Trustees
Dr Mike Shooter CBE - Chair
Mike Shooter CBE is the past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a former Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Gwent HealthCare Trust.
Mike’s whole professional life has been devoted to the welfare of children, adolescents and their carers deprived by one form of hardship or another. He has worked clinically as leader of multi-disciplinary Child and Adolescent service teams in Cardiff and the Welsh Valleys for 25 years. As an officer of national bodies, he has negotiated with governments for better services, advised managers on the running of services and talked to audiences in lecture halls and the media on what he feels are the principles involved.
Mike’s clinical interest in bereavement is well-known and he has developed a national and international reputation in the field.
As befits an ex-journalist, Mike has always maintained a keen interest in working with the media to promote the interests of the children and young people in mental distress, mental health services and psychiatry.
Mr Peter Jenkins - Treasurer
Peter qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1981 and following 7 years working in accountancy firms (Neville Russell and Coopers & Lybrand) he moved into industry and commerce where he held senior financial positions at Lex Service plc, Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages Ltd and Harrisons & Crosfield plc.
Over the last 10 years he has been Group Finance Director of Regus plc, Numerica Group plc and Calyx Group plc. He was also Chief Executive of Numerica Group plc.
Peter has been a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales since 2003 and was a member of its Audit Committee from 2003 to 2005.
He is currently Vice-Chairman of its Business Advisory Board. Peter served on the Parochial Church Council of St. Mary's Twickenham from 1999 to 2008 and the Hampton Deanery Synod from 2003 to 2008. Peter is married with two children, aged 15 and 12.
Other trustees on the board
Mr Tom Wylie
Tom Wylie was Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency from 1996 and retired in August 2007. Prior to this he was Assistant Director of Inspection for the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). He was born and educated in Belfast where he was a teacher and youth worker. He worked for the Scout Association and the National Youth Bureau and became one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education in 1979, managing the Inspectorate’s Divisions responsible for youth and community work, for educational disadvantage and for curriculum.
He has chaired or served on various governmental and EU advisory groups and committees of the Economic and Social Research Council, the Prince’s Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. He currently chairs various advisory groups including for the Council Of Europe and the Financial Services Authority and is a trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Young Minds and Rathbone.
Professor David Cottrell
David Cottrell was appointed Foundation Chair in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Leeds since 1994 and since 2008 he has been Dean of Medicine. He was Associate Medical Director for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in Leeds for many years and has a wide experience of the development, management, delivery and evaluation of services for children in the community. He remains an active clinician and is a UKCP registered Family & Systemic Psychotherapist.
His research interests are in the evaluation of CAMH services. He is part of a team that has recently completed an ESRC funded evaluation of the working of multi-agency community children’s teams and is joint author of a major DoH funded systematic review of effective interventions in CAMH. He is currently engaged in two large multi centre evaluations of psychological interventions for troubled adolescents.
Ms Melissa Adams
Melissa Adams has worked in Children’s Services and Adult Mental Health for over 20 years. She has been involved in adoption and acted as an expert witness on behalf of either Social Services or for families in custody and access conflicts between separating parents. She has been in her current Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) since 1986, based in a Children’s Hospital and Paediatric Department in Central London. She is Head of Profession for Family Psychotherapy in the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and heads up the largest Family Therapy service in the country. The multi disciplinary team in the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, where she is the Team Coordinator, and Consultant Family Psychotherapist, particularly specialises in the mental health of adolescents. She has Family Therapists in all the CAMHS for each locality in the CNWL Mental Health Trust, in a Child Psychotherapy Unit, in Looked After Children Services, and in Sure Start. She has been a central figure in developing a multidisciplinary Parental Mental Health Service for adult mental health patients, with either acute and chronic mental health difficulties, who are parents at the interface of children’s services and adult mental health services. This service has won a national award and a commendation by the Secretary of State.
Melissa has published a paper advocating early clinical intervention for both mothers and fathers to promote secure attachment, and is currently completing her doctorate investigating an attachment related clinical intervention with adolescents and their parents.
Melissa is a Board Member of the Association of Family Therapy and a member of various committees for terms and conditions and training.
Ms Ann Cutting
Ann Cutting is by profession a solicitor specialising in employment law with a particular bias towards claimant rather than employer cases. She sits on the Employment Tribunal. Ann Cutting has spent a larger part of her working life in the public services, having worked both as a university administrator and in the NHS.
For a long time Ann was a volunteer in a law centre, and is currently the Chair of Governors for a primary school in Peckham, which has a very mixed intake of pupils. Contemplating retirement, Ann is looking forward to having more time in which to undertake voluntary and campaigning work as well as to watch more cricket.
Beccy Ashton
Beccy has a background in health and social care, and is currently Adviser to the Chief Executive of The King’s Fund. She began her career as a researcher and has worked in a wide range of roles encompassing mental health services, cancer services and services for older people. Beccy also spent two years working in San Mateo County, California, developing a model of integrated health and social care funding and delivery for older people. She has an MSc in Health Systems Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Chris Walker
Chris Walker has worked as a charity fundraiser in the UK and United States since 1997, including at Depaul UK since 2004, where he is Head of Trusts & Corporate Partnerships. Chris lives in Crystal Palace with his cat Alice, and in his spare time he writes and tries to keep his garden in shape.
Sunil Purohit
Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1992 Sunil has developed his career in industry and commerce. Initially as a Senior Finance Manager in the International Exploration & Production division of British Gas plc his subsequent career has focused on the technology and professional services sectors where he has held a number of senior financial positions, including CFO of PSD Group plc and CDC Solutions Ltd and EMEA Region Finance Director of the Pegasystems Inc.
Sunil is a trustee of Action Acton, a social enterprise and development trust which promotes economic and community regeneration in Ealing and adjoining west London boroughs. He also acts as a consultant to a number of charities and overseas companies setting up in the UK.
Sunil is married with three children, aged 5, 10 and 14.
Duncan Reid
Duncan joined the board of trustees in December 2009 and has spent much of this career in the high street retail industry in the functions of merchandise planning, product procurement, marketing and store operations. He also managed the retail operation of BlindCraft, a disability organisation in Scotland, and spent five years in the Trading Division of the national charity, Scope. Most recently, he was operations director of a publishing company and key supplier to the Charity sector of Christmas cards, fundraising items and mail order products. He has a degree in Economics/ History, an MBA, and has recently re-entered full-time education to study towards a MSc in Global Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. Duncan has also undertaken work with another charity in the Youth sector specialising in developing leadership skills among university students.
Kate Marshall
Kate studied Modern History at Goldsmiths College, London, receiving her degree in 1982. Shortly after her father was posted to Canberra, Australia and Kate opted to join the family there, beginning a career in the media industry that ran to 2001 and encompassed radio, television and publishing. She joined the UK civil service in 2002 and has worked in three State departments since: Cabinet Office, Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. She is currently working on better regulation issues with respect to employment and equality legislation, corporate governance, pensions, and health and safety. Kate holds an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (Sydney) and is currently studying Creative Writing and Literature with the OU. She and her partner live in London.
