The Richmond Group of Charities is a coalition of the leading health and social care organisations in the voluntary sector.
We work together as a collective voice to better influence health and social care policy and practice, with the aim of improving the care and support for the 15 million people living with long term conditions we represent.
We are passionate about bringing the patient and user voice into the very heart of health decision-making and to encourage and facilitate the kind of transformational change which will most improve outcomes and experience for people. We aim to champion the cause of improved outcomes and better use of health and care resources through person-centred, high-quality care.
We work together as a collective voice to better influence health and social care policy and practice, with the aim of improving the care and support for the 15 million people living with long term conditions we represent.
We are passionate about bringing the patient and user voice into the very heart of health decision-making and to encourage and facilitate the kind of transformational change which will most improve outcomes and experience for people. We aim to champion the cause of improved outcomes and better use of health and care resources through person-centred, high-quality care.
We work directly with patients, carers and families affected by long term conditions and seek to clearly draw on their experiences in all we do. We also have direct expertise in both influencing and service delivery. So we can support - through both services and influencing activities- transformational change which focuses on improved patient outcomes and experience.
We aim to be a close collaboration, based on long standing and strong relationships between people at all levels in the twelve member organisations, but we also work with other, external partners where this gives us greater impact. We are a critical friend of the health and care system, taking the side of users and patients, but keen to support and accelerate the development of evidence based, sustainable and innovative solutions to the many challenges facing health and care today.
We are here to help.
Juliet has been Chief Executive of the Stroke Association since June 2016 and Chair of The Richmond Group since January 2022. The Stroke Association is the UK’s leading stroke charity promoting life after stroke. With a turnover of £35m per year and a staff team of 800, the organisation’s activities extend from funding stroke research, to providing services to stroke survivors and their families, influencing and campaigning for change, and educating and working to prevent strokes. There are 1.2 million stroke survivors in the UK, yet stroke still remains the fourth single largest cause of death in the UK and second in the world.
Juliet co-chairs the Stroke Delivery Programme Board with NHS England and is a member of the NHS Assembly. She is a World Stroke Organisation Board member and Fellow. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire Medal (OBE) in the Queen’s 2020 New Year’s Honours list.
Prior to joining the Stroke Association, Juliet was at Macmillan Cancer Support for 16 years in a range of roles covering strategy, policy, research and HR. From 2011-2015 she was Executive Director of Services and Influencing with a staff team of 800 and a budget of £150m. She oversaw a programme of award-winning innovations and service design across the UK, and secured important government commitments to improve patient experience and post-treatment support through the 2015 Cancer Strategy for England.
Prior to Macmillan, Juliet worked at the British Red Cross in strategy and service evaluation, the Community Development Foundation in fundraising, and a political consultancy. She was a trustee of the Long-Term Conditions Alliance and chaired the Cancer Patient Experience Board for University College London Hospital (UCLH) from 2011-2014.
Juliet has a degree in Modern Languages in Oxford and a postgraduate diploma in management. She ran the London Marathon for the Stroke Association in April 2019.
Catherine has been leading Royal Voluntary service as Chief Executive since August 2017. Starting her career as a trained nurse in the NHS , she has extensive experience across all sectors building innovative and sustainable services and inspiring and enabling voluntary action. Her key passions are frontline service delivery and enabling the gift of voluntary service which recently saw her leading the development of a number of large-scale initiatives to support the NHS and our communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before joining Royal Voluntary Service, Catherine was Chief Executive of Samaritans, which provides confidential support to anyone experiencing a tough time in their life. Whilst at the helm for almost 7 years, Catherine was responsible for developing a long-term strategy that saw the organisation become the thought leader of suicide prevention and innovator of postvention services in the UK. This resulted in her being awarded a CBE in 2016 for services to suicide prevention. Catherine was fortunate enough to also spend some time working in the Asylum and Refugee support sector which in her own words was exceptionally humbling and tough.
In her career Catherine is also well known for her leadership roles across the world of volunteer infrastructure having held CEO roles in CVS/Volunteer Bureau and Community Action organisations. As Chair of Directory of Social Change for many years she understands the key role that small charities make to their local communities. With a keen appetite for collaboration, Catherine has recently led the development of Shaping the Future With Volunteering coalition that she now Co Chairs with Matt Hyde. She was recently appointed as Vice Chair of the Richmond Group.
Her time as CEO of NDPB national funding agency, Capacitybuilders placed her at the heart of government and VCS funding decisions. The breadth of experience that Catherine has been able to secure also included a period of time working in the Asylum and Refugee support sector. Catherine is particularly proud of her five children and five grandchildren who keep her grounded and eternally entertained and busy.
Zelah specialises in supporting people and organisations from different sectors and disciplines to collaborate with each other more effectively to make change happen.
After starting her career as a corporate lawyer, she quickly developed a passion for social change while working for a human rights organisation in Cape Town, South Africa. Since then, she has spent over 20 years living and working in countries affected by conflict and upheaval, including Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sri Lanka. During her time as an international development consultant, she focused on two main areas: providing not-for-profit organisations with the skills and tools to work together to influence government policy on health, human rights, asylum and immigration, justice, security and civil society development; and leading technical assistance programmes to support transformation in government institutions.
Following her return to the UK, Zelah joined Diabetes UK in 2017 to lead a strategic transformation programme focused on increasing the charity’s reach, impact and income, and then joined The Richmond Group as Deputy Director in November 2020. She became Interim Director in February 2022. Zelah is also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and Organisation and System Coach and runs a successful coaching business supporting people to make significant changes in their lives and build resilience in times of uncertainty.
Eve manages our partnership programme with the Royal College of General Practitioners and Guys and St Thomas’ Charity to improve the lives of people living with, or caring for, people with multiple long-term conditions.
Eve has over 12 years of experience in health policy, research management and NHS quality improvement, previously working as the Associate Director of Research and Governance at the National Joint Registry. After graduating from UCL with a first-class BA in social sciences, Eve began her career working in the community sector, as an outreach worker with a homelessness charity. From there she took a role with the Royal College of Physicians and has worked in the field of health and care quality improvement ever since. She has also previously worked at The King’s Fund and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership.
Eve joined the Richmond Group in July 2018.
After completing a Combined Arts degree from the University of Leicester Michelle began working on community physical activity projects via a stint in local government. She then joined the national Walking for Health team under its stewardship of the Ramblers and Macmillan Cancer Support. Following this Michelle moved into the private sector, working for Intelligent Health and managing their innovative physical activity programme, Beat the Street. Michelle joined the Richmond Group in June 2017.
Gail’s career in health began with returning to complete a nutritional therapy degree as a mature student, which led to 10 years working in health promotion in the charity sector. During this time she managed an award-winning volunteer outreach programme, working with people with lived experience of cancer to raise awareness of the disease among at-risk groups. She also developed a bowel cancer awareness training programme for health professionals working closely with the National Bowel Screening Service. Passionate about physical and mental health, Gail is also a qualified personal trainer and enjoys teaching exercises classes in her spare time.
We believe that health and care will only be designed, led and delivered in the right way, if the people who rely on services can make their voices heard at every level. This is why it is one of our main aims to ensure that patients, service users, their carers, families and organisations are at the table when important decisions are made. We are hearing every day about what matters to the people we work for, and we are here to bring together the lived experience of people with long term conditions and the expertise of large health and care organisations.
Our aim is to change the way people with long term conditions can use services provided by the health and care system. Too often, these services are uncoordinated, don't help people to stay as well as possible or don't help people to look after themselves. We think about policy solutions, but also bring our experience of practical service improvements to this challenge.
Preventable illness causes avoidable suffering. Many cases of long term illness could have been prevented through reducing people's exposure to risks, such as smoking, inactivity, alcohol misuse and an unbalanced diet. Even people who already have a long term condition often benefit from changes to their behaviour around physical activity, smoking, alcohol use and diet. They need help to understand what they can do, and support to do it. It is never too early or too late to make a difference to someone's health and wellbeing.
a lot of the carer groups which are very helpful and valuable are actually provided by the voluntary groups