Clinical experts

Helen is our Clinical Director. She oversees our central clinical support functions including audit and regulation, health and safety, mental health and behaviour support, and quality.

Her main responsibilities include overseeing:

• Exemplar Health Care’s clinical governance framework, ensuring the best quality of care for the people we support as well as compliance with quality and regulatory standards

• the development and implementation of clinical policies and procedures

• the design and delivery of specialist clinical training for colleagues.

Helen plays an active role in our Service User Council, which encourages co-production with our service users, empowering them to be involved in decisions that impact their care.

Her long-term goal is to remove the fear that people and their families have when moving into a care home.

Helen’s experience

Helen is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Older Person’s Nurse Fellow of the Florence Nightingale Faculty at King’s College London.

With over 30 years as a Registered Nurse and over 25 years in the healthcare sector, Helen brings a breadth of experience to her role as Clinical Director.

Before joining Exemplar Health Care in 2018, she worked across operational and clinical governance positions within social care.

Mark qualified as a Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) in 2007 and has worked in high, medium and low-secure mental health settings for the NHS and in the private sector.

Mark is our Head of Mental Health and Behaviour Support. He advises and supports colleagues, service users and healthcare professionals around our complex mental health care services, and identifies innovations and improves quality around mental health care.

His main responsibilities include:

• providing a referrals system for colleagues, service users and families, for advice around mental health and behaviour support

• running a consultation clinical for referrals that require more tailored advice

• providing bespoke assessment and advice for individuals who display behaviours of concern and/or complex mental health needs

• overseeing the delivery of Exemplar Positive Behaviour Support (EPBS) training for all colleagues

• running the PBS Champion initiative

• developing clinical training around mental health awareness and the Mental Capacity Act.

Mark’s experience

Mark qualified as a Registered Mental Health Nurse in 2007, and started in his first Staff Nurse role at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. 

In this early career, he progressed to Senior Clinical Practitioner and Service Manager, before joining Exemplar Health Care as a Care Home Manager in 2014. 

With a keen interest in mental health and behaviour support, Mark moved into an advisor role before moving into his current role of Head of Mental Health and Behavioural Support Team.

Alan is our Deputy Head of Mental Health. He advises and supports colleagues, service users and healthcare professionals around our complex mental health care services, and supports the Head of Mental Health in identifying innovations and improving quality around mental health care.

Alan approaches his role with care and passion, always taking a person-centred approach and ensuring that any restrictions or interventions are the least restrictive, and as per the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice.

His main responsibilities include:

• overseeing the Behaviour Support Team, offering clinical interventions based on the positive behaviour support (PBS) model

• delivering mental health awareness and mental capacity training

• overseeing our MHFA England Certified Mental Health First Aid service.

“I’m most proud of building a team of over 60 trained Mental Health First Aiders across the organisation, to support colleague health and wellbeing. They make such a huge impact.”

Alan’s experience

Alan started his career as a Nursing Assistant in a psychiatric hospital, after qualifying as a Registered Mental Health Nurse at Charles Frears School of Nursing, part of De Montfort University.

In his early career, Alan worked as a Community Psychiatric Nurse across various acute settings before moving into the care sector.

His later experience spans nursing, quality and clinical management roles.

Donna qualified as a Registered General Nurse at the University of Birmingham, and has over 20 years sector experience working in a range of hospital settings.

Donna is our Head of Quality. She ensures that clinical policies, processes and procedures are in place, including robust oversight of care planning, medication management and clinical governance.

Donna is dedicated to ensuring our service users get the very best care and live fulfilling lives.

She takes a strategic approach in developing frameworks and quality initiatives to ensure the consistent drive of quality improvement.

One of Donna’s greatest achievements is leading teams to achieve Good and Outstanding ratings with CQC.

Donna inspires colleagues to live the Exemplar Health Care values and deliver excellent quality care, every day.

She’s a great believer that the right culture drives the right care outcomes, and consistently strives to achieve this and lead others to do the same.

Donna’s experience

In her first role at a nursing home, she quickly advanced from Registered Nurse to Senior Nurse, Department Manager, Deputy Manager, and finally Regional Support Manager.

She has experience supporting homes that were deemed to be in crisis, to regain their ‘Good’ CQC status.

Taking this invaluable experience, in 2018 Donna joined Exemplar Health Care as an Improvement Manager.

Once again, she quickly progressed into other roles such as Regional Director of Operations, Head of Nursing and now, Head of Quality.

Roberta has over 20 years of sector experience, including 10 years in quality and governance positions for some of the largest health and social care providers in the UK. She has two degrees, including one in Applied Psychology and she is Prince2 qualified.

Roberta is our Audit and Regulation Team. She’s responsible for driving regulatory performance and ensuring service users receive the highest standards of care and support.

Her main responsibilities include:

• monitoring regulatory performance across our care homes

• taking an innovative approach to driving continuous improvement

• overseeing our clinical governance framework

• supporting the registration of new homes with CQC.

Roberta is passionate about empowering the people we support and enhancing their experience of care.

She supports the Service User Voice Working Group and Service User Council, which enables ambassadors from our care homes to have a say on their care and get involved in company-wide projects.

James gained a Master’s degree in Workplace Health and Wellbeing at the University of Nottingham. His career in health and safety began in an Air Traffic Control role in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Whilst in the RAF, James completed the IOSH Managing Safely course, which enabled him to take on a secondary duty role as a health and safety representative.

He now has over 25 years of ‘hands on’ and strategic experience in various industries including retail, secure psychiatric services, construction and emergency services (fire and police).

At Exemplar Health Care, James manages a team of health and safety professionals.

The team supports safe services by providing in-house health and safety advice, training and guidance and regular auditing to ensure continuous improvement.

Lianne is a Registered Mental Health Nurse. She started her career working in acute psychiatry in the NHS, before making the move to the adult social care sector in 2014.

Lianne joined Exemplar Health Care as a Registered Nurse and progressed to Unit Manager and Clinical Nurse Manager in the home, before moving into Central Support Services as a Quality Manager, eMAR Manager, Lead Nurse and now Head of Nursing.

Her main responsibilities include:

• leading our preceptorship programme for newly qualified Nurses

• overseeing nurse induction, training and support

• running internal Practice Supervisor and Assessor training

• raising the profile of social care nursing

• building relationships with universities to support student placements.

Lianne co-works on our sexuality, relationships and intimacy project which aims to provide better care for people around these needs.

She leads our team of Sexuality Champions, which includes service users from our homes.

A strong advocate for social care nursing, Lianne’s passionate about bringing more nursing students into the sector by educating them on the career opportunities available and challenging any misconceptions around the sector.