Jess Alexander is Head of Workforce Policy and Planning at the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).  The SSSC is the regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland and protects the public by registering social workers, social care and early years workers, setting standards for their practice, conduct, training and education and supporting their professional development. Where people fall below the standards of practice and conduct the SSSC can investigate and take action.  The teams Jess supports work with social services employers, workers and partners to support leadership development, quality improvement learning, workforce wellbeing, policy implementation, workforce planning, and the collation and use of workforce data and intelligence.  Jess started her social services career in the voluntary sector as training manager for a large social care provider and has held several roles at the SSSC.

Before joining the Life Changes Trust in 2015, Andrena worked with community and voluntary organisations across Glasgow, building capacity and developing projects and services through her role in Community Planning. Starting as a Funding Manager at the Trust she used her research background in academia and the private sector to support organisations to develop outcomes for the Trust’s funding programmes and has been the lead for commissioning research and evaluation since 2018. Andrena is passionate about using evidence from people with lived experience to improve services and outcomes, particularly for older people.

Andrena is a peer reviewer for the National Institute for Health Research and a Community Reserve Volunteer for the British Red Cross.

Prior to establishing Baccus Consulting, Lynda was Head of External Affairs at Pfizer with responsibility for all aspects of External Affairs for Scotland and Northern Ireland. During her ten years with Pfizer, Lynda managed a number of highly successful partnership relationships and sought to identify new approaches to policy development in her field. She has obtained considerable experience in managing issues and corporate change.

Before working in the pharmaceutical sector with Pfizer, Lynda spent twenty years in the NHS as a nurse and a manager and three years as Regional Manager of the Institute of Health Services Managers (now Institute of Healthcare Managers) and has a strong working knowledge of the NHS and the public sector, its successes and challenges.

Karen’s career in social care began as a paid carer and whilst hugely rewarding, she quickly became motivated by the pressures of the sector. A champion for participation and co-production, she believes in evidencing impact through outcomes for people.

Integration has been a theme of her career, having implemented the single shared assessment in an inner London Borough, and been one of the first people in the UK to have a joint funded NHS and Local Authority post, commissioning in Wiltshire. As Director of Finance, Governance and Compliance at the Prince of Wales Foundation in Washington DC, she held stewardship for a fundraising and grant-making non-profit, reporting directly to Clarence House.

As Deputy CEO of Scottish Care, she continues to shape the future of social care. Her portfolio includes reform, integration, commissioning and procurement and nursing in care. She particularly values the Scottish Care Awards where she learns of the successes of the sector and from those who effect change.

When she is not working, the ‘Ayrshire lass’ can be found on the beach with her family, letting the good sea breeze blow away the cobwebs. Her previous voluntary roles include Trustee for Milestones Trust, and Chair of the NCT Bath branch. She is currently on the committee of the Unfunded List, an international not-for-profit which supports unsuccessful fundraisers to meet their next bid, and is a Board member of Learning Network West, supporting social work education.

Anne chaired the organising committee for ICIC15 in Edinburgh and in 2016 took up a new role as IFICs Senior Associate in Scotland. In 2017 she established an International Centre for Integrated Care, hosted by the University of the West of Scotland, as the home of IFICs collaborating centre in Scotland. Anne chairs an enthusiastic Advisory Board that brings together partners from policy, academia, health, social care, Third sector and independent sectors to oversee four workstreams:

Leadership and Education – undergraduate; Masters and accreditable CPD
Knowledge Exchange and Translation – international webinars and special interest groups
Action Research and Evaluation – with a focus on frailty, dementia and personal outcomes
System Coaching – within and beyond Scotland
In her Senior Associate role, Anne supports a wide range of IFIC Academy activities, in particular strategic leadership, system coaching, and international knowledge exchange initiatives. These include support for IFIC summer school and conferences, and coordinating the Integrated Care Matters webinar series and special interest groups on Intermediate Care, Palliative Care, Polypharmacy, and Frailty. IFIC Scotland activities champion coproduction, empowerment and the use of lived experience and personal outcomes to transform the relational aspects of integrated care.

Anne is a geriatrician, stroke physician and clinical lead for Integrated Care with over 30 years’ experience of transforming health and social care in Scotland. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), honorary professor at the University of the West of Scotland and holds honorary appointments with the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy. As a graduate of the founding cohort of Delivering the Future, Scotland’s national strategic clinical leadership programme 2005- 2006, she has extensive experience coaching and mentoring leaders from all sectors.

Previous national clinical leadership roles span stroke, Long Term Conditions, Healthcare Quality, Joint Improvement Team, Reshaping Care for Older People, Active and Healthy Ageing, and Multimorbidity. Anne leads a Work Package in the European Joint Action on Frailty, participates in Advisory Boards for a number of European programmes, and provides technical advice for WHO initiatives on integrated care and transformation.

Margaret has had a long and varied career within the health and social care and has had operational and senior management experience in NHS and the third and independent health and social care sectors.

She is currently working with The Health and Social Care Alliance (the ALLIANCE) leading Scotland’s House of Care programme. This ALLIANCE led programme is being delivered in partnership with Year of Care and Scottish Government. The House of Care is a framework that supports General Practice teams and organisations adopt a care and support planning approach for people living with long term conditions.

Prior to this she was the National Lead for the Scottish Care Partners for Integration programme. The overall aim of the programme was to optimise the independent sector's involvement in integration of health and social care and to support service improvement.

In 1998, after 11 years as a Ward Manager within various NHS Medicine for the Elderly Units in Glasgow and Ayrshire, Margaret established The Complete Care Company Ltd. This was recognised as a market leader in the Care at sector and won “Overall Provider of Care” and “Supporting People Provider of the year” in the 2008 Scottish Care Awards. She sold the business in August 2008.

Margaret retains an interest in the care at home sector in her role as Director of Baillieston Community Care.

Louise has been a civil servant in the Scottish Government for almost 23 years, working in a range of policy areas; most recently in health on heart disease and long-term conditions and autism and learning disability policy, using her personal experience of having an autistic son.  She became team leader of Older People’s Health in June 2021 to lead on the development of the Older People’s Health and Social Care Strategy, following the publication of a Statement of Intent in March 2021.

Laura Wilson is the Policy and Practice Lead at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland. Laura comes from a community background where she spent 14 years as the manager of a busy pharmacy. With a special interest in addiction and mental health, Laura gained her independent prescribing qualification in psychiatry in 2008. Since then, she has prescribed in various roles, most recently in addiction services, prescribing for patients with opiate addiction. Laura has spent the last 7 years of her career as an Advanced Pharmacist in Addictions. Recently, Laura has been a member of HM inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland and gained experience in education as a teacher practitioner at Strathclyde University. Laura joined the RPS in March 2021 and leads on policy development and professional support for pharmacists in Scotland.