Advisory Group 2nd term

Alan Clamp Chief Executive, Professional Standards Authority

Alan has been the Chief Executive of the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) since 2018. The PSA promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public by raising standards of regulation and voluntary registration of people working in health and care.

Alan was previously the Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The SIA is a public body established under the Private Security Act 2001 to firegulate private security in the UK. Between 2011-2015 Alan held the post of Chief Executive at the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), an independent regulator sponsored by the Department of Health.

In addition to his role at the PSA, Alan is a Non-Executive Director at the Intellectual Property Regulation Board, a member of the Regulatory Board at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and a Trustee of the Institute of Regulation.

Alex Cafetz Non-executive director of CQC and an Authority member of the HFEA

Alex advises U.K. and internatiofinal organisations on better use of data, AI, technology and transparency and is a Non-Executive Director of the Care Quality Commission and an Authority Member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He is also an honorary lecturer in digital health at the University of Central Lancashire.

He has previously worked for Beamtree, the Healthcare Commission, Dr Foster and ZPB Associates. He was also an advisor to the Cabinet Office on open data policy and a member of the NHS National Information Board. In 2009 he led the first publication of patient safety indicators across the NHS.

In 2018 Alex was appointed as an advisor to the Independent Inquiry into the issues raised by breast surgeon Ian Paterson. He is a campaigner for better transparency of outcomes of care to improve services and ensure citizens have the same information as clinicians and managers.

In 2006/07 Alex was an inaugural winner of the James Mayes award and spent time working on emerging models of accountable care for leading US healthcare company Premier Inc and on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services. A strong advocate of the publication of information to improve healthcare performance, Alex gave evidence on this to the public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Amit Aggarwal Executive Director, Medical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships ABPI

Amit Aggarwal has over 14 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently at LEO Pharma as Medical Director for the UK and Ireland. Prior to that he spent over a decade at Bayer where he held various roles including pharmacovigilance, Global medical affairs, and latterly as Director of Medical Affairs UK for General Medicine.

His background is as a medic, spending 5 years working clinically in the NHS, mainly in secondary care. Amit has worked on both innovative and established product launches, spanning a range of therapy areas including oncology, women’s health, cardiovascular medicine, dermatology and thrombosis in the UK and globally.

Amit holds a MA in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge, and a MBBS from Guy’s, King’s & St Thomas’ School of Medicine.

Prof Beth Fylan Deputy Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC)

Beth Fylan is Professor of Healthcare Systems and Safety in the School of Pharmacy, Optometry and Medical Sciences at the University of Bradford and Deputy Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC) Yorkshire and Humber, where she leads the Supporting Safe Care in the Home research theme.

Her research focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of safer healthcare systems, with expertise spanning safe use of medicines, care transitions, hospital at home care, and the implementation of pharmacogenomic testing. She has a strong track record of co-designing safety solutions with patients and staff members, ensuring that patients’ voices inform the design and evaluation of interventions.

Prof Bola Owolabi CBE Chief Inspector of Primary Care and Community Services, CQC

Professor Bola Owolabi CBE has recently been appointed as CQC Chief Inspector of Primary and Community Services. Bola joined from NHS England, where she worked as National Director of the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme. She spearheaded the Core20PLUS5 approach to reducing health inequalities. Bola also works as a General Practitioner. She has galvanised whole system action in reducing healthcare inequalities through integrated care models, service transformation, and using data insights for quality improvement. Internationally, Bola has collaborated on health equity initiatives with the Yale School of Public Health, The Commonwealth Fund and World Economic Forum as a member of its Health for All Network.

Bola was appointed by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as Co-Chair of a Ten-Year Health Plan workstream. The Plan creates a new model of care, fit for the future and is central to how the UK Government will deliver its health mission.

Baroness Gerada, DBE PRCGP FRCPsych Life peer in the House of Lords, former Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and founder of NHS Practitioner Health

Clare trained initially in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital before becoming a GP in South London, where she has practised for decades. She is the former Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) (2010–2013) and President of the RCGP (2021–2023).

Claire was the founder and Medical Director of NHS Practitioner Health, the confidential service for doctors and dentists with mental health or addiction problems.

A leading voice on doctors’ wellbeing, burnout, and professional identity. Clare has been instrumental in destigmatising mental illness among healthcare professionals.

Appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2020 for services to mental health and the NHS. Clare became a Life Peer in the House of Lords in 2025 as Baroness Gerada.

Clare frequently speaks and writes on topics such as compassion in medicine, the emotional labour of doctors, and the cultural meaning of the NHS.

George Lawton Head of healthcare, GS1 UK

Georgina Lawton is an experienced healthcare leader with more than 25 years’ experience spanning surgical, oncology and homecare nursing. Her career combines frontline clinical expertise with senior leadership experience, including a UK Clinical Lead role at a global healthcare organisation.

As Head of Healthcare at GS1 UK, Georgina leads work to accelerate the adoption of GS1 standards across healthcare providers, technology providers and manufacturers throughout the UK. She plays a key role in bringing stakeholders together, supporting best-practice sharing nationally and internationally, and championing standards as an enabler of safer, more efficient and more connected care. Georgina is passionate about improving patient safety and strengthening traceability through collaboration across the healthcare system.

Prof Habib Naqvi MBE FFPH Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory

Professor Habib Naqvi is Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, which leads work nationally on identifying and tackling ethnic inequalities in health and healthcare. He is accountable for organisation-wide strategic planning, performance, oversight and delivery. Habib directs the implementation of a far-reaching multi-year work programme and leads national health policy in this area. He is responsible for strategic global partnerships that address systemic inequalities in healthcare.

 Habib has held roles at the Department of Health and Social Care and at NHS England. He is involved with numerous national commissions and is a member of the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce and Chair of its Health Equity Expert Reference Group. Habib was awarded an MBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to equality and diversity in the NHS; he received a Fellowship through distinction at the UK Faculty of Public Health in 2023 and is listed in the Health Service Journal’s ‘100 most influential people in health’.

 Jacob Lant Chief Executive of National Voices

Jacob is a committed advocate for working with people using health and care services to help improve the accessibility and quality of the care they receive. He loves to combine deep qualitative insights with quantitative data to challenge traditional thinking on how to tackle policy issues. In 2024 he was asked by the Government to co-chair one of the vision workstreams for the NHS 10 Year Plan, helping to shape how the NHS will become truly equitable by 2035.

Prior to joining National Voices, Jacob spent almost 10 years helping to build the Healthwatch network, during which time he led successful national policy influencing campaigns using patient experience to drive change on a huge variety of topics. He has also worked in local Government and for the British Library.

Dr Jeanette Dickson MBChB MSc MD FRCR FRCP Chair of Council of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

Jeanette was elected as President of the RCR from 2019 – 2022 and as Chair of Council of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) from July 2023 – July 2026. In addition, between July 2020 and August 2022, she was Vice Chair of AoMRC with responsibility for the educational portfolio.

Jeanette was lead for the lung cancer module of the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) MSc in oncology between 2014 and 2022. She has been a Trustee of the Mount Vernon Postgraduate Charity since 2002. Between 2013 and 2015, she was a clinical Trustee of the Hospice of St Francis charity.

In 2020, Jeanette joined the clinical advisory group of the United Kingdom Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC). In 2022, she acted as special advisor to the Expert Panel of the Health and Care Select Committee evaluating the Governments commitments to cancer services in England. In 2025, she was invited in a personal capacity to sit on the UK Pharmacy Professional Leadership Board (UKPPLB). She contributes to the stakeholder implementation group of the Leng Review and the steering group of Phase II, the Medical Education and Training Review (METR). She sat on the workforce group of the 10YWP and Chairs the Clinical Advisory Group for the GRAIL trial.

Karen Titchener MSc NP RN Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland

Karen Titchener MSc NP RN is the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland, an independent statutory officeholder established under the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023. Accountable to the Scottish Parliament, her role is focused on systemic patient safety improvement and amplifying the voice of patients and the public across Scottish healthcare.   Karen brings more than 40 years of nursing experience to the role, with approximately 25 years specialising in Hospital at Home programmes in both urban and rural settings across the UK and the United States. Career highlights include leading London’s largest Hospital at Home programme at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust — operating with over 85 staff and more than 3,000 annual admissions — and directing the Huntsman at Home oncology programme at the University of Utah, one of the first dedicated oncology Hospital at Home programmes in the US. Her published research in the Journal of Clinical Oncology demonstrated that oncology care at home reduces hospitalisations, length of stay, and costs.

A 2016 Winston Churchill Fellow, Karen has spoken nationally and internationally on Hospital at Home and complex care in the home. She is a founding member and Secretary of the UK Hospital at Home Society and serves as an active contributor to the World Hospital at Home Congress.

Kathie Cashell Chief Executive and Registrar of the GPhC

Kathie previously served as Deputy Director General at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, where she led reforms to improve confidence in police accountability, working with government and stakeholders to deliver a more accessible and learning focused complaints system. Her work helped strengthen awareness and effectiveness of police complaints processes across England and Wales.

Kathie began her career as a nurse and later worked at the Healthcare Commission, where she redesigned NHS complaints handling processes, improving efficiency, consistency and systemwide learning

Meadhbha Monaghan Chief Executive of Patient and Client Council NI

Meadhbha Monaghan is the CEO of PCC NI, a statutory corporate body and powerful, independent voice for the public across health and social care in Northern Ireland. As a system leader, Meadhbha is responsible for strategy, risk, governance and ensuring PCC delivers on its statutory functions across advocacy, participation and policy influence.

 Meadhbha has over ten years’ experience in the homelessness, harm reduction and refugee sectors in the UK, Ireland and in the US; delivering relational services and engaging at a strategic level in policy development and service design. In 2015 she completed a Global Health Corps Fellowship, based in the US co-ordinating harm reduction services across Washington DC.

Meadhbha holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, and an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford. Currently, Meadhbha is leading collaborative work in Northern Ireland under ‘People as Partners’, exploring how we can shift the nature of the relationship between people and their services to one of active partnership. Meadhbha is a 2026 Sciana Health Network and Salzburg Global Fellow.  Meadhbha completed a Centre for Peace and Democracy Fellowship in 2025.

Mercy Jeyasingham MBE Chair People and Public Engagement Committee at MHRA

Mercy has been a non-executive Director of the MHRA since 2020. She Chaired the Patient Safety and Engagement Committee which assured the board of the implementation of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (Cumberlege). She currently Chairs the People and Public Engagement Assurance Committee for the board. She is also raising concerns champion and diversity lead. She was previously a non-executive member of the Southwest London Integrated Care Board. Mercy has over 40 years of experience in the voluntary health and care sector as a senior leader.

Her last position was as the CEO of Vision 2020 UK, the umbrella body for the eye health and sight loss sector. She has been a charity trustee for local, regional, and national charities. This included being Vice Chair of the Afiya Trust, a national organisation that campaigned to reduce inequalities in health and social care provision. She was a non-executive director of the National Institute for health and Care Excellence, NICE, for 12 years where she helped establish and develop the Patient and Public Involvement Unit, and the Citizens Council. She was a carer for over 30 years.

Morag Punton FFRPS MRPharmS Policy and Programmes Manager Company Chemists’ Association

Morag Punton is an experienced pharmacist with almost 30 years in the profession, spanning frontline community pharmacy, senior roles at Boots, and national policy work. This breadth of experience provides her with a strong understanding of day-to-day practice, patient care, and the wider system context in which patient safety is delivered.

Morag works at the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) as a Policy and Programmes Manager. She leads policy development in many areas, including medicines supply resilience and patient safety. She provides the secretariat for the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (CPPSG) which brings together 18 Medicines Safety Officers from the largest community pharmacy organisations across GB. Supporting the Chair and Vice Chair, she enables cross-sector collaboration and shared learning to improve patient safety across community pharmacy.

Dr Nicola Byrne National Data Guardian for health and adult social care in England

Dr Nicola Byrne is the National Data Guardian for health and adult social care in England, having been appointed to the role in March 2021 by Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Dr Byrne has a 20 year background working in mental health, and retains her clinical role as a consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to becoming National Data Guardian, she held positions as the trust’s Deputy Medical Director, Caldicott Guardian and Chief Clinical Information Officer.

Penny Pereira Q Managing Director at the NHS Alliance

Penny leads Q: a community of thousands of people across the UK and Ireland, collaborating to improve the safety and quality of health and care.  Q supports those with improvement experience to learn, share and collaborate on pressing health sector challenges.

She previously led the Health Foundation’s work on patient safety as well as work improving flow, leadership development and networks.

Before joining the Health Foundation, Penny worked at a hospital trust in East London, where she was the Director of Strategy and Service Improvement. Penny has spent her career leading improvement work at local and national level in the NHS, with particular expertise in process and system redesign, safety and leading strategic change across organisations.

Dr Peter Barry Chair of the NICE ME/CFS Guideline Committee

Peter Ellingworth Chief Executive of the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI)

Peter is Chief Executive of the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI), the UK’s leading HealthTech Trade Association, with 400 members operating across medical devices, diagnostics and digital health. Working at both national and regional levels with senior government and the NHS, ABHI is focused on ensuring that policies and practices support the growth of our members and industry, thus enabling access to effective and life-changing technologies for patients.

 Peter represents the industry on several formal government bodies and committees. He is a member of the Secretary of State-led Life Sciences Council and served as the leading voice for the sector on the Advisory Group for the Innovation System Programme, overseen by Roland Sinker on behalf of NHS England. In 2025, he was appointed to the MHRA’s National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, where he sits on the Commission’s Technology Working Group.

He is also a member of the Board of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR), where he is focused on building strong and productive links between the HealthTech industry and the wider science and research community. He previously served on the Board of the Accelerated Access Collaborative and was an advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care’s MedTech Strategy Programme Board.

Rachel Power Chief Executive of The Patients Association

Rachel joined the Patients Association as Chief Executive in 2017 and her focus is on building true partnerships with patients throughout health and care services. 

Described by The Times as, “the UK’s foremost patient campaigner”, Rachel is a passionate advocate for patient-centred care. She believes that patients should be at the heart of all healthcare decisions and advocates for their voices to be heard and acted upon.

The purpose of the Patients Association is to ensure that everybody can access and benefit from the health and care they need to live well, by ensuring that services are designed and delivered through equal partnership with patients. 

Prof Reecha Sofat Breckenridge Chair of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Liverpool and NIHR Research Professor

Professor Reecha Sofat is the Breckenridge Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool and an NIHR Research Professorship. She is also Chair of the Professional Records Standards body. A golden thread in her work is data sciences — specifically in making and using medicines better through data science approaches. This includes electronic health record data linked to health outcome data, genomics and other multi-omit data.

She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in May 2024, recognising her remarkable contribution to advancing biomedical and health sciences and translating discoveries into patient benefit.

Richard Catell Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer NHS England

Richard Cattell is passionate about supporting patients and the pharmacy and wider healthcare team in getting the best from medicines, reducing harm and improving care. His role primarily focusses on providing senior professional leadership at a national level across the NHS in England working closely with the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

Richard has specific responsibility for the delivery of the pharmacy and medicines aspects of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the Medicines Value Programme and Medicines Safety Improvement Programme.

He is also focussed on the development of inclusive senior pharmacy leadership across the NHS.  Prior to this role, Richard has been a hospital chief pharmacist and chief operating officer during his career.

Dame Sue Tranka DBE Chief Nursing Officer and Nurse Director NHS Wales

Dame Sue Tranka is the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales and Nurse Director of NHS Wales providing strategic leadership for nursing, midwifery, patient safety and healthcare quality across Wales. Appointed in 2021, she became the first person from a minority ethnic background to hold a CNO position in the United Kingdom.

 Sue trained as a midwife, registered general nurse, mental health nurse and community nurse, bringing more than 3 decades of experience in clinical practice, leadership and health system improvement. Prior to joining the Welsh Government, she served as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England, leading on patient safety and innovation.

Recognised for her commitment to quality improvement, workforce development and reducing health inequalities, Sue is an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff University and a fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute, and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Faculty Nursing & Midwifery.

In June 2026, Sue was awarded a Damehood for services to nursing in the King’s birthday honours list.

Thea Stein Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust

Thea Stein is currently the CEO of the Nuffield Trust – a health and social care think tank. She started her career as a clinical psychologist and family therapist, before moving into leadership within the public sector in both England and Scotland. 

Thea has held several CEO positions: Carer’s Trust, a UK wide charity supporting carers, Yorkshire Forward, a regional economic development agency, and most recently CEO of the Leeds Community Healthcare Trust for 9 years , where she led a range of work looking to integrate services across primary, community and third sector organisations. Thea has also held a number of non-executive roles in housing organisations and academia, and is currently a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs and a Visiting senior lecturer at the University of Manchester.

Prof Tony Avery National Clinical Director for Prescribing and Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Nottingham

Professor Tony Avery, OBE, is National Clinical Director for Prescribing for NHS England. He is also a GP in Nottingham and Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Nottingham.

He is passionate about ensuring the safe, effective and appropriate use of medicines and has worked in partnership with healthcare professionals and patients over 30 years to drive forward research and policy development in prescribing and patient safety.

He has led a number of major studies investigating the frequency, nature and causes of prescribing safety problems in the NHS. He has also developed effective methods for tackling hazardous prescribing, most notably the pharmacist-led, IT-based intervention called PINCER, which has now been rolled out nationally to general practices in England.

Tony’s work recognises the vital role that medicines have in treating illness and helping people live with long-term conditions, while acknowledging that prescribing of a medicine is not always the best solution. He is committed to ensuring health care professionals and patients have the information and support they need for shared decision making about whether a prescription is needed and, if so, how to balance the effectiveness and safety of medicines alongside the costs to the patient, the NHS and the environment.

Dr Tony Dysart Senior Lead Clinician at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

Dr Tony Dysart is the Senior Lead Clinician at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

Alongside his responsibilities at the Ombudsman, he maintains his clinical practice as a GP, ensuring he remains actively engaged in patient care.

Dr Dysart has extensive experience within the NHS, having initially trained as a nurse before pursuing medicine at Manchester Medical School. His varied background enables him to bring a broad perspective to his clinical leadership role.

Dr Dysart leads the clinical advice team at the PHSO, managing the provision of clinical advice for health-related complaints reviewed by the Ombudsman. He is also actively involved in the organisation’s strategic and systemic initiatives, contributing to wider improvements and developments within the service.

Dr Dysart authors a quarterly blog entitled ‘Prioritising Patient Safety’, where he aims to showcase positive outcomes and constructive engagement arising from complaints investigated by the PHSO. Through this platform, he highlights the value of patient safety and the impact of the Ombudsman’s work.