About us

Phil Hope
Phil Hope is the former Minister of State for Care Services in the Department of Health. His work included development of the National Care Service White Paper, the National Dementia Strategy, the National Mental Health Strategy, and the National Autism Strategy.

Phil served as a Minister for seven years in a number of Ministerial roles over the period 2003-2010. He was the Minister for the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office with responsibility for the social exclusion strategy; Skills Minister at DfES with responsibility for adult skills and apprenticeships, and Local Government Minister in ODPM with responsibility for performance improvement, e-government, pensions, planning, and the fire service.

He is a former Kettering borough councillor and a former Northamptonshire county councillor.

Before joining Parliament as MP for Corby in 1997 Phil worked for 12 years as a partner in the Framework consultancy providing management training and support to public and third sector organisations.

Phil Hope gained a B.Ed (Hons) First Class at Exeter University and taught science at Kettering boys school. He went on to develop voluntary sector intermediate treatment projects for young offenders, worked as the youth policy for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and was Head of the Young Volunteer Resources Unit at the National Youth Bureau.

Kieran Brett
Prior to founding Improving Care, Kieran was the Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health working on key reforms in the NHS and social care systems. Between 2007 and 2009, he ran a successful consultancy supporting NHS clients to deliver large-scale performance improvements such as the 18 week target.

In 2005 Tony Blair appointed Kieran as his Special Advisor on home affairs working in Downing Street and in the previous three years, he worked for Professor Sir Michael Barber as a senior member of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit. From 1999 to 2002, Kieran worked for the Audit Commission and specialised in performance improvement in local government. Before 1999, he spent a thirteen years working in local authorities.

He specialises in developing policy and strategy which is deliverable and has proven impact in people's lives.

Kieran holds an honours degree from Oxford University where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and an MA in Politics and Social Policy from Nottingham University, where he was awarded a scholarship.

Sarah Bickerstaffe
Sarah Bickerstaffe is senior Associate Director of Improving Care. She is a former Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Health and former Political Adviser to the Shadow Health Secretary. Her work in Government included managing the roll-out of a £200 million national programme of psychological therapy services and managing cross-Government liaison to deliver the 2010 National Care Service White Paper.

Sarah's skills and experience include health policy and strategy advice and development, project and programme management, service redesign and commissioning, stakeholder engagement, media management, communications strategy development, research and analysis.

Sarah gained a Distinction in Social Policy at Masters level from the London School of Economics and was awarded the Titmuss Prize for outstanding performance. She also holds a First Class Honours degree from Sussex University in Psychology (BSc). She is committed to developing and delivering innovative solutions to social problems.

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About us