CMSUK Board of Directors
Sue Ford - Chair
Sue qualified as a Nurse (RGN/RSCN) in 1989, working in various adult and children’s nursing settings in London and Sheffield, before qualifying as a nurse teacher and working in healthcare education for many years.
Following an increasing interest in case management and rehabilitation, Sue left her role at the University of York in 2011 to become a Director/Case Manager at Bridge Case Management.
She carries a caseload of clients, mainly polytrauma and serious orthopaedic cases, adults and children, and is passionate about promoting the added value good case management can bring to client outcomes.
Sue is Chair of the CMSUK Board, Chair of the Membership Committee and led the development of the 2018 revision to the Code of Ethics.
Sue is keen to use her experience in education to support the ongoing work of the CMSUK on the development of professional pathways for case managers and to ensure best practice is shared and developed.
Karen Burgin - Vice Chair
Karen is a Registered General Nurse by profession, who following a clinical career within acute, post–acute, community and vocational rehabilitation for people with acquired brain injury, moved into case management.
For over 20 years Karen has been involved in the establishment and development of child and adult case management services within the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. With specific expertise related to services for those with catastrophic injury, Karen has a particular interest in child brain injury and its’ associated challenges.
Karen has been a Director for a number of charities including Headway, and Trust Ed. She is an advanced member of BABICM and a past Council member.
Following 13 years at Bush & Company as Director and more recently Clinical Director, Karen completed mediation training in 2018, which further adds to her skill set and supports work undertaken within the case management arena. She continues to work as a catastrophic injury case manager via her own company and provides support, guidance and mentoring to others in the field
Lisa Brown - Treasurer
Lisa graduated from Southampton University in 1996 with an honours degree in Physiotherapy. One of her proudest moments was becoming one of the team of GB physiotherapists for children with learning disabilities at the Special Olympics. This provided her with a unique perspective of the challenges faced and overcome by young athletes with learning difficulties.
Lisa wrote an award winning training package on equality and diversity within Portsmouth Hospitals.
A company Director for two decades and Managing Director of Coastal Case Management Ltd for the past 10 years, she has designed and built a rehabilitation centre and has an established business providing accessible accommodation. During this time Lisa has successfully procured and managed waiting list initiatives within NHS hospitals, reducing wait times for colonoscopy, endoscopy and orthopaedics. She has been a physiotherapy expert witness for 13 years, and applies such invaluable experience in her case management work.
Lisa works on complex cases for both paediatric and adult clients with a special interest in spinal injury, amputation, ABI and Cerebral Palsy.
Passionate about the growth of case management in the UK and an active member of the CMSUK and BABICM, Lisa has led research into the efficacy of exoskeletons to enhance the evidence base for the broader use of such equipment in case management and medicolegal cases. As a director of CMSUK, she is delighted to be a part of such a prestigious and worthwhile organisation, and to ensure best practice in our industry.
Carole Chantler - Director
Carole’s professional background is nursing, critical care. She commenced her case management career in Canada working in travel, private health and government health care case management.
In the late 90s she set up a case management company in the UK dealing with personal injury and has worked in this arena ever since.
She was a founding member of CMSUK, past chair and continues to be on the board of CMSUK as a director. She obtained her Masters in Case Management in 2011
Since 2004 Carole has worked for both Claimant and Defendant law firms advising on rehabilitation and health. She was a director of DWF for 5 years working closely with all parties involved in rehabilitation and progression of claims. She chaired the Cat Committee on the revision of the 2015 Rehabilitation Code.
Currently she has her own company where she works with all parties, advising on case management, statutory provision and rehabilitation.
Jo Evans - Director
Jo has worked in a variety of setting working as an Occupational Therapist since 1990. She has worked throughout the UK and in the USA.
Her work history has spanned adults with learning disability, working with adults within trauma and orthopaedics, acute and longer term management of people with neurological conditions. Her particular field of interest has been working within the field of traumatic and acquired brain injury.
Jo left working with the NHS in 2002 and moved into working within the private sector. Jo became involved in co ordinating multidisciplinary rehabilitation to individuals who had experienced TBI , co-ordinating the community based goals and assisting individuals and families to recover supported independence in their lives . Jo also enjoyed providing education/ training and supervision to Occupational Therapists developing these skills and support workers utilising skills daily to support individuals goals.
In 2010, Jo founded her case management company and enjoys working alongside a great team of likeminded professionals providing case management nationally .
Jo is a member of the Events Committee, driving ideas for training events, webinars and CMSUK conferences with her fellow committee members.
Niccola Irwin - Co-opted Board Member
Niccola has over 20 years’ experience in the management and delivery of case management, vocational rehabilitation and expert witness services for catastrophically injured clients. In addition to her occupational therapy qualification, Niccola holds a Masters degree in ‘Case Management for Health and Employment’ and a Masters in Business Administration. Niccola has worked in Australia and the United Kingdom in both private and public healthcare and insurance sectors. She is a proud recipient of CMSUK’s Case Manager of the Year award and is passionate about increasing the recognition of case management as a wide-reaching discipline and its achievement of effective client outcomes. In 2021 she set up Keystone Case Management under the Frenkel Topping Group and she is currently the Managing Director, retaining a small caseload of catastrophically injured client.
As a Director of CMSUK since 2017, Niccola supports the Membership Committee, focussing on CMSUK’s corporate members. She led the 2021 Awards event, reframing the nominations to reflect on changes to practice as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. She represents CMSUK on the Standards Committee for the Institute of Registered Case Managers (IRCM).
Emily Nash - Director
Emily is a physiotherapist and has worked in case management for Corpore since 2007. She started as a case manager working in the desktop team and has delivered telephone-based services to both insurers and employers in both claim and pre-claim environments. She has provided supervision and support to clinicians, from a variety of backgrounds, to develop skills in making real-time clinical decisions during telephone assessments. Emily has extensive experience sourcing and coordinating private and NHS treatment throughout the UK and currently oversees the clinical management of The Treatment Network's (Corpore's sister company) supplier network.
Emily's current role is Clinical Quality Manager and she has brought her knowledge of clinical governance and business best practice to CMSUK and is currently responsible for the governance of the organisation.
Emily is registered severely sight impaired (due to a rare genetic condition) and has personal experience of the wide range of support available for those with a visual impairment in areas of personal independence, work and social activities.
Helen Ovans - Director
Helen is a registered Occupational Therapist by profession, with clinical experience of acute, post–acute, community and vocational rehabilitation in the private sector for people with acquired brain injury.
She has a diverse professional background, having started her career working for commercial sales companies, progressing to managerial roles. She later retrained as an Occupational Therapist with a particular area of interest working with brain injury and catastrophic injuries.
Helen also works as a HPL lecturer for Worcester University, collaborating on the development of a student led clinic and lecturing to both undergraduates and graduate AHP students.
She has worked as a case manager with a complex adult and paediatric case load for several national case management companies. She now provides professional mentoring to case managers at Independent Living Solutions, bringing together commercial, clinical and educational experience to support the development of individuals in the case manager role.
As an active member of the CMSUK Events and Research Committee she is passionate about innovation and development of best practice to promote the professional development and evidence base for case managers.