Head of NHS Partnerships and Engagement / Impact Accelerator Unit Deputy Director
As Head of NHS Partnerships Helen works closely with Keele’s local, regional and national partners to drive forward high quality evidence based practice. A Keele graduate in 1990 Helen quickly joined the NHS in North Staffordshire, always enjoying a strong partnership with Keele to develop innovative clinical academic posts. As a NHS manager for over 15 years within primary and secondary care settings, Helen enjoyed a close working relationship with the Rheumatology team at the Haywood Hospital, and was Hospital Manager for Stoke Community Hospitals for 5 years.
Helen’s role is to support the Keele/NHS partnership in developing strategies to ensure engagement of NHS partners (patients, clinicians and managers) in all stages of our research from design, to implementation in everyday practice. As Deputy Director of Keele’s Impact Accelerator Unit, Helen is passionate about ensuring that the results of research can be implemented to support the most effective commissioning and provision of clinical services. Returning to Keele in 2011, Helen has enjoyed seeing Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire lead the way in implementing high quality research in practice. Within JIGSAW-E Helen role is to secure strategic engagement of all NHS partners including regional/national bodies, to see funding opportunities for the project and to support contracting/financial negotiations across all partnering bodies.