We have a small core team led by Dr Julie Repper, Director. The core team is supported by a diverse group of consultants, who between them bring rich experience and expertise gained through both professional and lived experience.
Most also work or have worked in the NHS in clinical, managerial and/or research roles. The wealth of experience we are able to call upon means we can match client needs with relevant expertise with ease.
Working nationally and internationally, modelling co-production throughout, the consultant group brings together diverse talents, yet we all share a common set of characteristics:
• we share values that are about making recovery a reality for all
• we work to the principles of co-production in all that we do, nurturing the strengths of every individual in whatever capacity they are able to offer them
• we bring cutting edge experience that is developed through pushing the boundaries of innovation at the frontline of care, combining both evidence and practice in ways that really work
• we are part of a global network of recovery leaders and as such can facilitate unrivalled networking opportunities
• we demonstrate our ethos and culture in the way we work; our behaviour, our language and our interpersonal skills
Our Team
Julie Repper
Julie is Director of ImROC. ImROC works in partnership with communities to develop systems, services and cultures that support recovery and wellbeing for all. Julie is also Recovery Lead at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust and joint editor of the Journal of Mental Health and Social Inclusion. Julie has extensive experience of working as a nurse, manager, researcher and lecturer in mental health services, she has also been a Trustee of various voluntary sector groups, sits on a number of National committees and uses mental health services herself. It is all of these experiences that drive her belief in the need to improve services and offer more Recovery focused support.She strives to work across boundaries and with whole systems – including people who use services, health, social care and third sector providers, commissioners and academic institutions – to support collaborative approaches to facilitating Recovery.
Julie Repper, BA, RGN, RMN, MPhil, PhD
Becky Aldridge
Becky is Chief Executive of the Dorset Mental Health Forum, a peer run local charity which promotes wellbeing and recovery in Dorset. Becky has personal experience of mental health problems and leads a growing team of peers utilising their expertise and experience in coproduction alongside mental health professionals and others within Dorset. Integral to the Forum’s work is partnership working with the local NHS and statutory agencies ensuring that lived experience of mental health problems is at the heart of all service design and provision in Dorset. Becky is co-lead of the Dorset Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership. She joined the Forum in 2001 as an administrator and has been instrumental in the growth and development of a lived experience infrastructure in Dorset.Becky Aldridge
Sue Barton
Sue is the recovery and innovation lead at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist and worked in this field 1997. Sue has worked in a variety of NHS quality improvement roles. She holds a master’s in health and social care leadership and has managed integrated mental health services at Assistant Director level. Sue’s passion is working together to make a difference to people’s lives. She is keen to use her knowledge and experience to help demonstrate the difference we make. She enjoys the challenge of partnership working and has overseen the opening of four recovery colleges.Sue Barton
Iris Benson
Iris is a service user representative/expert by experience for Mersey Care NHS Trust. Iris has been accessing services for over 20yrs, with good and bad experiences, but more recently with positive experiences. Even though some days she can be very symptomatic, with voices and hallucinations, she lives a meaningful and fulfilling life despite her mental illness. Iris is passionate about using her experiences and harnessing that of other service users and carers to help others and to give people hope for the future. Iris is involved in a wide range of things with Mersey Care NHS Trust, working alongside staff and others who have supported and helped her on what has been a long, difficult and sad journey at times. Without all this support from family and friends she doesn’t feel she would be here today. Iris is passionate about using her experiences and harnessing that of other service users and carers to help others and to give people hope for the future. Iris is involved in a wide range of things with Mersey Care NHS Trust, working alongside staff and others who have supported and helped her on what has been a long, difficult and sad journey at times. Without all this support from family and friends she doesn’t feel she would be here today.Iris Benson
Dr Jed Boardman
Dr Jed Boardman is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Centre for Mental Health. Until April 2016 he was Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychiatry at South London and Maudsley Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry.
He was Chair of the General and Community Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is now lead for Social Inclusion at the Royal College of Psychiatrists where he advises on employment and welfare benefit matters. He chaired the Royal College of Psychiatrists Social Inclusion Scoping Group and in 2010 published a book on Social Inclusion and Mental Health.
He has published widely on Social and Community Psychiatry. His research interests include the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders, Psychological Disorders in General Practice, Evaluation of Psychiatric Services, Recovery and Employment. He undertakes work on mental disorders in Uganda.
Dr Jed Boardman
Dawn Fleming
Dawn is the Business Manager for ImROC and has been supporting the programme since it began in 2010. Previously Dawn held a dual role as Contract Account Manager for NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network as well as ImROC Business Manager. As a qualified MSP Programme Manager and Prince2 Practitioner Dawn has experience of working on a number of national and regional mental health service improvement and policy implementation projects and programme, including in the London region where she worked for the London Development Centre (previously NIMHE). Dawn’s national work included the Review of the Care Programme Approach and National Mental Health Risk Management Programme (DH 2006-2008) and supporting the NIMHE Experts by Experience Programme. She has also worked for the London Offender Health Programme (Department of Health) as their Business Manager and graduated from Sussex University with a BA Hons in Psychology.Dawn Fleming
Sharon Gilfoyle
Sharon’s career in mental health started over 28 years ago, initially as a Nursing Assistant and Mental Health Support Worker, then subsequently training as a Social Worker. She is also a qualified Practice Teacher and completed training in adult teaching. Sharon has spent many years developing and delivering mental health awareness training, recovery approaches and self-help groups and has a keen interest in complementary and creative approaches within mental health. Throughout her career, Sharon has also experienced her own psychiatric challenges and has used this to help others on their recovery journey. Sharon has been involved with ImROC since it commenced and is currently employed as the Recovery Manager for Cambridge and Peterborough Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust. In 2009, she worked closely with Recovery Innovations (USA) in developing the Trust’s Peer Employment Training and introducing Peer Workers to the Organisation. She then led the successful development of two local recovery colleges ‘Recovery College East’ and has more recently been asked to lead a new initiative developing a county wide recovery coaching team.Sharon Gilfoyle
Jane Rennison
Jane is the Trust Lead for Recovery and Professional Lead for Occupational Therapy, in the mental health and specialty arm of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. She has worked in mental health across the statutory and voluntary sector for over 30 years. Drawing on learned, lived and life experiences she is passionate about driving forward recovery focused principles and always championed the principles of personal recovery. She is especially interested in the complexities of organisations and how they mobilise resources, such as peer support, employment services and Recovery Colleges, to drive forward recovery focused practice.Jane Rennison
Sara Meddings
Sara Meddings is psychology and psychological therapies consultant lead for recovery and wellbeing at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She has long been passionate about co-production, recovery and its potential to transform mental health practice.
She has over 20 years’ experience working with people with serious mental health challenges and their families. She co-led the development of Sussex Recovery College. She co-produced trainings in recovery and family inclusive practice; she developed an accredited family interventions course in partnership with Surrey University.
Sara manages her own recovery from ME / chronic fatigue and draws on her personal experiences regarding mental health and wellbeing in her work.
Sara Meddings
Anna Lewis
Anna has worked for over 17 years in NHS mental health and social care in the south of England, from management trainee to executive director. She has been privileged to be involved with ImROC from the outset. Her interests lie in assets-based approaches to recovery and leadership, based on the values of co-production. She now works independently with teams and services across the country, supporting strategic and cultural development in complex environments through evidence-based quality improvement approaches. Find her on Twitter @thinkspeakthinkAnna Lewis
Emma Watson
Emma is a Peer Support Development Worker at Nottingham NHS Foundation Trust. She works with staff teams, peer workers and people using services to share ideas about peer support working and continue to embed this approach across the trust. Prior to this, Emma worked as a Peer Support Worker for four years. In 2013 she also joined the Institute of Mental Health as one of the independent peer trainers for their peer support provision. In these roles Emma has co-produced and co-delivered training for staff and peers as well as providing supervision and support to students and peer workers.
Recovery means a huge amount to Emma as discovering hope, taking back control and recognising opportunity have transformed her personal journey. Emma uses her lived experience to inform her approach to peer support. She has both a lived and an academic understanding of the concept, having completed an MSc in Recovery and Social Inclusion in 2014. She is currently undertaking a PhD to further understand the concepts of lived experience, disclosure and peer support. Her working practice, and opportunities to study and publish papers, has enabled Emma to develop a theoretical and organisational understanding of peer support and recovery, alongside the personal meaning it holds for her.
Emma Watson
Jane McGrath
Jane has worked as an account director at a leading public relations company; she has also worked as a film-maker and a lecturer in contemporary communications at University of the Arts, London. She became unwell in 2000 she dedicated herself to improving patient experience.She has since achieved an MA with distinction in digital media arts and in 2011 she won a Millennium Award. In 2012, she received a Winston Churchill Travel Bursary to make a documentary in India about recovery from mental illness from a non-pharmaceutical perspective and in 2014 she became a CLAHRC fellow.
She is currently CEO of West London Collaborative, a London based CIC working to deliver coproduction and assets based community development using coproduction and disruptive innovation to solve complex problems in health and social care.
Jane McGrath
Miles Rinaldi
Miles is the Head of Recovery and Social Inclusion at South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. Since working within mental health he has established employment services to help people with mental health problems gain and retain employment which have been recognised as models of good practice.
More recently he has been working to implement recovery focused practice across the Trust. In a previous role Miles co-ordinated and evaluated a self-management training programme for people with bipolar disorder across London.
Miles has worked on mental health policy in the Department of Health, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Miles has worked in various mental health settings within the voluntary sector, a local authority and the NHS. He has also worked as a volunteer on a national mental health telephone helpline and as a co-ordinator for the welfare unit at the Glastonbury Music Festival.
Miles Rinaldi
Phil Morgan
Phil is the co-Lead for Dorset Wellbeing and Recovery Partnership, a partnership between Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust and the Dorset Mental Health Forum. Phil’s work involves establishing partnerships between professional expertise and lived experience expertise. Phil is committed to exploring how recovery principles can shape our learning about ourselves, others and the organisations that we work within.Phil Morgan
Rachel Perkins, BA, MPhil (Clinical Psychology), PhD, OBE
Until her retirement from the NHS in 2010, Rachel spent 30 years working in mental health services initially as a clinical psychologist and finally as Director of Quality Assurance and User Experience in South West London and was responsible for the development of recovery-focused practice across the Trust. During her career in the NHS she worked in a variety of services for adults (including older people), including rehabilitation, secure forensic, assertive outreach, inpatient and community services. She pioneered the UK development of Individual Placement with Support evidence based supported employment, established the first (award winning) UK programme to increase access to employment in mental health services for people living with mental health problems, and set up the first UK Recovery College. Rachel is now senior consultant with the ImROC programme; deputy chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Disability Committee; facilitator of the Government Office for Disability Issues ’Fulfilling Potential’ Disability Strategy Stakeholder Forum; a member of the DH/DWP Mental Health and Employment Expert Advisory Group; director of Health Employment Partnerships (a wholly owned subsidiary of Social Finance); a co-opted member of National Mind External Relations Committee, and co-editor (with Julie Repper) of the journal ’Mental Health and Social Inclusion’. For 25 years, Rachel has lived and worked with a long-term mental health condition and has used both inpatient and community mental health services. She has also held a range of positions in service user led and voluntary sector organisations including Vice Chair of MDF The Bipolar Organisations, Vice-Chair of Rethink and Chair of their Services and Resources Committee and Chair of the Women in Mental Health Network. In 2010 she was awarded an OBE for services to Mental Health and voted Mind Champion of the Year. Rachel has written and spoken widely about recovery and social inclusion for people with mental health conditions and provided training and consultancy nationally and internationally.Rachel Perkins, BA, MPhil (Clinical Psychology), PhD, OBE
Steve Trenchard
Steve has Board level expertise in improving organisational culture having 11 years of experience as a Board member in mental health provider services, including Chief Executive and Executive Director of Nursing. Steve is a visiting professor at The University of Derby, and was Chair of the Charity ISPS for 5 years (2008-13). A qualified executive coach he maintains an interest in how organisational culture influences the behaviour and values of its people, and in co-producing strategies to support recovery. He is a Vice Chair of the Positive Practice in Mental Health Collaborative, and a Senior Consultant with IMROC.Steve Trenchard
Geoff Shepherd
Geoff trained originally as a clinical psychologist. He has worked most of his career in the NHS as a practitioner, manager and researcher and is currently employed part-time by the Centre for Mental Health and the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network to lead ImROC.
Geoff has a particular interest in employment issues for people with mental health problems, both in mental health services and outside, and in the application of recovery principles in forensic services. He holds a visiting chair at the Institute of Psychiatry and continues to be active in mental health services research.
Geoff Shepherd
Waldo Roeg
Waldo is a Senior Peer Recovery Trainer with Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. He was introduced to the concept of co-production when he played an active part in co-producing CNWL’s Health and Wellbeing plans. He completed an accredited Peer Support Training programme playing a key role in initiating the Trust’s Peer Support Worker programme. He was instrumental in starting the CNWL Recovery & Wellbeing College in 2012. With ImROC he has delivered presentations and training both nationally and internationally and co-facilitates the ImROC Recovery College Network championing the promotion of peer support within the workforce.
Waldo Roeg
Sarah Rose
Sarah is Operations Manager at the Dorset Mental Health Forum and Co-lead of the Wellbeing and Recovery partnership. With a background in education and commercial management Sarah has been integral in the development of Dorset’s Recovery Education Centre. Sarah’s role has also been to support the development of a “Lived experience infrastructure” developing tools to support people to utilise their lived experience and reflect on their work to support wellbeing and Recovery. Sarah, along with her colleagues from the Wellbeing and Recovery partnership has developed a sophisticated understanding of co-production and partnership working. They have been able to use this expertise to support and influence the partnership of lived experience and professional expertise across many levels of healthcare provision in Dorset.
Sarah Rose
Michael Ryan
Michael Ryan is Director of Advancing Recovery Ireland (ARI) which is an Irish Health service Executive initiative to develop Recovery orientated mental health services. ARI uses the ImROC 10 organisational challenge methodology to innovate recovery and subsequently Recovery Colleges, Peer support working and Service user partnership are now becoming mainstreamed in the Irish MHS. Michael has his own lived mental health experience and now enjoys a full life in recovery. He comes from an educational background and is a regular speaker at conferences on recovery.
Michael Ryan
Liz Walker
Liz is an ImROC consultant with a special interest in peer support. She has led the development of peer support role, employing peers and developed peer support training both within Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and externally. Recovery and coproduction are her passion. Workforce health and wellbeing initiatives are an important element of Liz’s work where she draws on her experience of being an Occupational Therapist to support employees (with and without a known mental health issue) to remain well at work, work to their full potential and receive effective support in times of need. She has a proven track record of delivering high quality innovative services and is known for her “can-do positive style” of leadership and management.Liz Walker
Syena Skinner
Syena is the Recovery & Wellbeing College Manager at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. She has managed a variety of services within adult mental health for over 25 years and is a qualified social worker.
Syena has been involved in the development of the CNWL Recovery & Wellbeing College from the beginning and is passionate about co-production and recovery and social inclusion agendas, working towards the development of organisational cultures of inclusivity and equity of access and opportunities for all.
Syena has worked with other NHS Trusts in setting up Recovery Colleges, working with colleagues to support the implementation of recovery focused practice across organisations and relishes the opportunity to share her experience of managing a coproduced, forward thinking and innovative service. Syena is involved in offering consultancy and training to internal and external organisations and delivers presentations at events and conferences.
Syena Skinner
Anna Cheetham
Dr Anna Cheetham is a Consultant Psychiatrist who has worked within psychiatry in the NHS for the past 17 years and for over a decade as a Consultant in Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where she was medical lead for Recovery within Adult Services.Anna is passionate about patient involvement, collaboration and co-production in their care and the value of lived experience within healthcare settings. She has worked to promote the Recovery ethos within her input to Nottingham Recovery College, speaking at a number of National conferences and research into service user involvement within mental health studies.
Anna has a special interest in sharing ideas and dialogue around perceptions of risk in mental health. She is also keen to promote and develop ideas around the importance of communities, relationships and networks in the Recovery journeys of individuals. She has trained and has a diploma in Peer Supported Open Dialogue and additional accreditation as a Mentor in Peer Supported Open Dialogue.
Anna is currently working as a Community Psychiatrist in Adult Mental Health within Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Anna Cheetham
Angela Pemberton
Angela qualified as a Registered Nurse in Mental Health aged 21 and worked in many different areas of mental health in the NHS, private care and the prison service .In addition, Angela worked as a Manager for 7 years, managing 70 staff in healthcare and training overseas nurses to gain their UK nursing registration.During the last 16 years, Angela has worked for Learning and Organisational Development at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. During this time she completed a B.A. (hons) Education, Post Graduate Diploma in Health Education and qualified as a Registered Nurse Tutor, Teacher, Vocational assessor, Internal verifier and most recently in quality improvement redesign.
Angela is interested in all aspects of health, education and evaluation, working with services within the Trust including Recovery colleges and external organisations such as Nottingham Trent University, Colleges, Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Services, Church and community organisations. She enjoys working with people who use and work in health and social care services such as people who are supported by services, their carers, volunteers, peer support workers and volunteers as well as staff.
Angela’s work covers all areas of the Trust to identify training needs, write, plan, prepare and deliver sessions in a variety of subjects, which include training and presenting skills, setting up and managing groups, resilience, mental health awareness, communication and well-being.
Angela Pemberton
Gavin Hibberd-Smith, MASC (Ad.C.S)
Gavin is working as an intern for ImROC at the same time as completing his undergraduate mental health nurse degree at The University of Nottingham. His role is to help to improve and update the ImROC website and coordinating an ImROC newsletter.Gavin has considerable experience working in secure forensic mental health services as a healthcare assistant helping to promote recovery. He also spent 12 years in the Royal Air Force prior to this where he also undertook counselling courses to enable him to become a peer support worker helping to promote recovery in service personnel active duty.
Gavin Hibberd-Smith
Sue Williams
Sue is a senior peer recovery trainer at the Central and North West London NHS Recovery and Wellbeing College where she co-produces and co-facilitates training. Sue is also a peer worker coordinator for the ENRICH Research Project.
In her work, Sue draws from a range of personal and professional experiences, training and qualifications. Sue has personal experience of using secondary mental health services and also worked as a peer support worker on an acute in-patient psychiatric ward. Sue is a qualified teacher and chartered counselling psychologist and has completed a doctorate on self-harm. Sue believes that her personal experiences of mental health difficulties and recovery are as valuable as her professional qualifications and experience.
Sue Williams
Francis Ortega
Fran joined the ImROC team as Administrator in October 2017. He has worked in the Learning and Development Department at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust since May 2017 and continues to provide support to the department four days per week.Francis Ortega
Thea Finch
Thea is the Physical Health and Wellbeing Lead, and Senior Practitioner Recovery Trainer, at CNWL’s Recovery and Wellbeing College. She draws from a range of personal and professional experiences, training and qualifications in promoting personal recovery values. She has personal experience of using secondary mental health services, lives with long term physical health conditions, and is also a qualified counsellor and health psychologist. As a practitioner trainer she co-produces and co-facilitates courses on health and wellbeing, and is passionate about supporting people to feel empowered, valued and hopeful.She has a special interest in Mindfulness and Self-Compassion as wellbeing tools, and in supporting health care professionals to build resilience and be able to care for themselves while caring for others. She is also passionate about reducing stigma and discrimination with marginalized groups, particularly with people labelled as homeless or given the diagnosis of personality disorder.
Thea Finch
Andrew White
Andrew is a health coach for Lets Live Well in Rushcliffe, which is a social perscribing service, managed by ImRoc. The Service provides support for individuals living with physical, mental health conditions or are feeling isolated, sometimes it a combination of all three. The role involves supporting individuals, by exploring needs regarding wellbeing, and adopting a recovery focus approach to support local people to live happier and healthier lives.Andrew on a personal level has lived experience of living, managing and embracing a mental health condition, and has utilised experience, reflection and support from others to benefit his wellbeing.
From 2009 Andrew has worked within Notts Healthcare. Initially as a volunteer on an acute ward, then as a Peer Support Trainee, and from 2012 as Peer Support Worker/HCA at Highbury working on PICU and Acute Wards
This has involved working with individuals in traditional peer practices such as recovery planning, problem solving, appropriate and effective disclosure which has facilitated genuine empathy and trust. However the diverse role has also providing peer support in all aspects of care in an acute environment. This has included serving diners, domestic duties, and observations, facilitating leaves, advocating, supporting individuals in reviews, challenging restrictive practice and also supporting carers.
Further this has included effective and validated peer support to individuals in MVA situations, and been a lead on no force first in an acute setting.
Andrew has also mentored and provided training to peer trainees within Notts Healthcare Trust, and provided support to a number of trusts re Peer development.
Facilitating recovery and supporting individual and their needs, whilst utilising peer values in all ward interactions has been at the centre of Andrew’s mantra since joining the trust.
Andrew White
Toni King
Toni is an Occupational Therapist. She is employed as Trust Lead for Recovery & Peers at Solent NHS and is a Clinical Teaching Fellow in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Southampton. She co-led the development of Solent Recovery College with Further Education and Third Sector partners in 2013. Her current work focusses on exploring the impact of the Recovery Approach in Long Term Conditions, leading the OWLeS (Optimising Wellbeing & Lived Experience of Staff) project and supporting the use of coproduction. Woking across organisations her aim is to contribute to the improved experience and outcomes of people who access our services and those who support them.
Toni King
Dr Lyn Williams
I trained and qualified as an RMN in 1983 and worked in mental health and substance misuse for the last 35 years in delivering, commissioning and redesigning services.I am originally from Staffordshire lass and now live and work in Leicestershire as a senior manager in the NHS leading on Mental Health Services for Older People.
I ran my own business successfully as a freelance Organisational Development consultant before coming back into the NHS four years ago when I came across a great opportunity to further develop my thinking and approach within a health organisation. I am passionate about well-being and recovery and put a high value on how I build and strengthen my relationships with people in my work and personal life.
I am a lifelong learner, having achieved an MSc in Organisational Development and Management Learning and then gained a doctorate at the age of 55, proving that age is just a number when it comes to studying! I use conversational and strengths based approaches to bring people together to create space for having conversations that matter. I am passionate about continuous learning and changing thinking and practice to improve quality of service delivery and create a positive experience for staff, service users and carers.
I have broad range of experience of working in many different sectors and organisations in the UK and internationally. I am a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at De Montfort in the Faculty for Health and Life Sciences.
Dr Lyn Williams
Amongst the consultant group, we have expertise in:
• coaching and facilitation
• research and publication
• operationalisation of innovation
• Board-level strategic development
• cultural development
• leading transformational change
• quality improvement
• current experience of leading innovative mental health practice at the front line
• current experience of leading innovative mental health practice at the front line
• professional leadership (nursing, OT, Psychiatry, Psychology)
• clinical expertise in wide range of treatments and therapies
