Kate Read began her career as a social worker in 1977 and has many years of experience in services for older people and in particular people with dementia. She was the Executive Director of the West Midlands Dementia Services Development Centre, which she led with Professor David Jolley for five years. Kate then worked at Staffordshire University as a senior lecturer in social work for four years, prior to joining Dementia UK and the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester in 2010.

Kate leads on the development of Dementia UK in the West Midlands. She has a particular interest in social care, service user and carer involvement, commissioning, end of life care, family care and the development of admiral nurses and the admiral nursing model.


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Jeremy Hughes joined Alzheimer's Society in November 2010. He has led the charity in producing a five year strategy 'Delivering on Dementia 2012-17' and in 2011/12 the society's income exceeded £70m for the first time. Jeremy co-chairs the Dementia Friendly Communities Champions Group with Angela Rippon as part of the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia.

Jeremy was previously Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer where he was instrumental in providing visionary leadership, galvanising the charity's research platform and its authority on campaigning and policy. Before that Jeremy was Head of External Affairs at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

His career in health and social care charities includes leadership posts at the British Red Cross, Leonard Cheshire, Muscular Dystrophy and NCH Action for Children.

Jeremy is currently a Trustee of Sightsavers and Chair of National Voices, the umbrella health and social care charity.

Larry Gardiner has multi-infarct vascular dementia. He first noticed problems with memory and organisation at age 50 and subsequently had a stroke. He now attends the Memory Clinic at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.

Early onset dementia has had a devastating effect on his life and his family. The onset of dementia came at a time when Larry had a demanding job, a mortgage and three school age children at home.

Since losing his job Larry has worked as a dementia activist and advocate. He is now a trustee with Oxfordshire Advocacy, he is an advisor for Alzheimer's Society, he is a Non-Executive Director with Dementia Adventure CIC and he is an enthusiastic Ambassador for Young Dementia UK. In this capacity he has supported public relations, outreach, marketing and publicity efforts. He is passionate about raising awareness about early diagnosis and he has recently helped to launch a learning resource produced through the 'No Limits - Re-imagining Life with Dementia project.

Larry also works with professionals, clinicians, practitioners and medical students; most recently as a speaker at the National Dementia Congress, the Alzheimer's Europe Conference, the Association of Dementia Studies, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Larry asserts that dementia advocacy and activism is the means by which influence can be extended by individuals with dementia.

He has been recruited to advise the Alzheimer's Society's pioneering participation and engagement project. Larry was also recently sponsored by Alzheimer's Society and Young Dementia UK to participate in inaugural proceedings of the European Dementia Working Group with an international voice for people with dementia. He is currently working to build an independent, representative and autonomous dementia working group in this country that will engage with agencies and authorities to inform their decisions about provision.

Larry looks forward to the day when service users and carers are routinely included in policy development so that services for the constituency of people with dementia are influenced and configured to meet their needs.

Suzy Webster is a mum of two young children and a carer for her mother who is 65 years old and lives with dementia. Suzy's grandmother died of dementia last year following 10 years of living in a care home.

Suzy is able to talk about the challenges her family face and brings this experience to her work for Age UK as an Expert by Experience, My Home Life Age Cymru as a dementia trainer, Dementia UK as a carer speaker for The Butterfly Scheme and a volunteer coordinator for a local care home.

Suzy is a member of Uniting Carers at Dementia UK and co-facilitates an Alzheimer's Society Singing for the Brain group.

Presentation: In conversation with ...

In this opening session, Jeremy Hughes will have a conversation with Larry Gardiner, who has dementia, and Suzy Webster, who cares for her mother who has dementia.

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Dr Karim Saad is a consultant in old age psychiatry and Regional Clinical Lead for Dementia in the West Midlands. He set up a multi-award winning community team for younger onset dementia in Coventry, and was former Chair of the Midlands Regional Younger Person with Dementia Forum.

Karim is a member of the Mental Psychological and Occupational Health (MPOH) Panel, which prioritises research within the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme, and an honorary member of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Faculty. He is also an examiner and clinical teacher at Warwick Medical School and a member of the Clinical Leaders Network (CLN).

Karim is an author, executive board member and clinical advisor to the UK Department of Health on the Alzheimer Cooperative Valuation in Europe (ALCOVE) project, as well as a member of the Prime Minister Challenge on Dementia: Dementia Awareness in Schools and Intergenerational Work.

Presentation: Dementia; a shifting landscape

An overview of trends, policy and innovation in dementia to inform the public and motivate change agents to effectively engage in commissioning quality services.

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Peter Crome has been Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Keele University and Consultant Geriatrician at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust in Stoke-on-Trent since 1994. More recently, he has been Director of R&D for the trust and DeNDRoN lead for the West Midlands. He is also an Honorary Professor in the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at University College London.

Prior to this, Peter was a Senior Lecturer and Consultant at King's College and Orpington Hospitals. He has served as Dean of the Keele Medical School, President of the British Geriatrics Society and President of the Geriatrics and Gerontology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is currently Secretary-General of IAGG-European Region clinical section. He sits on a number of NIHR and NICE committees.

Peter has served as Clinical Director in both Stoke and Orpington, and has been responsible for the introduction of numerous services including memory clinics, stroke units, intermediate care and ortho-geriatrics. He also chairs the Steering Committee of the National Audit of Dementia in Acute Hospitals. His research interests include stroke, dementia, drug treatment in later life and health services research. He has published widely and has edited books on drug treatment and on pain in older people.

Presentation: What's new on the research front

With an urgent need to better diagnose, treat and prevent dementia, what breakthroughs have been made in understanding the causes? With funding doubling to over £66m per year by 2015, what impact can future research have on treatment, best practice and quality of care?

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Peter Hay is one of a team of strategic directors working within the city council to transform outcomes for Birmingham's residents. Peter's direct responsibilities include adult social care, adult learning and coordinating the Health and Wellbeing Partnership.

From joining Birmingham in 2003, Peter has overseen major changes in residential and community provision of care. The council now offers individual budgets for all citizens receiving public funding alongside a growing emphasis on universal information, prevention and enablement.

Implementing real choice and control, alongside budget reductions and new arrangements with the NHS, means that the council continues to reshape relationships with citizens, staff and providers. This includes some radically new approaches to meeting this challenge, including a full social work practice pilot, integration with NHS partners and investment in prevention approaches (such as the social work practice pilot) and the development of integrated working with NHS partners.

Peter is the immediate Past President of ADASS for the year 2012/13, and continues to contribute to ADASS' work. He is also Chair of Research in Practice for Adults (RIPFA).

In June 2012, Peter was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours - the citation is for services to social and healthcare, and the role as President of ADASS.

Presentation: Improving care, improving quality of life

There are currently 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK, costing society over £23bn per annum, twice the cost of cancer. With a prediction of over a million people by 2021, there is no denying the extent of the problem and the need for committed focus in tackling the issues. Sadly, people are still not living well with dementia. How can this be changed so that the quality of life of both people living with dementia and carers can be improved?

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Trevor Jarvis was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2001 and has since spoken at the Alzheimer's Society national conferences on younger people with dementia, been an active committee member for a self-help group for younger people with dementia in Doncaster, and is an active member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Consumer Group.

Trevor spoke at the 2011 Dementia Congress and he has been involved in the Champion Group for Dementia Friendly Communities, as part of the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia.

Presentation: Living with dementia

A moving account and insight as to what it means to live with dementia and how it is not just the patient that it affects.

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Professor George Tadros is an old age consultant psychiatrist in Birmingham and Solihull. Following the completion of his training in the Old Age Psychiatry higher training West Midlands scheme, he was appointed as a community consultant psychiatrist for the elderly in 2001. He completed his MD degree in 2004, studying the differences between suicide in the older people and younger adults. He served as an elected member on the executive committee of the Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry from 2008 until recently, including two years as the academic secretary.

In 2009, Professor Tadros took up the challenge and moved to Old Age Liaison Psychiatry and developed the RAID liaison service that highlighted the benefits that old age psychiatry can bring into acute hospital, especially for dementia patients. He evaluated the service in a way that proved the economical value and quality improvement in integrating old age psychiatry into acute hospitals. The findings of his work have been adopted by many NHS trusts, creating many jobs in similar teams across the country.

Despite working as a full-time NHS consultant, Professor Tadros developed his academic career; he was appointed as a Visiting Professor of Mental Health and Ageing, Staffordshire University, in 2006, and Professor of Old Age Liaison Psychiatry, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick in April 2012. His academic work is focused on practical aspects in improving care and clinical knowledge. He is closely involved in training and medical education at many levels.

Presentation: Improving care, improving quality of life - in practice

The Rapid Assessment, Interface and Discharge (RAID) service is a model that has significantly improved quality of care in acute hospitals for patients with mental illness and alcohol problems, especially for older people with dementia.

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Karishma Chandaria joined the Alzheimer's Society in 2010 as Senior Policy Officer. She is currently on secondment to the post of Dementia Friendly Communities Programme Manager leading the Society's strategic work on developing dementia friendly communities. Previously she was Policy Advisor at the Royal College of Physicians and the General Medical Council (GMC). She has worked as policy professional in a number of health focused organizations for over 10 years and has a masters in public policy from Birkbeck College and degree in politics from the University of Nottingham. Her outside interests include, long-distance running, cooking, local politics and current affairs.

Presentation: Building dementia friendly communities

Many villages, towns and cities are already taking steps towards becoming or have an ambition to become dementia friendly. However, it is acknowledged that realising dementia friendly communities will take a number of years.

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Andrew Cozens CBE is a consultant specialising in social care and health policy and improvement. He most recently worked for the Local Government Association as Strategic Adviser, Children, Adults and Health Services from 2006-2012 and spent 10 years prior to that as Director of Social Services for Gloucestershire and Leicester City Councils.

He has also worked in the voluntary sector and now chairs the Carers Trust, the largest charity working with carers, which brought together the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Crossroads Care.


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Toby Williamson has worked at the foundation, a national research and development charity, since 2002. He is responsible for the foundation's programme on mental health issues in later life, as well as issues affecting people with dementia.

Toby has carried out several research and development projects that have involved getting the views and experiences of people with dementia and how issues such as personalisation may affect their lives. He has also led on research, service improvement and policy work involving mental capacity issues, and co-chaired a national campaign for the introduction of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales.

Prior to working at the foundation, Toby worked in and managed adult mental health services. He has personal and family experience of mental health issues including dementia.


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Amy Swan is the Policy Officer for older people and people with disabilities at the National Housing Federation. She works to influence a wide policy agenda nationally to create the conditions for housing associations specialising in older people's housing and housing for people with disabilities to build more homes, deliver better services and improve neighbourhoods.

Amy's work plan covers older people's housing and support services; dementia and housing; the future of social care; the housing care and support needs of people with physical or sensory disabilities; housing, care and support for people with learning disabilities; inclusive urban and building design requirements for people with care and support needs and investment in housing for older people, including shared ownership models. She previously led a project on re-visioning older people's housing called 'Breaking the Mould'.

As well as working at the National Housing Federation, Amy has worked as a policy officer at Help the Aged, and in local government. She has a MSc in Gender and Social Policy from London School of Economics.


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