Team size: 11

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months? 

Over the past year, I have been closely involved in a number of significant projects across legal, compliance, and operational areas, including a request for proposal (RFP) for employment services. A full RFP runs through three rounds of submissions and meetings, which resulted in Bevan Brittan being appointed as external employment advisors to the group. I worked with the Legal Team and PG HR for a satisfactory outcome to reduce spending and improve ways of working. 

I reviewed and (where appropriate) renegotiated secondary care key site lease terms and occupation arrangements, including the review of leases, parent company guarantees, user clauses, and service provision, and conducted a review of commissioned services contracts for a full understanding of the contracting regarding NHS England commissioned services. 

I was also involved in the Birmingham Hospital site launch, reviewing the lease, user clause, shared space with third-party clinical practitioners, JCT contract for further and additional work.  

The DFN Project Search: we implanted a cohort of young people with a learning disability, or autism spectrum condition, or both at our Southampton site. Working with our national Head of EDI, we provided a mix of classroom-based learning and vocational learning to provide skills for young people to transition to working adult life for a meaningful contribution to society. 

I successfully onboarded and direct line-managed the first PPG national Head of EDI and Executive sponsor for group EDI. 

I successfully ensured group compliance with the NHS Sexual Safety at Work Charter and amendments to the Equality Act 2010 concerning sexual harassment at work including ensuring updating of key policies, communications and ways of working. 

I conducted a root and branch review of the claims management process and team and restructuring of the team and changes in ways of working for improved responses, case management and management of associated costs. 

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

The Claims Team (part of the Legal Team) has some 400 open claims. Most claims begin as a Datix incident notification from one of the PPG sites. The Team receives 100s of Datix incident notifications a day. The notifications range in severity from inconsequential matters to loss of life, across the PPG estate. Previously, the team processed the notifications manually: triaging their severity according to a severity grading of one to eight and then notifying external insurer, broker and law firm TPA via email.  Earlier this year, working closely with the IT Team and the group CIO, the team employed the use of AI agents to process the notifications.  The process is now automated, from severity triaging to onward external notifications.  Having conducted both a Privacy Impact Assessment and data protection assessment, with use of anonymisation where appropriate, the use of AI for processing the notifications end-to-end means that professionals in the team can free up their time for more strategic and high-value work in the Claims team, whilst ensuring that PPG’s obligations for processing sensitive personal data are maintained at all times.   

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive work environment?

As the PPG EDI Executive Sponsor, the team embodies the group EDI values.  We have undertaken recruitment to reach hard-to-reach groups such as refugees and ex-offenders (where the role permits). We use anonymized CVs via a CV platform and ensure that roles are advertised in varied publications and online platforms, specifically targeted to reach a wide breadth of the community, particularly aimed at candidates from non-traditional backgrounds.  We have a stated aim across PPG and within the team to achieve a 60:40 gender split in either direction and encourage applications for roles from all protected characteristic groups, with targeted advertising of roles. We undertake regular EDI training and take on Summer interns, focusing on people from non-traditional backgrounds in the Legal Profession.  Members of the team regularly visit our sites, including our secure settings in prisons and IRCs, to see life from other perspectives. When running RFP processes, we make it a requirement that law firms share demonstrable work in the area of EDI and demonstrate a commitment to EDI values. As a team we share our lived experience with each other, to find common ground and also to see things from other points of view. I am particularly proud that our team has a very good mix of age, gender, race and sexuality, reflective of the wider community and the patients who we serve.  

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am really passionate about social mobility. I see this as the primary blocker to people accessing opportunities to make the most of their talent. I feel very strongly that we must all actively target candidates from less advantaged backgrounds, particularly at the start of their career, in order to change the face of the legal profession and make it more reflective of the wider society.