Meet the Team

Diana is the Head of the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC). She loves her job and is passionate about helping others to apply the rigour of Quality Improvement thinking to get better outcomes for our children and young people. Diana was previously the Professional Lead for the Scottish Improvement Leader (ScIL) Programme, which builds Quality Improvement expertise in individuals to improve outcomes and public services across Scotland. As a Scottish Government Improvement Advisor, Diana provided support to areas of work with strategic priority, this included the Permanence and Care Excellence (PACE) programme to improve outcomes for looked after children. Diana has almost thirty years’ experience as a public servant, across a range of corporate and delivery areas, and has spent much of her career supporting and enabling Improvement. She is a graduate of the IHI, Improvement Advisor Development Programme and ILM, Level 7 Executive Coach. She loves walking, being outside generally and particularly watching birds.

Gavin is the named contact for Glasgow. As Team Leader he has portfolio responsibility for children’s services priorities, family support, The Promise and coordination of locality work. Gavin graduated from the IHI Advisor course in 2014 and is a qualified Executive Coach, having worked as an Improvement Coach using QI and EFQM methods since 2010. He is passionate about improving public services and has supported improvement programmes in Local Authorities, Health and Social Care Partnerships, NHS Boards and in national roles while working for HIS and the Scottish Government.

Marie-Claire is the named contact for Highland and supports Eilean Siar, Orkney & Shetland. As Team Leader she has portfolio responsibility for education. Marie-Claire’s background is in strategy and corporate planning. Since graduating from the IHI Professional development programme in 2013, she has worked as an improvement advisor in early years, education and healthcare roles before joining Scottish Government in 2021. Most recently she focused on the development of a standard approach to quality management in Scotland and she brings this expertise to the CYPIC community. Marie-Claire is faculty on the Scottish Improvement Leaders programme (ScIL) and a member of the Q Community. She spends much of her spare time cycling.

Catriona is the named contact for Edinburgh and supports Eilean Siar, Orkney & Shetland. As Team Leader she has portfolio responsibility for early years and outdoor learning. She completed the IHI Improvement Adviser programme in 2012, and spent several years in the Leading Improvement Team in Scottish Government - providing support to apply improvement thinking across a wide range of policy areas. She has been a cohort lead for the Scottish Improvement Leaders programme, as well as faculty for the Scottish Quality and Safety Fellowship supporting NHS Education for Scotland with other QI training developments, particularly around measurement for improvement and patient flow. She is a statistician by background, starting in academia before joining the Government Statistical Service in 1999.

Jan joined the Scottish Government in March 2020 and is the Improvement Advisor for Fife, Dundee and Perth & Kinross.

She graduated from Northern College (Dundee) with a Bachelor of Education degree (Hons) and started her career as a primary school teacher in Fife in 1997. She has worked as a Depute Head Teacher of a large primary school and as a Head Teacher in 2 primary schools within Fife Council. Jan is a Scottish Improvement Leader (ScIL) and is passionate about Getting it Right for Every Child. She believes wholeheartedly we can improve outcomes for all our children and young people by building effective relationships and by applying Quality Improvement methodology.
In her spare time Jan enjoys reading, being outdoors and spending time with her family and friends.

Steph is the Improvement Advisor for East Lothian and Scottish Borders. She joined Scottish Government in September 2020 and splits her time between the CYPIC and Leading Improvement Teams.

After qualifying as an Occupational Therapist in 2001, Steph has spent the last 17 years working as an Allied Health Professional within children and young people's services in the NHS. She has worked in outpatient and community settings in clinical, leadership and strategic development roles. Her passion is working collaboratively across health, education, social work, third sector and local communities to develop services for children and their families with early intervention, prevention, assets- based thinking and partnership working at its core. Steph first entered the exciting world of Quality Improvement as part of the Early Years Collaborative in 2014 and following this completed the Scottish Improvement Leaders Programme. Combining her enthusiasm for Quality and Improvement and Leadership to drive work locally and nationally to improve outcomes for children and families. Steph loves living by the sea and may be seen off shore attempting to master paddle boarding with her husband and two children.

Laura is the Improvement Advisor supporting children and young people’s services across East, North and South Ayrshire. With a real passion for improving outcomes for people, Laura loves working with teams to apply Quality Improvement and see the positive impact on people’s lives.

From working in the NHS as a Specialist Physiotherapist and discovering Quality Improvement, Laura went on to work on a national Improvement Programme with the Care Inspectorate. Here, she applied the rigour of Quality Improvement to Intergenerational Practice, bringing together those living in care homes with nursery children. Laura graduated from the Scottish Improvement Leaders Programme (ScIL) in 2018 and joined the CYPIC Team in April 2020. She loves simply being with her family and running – a lot!

Lesley Ann is the Improvement Advisor for East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire & South Lanarkshire as well as having a lead role for Early Years and the West Collaborative.

She was previously the Education Professional Advisor, with the Getting it Right for Every Child Policy Team, working with key stakeholders in Education across Scotland. Before joining Government, Lesley Ann worked for North Lanarkshire Council as a Programme Lead for the Scottish Attainment Challenge and Early Years, providing support to areas of work with strategic priority to improving the wellbeing and attainment of children. Lesley Ann is a graduate from the Scottish Improvement Leaders Programme (ScIL).
Lesley Ann is actively involved in working with families and children within her community and loves reading, walking and particularly spending time with her family. She loves her job and is passionate about helping others to apply the rigour of Quality Improvement thinking to get better outcomes for our children and young people with a real belief in the power and agency of families and children.

Marie-Claire is Improvement Advisor for Argyll & Bute, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire and enjoys working alongside colleagues who support these areas in the delivery of our programme.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Pathology and Therapeutics (Hons) and enjoyed a career as a Lead Speech and Language Therapist for 20 years before taking on a management role implementing the Parenting Framework in NHS Greater and Clyde in 2012.
Marie-Claire graduated as an Improvement Advisor with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement in 2015 and joined the Scottish Government in 2016.

Adam is the Improvement Advisor for Dumfries & Galloway as well as having lead roles for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and the Strategic Partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

Adam is a classroom teacher by background, having worked in schools and at authority level in his years in the profession. He passionately believes that co-production and compassionate collaboration are the vehicles to enable children, young people, their families and their communities to be at the heart of transformational change.

Wendy is the Improvement Advisor for Angus, Falkirk and Inverclyde and enjoys working alongside colleagues who support these areas in the delivery of our programme.

As a graduate of the IHI Professional Development Programme, Wendy is now faculty on the Scottish Improvement Leaders programme (ScIL) and the Scottish Coaching and Leading for Improvement programme (SCLIP). A Speech and Language Therapist with over 25 years’ experience, Wendy has worked in a variety of clinical and leadership roles and was also a clinical tutor with Strathclyde University, before taking up her national role in September 2016. When not working, she can be found bagging a Munro or hitting a few balls across the tennis court.

Julie is the Improvement Advisor for Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Midlothian and West Lothian. She was a graduate of the Scottish Improvement Leaders Programme (SCiL) and still regularly mentors people undertaking this lead level Quality Improvement Programme as well as being a faculty member for the Scottish Coaching and Leading for Improvement Programme (SCLIP). Julie has been involved with the programme since it was the Early Years Collaborative when she specifically supported National Partners.

Julie was working in the Third Sector prior to joining the Scottish Government and brought with her direct experience of working in Early Years in Scotland as well as extensive voluntary experience in relation to parental engagement in education and health services. Her professional background was an Engineer in the Automotive Industry and her passion for ‘Quality Improvement’ was ignited in those early days.

Sacha is the Improvement Advisor for Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray. She joined the CYPIC team in February 2020.
In 1995, after 10 years working in banking, Sacha started her career working with children and families and knew immediately that improving outcomes for children was what she wanted to do. Since then she has worked in various operational and strategic roles across children’s services within the public and third sector. In 2013, she discovered another passion – Quality Improvement!

She graduated from the IHI Improvement Advisor Development programme and since then has been working collaboratively with children’s services colleagues, in local and national roles, using Quality Improvement to improve outcomes for children and families. Sacha loves exploring forests, hills and mountains in Scotland and other parts of the world, usually accompanied by her husband and Louis the dog.

Adam is the CYPIC Administrative Officer. He supports the team with a range of administrative duties and supports logistics for meetings and events.

Adam lives in Edinburgh with his 2 children, is an avid football supporter and enjoys playing five-a-side.

Sarah joined CYPIC in 2020 as the Business Support Manager for the Programme. She provides project and programme management support across the Team and oversees the administration of the programme. She started working for Scottish Government in 2009 as an administrator and progressed through a range of policy roles where she also learnt about project management. She achieved the APM Project Management Qualification in 2017. Sarah lives in the Scottish Borders with her family where she takes an active role in the local community; supporting her Parent Council and a third sector ELC setting.