Centre for Mental Health

Trustees of the Centre

Dr Elizabeth Vallance (The Lady Vallance) JP began her professional career teaching political philosophy at London University, becoming head of the Department of Politics at Queen Mary College, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. In this context she has written widely on political theory, social policy and corporate governance.

She has been Chairman of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards and of the Institute of Education, University of London (where she is also a Fellow) and she was until recently Vice-Chairman of the Health Foundation.

She has sat on the boards of HMV Group, Norwich Union plc and Aviva plc and is a non-executive director of Charter European Trust plc and of the Medical Protection Society. She is a presiding magistrate on the Inner London Bench and a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Professor Sue Bailey OBE FRCPsych is based in the North West of England where she is Consultant Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist and Professor of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Her clinical work and research centre on meeting complex needs of young people and their families, improving pathways of care and developing new interventions working in partnership with users and carers, and lobbying for rights of and better services for vulnerable young people. Through a range of elected roles at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Sue has worked extensively on mental health and social care policy and legislation.

Professor Clair Chilvers is currently chair of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and will be leaving in December after 4 years in the post to be Chair of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In seven years at the Department of Health, until 2006, Professor Chilvers' appointments included Director of Research and Development for Trent Region, Director of the Mental Health Research and Development Portfolio and Research Director, Care Services Improvement Partnership. Her interest in mental illness began when she took on the Mental Health Research and Development Portfolio with responsibility for commissioning mental health research in support of policy. Finding that there was no specialist mental health research charity, in 2008 she set up, with others, Mental Health Research UK.

With a strong background in academia, Professor Chilvers' university appointments over 20 years included Professor of Epidemiology at University of Nottingham Medical School and Dean of the University's Graduate School. She trained originally as a Medical Statistician and spent most of her research career as a cancer epidemiologist at the Institute of Cancer Research, University of London.

She was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and is currently a Trustee of the LloydsTSB Foundation. She is a Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.

Sophie Corlett is Director of External Relations at Mind. She is responsible for Mind's policy and campaigning, media, communications, legal and information services work. She has been at Mind since 2002. Sophie sits on several national committees and boards representing Mind's views on various issues, and is a regular spokesperson for Mind in the media.

Richard Fass is a Chartered Accountant and our Honorary Treasurer. He has a strong background in finance and was previously Managing Director of the Jewish Chronicle Newspaper as well as Head of Finance of the Alzheimer's Society.

Richard has a wealth of experience in mental health trusts having held the position of a non-executive director with North West London Mental Health NHS Trust. During his time there, he chaired the Audit Committee, acted as a complaints convenor and also chaired Manager's hearings for patients detained under the Mental Health Act. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. Richard is also the Treasurer of Penrose Housing Association Ltd (a mental health and housing charity) as well as a Trustee of Swanswell (a drugs and alcohol charity based in Rugby).

Dr Ian McPherson OBE is currently the Director of the National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU), the agency established by the Department of Health in England to put policy into practice and best practice into policy. Previously Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in England (NIMHE), Ian was involved with NIMHE since it was founded in 2002, during which he undertook various roles, including Lead Director on improving access to psychological therapies, primary care, commissioning, older people, health and social care in criminal justice and being Director for the West Midlands.

A Clinical Psychologist by professional background, Ian worked as a practitioner, researcher and trainer for 13 years, before moving into service development and management. He then had 9 years as Director of Mental Health for two large NHS Trusts before taking up his post with NIMHE. Through these different roles Ian has gained experience of promoting significant change in mental health from clinical, managerial and policy perspectives. He also has personal experience of using different aspects of mental health services since the age of 12.

Lord Bradley attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield. He studied at Aston University, gaining a DipAcct in 1970. From Manchester Polytechnic, he gained a BA in Social Science in 1976. He gained an MPhil in 1978 from the University of York.

Lord Bradley was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency at the 1987 general election, having served as a councillor in Old Moat Ward (Manchester) since 1983. After the 1997 general election he became a junior minister at the Department of Social Security, and then became Deputy Chief Whip and Treasurer of the Queen's Household in 1998. He was a junior minister in the Home Office for Criminal Justice, Sentencing, and Law Reform from 2001-2, and then a backbench MP and member of the Health Select Committee. He is a member of the Privy Council.

In 2009 Lord Bradley authored a review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system (the Bradley Report) to examine the extent to which offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities could, in appropriate cases, be diverted from prison to other services and the barriers to such diversion.

Honorary Vice-Presidents

Image © Derek Tamea

Baroness Neuberger DBE was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and Leo Baeck College, London. She became a rabbi in 1977, and served the South London Liberal Synagogue for twelve years, before going to the King's Fund as a Visiting Fellow. She was at Harvard Medical School in 1991-1992, Chairman of Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust from 1993 until 1997 and then Chief Executive of the King's Fund, an independent health charity until 2004.

She chaired the independent Commission on the Future of Volunteering from 2006 - 2008, is President of Liberal Judaism, and was the Prime Minister's Champion for Volunteering from 2007 until June 2009.

She was created a Life Peer in June 2004 (Liberal Democrat) and was Bloomberg Professor of Divinity at Harvard University for the Spring Semester 2006. In March 2011 she was appointed Senior Rabbi of the West London Synagogue.

General Lord Ramsbotham was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade, later the Royal Green Jackets, on coming down from Cambridge in 1957. He retired from the Army in 1993, in the rank of General.

Between then and 1995 he chaired the Hillingdon NHS Hospital Trust, and worked for a Private Security Company on post-conflict reconstruction including demining.

From 1995 to 2001 he was HM Chief Inspector of Prisons during which period he published a thematic review entitled Patient or Prisoner?, recommending that responsibility for prison healthcare should be taken over by the NHS, which was achieved in 2003.

He was appointed a crossbench member of the House of Lords in May 2005, where he focuses on all aspects of penal reform. He was appointed a Vice President of the Centre in 2010, having been an Advisor for the previous five years.