‘Still Hungry to be Heard’ conference
th
‘Still
Hungry to
be Heard’ conference
8
November
2011
8th November 2011
Chair and Speaker biographies
Tony Tuck. Chair of the morning session.
Tony is a retired senior servant who had worked in Social Security for 30 years. In
the 1990’s he was a Councillor in Wandsworth and sometime chair of the Battersea
Arts Centre Board; chair of the audit committee of South Thames College governors;
and chair of finance s/c of Battersea Churches Housing Trust
He is currently on the management committees of a number of local voluntary &
charitable organisations including Age UK Wandsworth and other local charities. He
is also the Chair of the Battersea Society, Wandsworth Older Peoples’ Forum, and
the Sir Walter St John’s Educational Charity and the Wand youth club
He has been described as “the trustee on the Clapham omnibus”. Left to his own
devices he has a quiet passion for fast cars and slow boats.
Samantha Mauger. Chief Executive of Age UK London
Sam Mauger has been working in the third sector for 14 years, managing
partnerships with borough based and regionally based statutory authorities and
independent Age Concerns as well as other charitable organisations. She has
managed the large scale operational delivery of health and social care in the
voluntary sector and has been instrumental in developing consultation with older
people to support policy and service delivery development in London.
Sam is familiar with the governance challenges that face the third sector and she is
interested in policy and research issues that affect older people.
Mary Milne. Senior Campaigns Officer, Age UK
Mary Milne is one of Age UK’s Senior Campaigns Officers and leads the Hungry to
be Heard campaign, as well as Age UK’s campaigning on better neighbourhoods and
international issues. She firmly believes that the way to achieve real change for older
people, who are far too often ignored or treated like second class citizens, is by
campaigning together.
Before joining Age UK in 2010, Mary was a senior campaign manager and then head
of volunteering at Christian Aid. Over the past twenty-five years she has been
involved in and outside work in many local, national and international campaigns.
Highlights of her campaigning career include dressing up as a chicken, meeting the
Prime Minister with a delegation of women clergy, organising a mock funeral in
Trafalgar Square, and failing to stop her local pub from being demolished to make
way for a car park. Outside work she spends as much time as she can with her two
sons.
Debbie Dzik-Jurasz. Assistant Director of Nursing. Whipps Cross Hospital
Debbie Jurasz has been a champion of better nutrition for older people in hospital for
many years and has supported the previous ‘Hungry to be Heard’ campaigns. Debbie
has also been a member of strategy groups on hospital nutrition and has presented
to conferences on the topic.
Ian Robinson. Facilities General Manager. Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
A trained chef, Ian has worked in healthcare catering for nearly 30 years and is
recognised throughout the NHS and the Social Care sector for his pioneering work
undertaken at Kettering General Hospital, in the provision of food for sufferers of
dysphagia, [patients with swallowing difficulties].
Ian Chaired the group that delivered the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA)
National Protected Mealtimes Day (2004), the HCA National Day of Choice (2005)
and the HCA National Service Excellence Day (2007).
Ian developed the HCA Protected Mealtime policy, which was later co-badged with
the Royal College of Nursing.
In 2001 Ian was seconded onto the NHS Estates ‘Better Hospital Food’ programme.
During Ian’s time with NHS Estates he developed the ‘snack box’ concept, was
project lead for the NHS Estates/Royal College of Nursing Protected Mealtimes
initiative, was an advisor on the ‘Ward Housekeeper’ project and assisted in the
development of the Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) initiative.
Ian has contributed to a number of publications including ‘Catering Services for
Children and Young Adults’ (2003) and ‘Managing Food Waste in the NHS’ (2004)
both published by the Department of Health and the HCA good practice guide ‘Food
Service Standards at Ward Level’ (2006).
Ian’s passion for promoting excellence in health service catering, resulted in him
becoming the first caterer to address the national conference for BAPEN, [British
Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition].
In 2002 Ian was awarded the title ‘Cost Sector Catering’ Healthcare Caterer of the
year.
Gaenor Holland-Williams. Kensington & Chelsea Forum for Older Residents
Gaenor was co-opted to the management committee of Kensington & Chelsea
Forum for Older Residents in 2009 as a result of her participation in the Kensington &
Chelsea Health and Social Care Reference group. Participants were consulted on
aspects of health and social care by officer of the council and NHS Kensington &
Chelsea.
The forum has a partnering relationship with Kensington & Chelsea LINk, and
Gaenor is a member of the cancer, older peoples’ and physical disabilities subgroups. She is also a trained Dignity Champion and has carried out dignity and
nutrition assessments at the Chelsea & Westminster and Royal Marsden hospitals,
as well as various residential care premises. She is an elected member of the
Kensington & Chelsea LINk management committee.
Gaenor has a background in social housing, having worked in the Housing
departments of three London boroughs on Welfare Benefits for residents and latterly
with the Homelss Persons services.
Gem Wason. Age UK Sutton User & Carer Involvement Group
Gem is a retired nurse who worked exclusively for the National Health Service. She
started her career in psychiatric nursing and qualified as a registered psychiatric
nurse in 1964.
Gem went onto do her General Nursing and qualified as an RGN in 1967. She then
undertook a midwifery nursing course and qualified as a State Certified Midwife in
1969. Gem worked as a midwife for 5 years before moving on to specialise in
alcohol and drug dependency. Once qualified, she managed a drug dependency unit
in a large London teaching hospital during which time she her specialism was
maternity health and drug dependency. She then became the clinical nurse
specialist in the district of Riverside. Gem continued in this field until her retirement.
Even though she is retired, Gem still remains active in her community. She
volunteers for Age UK Sutton and has an active role the various organisation in the
borough.
Jill Shillito. Age UK Sutton User & Carer Involvement Group
Jill Shillito has been a volunteer with Age Concern and Age UK Sutton for just over
three years.
She was her mother's carer for over four years, experiencing the usual rocky ride to
obtain a good standard of care and treatment, which she felt her mother deserved.
Following her mother's passing in 2008, feeling the need to be useful again, Jill
has involved herself in various User/Carer projects including the mealtimes
observation exercise at St Helier Hospital.
Gordon Deuchars. Policy and Campaigns Manager, Age UK London
Gordon Deuchars joined Age Concern London in 2003. His specialist areas are
policy, influencing and campaign work to promote older people’s issues in London.
He has developed and coordinated campaigns on issues ranging from social care to
transport and employment for older people.
Before joining Age Concern London Gordon was Policy Officer for AGE, the
European Older People’s Platform, which he joined in 2001 soon after its launch.
Gordon was responsible was developing international networks on issues like
pension reform and social inclusion.