior operational and strategic manager within the third and public sectors, in a career spanning more than 30 years in social care. He originally qualified as a social worker in 1988, working for 15 years in local authority social services, before joining Action for Children in 2003. In 2006, he moved to Barnardo’s as their Midlands Director, becoming Corporate Director of Children’s Services in 2013.

Steven Gardner
Steve is the Head of Training at Oomph! Wellness, having been at the organisation for over 9 years. Beginning his career in exercise, a training course that he has developed has reached over 1.5 million participants to date – and counting! Now, he is focused on a holistic approach to well-being, by developing programmes that provide mental, physical and emotional outcomes to all levels of ability. Steve, alongside his expert team, ensures that older and vulnerable adults across the UK can live a full life, for life.

Dr Jane Townson
Jane is the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA), the professional association for providers of home care. Its mission is to promote high quality sustainable homecare services, so that people can continue to live well at home and in their local community. Jane was on the Board of UKHCA from 2015 and was Vice Chair from 2017 to 2019. Jane is the founder of LifeSpan100, whose purpose is to empower and encourage people to make the most of the 100 year life. For 9 years was a Senior Independent Director on the Board of the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and CEO of Somerset Care Group. Prior to this, Jane was CEO of the Somerset Care Group, which she joined in 2011 as a Non-Executive Director before being appointed as CEO, leaving at the end of 2018. She was also Chairman of the Board of YourLife Management Services, a housing with care joint venture between Somerset Care and McCarthy and Stone. Jane’s first career was in international leadership roles in research and development in ICI, AstraZeneca and Syngenta, where she was Global Head of Bioscience Research. She then established her own business providing consultancy and training on the link between nutrition and health, working with private individuals and local authorities in the field of public health. Jane is an award-winning Chief Executive, Chairman and expert on the evolving technological, political and social forces shaping organisations which provide some of the most essential human services. Her experience comes from a range of businesses in industries from social and health care to housing, and from food production to medical screening. From 2005 to 2014 she was Senior Independent Director on the Board of the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health, learning disability and community health services.

Mario Kreft at pendine Park, Wrexham.
Social care pioneer Mario Kreft MBE is the founder of the multi-award winning care organisation, Pendine Park. The arts-loving ethical entrepreneur is a leading employer who runs eight care homes and an in-house training academy in North Wales. Amongst a whole host of other awards, Pendine Park has this year been honoured by Arts and Business Cymru in the Arts, Business Health category and has been previously named Business of the Year. In 2010 Mario was awarded an MBE for his services to social care and he has also received the Welsh Government’s St David Award for enterprise He is the chair of Care Forum Wales and set up the Wales Care Awards, the Oscars of social care in Wales. He was also a founder of the Five Nations Group which includes social care leaders from all the home nations in the UK and Eire. In a UK first, Mario was appointed to sit on the Ministerial Advisory Board set up by the Welsh Government’s Economy and Transport Minister Secretary Ken Skates. This was the first time that a representative of the social care sector had been placed right at the heart of the economic decision making of the Welsh Government.

Andy Hogarth
Andy joined Helping Hands as CEO in June 2019, his other current roles include being Chair of Ten10, a software testing consultancy, the Senior Independent non-exec Director of finnCap plc, the largest stockbroker specialising on AiM listed companies, a trustee of a charity providing residential elderly care and a school Governor for the Royal Society of Arts. With his wife Helena he owns and operates two family owned hotels in the West Midlands, Hogarths. Before joining Helping Hands he was, for 15 years, the CEO of Staffline plc and has also worked in the retail, automotive, construction and healthcare industries.