Dr Bhathika Perera
Dr Perera is an Associate Professor at University College London and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in North East London NHS Foundation Trust. His clinical and research interests include mental health problems in people with Intellectual Disability, ADHD in people with/without ID and Autism.
Jim Blair
Jim is a Consultant Nurse Learning Disabilities working with West London NHS Trust, Associate Professor Intellectual (Learning) Disabilities at Kingston University and St Georges’ University of London, Global Health Advisor Special Olympics, Learning Disability Nurse Advisor Labour Party, Chair/Clinical Advisor Learning Disabilities NHS England for Care Treatment Reviews, Panel Member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Fitness to Practice Panel, Member of the Learning Disability Nursing National Shared Decision-Making Council and Chair of the Royal College of Nursing London Board.
He is also a Patron of Dance Syndrome, Director/Trustee of Learning Disability Network London and is on the editorial board of Intellectual Disability and Health.
Nicki Power
Nicki is an art therapist and doctoral fellow at Queen Mary University of London, supported by Barts Charity. As an early career researcher, she is interested in collaborative and inclusive research with people with a learning disability.
She is also the Strategic Lead for Art Therapies (Learning Disability) with East London NHS Foundation Trust. She is supported in this role by NHS England as a trainee multi-professional consultant.
She is the art therapy representative for the Learning Disability National Professional Senate in the UK. She is the Learning Disability Advisor for the International Journal of Art Therapy and a peer reviewer for several international journals. Nicki teaches regularly on several art therapy training courses and has an active art practice.
Lynette Morgan
Lynette is a healthcare professional and expert by experience.
She is a late diagnosed autistic parent of three autistic children and married to an autistic person.
Her professional experience: 2004-2019 neonatal intensive care nursing, 2019-2022 perinatal mental health care coordinator working with autistic people, 2022-2023 scoping for adult autism pathway across BLMK footprint. December 2023 onwards - manager of adult autism diagnostic service Bedford (ELFT).
Lynette is an adult nurse (MSc Advanced nursing) with a keen interest in maternity services, perinatal mental health, bereavement and trauma linking these aspects holistically from an autistic perspective. She is an honorary lecturer with the University of East Anglia, an MDT mentor for the National Autism Trainer Program for Psychiatry (NATPP) and has contributed to the National Autism Trainer Program (NATP) on the topic of bereavement. Lynette is a member of a research group Maternity Autism Research Group (MARG) and provides talks nationally on the autistic perspective.
Dr Andrea Bruun
Andrea is a Research Associate at Kingston University, co-managing The Victoria and Stuart Project. She holds a PhD in prognostic decision-making within hospice multidisciplinary teams from the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department at UCL. Throughout her studies at UCL, she has been involved with several projects within the palliative care field.
Andrea has a background in Linguistics from Aarhus University, Denmark. She is particularly interested in social interaction and is specialised in the methods of Conversation Analysis.
Lesley Quinn
Lesley is the Clinical Services & Governance Manager at Bedford on Call (BEDOC).
She is also the BEDOC menopause clinic lead responsible for the design and launch of the out-of-hours clinic in 2020. It is one of the few NHS specialist menopause clinics in the UK, offering evidence-based information, support and advice to women in Bedfordshire.
Dr Naveed Iqbal
Dr Iqbal (MBChB, MChem) is a member of the Royal College of GPs special interest group for learning disabilities, member of the NHS Confederation Primary Care Digital Committee and member of the Royal College of GPs.
He built the UK’s first co-produced health app with NHS England to help reduce digital exclusion and supports annual health checks and is also a member of the LeDeR Annual Health Checks Subgroup.
Mariam Malik
Mariam is a highly specialist speech and language therapist in early years. She has an interest in centring the implications of the social and political determinants of health in the lives of children under five. This is a priority in her community centred practice across the NHS and her involvement with third sector organisations, such as Medact and others. Mariam is an honorary lecturer at the university of Essex in their school of health, and is editor of ‘A vision from the margin; Intersectional insights on navigating diversity in speech and language therapy’, published in 2023.
Simon Bedeau
People Participation Lead and Senior Speech and Language Therapist - ELFT
Simon has been a practising Speech and Language Therapist since 2009 and has worked across Learning Disability service for the last 13 years. Simon is the founder of community interest company, Power In Discussion.
Dr Claire Bates
Dr Claire Bates has a dual role, as founder and leader of the National Supported Loving Network and as an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Kent’s Tizard Centre and Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Bates has worked with people with learning disabilities for over two decades in various roles, establishing and leading the National Supported Loving Network which promotes good practice through guidance, research and education surrounding sexuality and intimate relationships within social care.
Karen McCulloch
Karen is the Mental Capacity Act Lead for Bedfordshire Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB)
She has been a dedicated and influential leader in the field of health and social care, specialising in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) since June 2015. Before assuming her current role, Karen gained valuable experience working for a local authority Supervisory Body as MCA/DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) Coordinator. Her extensive background in this area has provided her with a profound understanding of the practical application of the MCA in various working environments.
Dr Afia Ali
Dr Afia Ali is a clinical reader in intellectual disability psychiatry at Queen Mary’s University and an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the East London NHS Foundation Trust. She has an interest in stigma research and clinical trials of psychosocial interventions for people with learning disability.
She is the chief investigator of an NIHR Programme Grant that aims to adapt and evaluate DIALOG+, a solution focused intervention for improving quality of life, in people with learning disability, and she is co-chief investigator if the PETAL study, which aims to evaluate a personalised intervention for adults with learning disability presenting with aggressive challenging behaviour.
