Jayne Leeson, MBE Chief Executive Officer Jayne founded the organisation with a group of people with learning disabilities back in 2002. Since this time she has provided a clear vision, decisiveness, courage and ongoing passion which has driven Changing Our Lives from work on a local level to national significance. Expand Jayne’s background is in education and community development. Just under 20 years ago, she started to work with people with learning disabilities and was struck with the injustice and inequality they experienced in the most basic areas of their lives – not being supported to choose their own clothes in a morning, living with people they did not like, always being told others knew what was best for them… Although Jayne had worked with people experiencing severe deprivation, inequality and abuse, this level of powerlessness, especially experienced by people with no verbal communication, left her so shocked that she knew she needed to do something about it. Working with a group of people with learning disabilities who knew from personal experience the level of injustice, she formed the charity and has not looked back since. Harnessing this passion, Jayne provides strategic direction for the organisation, ensuring the organisation’s work and culture are rooted in a commitment to equality and combatting injustice. Ensuring disabled people and people with mental health difficulties are equal partners in driving change sits at the heart of Jayne’s approach and is reflected in the range of pioneering initiatives that have been developed in the organisation.
Lucy Dunstan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Lucy became Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Changing Our Lives in July 2016. She provides strategic leadership and has been instrumental in shaping and developing the organisational brand and vision. Expand Lucy is passionate about equality of opportunity and human rights issues and has over 15 years’ experience of leading on rights based, community development and advocacy work that include grass roots, leadership and consultancy roles. She is a confident and strategic thinker with a desire to achieve real life outcomes for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society. She is driven by the knowledge that an ordinary life is achievable for everyone and recognised for her no nonsense approach to equality and the organisations rights based approach to achieving this.
Anne-Marie Glasby, Development Officer Anne-Marie joined Changing Our Lives as a Development Officer in October 2014. Her background is in health, having previously worked as a learning disability nurse. Expand As part of this role, she led the Birmingham Acute Liaison Project, supporting people with learning disabilities when they went into hospital and working with hospitals to help them become more accessible for people with learning disabilities. She has also taught social work and nursing students at the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University. As a Development Officer, Anne-Marie works mainly within the Quality of Life work stream, using Quality of Life reviews and practice development to enable managers, commissioners and support staff to make practical changes in the way services are delivered to ensure people lead ordinary lives. Anne Marie believes that too many of our traditional services try hard to look after people, but don’t enable them to lead an ordinary life. With support, imagination and creativity, these services could achieve so much more.
Jane Thakoordin, Development Officer Jane joined the team in 2016 as a Development Officer. Her passion for the work the organisation does is matched by her commitment to the principles and values of self determination, equality, social justice and human rights. Expand As a social worker, Jane often witnessed the frustration and injustice of inequality of access to services, misinformed professionals, often who had limited expectations of the people with whom they worked, providing inadequate assessments and supports. Jane has always worked in coproduction with people who are Experts in their own Experience, and has been nationally recognised for some of her partnerships formed around organisational change. Jane is totally committed to getting it right for, and with, people, enabling them to be the very best version of themselves they can be. For this to happen we need to be creative thinkers, risk takers and brave. Jane is all of these.
Jackie Taylor, Development Officer Jackie joined Changing Our Lives in 2014 and has brought over 30 years of experience of working across the public and voluntary sector in the fields of education, health, social care and community development. Expand As well as working alongside people at a grassroots level, in community based projects, she has worked at a strategic level in a local authority and on programmes delivering national priorities around family carers. Her motivation throughout her career has always been fuelled by strong personal values and a desire to do something about social injustice and inequality. This passion, combined with her commitment to coproduction, her skills in facilitation and her analytical thinking makes her an effective and resourceful team member.
Siraaj Nadat BEM, Senior Quality of Life Facilitator Siraaj was appointed Senior Quality of Life Facilitator in June 2016, after 5 years with the organisation. Through this time Siraaj developed his rights based and outcome driven approach to actively champion the rights of disabled people through his Quality of Life work. Expand Siraaj seeks to ensure that the same opportunities for quality of life are afforded to every member of society. He has nearly a decade of experience working locally, regionally and nationally on issues that disabled people face. He has worked on a national level with the Department of Health on the monitoring and evaluation group for the Confidential Enquiry into the deaths of people with learning disabilities and he sat on the advisory group for Healthwatch England. More recently, Siraaj jointly facilitates the IHaL Advisory Group, which brings together self-advocates with learning disabilities and family carers from around the country. He is heavily involved in the work of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) Programme, which clarifies any potentially modifiable factors associated with a person's death, and works to ensure that these are not repeated elsewhere. Siraaj is an experienced and inspirational speaker and regularly leads presentations at conferences and as part of his work in achieving ordinary life outcomes for disabled people.
Dr Rosalind Frampton, Project Officer Rosalind joined the team in September 2016 after completing her PhD in neuroscience at the University of Birmingham. She spent four years researching mental health and brain development, after which she decided to apply this knowledge and her skills in problem solving and communication to policy development. Expand She believes that everyone, no matter what their disability, should be supported to shine, and that alienating or ignoring those that do not fit into a preconceived idea of how a person should be is detrimental to the entire community. Rosalind takes an outcome focussed approach to her work. Her creative and analytical approach enables her to work in coproduction with local people to start conversations and develop solutions across mental health and disability policy.
Sophia Parinchy, Project Officer Sophia became a Project Officer at Changing Our Lives in October 2017, supporting the development and delivery of projects across the organisation. She is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist and with seven years’ experience working within the private and public sector, supporting young people facing challenges when communicating. Expand During her work as a therapist, Sophia was struck by the inequality experienced by the people she worked with, with their voice often being ignored. She became frustrated with the limitations put in place to stop young people reaching their full potential. Sophia decided to change her career with the hope of making a greater impact to the life of disabled people as part of the team at Changing Our Lives. Sophia’s passion to fight inequality and social injustice enables her to strive for real change for individuals she works with and also within wider communities.
Lesley Acford, Quality of Life Facilitator Lesley joined the staff team as a Quality of Life Facilitator in July 2015. Prior to this she was working with Changing Our Lives as a volunteer after being introduced to the organisation back in 2013 as part of the ‘Poet’s First’ arts project. Expand She was identified by the organisation through this work as a potential young leader of the future and has been developing ever since. She has gone on to work on a variety of projects and is now a mentor for other young disabled leaders that work with the organisation. Lesley works closely with young people on the Challenge Boards in both Sandwell and Wolverhampton where she acts as a mentor and role model for other young leaders coming through the ranks. She utilises the learning and development that she has experienced over the last 4 years, moving from a young person with a very limited life to an independent and ambitious young woman. Lesley is motivated by her vision for young disabled people to affect change for future generations through strategic coproduction and promotes the rights of disabled people and people with experienced mental health difficulties, to an ordinary life.
Katy Evans, Quality of Life Facilitator Katy brings her own lived experience to the role of Quality of Life Facilitator, which she was recruited to in the summer of 2017. She has experience of working both locally and nationally on issues around disability. Expand Whilst completing her Disability Studies degree she was selected to be part of a government advisory group for the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms in the Children and Families Bill. This gave her the opportunity to influence government policy to improve the support offered to young disabled people. Katy has experience developing and delivering training around the SEND reforms and advising on coproduction in relation to young disabled people. She also has experience advocating and supporting young people and their families to develop their Education, Health and Care Plans.