Who’s who at Association for Real Change?

Quick Links to Departments:

Association for Real Change UK

Jacqueline Bell, Chief Executive Officer

Jacqueline Bell was appointed CEO of Association for Real Change in April 2012 and has also taken her seat on the Skills for Care Board.

She has worked at a senior level in the third sector for nearly 10 years. Formerly, she was CEO of Cardiff’s Third Sector Council, Newcastle CVS and Nottinghamshire Action for Voluntary Organisations.

Before reaching CEO level Jacqueline worked within Third Sector Local Infrastructure at the South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau. Her responsibilities and influence grew as she progressed in her career within English Local Authorities in the North East and Nottinghamshire, where she developed strategic statutory and Third Sector partnerships.

As one of the first cohorts trained in the UK by the International Association for Public Participation her commitment in encouraging value strength within organisations fits well with where Association for Real Change has come from and where we intend it to be.

 

Association for Real Change Scotland

James Fletcher, Director

Click here for details of the Scotland Team

Association for Real Change Northern Ireland

Jacquie Richardson, Director

Click here for details of the Northern Ireland Team

 

Association for Real Change Cymru

Jacqueline Bell, CEO

Cymru website

Head Office

Nancy Benn, PA to CEO and Chair

Hello, I’m Nancy Benn and I’ve worked part-time for Association for Real Change since spring 2010. As PA to both the Chief Executive, Jacqueline Bell and the Chair of our Board, Tina Fahm, I’m kept very busy managing their diaries; organising meetings; taking, typing and distributing minutes; arranging travel and supporting with any other general secretarial or admin jobs that may crop up.

Liz Soames, Administrator/Receptionist

I work on reception and I have been at Association for Real Change for over 10 years. As well as my reception duties, which include answering the main switchboard phone and greeting visitors, I help with the day-to-day running of the general office. I also work in the CRB department (now Disclosure and Barring Service) part time helping to check application forms, send out certificates and deal with queries. I take bookings for events and am also undertaking the administration for the Active Support project Creating an Ordinary Life and the Here To Stay project.

Membership and Information

Yvonne Furze, Membership and Information Manager

My new role with Association for Real Change is Membership and Information Manager.  I manage the staff involved in producing the various information sources offered to members.  These include Insight, Members’ Newsletter and Briefings. We source information on a daily basis to give you the most up to date insight into what’s going on outside of Association for Real Change.  We also work to keep you updated on Association for Real Change’s activities, projects and latest members’ deals.

I manage the Design and Marketing Officer,  who develops all the images and materials needed for publications, events and projects. Together we respond to membership issues, communications and new membership applications. I am setting up new local e-forums to keep members networked in their locality.

I represent Members and LD issues with Skills for Care in the Midlands, and I am vice-chair of the Derbyshire Learning Disability Partnership Board.

I have been with Association for Real Change for more than 20 years, and always find the issues raised by Association for Real Change members to be well informed and  valuable, so please keep getting in touch if you have something you want to share with other members or if you have something to say about membership services.

I identify tenders and grant opportunities to extend Association for Real Change’s work, in line with our strategic aims and manage Association for Real Change’s projects, including Safety Net, Active Support project, and the soon to be started “Helping Each Other”, funded by Comic Relief.

John Robinson, Design and Marketing Officer

John is the Design and Marketing Officer and works closely with Nic and Vicky on various publications; training packs, leaflets, pdfs, graphics for the website and event flyers.

Nic Crossley, Information Officer

I am Association for Real Change’s Information Officer and collect information which I think may be relevant to member organisations and send it out to them through the e-newsletter Insight, the website, social media, forum messages or a larger article to be explored in Association for Real Change Briefings.

Vicky Shirley, Website/Information Officer

I update and maintain the ARC websites and social media, and proofread publications, flyers and the e-newsletters that are sent out from Association for Real Change’s Membership and Information team. I also work in the Disclosure Team, where I process member’s DBS (formerly CRB) and PVG Scheme applications.

 

Learning and Development

Shirley Potter, Learning and Development Manager

I am currently working for Association for Real Change as the Learning and Development Manager; my main focus is to support members and other providers to ensure they have a skilled and competent workforce.  This is achieved through: maintaining, developing and delivering qualifications, training products and services, publications and training funding across Health and Social Care. This includes keeping up to date with current and future changes in workforce development including; qualifications, best practice and legislation across the sector. Whilst also ensuring that we know what type of training and support our customers want and need. It is also essential that along with keeping abreast of any changes and developments,  that Association for Real Change also feeds into learning and workforce development in the sector ensuring the views of members are voiced thus influencing policy and qualification development where and when ever possible.

In my role I manage the Qualification Centre Coordinator, Gill Shaw, who ensures the smooth running of our Qualification Centre, with the able assistance of Margaret Webster as our registrar and administrator and Lisa White as our part time administrator.

I work closely with Wendy Adamson who provides some general administration support but is predominantly the administrator of the Skills for Care Workforce Development Funding (WDF). This WDF funding helps organisations across the sector in England with funding to support their staff training in qualifications in health and social care, thus ensuring we have a skilled and competent workforce in the sector.

The Active Support Service also comes under my management role where I manage Christine Harcombe our Active Support specialist. Here we are working to bring Active Support to members and other providers across the sector in order to support individuals using services to be involved in their every day life activities.

I also manage the Association for Real Change Disclosure Service, which is kept running smoothly and efficiently by Anne Rawson and her team; Vicky Shirley, Lynn Jukes and Liz Soames. They provide employers with a speedy and efficient checking system and service for their staff’s Disclosures for England, Wales and Scotland.

Gill Shaw, Qualification and Quality Assurance Co-ordinator

Qualification and Quality Assurance Co-ordinator for the Association for Real Change Training Services Centre. My role is to ensure that we have robust systems, policies and procedures in place, to comply with regulatory and awarding body requirements to deliver accredited qualifications, and that these are monitored regularly, to ensure that our learners receive fairness and equality of access to assessment.

Margaret Webster, Qualification Registrar

I joined Association for Real Change in April 2008 as the Training Consortiums NVQ Registrar. I am responsible for candidate registrations, claiming units and awards/qualifications, issuing certificates, candidate records and archiving, together with a varied range of administration processes which keeps the department ticking!

Lisa White, Administration Assistant

I have been at Association for Real Change now for 16 years. I used to be based in the General Office and then I moved to the ATS Team in 2010. I do different tasks, people write what tasks they need doing in my book.

Wendy Adamson, WDF Administration Officer

Wendy is the Administrator of the Skills for Care Workforce Development Funding (WDF) which helps organisations across the sector with funding to support their staff training in qualifications in health and social care.

Christine Harcombe, Active Support Consultant

Christine is the consultant for the Active Support Development Service and has been working passionately to raise the awareness of Active Support since the Cymru project in 2005. She is also the Project Co-ordinator for the new Active Support project Creating an Ordinary Life.

Disclosure Service

Anne Rawson, Disclosure Service Team Leader

My work within the Disclosure Service involves dispatching registration packs, application forms and information packs; the checking of the Disclosure application forms and attending the DBS Consultative Group meetings to keep up to date with changes at the DBS.

Lynn Jukes, Disclosure Service Administrator

My role includes processing incoming DBS/Disclosure Scotland application forms and completed Disclosure Certificates, sorting out any queries with the forms and answering queries from members.

Projects

Rod Landman, Safety Net Project Officer

Rod is based in Devon and has been running the Safety Net project for over three years, raising awareness of Hate Crime and Mate Crime.

Bridget Fisher, Here to Stay Project Manager

Bridget is managing the Here to Stay project which aims to addresses the gap in the knowledge about the health and social care needs of people with learning disabilities from ethnic minority and new migrant communities living in England.

Active Support Project Team

Christine Harcombe, Project Co-ordinator
Janet Fairley, Project Officer
Liz Soames, Project Administrator

 

Finance and Corporate Services

Martin Anderson, Finance and Corporate Services Manager

Works from the Head Office in Chesterfield as the Finance Manager.

Jonathan Bradbury, Corporate Services Assistant

Works from the Head Office in Chesterfield and is Association for Real Change’s all-round technical dogsbody. He also deals with payroll, issues with our Apple Mac computers and various other technical things, as well as maintaining the databases.

Theresa Walker, Finance Assistant

I work part time in the accounts department. I prepare all invoicing, update and maintain project spreadsheets, send statements and prepare the weekly BACS run.

Ian Briddon, Cleaner

I am the Office Cleaner and part time Administration Assistant.