John has worked in Scottish Government since 2016, initially as the National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety and during the early part of the Covid-19 Pandemic as a Senior Medical Advisor to the Chief Medical Officer. He was appointed as Deputy National Clinical Director in October 2020. In this role he supported the National Clinical Director, the Chief Operating Officer of NHS Scotland and the wider senior team responsible for the NHS in Scotland. The departure of the National Clinical Director and restructuring within Scottish Government in 2024 has seen John return to his role as National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety.
In this role, he continues to perform many of his previous tasks, but is more focused on providing clinical advice, and oversight in supporting improvement and providing assurance on the quality and safety of healthcare across NHS Scotland.
John continues as an Emergency Medicine consultant in University Hospital Wishaw, NHS Lanarkshire with special interest areas in Paediatric Emergency Medicine and Resuscitation.
John is currently studying towards a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Glasgow.
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, a Member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and a Scottish Quality and Safety Fellow.
John also served until 2017 as a member of the board of Trustees of St Andrew’s First Aid.
Professor Sengupta is the Chief Officer for South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership, and is an Executive Director at NHS Lanarkshire and at South Lanarkshire Council.
He is the Chair of Health and Social Care Scotland, the national Integration Joint Board (IJB) Chief Officers’ Group.
Professor Sengupta has had an extensive career in public health and in health and social care management, which has included his leading an array of strategic transformation programmes at local, regional and national levels.
Robbie has been Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland since December 2016 and was previously the organisation’s Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Scrutiny and Assurance. He is currently Chair of the NHS Board Chief Executives Group.
A graduate of St Andrews University, he joined the NHS general management training scheme in 1992.
He was Director of Planning and an Executive Board Member in NHS Borders, before joining the Scottish Government in 2010 as Deputy Director/Head of Healthcare Planning. He has served as a lay member of the General Teaching Council for Scotland and as a trustee of the mental health charity, Penumbra.
Lisa Dransfield has more than 30 years of media and communications experience and has been with NHS 24 since 2012. Her career started as a BBC radio and television reporter before moving full time in front of the camera as a newsreader. Lisa moved to Scotland in 2005 and stepped behind the camera to concentrate on using communications to support the preventative healthcare agenda, reach communities and improve health literacy. A key part of NHS 24’s comms team, she works collaboratively to promote healthy living, information and help people get the right care, in the right place.
June Brown is a learning disability nurse. She has had a varied career and has worked in both hospital and community nursing services as well as education and leadership roles. June has worked as the Professional Advisor to the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate in Scottish Government. She also worked as the Consultant Nurse, Service Manager and Clinical Director for Learning Disability Services.
June’s first wider strategic post was as the Associate Nurse Director before having a three year career break that saw her live in the US and UAE where latterly she worked at the Director of Clinical Operations for a rehabilitation healthcare provider. June’s current post is Executive Nurse Director with responsibilities for clinical excellence, workforce, education and professional governance and leading the organisation’s Magnet journey. Executive lead responsibilities include clinical and care governance, health acquired infections and public protection. June is currently Chair of the Scottish Executive Nurse Director group.
Gina Alexander has been a member of the Scottish Health Council since October 2023. She has a background in HR and development across both the private and education sectors and has spent over 20 years working in and around community and social enterprise sectors related to health, social care, and wellbeing. For nine of those years, Gina led the pioneering social enterprise Care Opinion in Scotland.
Currently, Gina is a versatile freelance professional who offers her services as a facilitator, coach, mentor, confidence builder, and cheerleader. She leverages her extensive experience in social enterprise, the third sector, health and social care, communication, personal development, and wellbeing to drive positive change and improvement for individuals, organisations, and communities.
In addition to her freelance work, Gina is an associate education facilitator with the Social Enterprise Scotland Schools programme, a, a volunteer mentor with MCR Pathways, and an active member of the Stirling Carers Centre Board.
Fiona is Chief People Officer within the Health Workforce Directorate of Scottish Government, a unique post with an external focus, working to build strong links between Government, NHS Boards and the wider Health and Social Care system to ensure our people priorities are aligned and our resources used to best effect. Prior to taking up this role in May 2023, Fiona was Director of People & Culture at NHS Highland, driving the leadership, governance and culture transformation following the Sturrock report. She joined the NHS after 20 years working in a range of people, change and leadership roles in the Financial Services and Pharmaceutical R&D sectors, and is passionate about compassionate leadership, encouraging challenge, valuing difference, promoting kindness and respect and putting people not processes first. Fiona is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and has a degree in HR from the University of Stirling.
Emma Watson took up the position as Executive Director of Medicine for NHS Education for Scotland in April 2022.
Emma has previously been the Deputy Medical Director in NHS Highland and also the Chair of the Directors of Medical Education for Scotland. She has extensive experience as a practitioner, academic and educationalist and is a recognised leader in medical education in Scotland, including previous work as a Senior Medical Officer in the Scottish Government Workforce and Strategic Change Directorate.
Emma is a UK Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, currently based at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As part of her health equity work she is studying bright spot rural hospitals as well as examining the education models that work when attracting health and care professionals to underserved communities.
Carole Wilkinson was appointed to the Chair of Healthcare Improvement Scotland in October 2018, for a term of 4 years, she was appointed for a further 4 years from October 2022.
Carole was elected Vice Chair of the NHS Chairs Group in May 2021 taking up the position in August 2021, she assumed the role of Chair of the Group in August 2023.
She was a member of the General Teaching Council Scotland from June 2018- March 2024. She is a former Non-Executive member of NHS Education for Scotland and a former Chair of the Board of Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. She was also Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) from 2001-2009, establishing the organisation and overseeing the implementation of the regulation and registration of social services workers.
Before moving to the SSSC, Carole held the post of Director of Housing and Social Work for Falkirk Council and during her career has held a number of senior management posts in England and also spent a period in higher education teaching social workers and social care staff. She has also served on a number of Scottish Government working groups advising on workforce development matters and on future workforce needs and how health and social care staff could be supported to work and learn together.
Claire has worked in the NHS since 1986, as a volunteer in learning disability community services, as an occupational therapy student, then a qualified OT and a local Unison rep. Claire is trained in A4C job matching and evaluation and worked with PriceWaterhouseCooper to establish the job evaluation system for the ALBs in England. Since 2005 Claire has worked for Managers in Partnership, the trade union for senior managers. She believes in equality, social justice, fairness and kindness, and for the workplace to be a positive environment these values must be visible and practised daily by all.