Our team
Led by Chief Investigator, Keith Conradi, we are a team of investigation specialists and support staff with a breadth of experience across healthcare and accident prevention. Many of us still hold frontline positions in the NHS and we are dedicated to improving patient safety in England.
Team filter:
Keith Conradi
Executive team
Chief Investigator
Keith is the founding member of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch following a long career in aviation.
He joined the RAF in 1983 flying fast jets on the front-line before teaching advanced flying training as a Qualified Flying Instructor. After leaving the RAF, Keith flew for Virgin Atlantic operating both long-haul and short haul Airbus aircraft to destinations throughout the world.
Following the tragic events of 9/11 in 2001, Keith joined the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, becoming Chief Inspector from 2010 to 2016. During this period, Keith investigated aircraft accidents in the UK and overseas, including the disappearance of MH370, the shooting down of MH17 and the helicopter crash on the Clutha Bar in Glasgow.
He also represented the UK in the development of European Regulations on air accident investigation and at safety meetings with the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
In 2015, Keith was asked to participate in an Expert Advisory Group regarding healthcare safety and subsequently became the first Chief Investigator of the HSIB.
Although no longer flying, Keith manages his excess energy through skiing and triathlons.
Lynne Spencer
Executive team
Executive Director of Corporate Services
Lynne has worked in the NHS for more than 18 years.
During this time, she has had senior roles in strategy, transformation, organisational development and HR, corporate governance, strategic communications, risk management and policy development.
She is experienced at managing multiple and complex corporate portfolios.
Before HSIB, she was Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs at Whittington Health NHS Trust.
She has also held roles at South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, North West London Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England and NHS Resolution.
Dr Lesley Kay
Executive team
Acting Executive Medical Director
Lesley divides her time between HSIB, where she is our Acting Executive Medical Director and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she is a consultant rheumatologist. Lesley is HSIB’s Caldicott Guardian.
She also holds the posts of Vice Chair of the Northern Clinical Senate Council and joint National Clinical Lead for rheumatology for the Getting It Right First Time programme.
Lesley has previously been clinical director for musculoskeletal services and for patient safety and quality at her Trust and chair of the British Society for Rheumatology's clinical quality committee. She is a GenerationQ Fellow with the Health Foundation.
Deinniol Owens
National investigation team
Associate Director of National Investigations
Deinniol studied law at the University of Durham and qualified as a solicitor in 2008. He went on to work with the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman investigating complaints about NHS care and treatment and completed a Professional Certificate in Ombudsman and Complaint Handling Practice via Queen Margaret University.
Deinniol subsequently worked as a Patient Experience Manager at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and completed the NHS leadership academy award in healthcare leadership. He joined the Care Quality Commission as an inspector, and then inspection manager, in its acute hospitals directorate. Deinniol completed further study and obtained the NHS Leadership Academy award in senior healthcare leadership and an MSc in Healthcare Leadership.
Deinniol joined HSIB in January 2018 and has since gone on to develop his interest in human factors, completing an MSc in Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors at the University of Edinburgh and becoming a technical member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Deinniol has presented to a variety of audiences on the work of HSIB and how it adopts safety science in its approach to investigations. He hopes to continue his development and move toward becoming a chartered ergonomist at the earliest opportunity.
Deinniol is married to a veterinary nurse and so has lots of animals in his life. When he isn’t looking after their five dogs, chickens and guinea pigs, he enjoys walking and both playing and watching rugby.
Scott Hislop
National investigation team
Principal National Investigator
Scott’s background is in aero systems engineering, having spent 28 years in the Royal Navy working on various aircraft.
In 2011, he undertook an MSc in Engineering and Project Management and achieved chartered engineer status in 2012.
He moved into accident investigation in 2014, working at the Defence Accident Investigation Branch as an engineering investigator focusing on the areas of maritime and aviation, before moving into healthcare investigation.
Scott is an experience sailor holding a Yachtmaster qualification since 1998, and having raced at international level. Although now retired from racing he still enjoys his time on the water
Matthew Wain
National investigation team
Principal National Investigator
Matthew has extensive experience in healthcare related investigations.
For the last 10 years he has coordinated multi-agency investigations across primary and secondary care. He also has experience in serious case reviews, domestic homicide reviews, mental health homicide investigations and has chaired a child death overview panel. Matthew has a strong interest in quality improvement and holds an MSc in Healthcare Leadership.
Kathryn Whitehill
National investigation team
Principal National Investigator
Kathryn has a mixed background with professional education in both clinical and legal spheres.
She has healthcare regulatory experience in medical professional regulation and organisational regulation.
She is an experienced NHS manager and worked for the Care Quality Commission as an acute hospitals inspector for both the NHS and private sector. Prior to joining HSIB she was a senior manager at Price Waterhouse Cooper where she focused on forensic healthcare investigations. Kathryn holds two masters degrees, in law, medicine and healthcare, and public health.
Dawn Benson
National investigation team
National Investigator
Dawn is a sociologist with a specialism in disability studies and inclusion.
Much of her work has been in academia as a researcher and lecturer within healthcare, where she developed the concept of ‘high reliability parenting’ after undertaking research with families of birth injured infants. Dawn has worked at a number of universities in both social and medical sciences. Her most recent work, before joining HSIB, was with the Patient Safety Academy in Oxford lecturing and researching healthcare investigation and human factors.
Suzy Broadbent
National investigation team
National Investigator
Suzy is a chartered ergonomist and human factors specialist. She is an active member of this professional community as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF). She believes that as patients we are often at our most vulnerable and we owe it to them to have a healthcare system that understands the impact of human factors and manages the risks to keep patients, and staff, as safe as possible.
Suzy holds an MSc in Human Factors and a degree in Psychology. She is also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter and the Association of Aviation Psychology. Her particular areas of experience lie in mental workload, human machine interface (HMI) design and the use of new technologies to support human performance.
She joined HSIB from BAE Systems, where she worked on military cockpit design and was manager of the Human Factors team for Air. Suzy has also previously worked for Atkins, where she was an analyst for the Confidential Reporting System for the Railways (CIRAS) and consulted on London Underground station upgrades.
Suzy was highly commended by CIEHF in the category of Outstanding Communications at their 2021 awards. As an accomplished public speaker, she was awarded the opportunity to deliver the institute’s annual lecture in 2022.
Nichola Crust
National investigation team
National Investigator
Nichola is a registered nurse trained in healthcare incident investigation.
During her career she has developed clinical governance systems within primary and secondary care, identifying risks and working collaboratively with local and national bodies. She also has significant experience in nurse leadership and coaching. Nichola has completed the Health Foundation’s GenerationQ leadership and quality improvement programme, and holds an MSc in Leadership (Quality Improvement).
Russell Evans
National investigation team
National Investigator
Russell joined HSIB (Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch) after a 33-year career as an aeronautical engineer with the Royal Navy. He is passionate about improving safety and is now applying his human factors and safety science training, plus experience as an air accident investigator, to healthcare. Russell is a registered engineer and holds an MSc in Engineering and Management.
David Fassam
National investigation team
National Investigator
David joined the army in 1991 and worked as an aviation engineer on army helicopters and unmanned air vehicles, before moving into engineering management.
He studied air accident investigation at Cranfield University in 2014, working for the Military Air Accident Investigation Branch. After leaving the army in 2016 he worked at Cobham Aviation, conducting global safety investigations focused on improving safety across the aviation side of the business, before joining us at HSIB in March 2017.
Saskia Fursland
National investigation team
National Investigator
Saskia is an expert in accident investigation and human factors.
She was previously an aviation psychologist at the Royal Air Force Centre of Aviation Medicine, where she investigated human factors in military air accidents and used her experience to take a more proactive approach to flight safety. Saskia has also provided bespoke advice to civilian air accident investigations in the UK. Saskia joined HSIB in February 2017 and has been applying her investigation and human factors skills to healthcare ever since.
Keely Galloway
National investigation team
National Investigator
Keely’s background is in healthcare quality improvement and safety, including clinical audits, risk management and investigation.
In 2015 she was an improvement leader fellow for NIHR CLAHRC Northwest London - the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC). As part of this she led on incident investigation and management training, including duty of candour. Before joining us at HSIB she held the post of Corporate Safety and Effectiveness Manager at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Craig Hadley
National investigation team
National Investigator
Craig joined the Army in 1996, spending over 23 years as an aviation engineer, including safety, leadership, and strategic roles.
He is a professionally registered Chartered Engineer and has an MSc in Engineering and Management. Craig’s last role in the military was as a Defence Air Accident Investigator, investigating UK military incidents and accidents, globally. Craig was excited to join HSIB in February 2019 to continue his passion for improving system safety in a different and challenging sector.
Helen Jones
National investigation team
National Investigator
Helen has a clinical background, with professional qualifications of registered general nurse and registered midwife.
She worked in clinical practice for 14 years at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, before moving into governance, risk and patient safety roles. Before joining us at HSIB Helen was a regional quality manager for NHS Improvement. In this role she oversaw quality and patient safety at several NHS trusts. Helen holds an MSc in Healthcare Risk Management.
Matt Mansbridge
National investigation team
National Investigator
Matt joined HSIB as a Maternity Investigator in 2019, before moving to our national investigation team in 2021.
He comes from a legal background, having qualified as a solicitor in 2011. Since then, he has specialised in personal injury and clinical negligence, and also held the position of Legal Service Manager for an NHS trust. Matt has also investigated deaths on behalf of HM Coroner, as a Coroner’s Officer.
Matt has a particular interest in working with families and NHS staff involved in healthcare incidents. He believes that improving patient safety is important, to make a difference to those providing care as well as those receiving it. He feels privileged to work in a unique organisation that strives to improve patient safety and trust in the healthcare system, through the application of safety science.
Melanie Ottewill
National investigation team
National Investigator
Melanie is a National Investigator and Senior Investigation Science Educator.
She has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, initially in clinical roles, and has extensive experience of healthcare safety investigations. She spent 10 years as Head of Clinical Investigations for a large acute NHS trust leading serious incident investigations and ensuring meaningful engagement with patients and families during the process.
Melanie has significant teaching experience and holds a post-graduate certificate in medical education. She is a technical member of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Jas Palak
National investigation team
National Investigator
Jas joined our maternity investigation team in 2019, before moving into his current role as a national investigator.
He has come from a diverse background as a professional investigator, having worked across a wide range of safety-critical industries including automotive, rail and aircraft production.
In his role, he collates the facts of a case, to assess foreseeability and systemic risk.
Trained in human factors and safety science, Jas really enjoys his role as a national investigator because he feels HSIB looks to bring an entirely new approach to the investigation of healthcare safety incidents. He particularly enjoys working closely with patients, families and healthcare staff and contributing to positive outcomes in extremely difficult incidents.
Laura Pickup
National investigation team
National Investigator and Senior Investigation Science Educator
Laura originally qualified as a chartered physiotherapist and went on to work in the NHS. She later completed a PhD in human factors and worked in academia delivering research and consultancy to various industries.
In the last 10 years she has focused on working for healthcare trusts, a medical device company and universities to consider complex healthcare safety problems.
Her work has focused on considering how systems may influence organisational performance, patient and staff safety. She has taught for several universities in the field of healthcare human factors.
Laura is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Amber Sargent
National investigation team
National Investigator
Amber has been an investigator in the health sector for more than 9 years.
She joined in the central investigation team at the Healthcare Commission and then went on to work with Verita. In these roles she was involved in many independent investigations and inquiries. Amber is experienced in conducting investigations across the healthcare landscape, including acute, mental health and social care settings.
Nick Woodier
National investigation team
National Investigator
Nick is a qualified medical doctor who moved from clinical medicine into patient safety and healthcare safety investigation.
Before coming to HSIB he worked as the Patient Safety Lead at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, developing considerable experience leading investigations into serious incidents.
He holds an MSc in human factors and is undertaking a part-time PhD in patient safety. He is also an Honorary Assistant Professor with the University of Nottingham where he delivers education around patient safety and human factors to healthcare students.
Professor James Walker
Maternity investigation team
Clinical Director of Maternity Investigations
Jimmy is a retired Clinical Professor in Obstetrics having worked in the University of Leeds with Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust for 25 years.
He has a particular expertise in patient safety, investigation and clinical governance. His main areas of clinical interest are pre-eclampsia, early pregnancy failure, premature labour and delivery. His main driver to his work has been in how to improve patient care and clinical outcome. He has used the cycle of audit, investigation, recommendation, implementation and re-audit to achieve clinical improvement particularly in the area of pre-eclampsia. He has been involved in working with patient groups and developing guidelines for management of clinical problems.
He has carried out numerous reviews into hospitals, units and clinicians in trouble. He has done this on personal invitation, on behalf of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and at governmental invitation. He was a member of the panel of the Kirkup review into Morecambe Bay on behalf to the Department of Health (DoH) in England and sat was on the National Maternity Review chaired by Baroness Cumberlege.
He has been commissioned to write reports for the General Medical Council and the DOH into legal matters and given evidence in civil, criminal, coroner and procurator fiscal courts as well to regulatory bodies in England, Scotland, Ireland, USA and Hong Kong
In 2011, he was elected Senior Vice-President of the RCOG with a remit for global health. From 2013 to 2017, he was a Non-Executive Director of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. He chaired its Quality and Safety Committee and has developed robust reporting mechanisms and a review culture.
Before joining us at HSIB, he was the Obstetric Advisor to he National Patient Safety Agency, Chairman of the Confidential Enquires into Maternal and Child Mortality, National Professional Advisor (NPA) on Maternity to the Care Quality Commission and Chairman of the National Sentinel Caesarean Section Audit He brings to HSIB his specialty skills in assessment of patient safety, root cause analysis, incident analysis and service evaluation.
Jimmy also works extensively for medical charities and was the inaugural President of the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, is currently Medical Director of Action on Pre-eclampsia and the Honorary President of Baby Lifeline Training.
Sandy Lewis
Maternity investigation team
Associate Director of the Maternity Programme
Sandy joined HSIB in March 2017 as a national investigator.
She moved into the role of Associate Director of Maternity Investigations, and later Maternity Programme Director, after the Secretary of State for Health asked HSIB to carry out the work around maternity safety investigations outlined in the Safer Maternity Care action plan. Since then she has successfully overseen the rollout of our maternity investigation programme across 130 NHS trusts in England.
Sandy has more than 26 years of healthcare experience, in the NHS and Australia. She started her career as a healthcare assistant and later qualified as a nurse practitioner. The high-risk areas in which she’s worked – including intensive care and theatres, critical care and day surgery – led to an interest in patient safety, quality improvement and patient experience.
Prior to joining HSIB she held the post of Associate Director of Nursing at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, where she led the development of patient safety policy and processes. Sandy holds an MSc in Leadership and Service Innovation.
Louise Page
Maternity investigation team
Clinical Leadership
Louise brings together her clinical and academic expertise in her role with us at HSIB.
She is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at West Middlesex University Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Louise has an academic interest in patient safety, working to create safe systems of care within maternity services, and her clinical areas of interest include intrapartum care and maternal medicine. HSIB offers Louise the opportunity to consider maternity safety from a different perspective and she particularly enjoys the collaborative working not only within the branch, but also with maternity teams up and down the country. Louise’s great passion outside of work is travel, especially long distance rail journeys. Ask her about Hong Kong to London by train!
Sonia Barnfield
Maternity investigation team
Clinical Adviser
Sonia is a consultant obstetrician, with clinical interests in maternal medicine (women with pre-existing medical conditions who are pregnant), labour ward care and risk management.
She is speciality lead for obstetrics at Southmead Hospital Bristol (part of North Bristol NHS Trust) and is also the consultant lead for clinical governance, chairing the Trust’s clinical risk committee. Sonia’s passions are improving patient safety through learning from events and quality improvement.
She is on the PROMPT (Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training) faculty and has trained many units in the UK and worldwide. These experiences have led her to taking a lead role as a clinical advisor with HSIB and training maternity investigators.
Sonia also has an interest in obstetric care in the developing world and used her expertise to improve the care available to mothers and babies in West Timor and Kenya during a one-year fellowship through the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas). She has since run ‘train the trainers’ courses in Zimbabwe as part of PROMPT.
Chandrima Biswas
Maternity investigation team
Clinical Adviser
Chandrima is an obstetrician and clinical governance lead for women’s health at Whittington Health in London.
Previously she has held the posts of Clinical Director at the Trust and obstetric lead for the North Central London Maternity Network. She specialises in high-risk obstetric care.
Throughout her career her focus has been on maternal and perinatal safety, and she is excited to extend this to a national role at HSIB. Chandrima is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a former president of the Maternity and Newborn Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine.
Angela Foster
Maternity investigation team
Regional Lead for Maternity Investigations (London)
Angela is a qualified nurse and midwife, and she holds a master’s degree in professional practice. She joined HSIB as a Maternity Investigator before moving into her current role leading our London maternity investigation team.
Making a difference within maternity services is a goal she has had throughout her career. Angela sees the prevention of harm through patient safety as essential to making that difference.
Her past positions include Community Midwifery Team Leader and Named Midwife for Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Joanna Gillham
Maternity investigation team
Clinical Adviser
Joanna is a consultant obstetrician and currently holds a clinical obstetric research post at the University of Florence in Italy.
Her passion and clinical interests are intrapartum care and proactive risk management. In her previous consultant post at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, where she was based between August 2007 and May 2018, she held the roles of labour ward lead, risk lead and clinical effectiveness lead.
Joanna was on the advisory panel for the Each Baby Counts project and was previously the labour and delivery representative on the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society committee. The safety of maternity healthcare has always been a huge consideration in her work, both on a local level in her NHS trust roles, and through exposure to adverse preventable outcomes in her role as an expert witness.
Katherine Hawes
Maternity investigation team
Head of Maternity Investigations
Katherine is a passionate midwife and an experienced midwifery leader.
She offers a wealth of clinical expertise and strategic insight into the understanding and complexities of providing safe and effective care within the NHS. She holds a master’s degree in Healthcare Leadership and a first degree in Midwifery and Woman’s Health.
Before joining HSIB in 2018, Katherine held the post of Deputy Regional Maternity Lead for NHS England in the Midlands and East Region. Katherine has significant regional and national experience in undertaking investigations and reviews. These have focused on individual practice and wider maternity services, with the aim of driving improvement in safety for women and babies.
Lisa Manning
Maternity investigation team
Regional Lead for Maternity Investigations (Midlands & East)
Lisa is dual registered as an adult nurse and midwife.
She joined HSIB from NHS England where she was deputy regional maternity lead for midlands and east. Previously she has worked across all areas of midwifery and held the position of deputy head of midwifery at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. She has a particular interest in education and here she helped to establish human factors training and ran the mandatory training schedule for midwives. Lisa holds a master’s degree in health and medical education.
Amanda Morgan
Maternity investigation team
Regional Lead for Maternity Investigations (South)
Amanda is a qualified midwife with over 16 years of experience across all areas of midwifery.
She is passionate about safety, safeguarding and quality improvement in maternity care, which has been a thread throughout her career to date. The wide range of community and hospital-based positions she has held include ward manager, supervisor of midwives, safeguarding supervisor and patient safety team leader.
Using her skills in leadership and service development, in a previous role Amanda designed and implemented an infant feeding support programme, including recruitment of support workers and setting up infant feeding drop-in sessions to support new mothers. Amanda has completed the Lean for Leaders training programme at the Virginia Mason Institute.
Helen Smith
Maternity investigation team
Regional Lead for Maternity Investigations (North)
Helen is a qualified midwife passionate about delivering safe, personalised and evidence-based care.
She is an advocate for offering women an informed choice when it comes to maternity services. In her last role as a consultant midwife at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, Helen developed a birth choices clinic for women seeking care outside of usual clinical guidance – for example supporting women to plan a home birth when they don’t fit the usual low risk criteria to be offered this option. She has previously worked as a delivery suite coordinator and birth centre lead.
Helen holds an MSc in Advanced Practice and is a newborn infant physical examination (NIPE) trained midwife. She has also volunteered in Africa, where she worked with midwives and birth attendants to improve midwifery care.
Sian Blanchard
Senior management team
Head of Intelligence Unit
Sian joined HSIB in February 2021 as Head of the Intelligence Unit. She leads on developing and implementing the Intelligence Unit’s strategic plan and manages a team of specialists in safety intelligence, safety science and human factors.
The team advises on potential investigations that offer strong opportunities for system-wide learning and improvements in patient safety. Sian is a versatile safety risk management professional and has almost 20 years’ experience working in human factors, safety science, safety management and incident investigation.
She has worked at a senior level in commercial aviation, rail, defence and most recently healthcare, where she draws on her experience of other sectors to provide cross-industry insights.
She is registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council, the European Association of Aviation Psychology and the British Psychological Society, where she was awarded a Fellowship in 2019 for her contributions to aviation safety.
Cassandra Cameron
Senior management team
Head of Policy and Strategy
Cassandra joined HSIB in January 2019 as Head of Policy and Strategy.
She leads on developing HSIB’s external relationships with organisations across the health sector, our organisational strategy and our contribution to national policy for patient safety.
Prior to joining HSIB she was policy advisor at NHS Providers, focused on quality of care and mental health policy, and has also worked internationally in diplomacy and central government in Australia, Canada and the UK. Cassandra holds master’s degrees in organisational and occupational psychology, and political sociology. She is passionate about organisational culture, patient safety policy, human factors and just culture in healthcare.
Karl Heidel
Senior management team
Associate Director of Communications and Engagement
Karl has more than 25 years of experience in communications.
Initially he was a reporter and presenter working regionally and nationally for ITV news, and moving into communications and engagement for the NHS in 2009. He has worked in a national role for the NHS Sustainable Development Unit reducing the health service’s impact on the environment, and has led teams at Princess Alexandra Hospital and two mental health trusts in north London.
Karl has post graduate qualifications in public relations and healthcare communications. Throughout his career he has always ensured patient safety, patients and staff are the focus of health communications.
Maggie McKay
Senior management team
Associate Director of Finance and Performance
Maggie joined HSIB in 2018. She is an experienced accountant and has worked in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining HSIB she was financial controller at NHS Improvement and the NHS Trust Development Authority, and has also held finance roles at Brandon Hire, Butterfield Bank (Bermuda), Deloitte Bermuda and Relyon Group. Maggie is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Alison McLellan
Senior management team
Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion & Patient and Public Involvement
Alison has a background in languages including medical and technical translation.
Before joining the HSIB team, she worked in international development for many years in the field of maternal and child health and family planning, in the Arab World Region. Her projects also focused on the issues of female genital mutilation, unsafe abortion and rights of the girl child. In the NHS, Alison has senior level experience in safety and learning, risk management and governance.
Louise Pye
Senior management team
Head of Family Engagement
Before she joined HSIB, Lou served as an officer in the police force for 30 years.
During this time, and from its inception within the police service, she specialised in the field of family liaison This involved setting up and implementing the processes to work with families during serious and complex investigations.
She also managed a team of specially trained officers who worked with families following mass fatality incidents or complex investigations. Lou’s role was also responsible for training, advising, and supporting this are of work locally, regionally and nationally.
Lou was recognised for her work within family liaison in the Queens New Year Honours (2017)
Lou is pleased to be able to work towards ensuring meaningful family engagement is central to all HSIB investigations.
Dr Sean Weaver
Senior management team
Deputy Medical Director
Sean is Deputy Medical Director at HSIB alongside his role as a consultant gastroenterologist at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
At the Trust he’s had a lead role in quality and safety for six years. As part of his training he completed a PhD in molecular biology and as a consultant he’s completed the GenerationQ programme sponsored by the Health Foundation and gained a master’s in leadership. Sean is passionate about improving patient care.
Andrew Murphy-Pittock
Investigation education team
Head of Professional Education, Learning and Development
Prior to joining HSIB, Andrew was in the NHS for eight years. He held senior roles as Deputy Head of Learning and Head of Undergraduate Medical Education at a large NHS trust. His areas of particular interest lie in quality improvement, curriculum development and simulation.
Andrew holds postgraduate qualifications in healthcare leadership and professional management in higher education, and he’s nearing completion of his executive MBA studies. He is also a registered Project Management Professional.
Andrew believes that patient safety should be at the heart of all healthcare settings. He is passionate about learning for improvement by providing robust and effective education programmes, to build stronger and safer systems.
Before finding his niche in NHS education, Andrew had a successful career in travel, event and strategic management. He is a lifelong learner and still a proud member of the National Union of Students (NUS). His personal passion is for travel having lived and worked in France and Saudi Arabia.
Sophie Hide
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Sophie has a career that spans human factors and social sciences and has worked in both practitioner and research roles across a range of sectors.
She had a first career as a nurse, specialising in occupational health. This was followed by an MSc and, later, a PhD in ergonomics, with the focus of the latter on underlying systems failures in construction sector accidents.
Her roles have included applied studies for New Zealand Crown Research Institutes and government agencies, spanning construction, forestry and public health issues.
Ian Lavery
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Ian has a passion for quality investigative interviewing.
He has 40 years of investigation experience, with 36 of those years spanning a range of criminal and policing investigations including homicide and internal corruption. He also has investigative experience in the fields of HR, security, and compliance.
Ian first joined HSIB as a maternity investigator, and moved to his present role with us in August 2021.
He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.
Richard McMaster
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Richard is a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors (E/HF) specialist, with a particular interest in safety-critical systems. Richard has 17 years’ experience in research, teaching and leading applied projects within multiple safety-critical domains, including nuclear, defence and the emergency services. Richard divides his time between healthcare and nuclear consultancy work.
Mark Sujan
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Mark is a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist. He has been working in patient safety and other safety-critical industries for over 20 years.
He is a visiting academic at the University of Oxford and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. He is a Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF), which is the professional membership body for human factors in the UK, and he chairs the Institute’s special interest group on Digital Health & Artificial Intelligence. Mark is a Fellow of the Safety & Reliability Society (FSaRS), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and founding member of the Resilient Health Care Society.
Mark is co-author of “Building Safer Healthcare Systems”, which forms the basis for the national patient safety syllabus adopted by NHS England. He is also one of the co-developers of the CIEHF Healthcare Human Factors Learning Pathway offering accredited human factors training to healthcare professionals.
Mark is a deputy editor of BMJ Health & Care Informatics, and he is a member of the editorial board of Reliability Engineering & System Safety, Health Informatics Journal, and Human Factors in Healthcare.
Neill Thompson
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Neill Thompson is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and works as a Senior Lecturer in Occupational and Organisational Psychology at Northumbria University. He has consulted with organisations on policy, training and organisational development and has been involved in the areas of safety science and workplace bullying training to healthcare trust teams and through national programmes. Previously he has also worked in acute NHS trusts as an in-house occupational psychologist and in human resource management.
James Titcombe
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
James became involved in patent safety following the loss of his baby son Joshua due to failures in his care at the Morecambe Bay Trust in 2008.
Formerly a project manager in the nuclear industry, James has since worked as the National Advisor on Patient Safety for the Care Quality Commission.
As well as James’s role with HSIB, his current work includes Patient Safety consultant for the charity Baby Lifeline, Specialist Advisor to the Independent Investigation into East Kent Maternity Services, and Advisor on maternity safety for NHS England/Improvement.
Helen Vosper
Investigation education team
Senior Investigation Science Educator
Helen is a Chartered Human Factors specialist and an academic with professional recognition as a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Patient Safety at the University of Aberdeen, where she is responsible for working with staff to design, deliver and evaluate the patient safety strategy for medical and related programmes. Helen is also a Scientific Adviser to NHS Education for Scotland, supporting the development of both the education programme and a practical toolkit designed to support Human Factors activity across NHS Scotland.
Patrick Vernon
Citizens' Partnership
Chair
Patrick Vernon OBE is Chair of the Citizens' Partnership for HSIB.
He also holds the roles of Independent Non-Executive Director of Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) where he leads on inequalities, Non-Executive Director for Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, and Associate Director for Connected Communities for the Centre for Ageing Better. He is also a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, Fellow of Goodenough College, Fellow at Imperial War Museum, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and former Associate Fellow for the Department of History of Medicine at Warwick University. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work on tackling health inequalities and ethnic minority communities.
In 2018 he received an honorary PhD from Wolverhampton University and was selected as one of the 1000 Progressive Londoners by the Evening Standard. In 2019 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for campaigning and advocacy work by the SMK Foundation. In 2020 Patrick was selected by British Vogue as one of Britain’s top 20 campaigners and was included in the 2020 Power list of 100 influential Black People in Britain. In 2020 he was co-author of 100 Great Black Britons. In 2020 Patrick established the Majonzi Fund, which is providing small grants to families and community organisations to organise commemoration events for individuals from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities who have died of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Finally, Patrick is a broadcaster and writes blogs and articles for the national and international media on healthcare, cultural heritage, and race. In August 2021 Patrick was appointed by Wolverhampton University as Honorary Professor of Cultural Heritage and Community Leadership for the Institute for Community Research & Development (ICRD).
Jennifer Bostock
Citizens' Partnership
Member
Jennifer’s background in medical investigation lies in mental health, general practice and surgery. She is a former CQC Mental Health Act Commissioner (inspector), a Royal College of GPs Quality Assessor, GP Performance Assessor for an LLP, and originally a lay assessor for the Quality Outcomes Framework in primary care. She is currently Lay Assessor to the Royal College of Surgeons Invited Review Mechanism.
Outside investigation, Jennifer works in mental health law chairing an NHS Mental Health Act (MHA) Appeals Panel hearing appeals against detention under the MHA.
Her other primary role is in health research policy where she is the Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) Strategic Co-Lead for three Government policy research units. She sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Policy Research Unit in Behavioural Science. Her current work for the Quality and Safety Outcomes Policy Research Unit includes advising on the examination of the mechanisms to deal with medical negligence cases in England.
Jennifer is the Chair of the Public Advisory Group and the Ethics Lead for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service London. She is a former Vice Chair of an NHS Research Ethics Committee (REC) and current Co-Chair and training lead for a global REC (Save the Children). She sits on the Board of the NIHR School of Public Health Research and the International Strategic Advisory Board of the Cambridge University Public Health and Global Public Health research units where she is also PPI Lead and Chair of the WM Public Advisory Group. She is a member of the NIHR Covid College of Experts. She is also member of the Artificial Intelligence for Multiple Long-term Conditions Steering Group with the Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty. She is a former member of the National Advisory Group on Clinical Audit and Confidential Enquiries.
Academically Jennifer is a former Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Scholar and currently holds honorary contracts with the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Kent, and King’s College London (KCL) where she is an independent visiting lecturer to the KCL Medical School teaching psychiatric ethics.
Her health research academic outputs include co-authorship in 2018-2021 in the BMJ, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine. She is currently an Editorial Board member for the Wiley journal Health Expectations.
Paul Buckley
Citizens' Partnership
Member
Paul Buckley retired from the General Medical Council at the end of 2020 after 25 years with the organisation. His most recent role was Director of Strategy and Policy, where he focused on the alignment of professional and systems regulation, and on links between leadership culture and safety in healthcare.
Paul is now developing a non-executive career. In addition to his role with our Citizens’ Partnership, he is the independent chair of the Scope of Practice and Education Oversight committee for the counselling and psychotherapy professions, and a lay member and Trustee of the Council of the British Orthopaedic Association.
Maisie McKenzie
Citizens' Partnership
Member
Maisie's experiences as a carer for multiple family members with serious medical conditions led to an interest in public involvement and patient engagement.
She currently supports two of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) policy research units as a patient representative on its collaboration groups, which focus on data use in research and clinical trials and a number of Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) Health Data Research Hubs.
She is a member of 'use MY data', a movement of patients, carers and relatives which endeavours to highlight the benefits that appropriate usage of healthcare data can make to save lives and improve care, and is currently the only patient and public involvement and engagement representative on the Panel and Steering Group of the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care for England.
Maisie has worked in operational management, health promotion and disease prevention for the NHS in a non-clinical capacity and is an adult mental health first aid associate and trainer with Mental Health First Aid England.
Sarah Talbot-Williams
Citizens' Partnership
Member
Sarah has been a senior leader in the voluntary sector for more than 20 years, working as Chief Executive and formerly Director of Communications and Campaigning for a number of disability and health organisations.
She now splits her time between being a non-executive director in the NHS as an independent lay member championing patient and public engagement for the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, as a senior independent director for Bristol social housing association Brighter Places, and running her own charity consultancy in strategic and governance review and advice and executive mentoring working with a range of different charities and communities.
She has for many years been a chair and trustee on many different charities including Developing Health & Independence (DHI), working with people with substance misuse and being on a board committee for Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Charity. She is now Chair of Open Story Tellers, an arts organisation working with people with a learning disability, Vice Chair of Together for Short Lives, the children’s palliative care charity, and Vice Chair of One25, a Bristol charity working with street sex-workers and vulnerable women.
Placida Uzoamaka Ojinnaka
Citizens' Partnership
Member
Known as Uzoamaka, she is a non-practising solicitor who has been a member of the Lawyers with Disabilities Division (LDD) of the Law Society DD since 2004. She is involved with various disability-related organisations, raising issues concerning disabled people via social media.
She is a British-Nigerian woman with a disability who aspires because of her ability to SMILE & SHINE. She is also a social worker, disability and political activist, mediator and a former biomedical scientist. She is a former patient governor with Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust and was listed in the 2018 Power 100 List of the most influential disabled people in Britain by the Shaw Trust.
Currently a Council Member of the Law Society of England & Wales and volunteer for a leading national charity, Turn2Us, and member of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE).
In her spare time she writes poetry and follows Liverpool football club.
