Senior Leadership Team

I have the best job in the world! My role is a combination of leading and developing a centre of excellence for cerebral palsy and working regularly as a physiotherapist with children and families, using my Bobath clinical reasoning skills to understanding how to promote and maintain children’s participation in life roles.

I have worked for Cerebral Palsy Cymru (formerly Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre Wales) since 1998. Every day is different and usually exciting! The rate of change here is always rapid. We are continually looking towards the future, whether that is for individuals and their families, the population in Wales living with cerebral palsy, or our centre.

Before joining Cerebral Palsy Cymru I worked in the NHS, as a clinician and eventually managing a Health Authority wide physiotherapy, Limb fitting and Orthotics service for Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust. I have always been interested in service development and patient involvement and led our physiotherapy department to be the first to receive the UK Governments Charter Mark.

I have always felt it important to contribute broadly and in doing so have held a variety of extended professional roles including Chair of the Birmingham branch of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy; Treasurer of EACD (for 7 years); Member of the British Association of Bobath Trained Therapists’ (BABTT) National Committee (22 years); BABTT Newsletter editor (10 years). I am currently a member of the International Alliance of Academies of Childhood Disability’s Global Professional Education Committee with a particular mandate for their Knowledge Hub.

It is important to be forward looking and strategic in how we support individuals living with cerebral palsy and this has led me to become Co-Leader of a project developing a Cerebral Palsy Register for Wales.

My job comes with huge privileges, particularly; working with the children and families; working with our fantastic community colleagues across the NHS in Wales; working with our amazing supporters and absolutely the best team ever in Cerebral Palsy Cymru!

I felt very privileged to be asked to consider being therapy manager at Cerebral Palsy Cymru in 2016. Knowing about the amazing work and fabulous therapy team, it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. I am part of a team, whose commitment to the children in Wales who have cerebral palsy is steadfast and passionate. There is always a striving for improving the service we deliver so that the children and their families we work with benefit from what we learn.

I worked, as a community physiotherapist in Bristol for many years, with children with disabilities, seeing them at home and school. I had particular interests in hydrotherapy, plastering and orthotics, bike group and helping to develop a more child and family-centred service. I also spent many years doing on-call and weekend work at Bristol Children’s Hospital. The knowledge and experience I gained working as a community physiotherapist has stood me in good stead, now that I am working here.

My average week at Cerebral Palsy Cymru is never boring; working with my colleagues, seeing children and their families is always a highlight. Working with the management team in taking the centre forward is interesting and inspiring.

There are so many positives working at Cerebral Palsy Cymru, not least the ethos that the children and their families are at the centre of everything we do; and that there is a strong, dynamic team  to support this.

I love my job for many reasons but primarily because I know that our fundraising and retail activities help to make a real difference to children and families living with cerebral palsy and because I get to work with the most dynamic, supportive and can-do team!

Before I joined Cerebral Palsy Cymru in early June 2017, I spent 13 years working in various strategic fundraising roles in large organisations across the Public, Higher Education and Third Sectors. I am fortunate to have enjoyed every role I have held during my career, but being a part of the Cerebral Palsy Cymru team makes me incredibly proud.

In the 3 years that I have been lucky enough to be a part of the charity, I can safely say no two days have been the same. And I love the variety too! One minute I’m working with colleagues to submit a new grant application, organise a large event or support a new corporate partnership, the next I’m problem-solving with our shops’ team as we navigate the complex but fascinating world that is charity retail.

Across the Income Generation team, we have a big responsibility – to maintain and keep growing our funding. Since Cerebral Palsy Cymru was established, public and philanthropic support has always been vital; today it equates to approximately 80% of our income or about £1.3M of the £1.6M we need to raise to continue supporting children and families each year.

The challenges of securing reliable, sustainable income are significant and constant when you work in a small charity like ours, but there is no greater feeling than when you hear that, thanks to a donation, many children have been able to achieve more than their parents ever imagined they would, because they have received our specialist services.

We have big, bold ambitions for the future. We are determined to be there for every child and family who needs us. This will be a huge challenge, but one which I firmly believe this special charity can achieve, just as our Founding Parents overcame all the odds to create a Centre for Wales in 1992.

There is no better motivation to “stay calm and carry on fundraising”, which is our team motto!

I started at Cerebral Palsy Cymru just over a year ago and can honestly say that I really enjoy my job!  It is great to work for a charity, knowing that all my hard work is going towards a good cause, rather than just making profits for shareholders. 

I have worked as a management accountant for almost all my working life and I love that I can use the skills and experience that I have gained over the past 20 years for the benefit of others. Cerebral Palsy Cymru is a great charity to work for – it is still small enough that I can be involved in lots of different aspects of the organisation, but also large enough to make an impact on the national decision making around cerebral palsy in Wales.

My day-to-day job here is very varied and can range from standard tasks such as the creation and review of the monthly accounts to ongoing tasks such as looking at and implementing process improvements to one-off tasks such as analysing the potential costs for new training courses or project work on the purchase and renovation of a new building. Safe to say, therefore, that here finance isn’t all about numbers and there is certainly no time to be bored!