Trustees and Staff

Annette Baker – Chair

Annette has three children, the youngest of whom has Down’s syndrome. Annette has been a carer for 8 years and is a regular attendee at the MCF forum meetings; she is also a member of the Carers Strategy Meeting Group. Annette has encouraged over 30 carers to become members of MCF and these people have enjoyed all the care, encouragement and information that have been made available to them from the forum. Although Annette is a parent carer of a young child, her education about carers has included all the different kinds of caring that is done in the home, many of which go unnoticed. Annette believes that MCF will be the voice that helps to change many aspects of a carer's life. Annette feels strongly about the rights of carers and is fully committed to MCF and its good work as the "Voice of Carers".

Susan Samson - Deputy Chair

Susan has retired from her paid work as a Local Authority officer working in the area of equipment and adaptations. As she cares for both her sister and her granddaughter who both have very different care needs, she finds that her retirement is pretty FULL!. As well as becoming a trustee of MCF Susan is a board member of a local learning disability charity. Susan is committed to working to improve the lives of carers by advocating on their behalf in a variety of places. Her experience of working within the Local Authority is of great benefit to the Forum and she looks forward to being able to continue to work to bring about improvements for both carers and those for whom they care.

Peter Moore (Co-opted)

Peter is a qualified accountant by profession and brings these skills to his role as treasurer.

Trustee: Ashley Wood (Co-opted)

Ashley is a former Social Worker and a former Assistant Chief Executive of the Gaddum Centre. He brings with him a wealth of experience of advice and advocacy and has worked in both the statuory and voluntary sector. Ashley has a particular interest in people's rights in community care and health provision. A trainer, he also provides training in advocacy and community care.

Trustee: Val Bayliss-Brideaux (Co-opted)

Val brings a wealth of experience in the filed of Patient and Public involvement and community engagement. Currently working for Manchester PCT as communications and engagement manager Val has been very involved in work to engage with carers including parent carers. Previously Val has worked with the PPI Forum and CHC so has a long history of working to empower service users and community development.

Denise Jackson - Trustee

Denise cares for her daughter who has a learning disability. Her daughter is now 50 years old and lives at home with Denise. As well as caring for her daughter, Denise used to care for her mother before her death over ten years ago. It was around the time of her mothers death that Denise became aware of MCF. In the past Denise has been on some of the MCF breaks and training courses and she found that they made a 'life saving' difference to her. Up until recently Denise had been involved with the running of a social club called 'The Open Door' but sadly this has now ceased to exist and so she has additional time on her hands and she would like to use this time productively by being a trustee with MCF.

Anne Billington - Trustee

As a carer, Anne is aware of the constant struggle that carers face to get what they were entitled to. Anne believes that it is OK for service providers and commissioners to tell carers what is available to them but they rarely tell carers that they will still have to fight and struggle to get these things. It is only with the help of places like Manchester Carers Forum that carers may be able to change this and make it easier for ALL carers to get their entitlements and not just an elite few who happen to ask the right people at the right time. Anne hopes that by being part of the MCF team, she can help make it possible for as many carers as possible to access the services that they are entitled to.

Melvyn Sandler - Trustee

Over many years Melvyn has been caring for various members of his family and over several years he and his wife have been jointly caring for his elderly mother. Melvyn and his wife found that their caring role increased in intensity following his mothers hip replacement as she became housebound and increasingly dependent on their help and support. As the intensity and the level of care increased, the realisation hit Melvyn and his wife that they as carers also needed care.

Melvyn has in the past worked in various roles where it has been necessary to listen to people, make decisions and see actions through to completion.

With his involvement at the Forum he has seen first hand how MCF helps carers to continue with their demanding and often unrecognised contribution to society. Melvyn would like to keep MCF growing from strength to strength and he hopes to bring new ideas to MCF and support the ongoing works.

Ann Cook - Trustee

Ann cares for her son who has a profound learning and physical disability. Her experiences as a parent carer have helped her to develop may different skills. Ann's son is now an adult and so she has valuable first hand experience of the issues affecting transition from children's to adult services and their impact upon parent carers. She has learned how to advocate on behalf of her son and latterly for her husband who had a serious accident in 2008. Ann volunteers one day a week at the Talbot House Support Centre.

Gaynor Morgan - Trustee

Gaynor has been a carer for 20 years and a member of MCF for 3 years. She cares for her son who has learning disabilities and also her eldest son who is a heroin addict. Gaynor is involved in support groups, volunteers as a Peer Mentor for carers who care for someone with an addiction issues and is a Dignity Champion for Older People.

Staff

Dave Williams – Chief Officer

Dave has overall responsibility, together with the Board of Trustees, for the management of the Forum and its staff and the development of strategy. A carer himself David provides strong and clear leadership. He is a skilled negotiator and networker with a comprehensive understanding of policy, strategy and legislation, staff management and development. He also leads on training and education work.

He works with various organisations in both the statuory and voluntary sector in the development of poicy to address carer's needs. He represents the Forum at local, regional and national level on a vairety of working groups. Dave negotiates contracts with Funders and has oversight of the work of the Forum, reporting directly to the Board of Trustees and executing their decisions.

Email: Dave Williams

Dave Williams Chief Officer Manchester Carers Forum

Nat O'Brien - Operations Manager

With 10 years experience in health and social care settings Nat joined in 2006 and has strong staff management skills and an ability to turn strategic objectives and plans into successful operational delivery. this has been demonstrated through his lead in developing brokerage work. Nat is also a strong negotiator and advocate and was a young carer.

Nat takes the lead in enabling groups of carers to access support services. He manageds the work of the Forum in the STAR Stroke Project, Withington CARES Project and with the Wythenshawe Carers Project. He is also responsible for brokerage, he is a trained broker. He also has responsibility for the mangement of the Forum's financial systems.

Email: Nat O'Brien

Nat O'Brien - Operations Manager Manchester Carers Forum

Service Development & Fundraising Manager: Simon Stagg

Simon has been a carer and brings over 20 years experience of working in health and social care services. In the last 4 years Simon has worked with the voluntary sector and has a track record of successful fundraising and serivce and organsiational development.

Simon is responsible for developing and implementing the fundraising strategy and leading on organisational and service development.

Carers Development Worker: Damian Green

Damian has a background in community and social care. He has worked in residential domicilary care settings. He has also worked in information and advice agencies with a specific focus on the needs of carers.

Damian is responsible for the Forum's dementia peer mentoring programme, working closely with Admiral Nurses and experienced caers who volunteer to support other carers. He leads on the development of the Forum's Volunteering programme, linking in volunteers to training opportunities. He also facilitates some of the Forum's local support groups.

Email: Damian Green

Carers Development Worker: Miriam MacLeod-Iredale

Miriam has a background in educational support enabling people to access learning opportunities which support them in seeking employment, education and training. More recently she has worked on the carer's agenda as an information and advice worker within the Princess Royal Trust Carers Centre (PRTC).

Miriam works as a volunteer co-ordinator alongside Damian Green and other colleagues. She leads on the Forum's communication network such as the newsletter and Annual Report.

Email: Miriam MacLeod-Iredale

Parent Participation Worker: Kerrie Wilson

Kerrie is a Parent carer and has a background of employment in both the carer movement and community work. She is responsible for co-ordinating the work which we do in involving Parent carer participation in a variety of different contexts. Her work involves the development of the Parent Carer Forum.

Email: Kerrie Wilson