Our People
The Board
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Rhona Graham
DirectorRhona is currently working as the Care Manager at Badaguish Holiday Care Lodge, near Aviemore, which provides short outdoor activity breaks for people who have a learning disability. Prior to this she had many years’ experience working in a Healthcare setting as Team Lead for the Children and Young People’s Physiotherapy Service in NHS Fife as well as a year working in the Training and Consultancy team for Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar. She has a particular interest in Dialogue and Somatic work and how these can be used to have ‘courageous conversations’ during times of change / transition whether that be as an individual, group or organisation.
Outside work Rhona enjoys being active in the outdoors with running and cycling her main sports. Family wise she has a son who plays professional rugby for Edinburgh, a two year old grandson and a granddaughter on the way.
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Moira Oliphant
DirectorMoira retired from the Scottish Government in 2017 after a 37 year career in various departments. Her last post was head of the Carers Unit with responsibility for policy regarding adult and young carers, most recently the Carers Act.
Moira is now a self-employed gardener. She is also a volunteer gardener at the Seaview Respite Unit in Edinburgh for children and young people with complex needs. Her other volunteer roles are a befriender and a simulated patient at Napier University working with student nurses.
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Laura Bannerman
DirectorLaura recently retired from full time work in local government. She held a range of posts in Strathclyde Regional Council, Tayside Regional Council and Dundee City Council. She worked as an Interim Chief Officer for the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership during the three year period leading up to her retirement during which time she was very involved in establishing the strategic and partnership arrangements for the new body.
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Pauline Knox
DirectorPauline has worked in Social Care for over 16 years, initially in the third sector and for the last 9 years in a local authority setting. This has consistently included support to carers within her remit and that has been both as a front-line practitioner and as a manager and strategic commissioner. However, having previously been a young carer and now as a parent carer, Pauline has a passion about supporting carers that is deep rooted. In her current role Pauline has also established a very successful Shared Lives service in Moray and her other areas of work include Self-directed Support commissioning and development, and respite care development.
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Stephen Chalmers
DirectorStephen has over 26 years’ experience in the social care sector working his way up to senior management positions across both public and voluntary sectors.
Stephens innovative approach to problem solving combined with an entrepreneurial spark led him to the creation of the UK’s only inclusive support travel company, Altogether Travel.Not content with the challenge of running a start-up company Stephen is also full time student at Glasgow Caledonian University completing his business degree.
When not studying or running a business Stephen is very family orientated and enjoys spending time with his teenage children Liberty & Munro. An ethical person Stephen is interested environmental, human & animal rights and a dedicated vegan.
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Penny Stafford
DirectorAs well as having been a parent carer over the past 21 years to her son Adam who has physical and learning disabilities, Penny also has experience of caring for her mother who has dementia and past experience of caring for a partner with addiction and mental health issues. She has been involved in various carer groups over the years and consequently has developed a good knowledge of carers issues and experience of representing carer views to policy makers and within service planning groups.
Penny has previous experience of serving as a board member for various charities including for local carers, Women’s aid and mental health charities, as well as serving on a Housing Association Board.
She is a member of the Short Breaks Fund Better Breaks Grants Advisory Panel and was recently appointed to the Scottish Government’s Disabled Children and Young People Advisory Group.
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David Eade
Director, TreasurerDavid, his wife Helen and two children, have been involved in family based short breaks since 1992. They began as volunteers with the Shared Care scheme in Dumbartonshire and have since worked for schemes in Argyll and Bute and Perth and Kinross in partnership with Barnardo’s. Due to the difficulties in juggling work with the volunteering role David is now a paid foster carer with Action for Children providing short breaks for children in foster care, some of whom have special needs. He is also a volunteer driver at Rachel House children’s hospice where Helen works as a paediatric nurse. Their daughter Alice is also a volunteer befriender at Rachel House.
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Philip Bryers
Director, ChairPhilip Bryers taught social policy and community development at the Universities of York and Glasgow before entering local government in 1979. He held a range of posts in Strathclyde Region Social Work Department and North Ayrshire Council before retiring in 2000. Thereafter he worked for Volunteer Development Scotland, promoting volunteering in health, and for the Scottish Dementia Working Group, before leaving full-time work in 2008.
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Margaret Petherbridge
Director, Deputy ChairMargaret’s experience has been working within Community Care Services and in particular the implementation of Direct Payments Policy and managing a Short Breaks Bureau which arranges breaks for adults with disabilities and older people. Margaret is currently chair of the ADSW (Association of Directors of Social Work) Self Directed Support Group. As part of this role she participates in the Scottish Government Self Directed Support Strategy Implementation Group.
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Advisors to the Board
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Lorna Gibson
Advisor to the BoardLorna is Young Carer Network Coordinator at Carers Trust Scotland. She coordinates the Scottish Young Carers Services Alliance which is a network of 38 services providing face to face support to young carers and is one of the National Carer Organisations. Previous to that Lorna coordinated the annual Scottish Young Carers Festival.
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Staff
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Julie Crawford
AdministratorJulie joined Shared Care Scotland in May 2019 as Administrator. Prior to this Julie worked at Keele University in Staffordshire for 5 years in a few varied administrative roles including Executive Administrator, Curriculum Review Administrator and Student Wellbeing Administrator. Julie also has experience of working with a non-profit organisation, working for 5 years for Rethink Mental Illness as an Admin Manager at the Healthy Minds Network in Stoke on Trent.
Julie’s role at Shared Care Scotland is to provide admin support to the team, manage the online short breaks directory and respond to enquiries.
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Alison Brown
Short Breaks Fund ManagerAlison joined Shared Care Scotland in June 2018 to take on the role of Short Breaks Fund Manager while Ellie Sandercock is on maternity leave.
Alison has 30 years of practical experience working with the public and private sector, and for the last 20 years she has worked within the third sector, supporting and developing charities and social enterprises. Prior to joining Shared Care Scotland, Alison worked for a reuse charity, managing a consortium of 17 reuse third sector organisations to deliver a public sector contract.
Before that, she managed a reuse charity and social enterprise that provides reuse furniture to vulnerable households and offers training and volunteering opportunities to those furthest removed from the job market. Alison has experience as a charity trustee and in her spare time she volunteers with her local scout group and a local hospice.
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Kerry Donaghy
Respitality DeveloperKerry joined Shared Care Scotland in June 2017 as Respitality Developer. Kerry has worked within the third sector for several years now; initially with Churches Action for the Homeless, and with Edinburgh Cyrenians in the housing sector.
She then moved into carers support and development work with PKAVS Carers Hub. Kerry is passionate about ensuring carers across Scotland can access breaks regularly, fairly and equally.
Kerry’s working pattern is Tuesday-Thursday each week.
Contact Kerry: Kerry.donaghy@sharedcarescotland.com
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Kate Hogarth
Communications ManagerKate joined Shared Care Scotland in January 2017, and works as Communications Manager. Kate began her career in journal publishing in Edinburgh before moving into editorial and communications roles in the public sector. Following this she worked as a freelance communications specialist for a number of years – including a period spent working overseas – before returning to Scotland in 2015 and working in-house for the Scottish Human Rights Commission. In her role of Communications Manager, Kate looks after Shared Care Scotland’s online communications including social media and website, as well as our information services.
Contact Kate: Kate.hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com
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Ellie Sandercock
Short Breaks Fund Manager (maternity leave)Ellie joined Shared Care Scotland in August 2016 as Short Breaks Fund Manager. Prior to this, Ellie led the fundraising and marketing team at Carr Gomm, a Scottish social care charity. She began her career as a community development facilitator in Nigeria, before moving into programme development and funding. More recently, she has held a range of fundraising roles in the voluntary sector, both overseas, and across Scotland. Ellie also has experience as a charity trustee and advisor, and is passionate about social care, organisational development and innovation in the third sector.
Ellie is currently on maternity leave and Alison Brown is in post as Short Breaks Fund Manager.
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Don Williamson
Chief ExecutiveDon has been the Chief Executive of Shared Care Scotland since January 2006. Prior to this he was the Programme Director in Edinburgh for the international leadership development charity Common Purpose, and before this was 8 years with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award as Assistant then Deputy Director for Scotland. Don has also worked in the outdoor education and environment sectors. Don was recently President of the International Short Breaks Association as part of Shared Care Scotland’s hosting of the 10th International Short Breaks conference in Edinburgh in 2016.
Contact Don: don.williamson@sharedcarescotland.com
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Amanda Moffat
Short Breaks Fund Grants OfficerAmanda has been working at the Shared Care Scotland office since September 2010, she has over 10 years secretarial experience and returning to work in the voluntary sector after a four year career break has been influenced by her volunteering work. Amanda is a trustee with FACE a Cancer Charity based in Edinburgh and is involved with Samaritans. Amanda lives in Dunfermline with her husband and 2 children. Amanda is the point of contact for any administrative enquiries about the Short Break Fund and our online directory of short break services.
Contact Amanda: amanda.moffat@sharedcarescotland.com
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