Meet the judges

Simon qualified from St Thomas’ Hospital, London as a registered nurse in 1989 and specialised in paediatrics at Guy’s Hospital in 1991. Following several years working in both general and renal paediatrics, he moved to Diabetes UK in 1995 as a nurse care adviser. All these years later he is still there, although now as Director of Care and Clinical Intelligence. As Director he is responsible for ensuring Diabetes UK produces accurate and up-to-date information and advice on all aspects of diabetes care, based on the latest evidence. Working closely with healthcare professional colleagues, he also advises on the charity’s policies and positions. He has had type 1 diabetes since 1992.

Marc Atkin has been a Consultant in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Internal Medicine in Bath, UK since 2012, where he is now Clinical Lead. He trained on the south coast of England. Marc is also diabetic foot lead for the Royal United Hospital, Bath and has taken part in a SW Peer Review team that has successfully reduced amputation rates across the South West and recently won a QIC award. Marc is clinical lead for the development of an integrated diabetes care service which has now been running since 2015 and is being extended to cover 3 CCGs in the SW of England. Marc is the secondary care representative on 2 CCG Diabetes Steering Groups. Marc is also the clinical lead for 4 projects (Inpatient diabetes, inpatient podiatry, treatment targets and structured education) in BaNES funded by the NHS England transformation money.

Marc’s interests include service development, quality improvement and innovation in service delivery. He has qualifications in Improvement Science from Haelo in Salford, UK. He is a committee member of the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Collaborative (T1CC) working to improve Type 1 diabetes care in the UK. He also has an interest in using digital platforms to improve care for people with diabetes and is currently involved in several digital initiatives.Marc is Chair of NHS England’s South West Cardiovascular Clinical Network and is a member of NHS England’s Diabetes Expert Reference Group that put together the Right Care Pathway for Diabetes. Marc is also a member of DUK’s Inpatient group that is putting together Inpatient Diabetes Accreditation.

Paru has been a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology in Derby since 2000. Her clinical interests include diabetes and pregnancy and also integrated care. She is the physician lead for the diabetes and obstetrics service, and has clinically led and project managed the award winning PROCEED project, the first integrated service for preconception care.

In 2018, her team was selected as one of 20 quality improvements sites, to further improve preconception care.  She started the National Diabetes and Pregnancy Conference, and has supported its growth into a major annual conference.  In addition, she has been the clinical lead for integrated care in Derby City since 2011, and Derby’s service model has gained national recognition.

Since 2017, Paru has led the spread of this innovation from Derby City to the whole of Southern Derbyshire.  She was one of the first Diabetes UK Clinical Champions, and the role has helped her achieve service development locally as well as given her the opportunity to be involved in her areas of interest at a national level.

Dr Sabrina Ahmed is a GPwSI in Diabetes at the Gower Street Practice in London. She is also the clinical lead for Diabetes at her Surgery.

Dr Ahmed completed her medical rotation in North-west England, at the Royal Blackburn Hospital. She continued working there as a Senior Clinical Fellow in Diabetes and Endocrinology till 2007 and then decided to move to Primary Care and completed her VTS training in Birmingham.

Dr Ahmed passed her SCE in Endocrinology and Diabetes in 2016, as a way of ensuring her passion for maintaining her knowledge and standards in this speciality.

She is very keen about innovative ideas and developments in novel therapy in Diabetes, and is excited about being one of the judges in the QiC Diabetes this year.

Alison Barnes is a Lead Specialist Dietitian at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust and an Associate Researcher at Newcastle University. She has specialised in diabetes and weight management since 2009.

Alison was a lead research dietitian on two high profile Diabetes UK funded studies investigating remission of type 2 diabetes: the DIabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT), on which the NHS England Low Calorie Diet programme is based and ReTUNE, which evaluated the effectiveness of weight for Type 2 diabetes remission at lower BMIs. Alison has co-written two novel remission programmes (one group-based and one digital), and has spoken about remission and the research studies at numerous national and international conferences including DUK, EASD and ADA.

Alison is a graduate of the award winning Diabetes UK Clinical Champions leadership programme and has an honorary contract as an Associate Lecturer at Newcastle University.

As a dietitian with Type 1 Diabetes, Alison has an insight into the kinds of challenges faced by people living with long-term conditions, and strongly advocates individualised approaches that empower people to manage their own health. She feels hugely inspired and uplifted by the innovation, enthusiasm and progress in patient care demonstrated in QiC awards entries every year, and honoured to be a member of the judging panel.

Hannah Beba is a RPS approved Consultant Pharmacist working at Leeds Health and Care Partnership (part of West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership). Hannahchair of the Diabetes Steering Group and Expert Reference Group for Cardio-Renal-Metabolic Medicine in Leeds. Further afield Hannah is a committee member of both the council of healthcare professionals at Diabetes UK and for the primary care diabetes society. Hannah supports students on the University of Warwick MSc Programme. Hannah’s appointment takes her into a primary care focused, integrated care role. Hannah believes that here there are fantastic opportunities for multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic, unparalleled care to people living with diabetes.  Hannah is driven to tackle inequalities in care and looks to tackle this in her forward agenda.

Jason is an Inpatient Diabetologist Consultant and The Clinical Lead for Inpatient Diabetes Service at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust since 2019.  His clinical work and academic interest focus on inpatient diabetes care, avoidance of in-hospital diabetes complications, and the systemic models in delivering and modernising in-hospital diabetes care service provision. He has led his inpatient diabetes service team to be granted RCP(UK) Excellence In Patient Care winner award in 2021, and Quality In Care (Diabetes) commendation in 2020. He is leading a team of diabetes nurses across the community, hospital, and research sectors in Diabetes UK Change Lab to tackle diabetes care inequality in Norfolk.  He serves as one of the committee members of Joint British Diabetes Societies (JBDS) for Inpatient Care Group. He is also spearheading inpatient digital diabetes care delivery, working as a Virtual Ward Clinical Champion for his NHS Trust. Being a Diabetes UK Clinical Champion, Jason is also a passionate advocate for people living with diabetes. Being a person with pre-diabetes / type 2 diabetes himself, ensuring good quality care for people living with diabetes is a personal matter close to his heart.

Anne is Nurse Consultant at Barts Health, which consists of The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s, Newham and Whips Cross hospitals. She is also a Lecturer Practitioner at City University, where she teaches the diabetes care modules.

Anne is a committee member of the Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse Group and a member of the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit group. She is also a member of the National Diabetes Partnership Board. Anne has participated in the writing of the JBDS guidelines for HHS and DKA.

Anne is particularly interested in diabetes inpatient care, and educating staff to provide better care for people with diabetes whilst they are in hospital.

Dr Tom Crabtree is a Diabetes & Endocrinology registrar and ABCD research fellow working at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust. He is current chair of the YDEF committee. His interests include diabetes technology, type 1 diabetes and lessons from real-world data. Currently he is heavily involved in collecting and analysing data from the NHS England closed-loop Insulin delivery system pilot; has been a member of the team managing people with closed-loop systems during the pilot and has been involved in the development of the Diabetes Technology Network UK pathway due to launch shortly.

Dr Carl Deaney qualified from London University and completed his VTS via the Oxford Deanery. He moved to his current position serving a rural community in East Lincolnshire in late 2013. He has a special interest in diabetes and its impact on patients' quality of life. He is passionate about the implementation of best practice in the primary care setting and teaches both at under-graduate and post-graduate level. His current research interests include real world studies of newer therapies, diabetic kidney disease, and cardio-vascular risk reduction in diabetes.

I am Sarah Gibbs, a mum of three. I have had diagnosed type 2 diabetes for 8 years and since diagnosis have become immersed in diabetes with a thirst for knowledge and a need to raise awareness in other people. I am a member of numerous patient centred groups looking at care and research of diabetes and equality in care provided and am a great believer that best practice should be celebrated and shared.

Adele qualified as a Registered Dietitian from the University of Surrey in 2007 gained a broad experience in all areas of dietetics, mainly oncology, stroke and artificial nutrition support. However following an interest in public health and behaviour change chose to specialise in diabetes in 2012 and hasn’t looked back since!  Diabetes experience includes antenatal, insulin pumps, technology, exercise, young persons & transition clinics and facilitating DAFNE, DESMOND structured education sessions.

Current role involves driving the NEEDS team forwards in innovative ways to continue improving outcomes and empowering people living with diabetes in North East Essex, upskilling of healthcare professionals in the local health pathways, teaching on the advanced management of diabetes course at the University of Essex and managing a multidisciplinary team of Specialist nurses, pharmacist, dietitians, podiatrists, mental health nurse and HCAs.  Adele takes a leading role in service improvement projects and local audit. Projects include the redesign of the diabetes mental health pathways in NEE in collaboration with the local IAPT team, co-development of ‘CLIMB type 2 diabetes education’(Carbohydrates, Lifestyle, Insulin Management and beyond!) and participation in real world studies around new insulins and injection site techniques. Returning as a QiC judge for fifth year.

Suzy Hull is the Healthcare Engagement Manager for Diabetes UK Northern Ireland, taking up post in November 2021. Suzy has worked in the charity and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland for 10 years, working mainly in mental health services across different client groups before moving to Diabetes UK. Suzy is keen to support services that make a difference to individuals and help to shape and influence the future of care for everyone living with or at risk of diabetes.

I'm Edelle Irwin, from Derry in Northern Ireland, and JDRF UK’s Community Content and Information Lead helping to provide trusted support, information and resources for the T1D Community. I’ve been part of the community/voluntary sector for over 10 years working with and advocating for young people with disabilities/health conditions and their families. I have been in post as part of our Community Engagement Team here in JDRF for just over a year.

I setup P.O.C.A (Parents of Children with Autism) in 2013, as well as the first youth club in Northern Ireland for young people with Autism and their families. I also founded The T1 Club Children’s Diabetes Group in 2019 and am still helping to provide peer support for young people with type one diabetes and their families.

I’m a mother of 3 boys (including one type 1 teen and 2 boys with autism) and a passionate representative of people living with type 1 diabetes.

Paula Johnston is the lead adult inpatient diabetes specialist nurse at the University Hospital Southampton, where she has been working within diabetes for the past 12 years.

She is a non-medical prescriber and has completed her Masters in diabetes.

She has been a genetic diabetes (MODY) nurse specialist for the past 7 years.

Paula has had several articles published and she also teaches on the Diabetes MSC and non-medical prescribing modules at Southampton University.

She is representing the DISN UK group as a judge.

Sallianne Kavanagh MRPharmS, MPharm , IP,  MSc Clinical Pharmacy, MSc Healthcare Leadership, FHEA

Sallianne is senior lecturer in pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield. Her current role includes leading the independent prescribing for pharmacist certificate and providing specialist diabetes and endocrinology teaching across the MPharm and MSc courses. She does this in conjunction with her role as an Advanced Clinical Pharmacist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHSFT. She has an extensive history working in the field of diabetes, including her clinical pharmacy role, being a member of the UKCPA Diabetes and Endocrinology committee and supporting CPPE with development and delivery of diabetes learning modules. Sallianne actively contributes to the academic literature for diabetes, including peer reviewed journal articles and textbook publications relating to the role of pharmacists in diabetes care and the understanding of insulin safety strategies. She is currently a member of the NICE committee reviewing the suite of diabetes guideline.

Bethany Kelly currently works as a Lead Clinical Diabetes Specialist Nurse in Wiltshire. She completed her MSc in Diabetes Practice with Swansea University in 2021 and is a non-medical prescriber.

Bethany became Co-Chair of the Diabetes Specialist Nursing Forum UK in 2018. As part of this team, Bethany received the “Healthcare Professional of the Year 2018 award” at the Quality in Care Diabetes Awards. The team were also finalists for the Health Service Journal award for Diabetes Initiative of the Year in 2019.

Bethany enjoys teaching and is the Senior clinical tutor and module lead for “Community Diabetes”, on the MSc in Diabetes at Swansea University. She also created the @_diabetes101 account alongside Partha Kar and Amanda Epps, with a group of 19 healthcare professionals. This was a social media-based account designed to support people living with diabetes during COVID19 with accredited information. The account went on to exceed 13 million interactions across social media. The team went on to win Collaborative Team of the Year and Heroes of the Year at the Quality in Care Diabetes Awards in 2021.

Bethany has had multiple pieces of work about diabetes care published both as a team and on her own including the international MDT focused Forum for Injection Technique guidelines. She has been involved with many international and national speaking events.

Bethany’s’ interests lay in working with younger adults, type 1 diabetes, hypoglycaemia, pregnancy and technology, including social media and its influence in diabetes care.

My post incorporates three roles

Primary Care Diabetes Nurse Consultant.

Clinical Lead for Diabetes in North Wales Health Board (BCUHB)

National lead nurse for diabetes in Wales (NHS Executive secondment)

I have been fortunate in my nursing career, experiencing all aspects of diabetes across a range of healthcare settings. I have held clinical and strategic roles, so have a comprehensive appreciation of service planning, quality improvement and clinical developments

My background in diabetes spans from 2002 in research, then as a DSN in acute and primary care. For five years I was the diabetes clinical lead in North Wales and amongst other developments, I created locality based diabetes multi-disciplinary teams, standardised access to structured diabetes education programmes; promoted successful business plans for clinical psychology and point of care testing.

I spent 4 years working as a primary care nurse consultant. During this time I ran a specialist advisory forum to offer virtual bite-size education in long term condition management to primary and community health professionals. I have since developed a transformation ( and am still running)  project to offer diabetes annual review with point of care testing, results and review in a one-stop cluster based diabetes hub. I continue to be a member of the PCDS committee.

Education and clinical competence are of particular interest. I have worked with clinical experts and academic colleagues to secure national approval of the career progression framework for specialist nursing and helped to establish the Wales Academy for Nursing in Diabetes (WAND). I hold an honorary contract with Swansea University and lead modules on their diabetes MSc.

On a national (Wales) basis, I am part of a team of clinical experts overseeing the formation of the Wales Diabetes Clinical Network. Part of this development includes national clinical pathway development, a DSN workforce survey for Wales and an update of competency assessments for new and experienced DSN roles.

This is my 3^rd year as a Quality in Care judge. It is a privilege for me to participate in a process that recognises and rewards excellence in diabetes care.

Carol Metcalfe RGN, RSCN, MSc has 37 years of nursing experience with 24 years working in the field of paediatric diabetes. She has worked in hospital and community settings throughout the East and West Midlands and for the last 6 years in the North West. Carol has spoken at national and regional meetings, this includes presenting to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes at the Houses of Parliament. She is a current and active member of the Council for Health Care Professionals as a paediatric advisor to Diabetes UK. She was a member of the guideline development group for the NICE 2015 NG18 and a Specialist committee member for the Quality Standards 125 (Children and Young People with diabetes) also by NICE in 2016. She has also been a member of national working groups most recently a technology appraisal with NHSE and is a current member of the Type 2 diabetes in children and young people working group. She is a judge on the Quality in Care awards for Diabetes for the past two years and is a qualified diabetes educator. Carol has also supported Diabetes UK for over 20 years with their Type 1 events as a volunteer senior nurse and volunteer event organiser.

She is currently the Advanced Specialist Practitioner and team lead for paediatric diabetes at Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital.

Dr Julia Platts graduated from the Medical School of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London in 1989 and undertook speciality training in Wales and became a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology in Glan Clwyd Hospital, North Wales, in 2002. In 2008 she moved to the University Hospital of Llandough, Cardiff. She also works with Cardiff University, developing modules for the Cardiff University Diabetes Diploma. She was appointed as the National Clinical Lead for Diabetes in Wales in 2014 to progress the Welsh Government Diabetes Delivery Plan in Wales. She has a particular clinical interest in type 1 diabetes, technology and diabetes, young adult services, pregnancy and diabetes. Over the last few years she has been involved in the service development of education in diabetes, prevention of diabetes and remission services in diabetes.

Amar Puttanna is a Diabetes and Endocrine Consultant in the West Midlands and National Advisor for Clinical Engagement for Sanofi UK. He is interested in education, having won teaching awards from the University of Birmingham and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and currently sits on the MRCP Part 1 examining board. In 2018 he received an Excellence in Patient Care Award from the Royal College of Physicians for contribution to the profession. Dr Puttanna's interests are in cardiovascular disease, diabetes management in older adults and translating research into clinical practice. He has helped develop local and national guidelines and worked on various educational e-learning projects and his work in cognitive impairment (DIADEM project) has won a Quality in Care award.

Jo works currently a Renal/ Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist and works at Imperial NHS Trust within the Imperial College Renal Transplant Centre at the Hammersmith Hospital in London.

This role encompasses both inpatient and outpatient responsibilities and predominately focusses on renal transplantation and dialysis diabetes services.

The role is very clinically based but she is also involved in a number of diabetes and renal national initiatives and teaches in a variety of settings both locally and nationally.

Jo was a member of the RCN Diabetes Nursing Forum Steering Committee for a number of years and also sits on the Diabetes Inpatient Nurse group as a committee member.

Becky graduated from Salford University in 1994 with an Economics degree and then undertook her Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma at Nottingham Business School. She joined AstraZeneca, spending nine years there in a number of roles including sales, management and training.

Joining Aventis (now Sanofi), Becky has experienced a number of commercial and medical roles, providing valuable experience and forging a number of relationships across the company, the industry and amongst key stakeholders in diabetes and in the NHS.

In January 2011 Becky became the Head of Professional Relations, and through this role has enabled Sanofi to support programmes such as Insulin Safety Week, Hypo Awareness Week, Quality in Care Diabetes, Sanofi Cares and develop free apps for children with diabetes such as Monster Manor and Mission T1D.

Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist based in West Wales. Previous recipient of 3 QiC Diabetes awards and was in the first group of Diabetes UK Clinical Champions from Wales. Interest in digital delivery of support and learning for those living with, and looking after people with diabetes.

I am a consultant paediatrician at Sheffield children’s hospital NHS trust(SCH) since 2016. I am a general paediatrician and specialise in looking after children and young people with diabetes. I completed my basic medical degree in India and trained as a paediatrician in the UK.

I lead the diabetes transition service within SCH. I have experience in looking after CYP till they are 20 years of age. I am a committee member of Association of children’s diabetes clinicians (ACDC) and have contributed towards many National guidelines and have co-authored several papers on diabetes. I co-led the development of National guideline on Management of Type 2 diabetes in Children and young people.

I am also vice-chair for the Yorkshire and Humber diabetes network. This role involves being part of the steering committee and working together with the units to achieve best outcomes for all the units involved.

I am a part of highly motivated and successful diabetes team. Within our team, I am responsible for updating our local guidelines as well as all the patient information documents. I have contributed significantly to all the positive changes we have made to our service over last few years. We participated in pilot QI initiative by RCPCH in 2017. We have won meditech innovation award in 2018 and were runners up for BMJ team of the year award in 2019. Our QI work has been recognised nationally.

Dr Rose Stewart is a multi-award winning Clinical Psychologist working in North Wales, and the acting Diabetes Psychology lead for Wales. She also writes guided self-help books for people living with diabetes (the Talking Type 1 range), is a Diabetes UK Clinical Champion, and lectures and Swansea and Bangor universities. Dr Stewart uses a range of third-wave therapeutic approaches to work with high-risk client groups, and has particular interests in prevention of eating disorders, the roles of shame, compassion and empowerment for people with long-term conditions, and creating psychologically informed care systems.

I am a diabetes specialist dietitian and I lead the Cambridge Diabetes Education Programme (CDEP) - www.cdep.org.uk as well as support the use of CamAPS FX Closed-loop Insulin Delivery System – www.camdiab.com – in type 1 clinical practice.

My main clinical interest in is Type 1 Diabetes, especially in intensive insulin management, structured education, advanced communication skills (such as motivational interviewing and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) and the use of technology (such as insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring, telecommunication, etc).

Trainer of NLP/ MBTI/OPQ

Insights Discovery Accreditation    DISC TTI/EQ/ Motivation Accreditation

Assistant Director at Leicester Diabetes Centre

HSJ award winner 2017

QIC Diabetes runner up 2016 and highly commended 2017/2019/2021/2022

DPC Education team of year 2019 /Healthcare business award winner 2017

National Leadership Programme DUK

With a clinical degree, a Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Coaching, and 30 years’ experience leading and delivering excellence in a range of public, private and charitable settings, Laura remains passionate about people. Spanning a diverse breadth of roles and organisational settings, with public and commercial expertise, she brings many years’ experience in corporate training and development; coupled with the compassionate leadership lens of a clinician. She incorporates the development and transformation of individuals and groups at a national level through coaching and leadership. Put simply, she is passionate about people, supporting and challenging them to maximise their individual and collective performance. She believes in strong values-based leadership to enable change and growth. Her coaching and training blends a strong listening style, and exquisite rapport with an unerring ability to ask the right question at the right time. Working with individuals or groups her strengths are pragmatic application of learning, focused on the changes that they would like to make in their professional and personal lives.

Living with Type 2 Diabetes for almost 40 years has given me an insight into my condition which means I can relate to  the ups and downs that people go through when living with a long term condition.

I started volunteering with Diabetes UK in 2002 as a ‘Service Champion’ in my local area, and since then have taken part in many roles, as a patient representative, or an ‘Expert by Experience’

I have worked with the National Diabetes Audit Team (National Foot Care Audit) and as a patient living with type 2 on NICE guidelines.

I have received a few awards for my work with Diabetes UK.

I am at present Secretary of my local Diabetes UK group and help with the Peer Support Group.

We offer awareness sessions and stands alongside monthly presentations about Diabetes related topics.