Health Equity Fellowship class of 24

My name is Claire Garrett and I am an inclusion health officer, a very exciting and new role in primary care. I work for City Health Care Partnership (CHCP) and have been with them since 2008.

I am extremely passionate about supporting patients who have health inequalities, especially in the primary care environment. I believe that no patients should have barriers into accessing primary care, or any healthcare, and that all patients (capacity depending) should be able to make informed decisions regarding their healthcare. In order to help patients make informative decisions, we need to stop putting up barriers and think outside of the norm

I am really looking forward to all the learning and networking, and to cascading my learning to my organisation on this programme.

Having completed my undergraduate and master’s degree in psychology at the University of York I became the research and intelligence officer for Healthwatch North Yorkshire at the end of 2021. In this role I conduct quantitative and qualitative research to gather patient experiences of health and social care services. I produce reports from this research and work with stakeholders to ensure the public’s voice is used to inform service delivery and strategy. 

I hold both a personal and organisational commitment to ensuring our work has the maximum impact on the communities we serve, particularly those facing health inequalities. I am therefore looking forward to undertaking the fellowship programme and having the opportunity to work on a project focused on reducing health inequalities and improving health outcomes.

My name is Jason, I am a public health lead for children, young people and families for Hull City Council. Within my current role I lead on the commissioning of public health services for children, young people and families in Hull, some of which are statutory services and others commissioned to meet local need.

I have worked in public health for nearly 20 years, in a variety of roles including health improvement, public protection and commissioning of public health services to meet local need. I am passionate about improving health outcomes for children, young people and families. 

I am also a mentor and assessor on the Public Health Practitioner Programme which allows me to support colleagues who are new to public health and share the skills I have gained throughout my time working in public health.

In my spare time I like spending time with my family, supporting my local rugby league team and taking part in open water swimming events.

Jenny has a background in the voluntary sector where she has worked at organisations including Citizens Advice and Age UK York. She has delivered a range of projects, including provision of benefits, debt and housing advice, and supporting people on discharge from hospital.

Now working at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Jenny has a particular interest in how family income affects health and access to healthcare services.

I am a community development officer and I love interventions that ensure community / human development. I have spent the last eighteen years of my professional life supporting human development in the areas of education, poverty eradication, human rights, and health. I spent the earlier part of my career in the charity sector, working on HIV/AIDS prevention, management and control. My roles involved capacity development of health practitioners and community volunteers, advocacy and effective communication, political engagement and awareness creation.

I later supported female genital cutting (FGC) prevention through awareness and sensitisation alongside community leaders and other stakeholders, including survivors of the act. At that point, I moved a step beyond the usual to direct and produce a 45 minute documentary about the myths and facts of FGC practices. It was also a good time for me to work more closely with people with lived experience of FGC, listen to their stories and perspectives and to influence my engagement at eradicating the practice. Such experience was very imperative to my zeal at creating awareness and improving on advocacy regarding FGC.

A few years ago, I had a role to support capacity development of medical practitioners on basic health care provision, as well as awareness creation among community members on available public and basic health services. Palladium International supported this. It was important to me because I had the opportunity to know more about the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of common public and basic health. A few months after this intervention, I had the privilege to lead a team of 35 people with varied technical background, on an integrated behavioural and biological surveillance survey, with the main objective of obtaining serological and critical behavioural information on key population including female sex workers, people who inject drugs, males who have sex with males, and transgender persons.

I work as a community development officer at Humber All Nations Alliance (HANA) where I relate with communities of people from diverse backgrounds to ensure they have a stronger voice that can influence authority’s decisions on issues affecting their development. I have passion for making lives better through the support I give to communities. I also bank staff with MIND as a mental health crisis assistant. I hold a Master’s in social work (community development) and gender and development respectively. I recently participated in a webinar on capacity building for implementing virtual demand creation and health service delivery, organised by fast response team, OPM United Kingdom.

My name is Nikki Moses and I live with my soon to be husband Mike. We have three beautiful children in our blended family. Mikey is 34, Harlie 20 and William will shortly turn 15. I am also mum to, two poochy babies, Olly and Henry. My hobbies are my family and being inspired by Masterchef to cook novel food concoctions for them, much to their annoyance at times.

Since August 2022 I have worked for the Alzheimer’s Society as a local services manager and am honored to work with such talented and passionate people. Supporting people affected by dementia or cognitive impairment is my specialism and my professional passion.         

In 2016, I achieved a lifelong goal of studying at university, spending three years at Hull, graduating with 2:1 (hons) in BSc psychology. I had all intentions of pursuing the clinical path but was swayed by the opportunity to study dementia with Hull at postgraduate level and in January 2022, graduated with MSc in dementia.

I have experience of working across the health and social care sector, working for a local authority for 24 years and more recently as a social prescriber for Modality PCN (primary care network), and then manager for the city’s homeless health team, where I worked with some inspirational people. This has motivated me to focus on adapting dementia support to people within the inclusion health populations and the professional and informal care networks around them.

My name is Laura Inglis and I currently work as interim matron for planned care including district nurses, bladder and bowel services, phlebotomy and community nursing hub for Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust. I am very committed and enthusiastic about community and therapy services. My drive is to lead and help shape the future of planned community nursing service. I feel it is a diverse and challenging role which allows me to build upon excellent working relationships with other members of the community to improve standards and quality of patient care and provide a service inclusive to all. I am passionate about delivering high standards of care and driving community nursing standards forward. I would like the opportunity to undertake the fellowship and develop new skills to improve public health and reduce health inequalities in North Lincolnshire.

Health inequalities are complex and can be seen throughout North Lincolnshire. I have had the opportunity of working with different groups of society, acting as an advocate and delivering nursing care to those in our area for the last 22 years. I qualified as a nurse in 2002 and have worked for NLAG for 20 years as a community nurse, district nurse and team lead.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to deliver care to the homeless and network with local charities and North Lincolnshire Council to try and improve my knowledge of service provision within our area and understand the significant gaps in service provision and access to NHS services which should be accessible to all.

My name is Tess and currently I am partnerships and strategy officer at Humber Teaching Foundation Trust where I am co-ordinating a programme of activity regarding health inequalities across the trust. My role is varied and some of my work includes supporting staff and teams, working with corporate colleagues to ensure that health inequalities have been considered in all aspects of our work, and developing relationships with community partner organisations.

A combination of work and life experiences brought me to apply for this fellowship programme. After university, I worked for many years in the voluntary sector where I held a variety of roles from being a frontline mental health practitioner to being a senior leader of mental health, criminal justice, housing and community services across North and West Yorkshire.

This has allowed me to develop a significant amount of experience in co-production and working collaboratively with communities and individuals with lived experience. I have seen the positive change these relationships can make to services and the wider system, and the potential to address health inequalities. My experiences of working closely with marginalised communities and complex cohorts deepened my understanding and passion for ensuring the health and social care system responds to needs accordingly.

I am also passionate about ensuring the workforce is equipped with the skills and support it needs to achieve strategic ambitions. My leadership experiences have increased my understanding of how to engage, develop and support the workforce to navigate and address such complex issues.

I’m Megan McGonagle and I’m the Poverty and Health Inequalities Champion at Nimbuscare in York. I have a real interest in health inequalities which grew through my time studying at university. I look forward to the opportunity to learn further through the Humber and North Yorkshire Health Fellowship Programme and make a difference through my chosen project.

My name is Gail Baines and I have worked in the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in Hull since 2014, prior to that I worked in both health and education. My roles in the VCSE have included managing Healthwatch Hull and community navigation services as well as overseeing the Forum Community engagement team. In all of these areas I have seen the range and impact of health inequalities in Hull.

In my current role I oversee the social prescribing element of our work, including both the city-wide community navigation service and Primary Care Link workers within PCN’s. During covid I established the Hull Social Prescribing network to bring together all social prescribers within the city. This network gives opportunities for peer support within the city as well as sharing information about training, opportunities and organisations ensuring we have a comparable level of social prescribing service across the city.

I have recently managed the development of a community engagement team whose primary function is to work with communities and trusted leaders to identify ways to improve community engagement across the city. This has resulted in new ways of engaging with communities who have previously been underserved or labelled ‘hard to engage’.

I have been involved in projects which have considered environmental and social factors to tackle health inequities. My time working within education gave me the opportunity to work with children and learn how they saw the city, how it worked for them and how things could be changed for the better. 

I was born in Hull and have always lived in the local area. I think this is the reason I am so passionate about Hull as a city, its history, heritage and future, and how we can work with the people of Hull to improve our environment as well as improve individual health and wellbeing.

I am the health inequalities lead at Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance. This is a new role and my remit is to work alongside colleagues in population health, primary, secondary, voluntary and community care to ensure that we recognise the health inequalities that exist in Humber and North Yorkshire for people with a cancer diagnosis, and for those who are at risk of developing the disease. 

I’m passionate about reducing the health inequalities that our communities and populations face. I have lived in and worked with communities across this region for several years. My role is to ensure that those who have lived experienced of inequalities in their lives, in their cancer diagnosis and in their treatment pathways, are heard. That their experience is utilised to design and build services that are inclusive and responsive to the needs of those who are most vulnerable. The role involves collaboration with colleagues across the integrated care system (ICS) and nationally, to ensure that we weave consideration of Health Inequalities into everything that we do.

I am an NHS manager with extensive experience working in acute care in the Humber and North Yorkshire area. I am looking forward to the challenge of the Health Fellowship Programme and to learn skills that will help facilitate change on a regional scale. 

I currently work on the Cancer Champions Programme to raise awareness across our population of the signs and symptoms of cancer and the importance and uptake of cancer screening to aid early diagnosis. Ways in which the Cancer Champions Programme works include through the delivery of face-to-face and virtual awareness sessions, and amplifying national campaign messaging. The awareness sessions are delivered to a variety of people and organisations.

I am looking to utilise the skills and knowledge gained through this fellowship to transform the way people with a learning disability or a physical disability can recognise the signs and symptoms of cancer and access cancer screening.