Steering group
Our steering group helps guide the direction of the Mental Health Social Care Incubator. It is made up of people connected to mental health social care in a variety of ways. These include lived experience representatives, third sector representatives, academics, local and national policy makers, representatives from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and representatives from the Association of Mental Health Providers.
Read more about our steering group members below.
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Prof Catherine Robinson | Dr Michael Clark | Prof Frank Keating | Linda Bryant | Karen Machin | André Tomlin | Humaira Abbas | Dr Anne Krayer | Prof Yemisi Takwoingi | Dr Paul Campbell | Ryan Cowley-Sharp | Dr Dan Allen | Rebecca Gardner | Robert Lewis | Jason Brandon | Louise Blakley | Dr Ruth Allen | Adam O’Neill | Alice Draisey | Sioned Davies | Claire Ashmore
Prof Catherine Robinson
Professor of Social Care Research
The University of Manchester
Catherine is a Professor of Social Care Research and the Director of Social Care and Society at The University of Manchester. She is passionate about developing strong and sustainable careers, and is supervisor and mentor to a number of emerging research leaders and early career researchers.
Her research interests have centred on the interface between health care and social care, family care, mental health social care, and self-harm and suicide.
Catherine is the social care research lead for several infrastructure initiatives, including the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Greater Manchester and the NIHR Patient Safety and Research Collaborative. She is the academic lead of the newly formed NIHR Specialist Social Care Centre as part of the Lancaster University and Partners NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Hub.
View Catherine’s research profile (University of Manchester)
Dr Michael Clark
Associate Professorial Research Fellow and Research Programme Manager, NIHR SSCR London School of Economics
Mike is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He has worked at the interface of research-policy-practice for over 20 years at local, regional, and national levels. His research interests include mental health, dementia, homelessness and public involvement in research.
Mike has supported many researchers in social care to develop their research interests and careers. He is the managing editor of the Journal of Long-term Care and a member of the board for the ENMESH mental health research network.
View Mike’s research profile (London School of Economics)
Prof Frank Keating
Royal Holloway University of London
Frank Keating is a Professor of Social Work and Mental Health in the Department of Law and Criminology at Royal Holloway University of London. His main research interests are ethnicity, gender, ageing and mental health, particularly focusing on African and Caribbean communities.
He is currently a co-investigator on a multi-method study (funded by NIHR) to investigate the experiences of people living with psychosis and other physical health conditions, with emphasis on those who are marginalised such as racialised communities.
Frank is a strong advocate for racial equality in mental health services through his writing, teaching and public speaking.
View Frank’s research profile (Royal Holloway University of London)
X: @FrankKeating7
Linda Bryant
Chief Executive Officer
Together for Mental Well Being
With a background as a Forensic Psychologist, Linda has a 30-year history of working in the voluntary and community sector. She joined Together for Mental Wellbeing as a frontline practitioner within their criminal justice mental health services and was appointed Chief Executive in 2018.
She has held a number of additional advisory roles over recent years and is also a trustee of the Association of Mental Health Providers, the national voice of mental health social care charities providing services in England and Wales.
View Linda’s profile (LinkedIn)
X: @LindaBryantTMW
Karen Machin
Co-Director, Survivor Researcher Network CIC and With-you Consultancy
Karen Machin is a lived experience researcher who works freelance across several universities, including the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit.
She is the co-director of the SRN (Survivor Researcher Network), with a focus on building capacity for survivor research, and for With-you, which has been nationally commissioned by NHS England to deliver training for peer-support workers and their supervisors.
View Karen’s profile (LinkedIn)
André Tomlin
Founder, The Mental Elf
André Tomlin is an information scientist with 30 years’ experience working in evidence-based healthcare. He has worked in the NHS, for Oxford University and, since 2002, as Managing Director of Minervation Ltd, an evidence-based consultancy working with charities, universities and the public sector.
André is the driving force behind the Mental Elf, an innovative digital platform that helps professionals keep up to date with simple, clear and engaging summaries of mental health research. André is a Trustee at the Centre for Mental Health.
View Andre’s profile (LinkedIn)
View Mental Elf profile (LinkedIn)
View Mental Elf profile (Bluesky)
Humaira Abbas
NIHR Senior Programme Manager
Humaira provides support to the Incubator in Mental Health Social Care, and is the direct link between the Incubator and the NIHR.
Dr Anne Krayer
Senior Fellow
Centre for Mental Health and Society (CFMHAS), at Bangor University
Anne is interested in in how health and social care services can work together better to support people with lived experience of mental health illness and their families and communities.
Anne’s expertise is in qualitative research methods, and facilitating meaningful involvement of people with lived experience of mental health illness and their families in developing, delivering and disseminating research.
She is currently working in the area of self-harm and suicide with colleagues from the CFMHAS.
View Anne’s research profile (Bangor University)
Prof Yemisi Takwoingi
Head, Department of Applied Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Health, University of Birmingham
Yemisi is a biostatistician/methodologist with an interest in test evaluation spanning early phase evaluation of diagnostics through to clinical studies and evidence synthesis to inform guideline development across a range of clinical areas.
She also has an interest in research equity and is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the NIHR Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration.
Yemisi is passionate about ‘people and culture’. She leads the NIHR supported Race Equity and Diversity in Careers Incubator to support the careers of racially minoritised health and care researchers, and is the Capacity Development Lead for the NIHR West Midlands Evidence Synthesis Group.
View Yemisi’s research profile (University of Birmingham)
Dr Paul Campbell
Senior Researcher, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT)
Honorary Reader, Keele University
Dr Paul Campbell is a psychologist by background and completed his PhD (Psychiatry) at the University of Birmingham in 2005. He currently holds the position of Senior Researcher within the Research and Innovation Department at MPFT, and is an Honorary Reader at the School of Medicine at Keele University.
Paul is an established researcher who has led funded programmes of research across primary care (musculoskeletal health), dementia, social care, and public health. Paul’s current work involves supporting the engagement of practitioners from social care and public health (MPFT and partner Local Authorities) to ensure the continued development of evidence based/informed practice in these sectors.
Paul is also a Senior Research Fellow within the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands as part of the DEMCARE programme, which is a programme of research to understand the role of social care practice for those living with dementia.
View Paul’s university profile (Keele University)
View Paul’s research profile (ResearchGate)
Ryan Cowley-Sharp
Director of Social Work
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust
Ryan Cowley-Sharp is an Associate Director of social work at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust. He is passionate about developing research capacity for professional in practice. Ryan’s research interests have centred on the mental health care and social care, mental health social care, and social work professional identity. Ryan held an NIHR practice based leadership award and has been involved in a number of studies in this area.
View Ryan Profile (LinkedIn)
Dr Dan Allen
Principal Lecturer in Social Work
Liverpool Hope University
Dr Allen is a social work academic with over 20 years of experience working to improve social care services with Romani and Traveller families. He has published widely on this topic and presented his research at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the House of Lords, the Welsh Assembly and national and international conferences.
Dr Allen is particularly interested in examining the intersection of power relations, prejudice and reflexivity, and the impact of governmentality, subjectivities, and ethics on the translocational positionality of professional conduct.
Developing a perspective that combines concepts of eco-social justice and structural social work, Dr Allen examines discursive mechanisms and questions of why, how and so what in the context of dominant discourses affecting regimes of practice at individual, cultural, and societal levels.
In 2022, Dr Allen’s research paper ‘Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children in Child Welfare Services in England’, written with Victoria Hamnett, won the annual Kay McDougall British Journal of Social Work Prize for its breadth of scholarship, the sophistication of theory, rigour, relevance and international appeal.
View Dan’s profile (Liverpool Hope University)
Rebecca Gardner
Sandwell African Caribbean Charity
I have a demonstrated history of working with both adults and children in social care for over 20 years. I have worked regionally in various roles from practice supervisor, project manager, and organisational safeguarding lead, supporting some of the most vulnerable in our society. Over the last 5 years I have focussed on the voluntary care sector with a particular interest in mental health and the impact on individuals from racialised communities. I am a Mental Health First Aider and Practice placement Supervisor managing multiple social work, mental health nursing and occupational therapist BA and MA students. I have also managed multiple partnerships and delivered substantial outcomes with organisations such as the University of Wolverhampton and the Race Equality Foundation.
At Sandwell African Caribbean Mental Health Foundation, we are committed to providing a quality service for black African, black Caribbean and mixed heritage people suffering from mental ill health. I am passionate about mental health and hold both a personal and professional interest in racial disparity and the inequalities of successful opportunities and outcomes from services for global majority individuals.
View Rebecca Profile (LinkedIn)
Robert Lewis
Mental Health Social Work Lead, Office of the Chief Social Worker
Robert Lewis is the Mental Health Social Work Lead in the Office of the Chief Social Worker for Adults, DHSC. He has over 30 years of frontline experience across many social and health care settings, including in statutory mental health services, as well as in further and higher education, and the VCSE and private sectors.
Before taking up his current role, Robert was an AMHP Service Manager and Co-Chair of the National AMHP Leads Network, working regularly with DHSC, ADASS, LGA, NHSE and many others on developing the best practice and promoting system change. He was the lead author of the National AMHP Service Standards and involved throughout the MHA Review, helping develop the Nominated Person concept and providing verbal and written evidence to Parliament on legislative reform. He is keen to promote anti-racist practice and the section 13 agenda, aimed at reducing the use of compulsion through person-centred practice and system change.
View Robert’s Profile (LinkedIn)
Jason Brandon
Assistant Director and Principal Social Worker, Adults Health and Health
Hampshire County Council
Jason has been a registered social worker since 1998, having worked in a variety of social care and advocacy roles primarily with younger adults in need of care and support for their mental health, learning disability and physical disability across health, local authority and the voluntary sector.
Jason has provided senior professional leadership and management within integrated health and social care service arrangements with technical expertise in mental health legislation. More recently, he was seconded into the mental health social work lead role within the Office of the Chief Social Worker, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which concluded in May 2024.
Louise Blakley
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS foundation trust and University College London
Louise’s professional background is as a social worker and Approved Mental Health Professional. Inspired by a lack of evidence around what good practice looks like in Mental Health Act assessments, she has since embarked on a career in research. With a team of peer researchers, she led the first published exploration of service user experience of Mental Health Act assessments, and has been successful in securing research funding via multiple sources. She is also the first social worker working in health to be awarded the prestigious NIHR doctoral fellowship starting in October 2024.
Having come to research via a “non-traditional” route, Louise is dedicated to sharing the benefits of being a practitioner and doing research, as well as guiding mental health social care practitioners with interests in research. She currently supports two mental health social care workers with their research career. She has also lectured trainee AMHPs about the research findings and is a co-editor for the Critical AMHP Blog.
Dr Ruth Allen
President International Federation of Social Workers – Europe
Dr Ruth Allen is the President of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) in Europe, coordinating, developing and leading the network of social work member associations across the region. She works on multi-country funded research projects and international professional development.
She was Chief Executive of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) 2016 – 2025. She also represents IFSW and is an elected leader within the Council of Europe’s International NGO section (CINGO)
Previously, Ruth was Director of Social Work at South West London & St Georges’ Mental Health NHS Trust, a researcher with St George’s University of London, and Director of Social Care at Hertfordshire Mental Health NHS Trust.
She started her social work career in 1994 as a practitioner and latterly a manager in integrated health, social care and homelessness services. She has held a range of practice, development, leadership and policy roles. Her professional social work career, including writing and national policy work, has focused particularly on rights, social justice and self-determination in mental health and related fields.
Dr Allen holds a BA Hons in Geography from Oxford. She holds a master’s degree in Social Work and a professional doctorate in Professional Education from the University of Sussex, and a postgraduate diploma in Applied Systemic Practice. She is currently undertaking training in leadership coaching
View Ruth’s profile (LinkedIn)
Adam O’Neill
Researcher
The University of Manchester
Adam is an early career researcher with a background in health and social care research in criminal justice settings and mental health interventions.
He is currently completing a PhD in clinical psychology within the Biomedical Research Centre and Patient Safety Research Collaboration at The University of Manchester, examining the interplay between sleep, dissociation, and suicide-related outcomes in people with schizophrenia and how they impact on patient safety within mental health services.
Alice Draisey
Early Career Researcher
Alice cares deeply about bringing together mental health social care, research, and policy to help services work better for the people who use them. She has collaborated with a range of organisations to shape, evidence, and reimagine support services.
Most recently, she led on policy and research at Think Ahead, evidencing the essential role of mental health social workers within NHS Trusts and Local Authorities. Prior to that, she led on research and policy at the housing and support charity Jimmy’s, contributing to initiatives that supported people facing housing insecurity. Her work includes co-producing research on peer-led substance misuse support for carers and the role of mental health professionals in housing support services.
Sioned Davies
Project Manager
The University of Manchester
Sioned is an experienced project manager who has worked for over 30 years to support and optimise research activity in universities.
She has successfully managed various research groups, as well as national and international projects in mental health social care, including Social Care and Society at The University of Manchester, and the South Asia Self Harm Initiative (SASHI) project.
Sioned has also supported people transitioning into research and/or academic pursuits in various administrative roles with Bangor University. She will manage the day-to-day operations of the Incubator and associated activities, as well as leading on communications and providing financial and secretariat support.
Alongside this role, Sioned serves as Business Support Manager for the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Claire Ashmore
Programme Manager, Three NIHR Research Schools’ Mental Health Programme
Claire has an extensive range of transferable skills developed during over 30 years of working within the NHS and higher education sector, with particular experience in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology and primary care.
She is currently the Programme Manager for the Three NIHR Research Schools’ Mental Health Programme.
