Laura Edwards

Company Overview: Mental health charity delivering services to the people of Manchester alongside and in partnership with statutory health and social care services.

• Member of the Senior Leadership and Designated Safeguarding Team and lead for volunteers.
• Overseeing the delivery of five projects and managing seven staff with lived experience of mental health problems to deliver peer support groups, mindfulness and resilience courses and mental health practitioner interventions.
• Ensuring all project KPI’s and outcomes are met for commissioners, attending steering groups, chairing team meetings, sourcing and reporting on funding and providing safeguarding support.

Company Overview: National charity supporting people with learning disabilities and autism, many of whom have sight loss. Educating and campaigning for change to transform eye care and vision services to prevent avoidable sight loss for people with learning disabilities across the UK.

• Leading a multi-disciplinary, clinical/non-clinical, dispersed, national team with overall budget responsibility to deliver on the outcomes of the 3-year Eye Care and Vision strategy for the organisation in partnership with statutory and other voluntary services.
• Securing and reporting on multiple funding streams including a 3-year Community Lottery Fund project employing people with lived experience of learning disability and sight loss to deliver training around eye care public health messages across London and the North West.
• A pivotal role in achieving legislative change within the Department of Health and being part of the NHSE stakeholder group for a new sight testing service in all special schools in England.

• Development officer - setting up the new project
• Regional Manager Yorkshire and the Humber - scaling up the project
• Advisory Services Manager North of England - delivering and sourcing training and consultancy services
• National Manager Children and Families - leading a new project

Company Overview: Small support organisation providing supported living housing and outreach support to adults with learning disabilities and autism across Sheffield.

• Development Manager - setting up supported living services.
• Service Manager - managing a team of support staff.
• Senior Support Worker - providing support in people's homes.

Temporary placements in human resources at Selfridges/City College Manchester, administrator at Trafford Youth Offending team and as a recruitment consultant at Forrest Recruitment.