Our Advisory Board

Professor, the Lord Patel of Bradford OBE

Professor, the Lord Patel of Bradford OBE was appointed as Senior Independent Board Director at Cygnet in April 2020.

Lord Patel brings deep expertise in mental health care, including in the areas of substance misuse and community cohesion. While serving the UK Government, Lord Patel held roles as the National Strategic Director for the National Institute for Mental Health England, and as a member of the Post-legislative Scrutiny Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Lord Patel also has significant experience serving on both public and independent sector boards, including chairing for six years the Mental Health Act Commission, the national body responsible for overseeing the care and treatment of all patients detained under the Mental Health Act.

He was Chair of the Delivering Race Equality (DRE) Board, one of the largest mental health race equality programmes ever undertaken, which implemented a major multi-million pound Government national strategy across England and Wales.

Having been awarded an OBE for his ‘Services to Ethnic Minority Health Issues’, Lord Patel also holds a number of academic accolades within the healthcare sector, including an honorary Doctorate of Health from the University of Bradford and Professorial Fellow of Mental Health from the Institute of Mental Health Nottingham.

Having been a regulator across a number of regulatory agencies and frameworks, Lord Patel offers invaluable insight and experience in this area.

He is also the Current Chair of Social Work England, the regulator for all child, family and adult social workers in England as well as being the Chair of the Independent Health Providers Network.

Dame Clare Gerada DBE

Dame Clare Gerada DBE is an Independent Advisor to the Board providing advice and oversight to the executive management team around clinical governance, practices and policies.

Dame Gerada brings with her over thirty years’ experience working in healthcare, having first trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley hospital before following her father’s footsteps and training to be a general practitioner.

In 2000, Dame Gerada was awarded an MBE for services to medicine and to substance misuse in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, and since then has developed services for doctors and dentists struggling with mental health, establishing and leading NHS Practitioner Health since 2008.

Alongside her clinical practice, Dame Gerada has held a number of national leadership positions and was appointed Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2010, becoming the second woman in its 55-year history to do so. She was awarded a DBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to general practice and mental health.

In the same year, Dame Gerada also established a service for problem gamblers and currently chairs the newly formed registered charity, Doctors in Distress. She is also co-chair of the NHS Assembly.

Mark Stephens CBE

Mark Stephens CBE is an internationally accomplished and respected human rights lawyer, who has previously worked on safeguarding. Highly regarded for his advocacy, passion and extensive global experience in Human Rights and the UN Ruggie Principles, Mark’s work gives voice to societies’ most vulnerable. He has significant experience of chairing and serving on boards to give independent oversight in heavily regulated environments, and has also held many charitable, regulatory, government and academic appointments.

Mark is Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and works with the Human Dignity Trust, working globally to promote and protect human rights. He was founding chair of the Internet Watch Foundation, established to provide greater protection for children from online sexual abuse and he is also Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation.

Mark sits on the board of the Independent Schools Inspectorate (the Ofsted for independent & boarding schools), which overseas safeguarding as well as educational provision – particularly ensuring that advantage is not being taken of vulnerable people. Currently Mark Chairs the Global Network Initiative (GNI) advising international businesses in the ICT sector on compliance with Business & Human Rights.

He has written child protection policy for schools, businesses and religious settings and has been (amongst others) on the boards of Wanstead Church of England Primary School, the Rose Bruford College and chaired the University of East London.

Sian Jarvis CB

Sian is highly regarded as one of the leading strategic communications and marketing specialists in the country, with extensive experience in the health sector.

Beginning her career in journalism, Sian started out as a BBC trainee and later as a producer on Radio 4, with the Today programme before later becoming GMTV’s political correspondent based in the Westminster Lobby.

In 1999 Sian moved into Government and spent 12 years as Director General for Communications at the Department of Health and NHS, serving six Secretaries of State for Health, leading numerous public health marketing campaigns including Change4Life, aimed at tackling childhood obesity. She also campaigned hard to ensure mental health was a priority in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Sian is a long-standing member of the Management Committee of Women of the Year and in 2010, was awarded a CB in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the NHS and Department of Health.

Sian is currently working with Liva Health, an advisor to the tech scale-up, Huma Therapeutics and is a Trustee of Diabetes UK. She was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of GPs.

Ian Brokenshire

Ian was Senior Partner of KPMG across the South West Region where he advised growing businesses across a wide range of sectors, bringing constructive challenge, insights, commercial acumen and pragmatic advice.

He was on the KPMG UK Healthcare Leadership team and has been successfully working with and advising many of the UK’s most significant healthcare organisations, including behavioural health, elderly care, nursing agencies, pharma and medical appliances.

Ian was an auditor for 25 years and he was Audit Partner for the Cygnet Group for 10 years up until 2015. His background means he brings a wealth of insight and understanding about Cygnet’s work and structure, as well as the relevant attributes and skills to provide independent oversight. Ian will Chair Cygnet’s Audit and Risk Committee.

During his tenure at KPMG he was also the national lead for their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) independent sector team across the UK. With a key strand of Cygnet’s strategy focusing on ESG credentials, Ian’s experience will be invaluable in supporting Cygnet to promote a realistic and appropriate ESG agenda for a sustainable and responsible future.