Meet our Board

The Malnutrition Task Force is supported by Age UK, apetito, BAPEN, and Nutricia. Age UK manages the Malnutrition Task Force.

Dianne M Jeffrey CBE DL, Hon D Univ. Hon Doc SHU

Dianne Jeffrey is the chair and founder of the Malnutrition Task Force. She is a passionate advocate that dignity and compassion must be at the heart of our health and care system and committed to making the world a better place for older people in the UK and internationally.

Dianne is the former chairman of Age UK. She is Chair of the Peak District National Park Advisory Group and the Derbyshire Armed Forces Covenant. She is a trustee of Age International and the Devonshire Educational Trust at Chatsworth.

Dianne was Pro-Chancellor and chairman of the board of the University of Derby from 1999 until 2011. Dianne served as an NHS Trust chairman for 13 years, and was a founder and chairman of the NHS Confederation from 2000 – 2003. She was chairman of Anchor Trust, providing housing care and support to older people in England, for five years.

Dianne was appointed CBE in the Birthday Honours in 2011. She was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Derby in 2012 and from Sheffield Hallam University in 2014.

Paul Freeston - Chief Executive, apetito UK 

Paul has led apetito and Wiltshire Farm Foods in the UK since 2001, focusing on the provision of high-quality nutritious meals and systems designed to make a real difference to all customers, many of whom are elderly and/or nutritionally vulnerable. He has wide-ranging experience across meals on wheels, supply of meals to the NHS, care homes, and the education sector. He sits as a board member of apetito AG, the international parent company of apetito and is also Chair and CEO of Heart to Home Meals in Canada and Chair of Heart to Home Meals in the USA. He has been President of the British Frozen Food Federation and currently sits as Board member and President of the Food and Drink Federation.

Lesley Carter

Lesley Carter is the board member for AgeUK and is a Registered Nurse, the Clinical Lead for Health Influencing and leads Professionals and Practice. She is also the Programme Lead for the Malnutrition Task Force. Lesley has a passion for change management and practice development. Her previous posts include Director of Nursing for Community and Acute Mental Health and older people services. Leading service transformation and redesign at The London Development Centre, The Kings Fund, Care Services Improvement Partnership, Commissioning Support for London, NHS London and The Department of Health as the London Lead for the development and implementation of the National Dementia Strategy.

Dr Trevor Smith

Trevor is the current BAPEN President. He is a Consultant Gastroenterologist working in Southampton where he leads a clinical nutrition and regional intestinal failure service. Trevor previously chaired the British Artificial Nutrition Survey and is also a member of the British Society of Gastroenterology Small Bowel and Nutrition Committee and the British Intestinal Failure Alliance (BIFA).

Robert Browne

Robert Browne is a Senior Scientific Affairs Manager working at Nutricia, the market-leading provider of medical nutrition products and services in the UK. Nutricia works closely with hospitals, care homes and primary care services to help catch malnutrition early, supporting them in implementing nutritional screening programs and educating healthcare professionals, patients and carers on the importance of good nutrition. Nutricia UK and Ireland are also proud to have achieved B Corp certification. B Corps are mission-driven businesses who give people, the planet and profit equal priority and operate as a force for good. B Corp certification is granted following an independent assessment and requires regular recertification which encourages businesses to strive for continuous improvement.

Kate Hall MSc RD

Kate is a registered dietitian, and has worked in various different settings across the NHS and private sectors. Kate’s passion is very much working with others to try to improve the nutritional care to which individuals have access to. Kate says: "It is only right that an individual whatever their age, or wherever they live, should have access to timely nutrition support whether that be access to information or advice or more intensive support; nutrition and hydration is such an important but basic right and should not be overlooked. The evidence is there, the guidelines and pathways are there but it is the doing that needs to happen and everyone has a part to play."

Lee Sheppard - apetito UK

Working within food provision to the Health & Social Care sector for over 20 years, Lee has immense knowledge of the industry. 

Having spent his earlier career working in Meals on Wheels services, he founded apetito’s award-winning Care Home division with its focus on delivering a great dining experience. He has also worked with Wiltshire Farm Foods, the UK’s largest ready meal brand, delivering primarily into the homes of the elderly.

He works extensively with both DEFRA and the Department of Health and Social Care helping shape food and packaging standards and policy and chaired the Sustainability, Food Waste and Procurement Standards group as part of the Governments Hospital Food Review.

In 2018, we invited associate members to join the MTF board. The associate board members are:

Professor Jane Murphy

Jane Murphy is Professor of Nutrition, Registered Nutritionist and Dietitian and co-leads the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre at Bournemouth University. Her research is committed to key nutrition-related problems in ageing and translation of nutrition science into practice. She leads funded research projects on nutrition in older people and in people living with cognitive impairments and dementia. She has produced a number of materials for those working with older people, both in care homes and more recently in the community (http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/nutrition-dementia).

She is the Clinical Lead (Nutrition) for the Healthy Ageing Programme at the Wessex Academic Health Science Network and has developed and validated new tools to identify malnutrition in the community, ensuring that people have access to appropriate nutrition support and advice. Read more about the Nutrition Wheel [link to Nutrition Wheel/Resources page].

Email jmurphy@bournemouth.ac.uk

Phil Shelley

Phil has worked in the NHS for 26 years, having also worked in the hospitality industry.  As Past Chair of the Hospital Catering Association, he is committed to raising the profile of malnutrition with a focus on prevention, quality of food choice and access to appropriate hydration. He believes that Health and Social Care should provide integrated support for our public particularly as they recover from surgery and illness.

Phil hopes that his involvement with MTF will enable him to link positively with other healthcare teams in driving consistency of standards, which encompasses the role of the supplier in partnership with the NHS.

http://www.hospitalcaterers.org/

Sarah Wren

Sarah Wren is Chief Executive of Hertfordshire Independent Living Service, a thriving not-for-profit social enterprise that delivers a range of services to older and vulnerable people to help them stay happy, healthy, and independent in their homes for as long as possible.  These services range from meals on wheels, to specialist exercise provision, and nutrition support, delivered to over 14,000 beneficiaries every year.

Sarah is a passionate believer in the power of social business to deliver high quality and sustainable services at great value for the public purse.  Having spent many years as a lecturer in business and management, and served as a local politician, Sarah’s background also includes the chairmanship of several charitable businesses in Hertfordshire.  In 2012, she was awarded an MBE for services to the community sector.

Naomi Campbell RGN

Naomi is recognised as the UK's first Hydration Care Nurse Specialist. Since 2010 she has dedicated her career to raising greater awareness about the problem of dehydration in elderly care. She identified that the NHS and Social Care system did not have a risk assessment tool to highlight the level of support a person needs to drink and eat. In response to this she created a holistic hydration care assessment tool called ‘Reliance On a Carer’ (ROC). This simple tool now has growing recognition from the Care Quality Commission and NHS England. In 2016 she became the Chair of the National Hydration Network (NHN) [link to NHN page], which operates as a representative, multi-disciplinary expert group concerning the management of oral hydration; focused primarily on elderly care needs.

In 2018, Naomi founded Hydration Care Consultancy Ltd [www.hydrationcareconsultancy.co.uk ] as a means to promote and support the uptake of her ROC Hydration Care Tool, and is working closely with commissioners and care providers.