Cheryl Wood - Registered Manager, Cygnet Bury Forestwood

Cheryl is a Registered Mental Health Nurse and has worked in a variety of roles in various services since being qualified. These have included Nurse, CTL, Ward Manager and Clinical Manager. Cheryl has worked in Female MSU, Female LSU and CAMHS services.

Previously in a ward management role she led the team to achieve the first QNIC accreditation in CAMHS LSU in the country. Cheryl is passionate about working with young people, their families’ staff and key externals to improve quality and experience of both young people and staff.

Jo Bible - Clincal Service Manager & Deputy Safeguarding Lead

Jo is a registered mental health nurse with over 22 years of experience, dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality care to individuals facing mental health challenges. Throughout her career, Jo has worked in various clinical settings, including hospitals, community services, and specialised care units, supporting patients with diverse mental health needs.

Jo is passionate about promoting mental well-being, advocating for patient-centered care, and using evidence-based practices to improve outcomes. Her expertise includes crisis intervention, psychiatric assessment, and therapeutic support, and she strives to create safe, supportive environments where individuals can work toward recovery.

In addition to her clinical work, Jo takes pride in mentoring and training nurses, helping to equip the next generation of mental health professionals with the skills and confidence they need. She is committed to ongoing professional development, staying up to date with the latest advancements in mental health care to ensure the best possible support for her patients and their families.

Ruth Emmott - General Manager

Ruth brings extensive commercial, strategy and finance experience as General Manager at Cygnet Hospital Forestwood. Prior to this, Ruth worked for six years as the Admin Manager across the three Cygnet Hospitals in Bury. This included overseeing all administrative, support services and finance functions, ensuring all key performance targets were met.

At the start of her career, Ruth spent just under two decades working for the Barclays Banking Group, where she was part of branch leadership teams in the North Manchester area. Ruth particularly enjoyed the community outreach work provided by Barclays, leading on a project where she delivered money skills to children in deprived areas. This sparked her passion for working with people in need, leading her into the role of Home-share Development Manager at a Social Enterprise in Greater Manchester for three years.

Ruth enjoys the challenge of working with teams to bring about improvements for patients and staff. She is excited about improving business processes, creating safe and inclusive working environments for teams to deliver to the best of their ability.

Dr Laurie Van Niekerk - Medical Director and Consultant Psychiatrist

Laurie is a Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist and Medical Director for Cygnet Bury Forestwood. Laurie completed his primary medical degree in South Africa and then did his specialist training in the UK. Laurie has been a consultant since 2011 and values working with young people and their families/carers.

Outside of work Laurie enjoys spending time with his menagerie of animals, being outdoors, having South African BBQs (“Braai”) and watching Rugby and Football (Liverpool) and family time above all.

Dr Ben Lim - Consultant Psychiatrist

Ben is a CAMHS consultant psychiatrist who has been working at Cygnet since August 2022. He was previously working as a consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Ben is passionate about helping young people transition back to the community safely from an inpatient setting and also supporting their families with this.

Ben has expertise in conducting ADHD and ASD assessments (I am ADOS-2 and ADI-R trained). He also has a special interest in treating young people with disordered eating and has previous experience of working in eating disorder teams in different parts of the UK from his previous training as a core trainee and specialist registrar.

Dani Perry - Ward Manager

Dani is a dedicated and experienced Registered Mental Health Nurse, currently working as a Ward Manager within CAMHS services at Cygnet Bury Forestwood. With over 13 years of experience in mental health and residential care settings—including low-secure, rehabilitation, and PICU services – Dani has developed strong leadership, clinical, and management skills.

Dani is passionate about patient-centred care, and is committed to fostering a collaborative team environment, ensuring safety, and driving high-quality service delivery in secure settings.

Ellie Noon - Ward Manager, Wizard House

With 11 years of experience in mental health, Ellie is a highly driven and results-oriented healthcare professional committed to delivering the highest standard of care. Ellie has a strong background in nursing and leadership, having worked in secure and GAU settings across both adult and CAMHS services. Progressing to Ward Manager, she has led teams through high-acuity challenges, ensuring patient care remains the top priority.

Passionate about staff empowerment, Ellie advocates for a culture where voices are heard, teamwork thrives, and continuous improvement is embraced. She integrates research-driven practices, providing leadership, training, and supervision to foster excellence in care. Her mission is to create supportive environments where both staff and patients can thrive.

Daisy Seller - Head of Occupational Therapy

Daisy is the Head Occupational Therapist for our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Cygnet Bury Forestwood. Daisy has been qualified and registered as an Occupational Therapist since 2007. She worked in a variety of mental health settings with adults before joining the team at Forestwood in 2022.

Her team works hard to ensure that the young people’s occupational needs are met whilst they are in our service and aim to develop skills that promote independence for discharge.

Stephanie Rooney - Lead Psychologist

Steph is the Lead Psychologist for our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at Forestwood. She has been qualified and registered as a psychologist since 2012. She is trained in a number of therapies, including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy.

Steph has been working at Cygnet Bury Forestwood since 2022 and leads a kind and compassionate team of therapists and psychologists, from a range of backgrounds.