Connected Together CIC
Kate Holt
Chief Executive Officer
Kate has both Institute of Management and Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications. She has had a diverse working background, most recently in banking commercial services. Prior to this Kate was the Business Manager for the Peer Clearing House at the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and Chief Officer of Huntingdon Community Health Council, monitoring the NHS on behalf of the public.
Julie Curtis
Personal Assistant
Julie is the Personal Assistant to Kate Holt and supports the Connected Together CIC team. She has had a longstanding interest within the health and social care sector and has held various administrative positions which include working at Northampton General Hospital, a local GP surgery, Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust, and Northamptonshire County Council for the Safeguarding and Care Planning Team. Prior to joining CTCIC, Julie worked for a number of years within the mental health sector as a Mental Health Act Administrator at a local mental health rehabilitation hospital and also at St Andrew’s Healthcare Northampton as Clinical Secretary.
Jo Spenceley
PhD, CMRS – Research and Communications Manager
Jo leads CTCIC’s research into the patient, service user, carer and general public experiences and views of the health and social care sector in the county and ensures that this research is reported and shared so that it contributes to improving health and social care. She also oversees Healthwatch’s monitoring of services, the collection of intelligence from other sources and communications. Jo is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society.
Natasha Mansukhani
MSc – Research, Reporting and Intelligence Assistant
As Research, Reporting and Intelligence Assistant for Healthwatch, Natasha assists the team to collect, analyse and report on the views and experiences of patients, services users, carers and the public. Natasha holds a degree in Psychology and an MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Prior to joining Connected Together CIC, Natasha worked for Connexions – a youth service that provided information, advice and support to young people, aiming to reduce youth unemployment. Natasha has also worked as a Research Assistant at The Centre for Children and Youth (The University of Northampton) following graduation from her Master’s Degree, where there was the opportunity to support the team with a number of projects and contribute to publications. Projects she was involved in examined volunteering experiences, youth clubs and An Equality Impact Assessment.
Lauren Gibbons
Communications Apprentice
Lauren is responsible for the social media and website communication for Healthwatch Northamptonshire and Connected Together as a Digital Marketing Apprentice. Lauren studied Level 3 Journalism and PR at Northampton College while gaining further industry experience at Inspiration FM. The volunteer work for the station allowed her to be creative with digital and audio content while attending live events on behalf of the station to further promote their values of diversity and inclusion. Lauren chose to take on a Digital Marketing apprenticeship over University for more industry experience.
Simon Barter
Business Development and Communications
Simon has held senior marketing and communication positions with major organisations for over 30 years. He was lately Communications Director at Carewatch Care Services, the national home care company. Simon is now a consultant and offers voluntary communications support to Connected Together, the Dementia Action Alliance and Oakfield Community.
Healthwatch Northamptonshire
Becky Calcraft
PhD, CMRS – Healthwatch Northamptonshire Manager
Becky is responsible for staff management and representing Healthwatch Northamptonshire in meetings with other organisations, the board and volunteers. Becky has a long-standing interest in community and wellbeing. Prior to joining Healthwatch Northamptonshire Becky worked for a voluntary organisation, co-ordinating befriending and social support activities for isolated older people. She has experience in community development work and led a community garden project for parents with young children. Becky has a PhD in social policy and worked as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Work at the University of Nottingham, researching the issue of whistleblowing in services for adults with learning disabilities. She also has experience as a social worker and care homes inspector and taught on health and social care courses for the Open University for 10 years.
Esther Stimpson
Projects, Consultations and Engagement
Esther is the lead Healthwatch officer for projects and engagement in Northamptonshire. Esther trained with the National Childbirth Trust to become a Pregnancy Birth and Beyond Practitioner and has been involved in healthcare in Northamptonshire for a number of years. She was previously the Co-Chair of Northamptonshire Breastfeeding Alliance (NBA). While in this role she has attended many meetings regarding children and families in the county and helped to raise funds to keep vital services open. Esther has also previously worked as a Youth Worker in rural Northamptonshire.
Healthwatch Rutland
Tracey
Healthwatch Rutland Manager
Tracy’s working background has been very varied, ranging from project and team management roles in large computing and telecommunications corporations to setting up and running small internet-based businesses. As office manager in a small Healthwatch, she pretty much gets involved in every activity from communication and marketing through events planning, signposting, general office support and helping people to access local health and social care services. Do you have feedback on your experience of local health and social care services? Would you like to become a member of Healthwatch Rutland and receive regular information updates to your inbox? She’d love to hear from you!
Leila Mars
Healthwatch Rutland Officer
Leila is Healthwatch Rutland’s new Officer and lead for Young Healthwatch Rutland. She brings with her a wealth of experience in the NHS and with community organisations ranging from Family Centres to mental health drop-ins. As a Qualified NHS Health Trainer and Expert Patient Programme facilitator, Leila has managed health promotion and improvement across the boroughs of London specialising in hard-to-reach groups. Over the past ten years, Leila has qualified as a Health and Social Care teacher and consulted organisations on Health and Social Care. Her Masters is in Project Management design in the public sector and she hopes to complete a PHD in Service Design by 2022.
