Webinar: Is the NHS ready for the winter?

Anita Charlesworth is the Director of Research and the REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term) at the Health Foundation, and Honorary Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham. 

Anita is a health economist and has a background in government and public policy. Before joining the Health Foundation in May 2014, she was Chief Economist at the Nuffield Trust from 2010–14, where she led the Trust’s work on health care financing and market mechanisms. Prior to that she had roles as Chief Analyst and Chief Scientific Advisor at DCMS (2007–10), Director of Public Spending at the Treasury (1998–2007), and worked as an Economic Advisor at the Department of Health and for SmithKline Beecham pharmaceuticals. 

She has worked as a non-executive director in the NHS – for Islington PCT (2007–2011) and The Whittington Hospital (2011–2016). 

Anita was specialist advisor to the House of Lords' Select Committee on the long-term sustainability of the NHS in 2016/17, and has recently been appointed as an expert adviser for the Health and Social Care Select Committee and also sits on the expert and advisory panel for the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid. Anita is Chair of the OHE Policy Committee (2020) and is also a Commissioner for The Lancet Global Health Commission on Financing Primary Health Care. 

Anita has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. She is a Trustee for Tommy’s, the baby charity, and also a Trustee for the Office of Health Economics. She was awarded a CBE in The Queen's 2017 Birthday Honours List for Services to Economics and Health Policy.

Dr Amar Shah is consultant forensic psychiatrist & chief quality officer at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT). He leads at executive and board level at ELFT on quality, performance, strategy, planning and business intelligence. Amar has led the approach to quality at ELFT for the past 10 years, and has embedded a large-scale quality improvement infrastructure and quality management system, with demonstrable results across key areas of organisational performance.

He is the national improvement lead for mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, leading a number of large-scale improvement collaboratives on topics such as restrictive practice, sexual safety, workforce wellbeing and equalities.

Amar is the chair of the quality reference group at NHS Providers, and a member of the reference group for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. He is a council member for the Healthcare Costing for Value Institute.

Amar is an improvement advisor and faculty member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, teaching and guiding improvers and healthcare systems across the world. He is honorary visiting professor at City University (London) and the University of Leicester. Amar has completed an executive MBA in healthcare management, a masters in mental health law and a postgraduate certificate in medical education. Amar is a regular national and international keynote speaker at healthcare improvement conferences and has published over 40 peer-review articles in the field of quality management.

Hazel is currently Director of Adult Social Care Improvement for Partners in Care and Health (a partnership between ADASS and the LGA. Hazel has worked as an Advisor in the North West for the past 4 years and previously was the DASS at Manchester City Council. Hazel loves football and is enjoying the World Cup (so far!).

Gemma is Chief Economist at the Institute for Government. She leads the Institute’s work on public finances and contributes to economics-related work across the Institute. Gemma is a regular commentator on the radio and television – including BBC Radio 4, Times Radio, ITV News and Sky News – and in the print media.

Gemma has a PhD in economics. She started her career as a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, eventually being promoted to lead its work on public finances and pensions. After that, she joined the Financial Times as economics correspondent, reporting on UK and global economic developments, before joining IfG in 2018.

She also serves as an ONS Fellow, helping the UK’s national statistics authority to transform and improve its economic statistics, and sits on the advisory boards for the CAGE research centre at Warwick University and the Centre for Microsocial Change (MiSoC) at the University of Essex.

Ruth Thorlby joined the Health Foundation in February 2017 as Assistant Director (Policy).

Before joining the Health Foundation, Ruth was Deputy Director of Policy at the Nuffield Trust, where she worked on a range of research and policy analysis, including a study of the impact of the Francis Report on acute hospitals; an evaluation of using volunteers to reduce older people’s risk of emergency admission from hospital and the access and quality of social care for older adults.

Prior to the Nuffield Trust, Ruth worked at the King’s Fund, looking at the impact of NHS reform on the quality of services, and inequalities in access to care. In 2008-2009 she was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice, based at Harvard Medical School, where she conducted research on the use of race and ethnicity data to improve the quality of care.

Ruth spent fifteen years as a broadcast journalist at the BBC World Service, before leaving to do an MSc in Social Policy at the London School of Economics.