Staff
Jacob Lant
Jacob joined in May 2023 as Chief Executive of National Voices. He is a committed advocate for working with people accessing health and care services and the wider public to help improve the accessibility and quality of the care they receive. He loves to combine deep qualitative insights with quantitative data to challenge traditional thinking on how to tackle policy challenges. Prior to working for National Voices, Jacob spent almost 10 years helping to build the Healthwatch network. In this time, he led successful nationwide policy influencing campaigns on a huge variety of topics, from maternal mental health services to access to NHS dentistry. He has also worked in local Government and for the British Library. Outside of work he can often be found with a power tool in hand, offering his DIY services to friends around South London.
Please feel free to get in touch with Jacob, or reach out to his EA Laura: laura.reed@nationalvoices.org.uk
Sarah Sweeney
Sarah has a wealth of experience in policy, campaigning, research and community development. She is passionate about tackling health inequalities and finding common cause between diverse groups of people to make health and care services more inclusive. Sarah has worked at National Voices since January 2022, first as Head of Policy (maternity cover), then as Interim CEO, then as Director of Membership and Development. Prior to joining National Voices, Sarah led the campaigns and health policy influencing work of Friends, Families and Travellers, the UK’s largest charity working to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people.
Sharon Brennan
Sharon Brennan is Director of Policy and External Affairs at National Voices. Prior to joining she was the Senior Policy Manager at the Taskforce for Lung Health developing their integrated care strategy, and Taskforce priorities for the year ahead. Previously she worked as the Health and Integration Policy Manager at Alzheimer’s Society, responsible for the strategic and operational direction of health policy at the charity. Before moving into the charity policy sector in 2021, Sharon was an award-winning senior correspondent at the Health Service Journal leading on integration, integrated care systems, commissioning and social care reform. She also acts as an advisor to the Department of Transport on the accessibility of UK travel.
Matthew Haslehurst
Matthew is an experienced finance leader specialising in niche organisations, he has worked in the charity & membership organisation sector for the last 6 years, initially working with a membership driven organisation and more recently as Finance Director for a national community transport organisation, looking after Finance, HR & Head Office Support functions. At National Voices, Matthew oversees many of the enablers of our work, such as finance and operations.
Keymn Whervin
Keymn co-leads our work improving mechanisms for patient engagement. She was a founding member of our Voices for Improvement Advisory Group, which supports the Voices for Improvement project. Keymn has devoted her life to be a carer for her mum and has worked with Solihull Council, as a director of Peer Partnership CIC, and as a member of the Expo Panel. She has also worked with the Coalition for Collaborative Care, the Patient Online Advisory Group and the ADASS Peer challenges and has been a National Champion for the Royal College of GPs.
Over time she has built up her experience in the sector, which has enabled her to work for NHS England as a Lived Experience advisor on the Personalised Care Group 2017-18 and then moving into freelance work setting up, mentoring and leading My Life Choices strategic co-production group in Nottinghamshire.
Rachel Matthews
Rachel is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach who co-designs and delivers learning development products for effective collaboration and partnership between people who bring different experiences of health and social care. She co-leads a talented community of Lived Experience Partners with Keymn Whervin. Rachel is an experienced health professional with clinical, research, quality improvement and leadership experience. Rachel is an alumna of the King’s Fund Top Manager Programme and the NIHR Leadership Programme.
Tessa Fulton
Tessa joined National Voices in our newly created Policy Manager role in July 2023. She brings with her unique insights from her background as a Clinical Psychologist working in NHS community mental health and dementia services. Tessa moved into the health charity policy sector in 2022 with a role in the policy team at National Voices’ member Alzheimer’s Society, and brings a collaborative, inclusive approach to listening and enabling change in health policy. At National Voices Tessa’s work is focused on coordinating the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, a partnership between health and care charities, on the one hand, and system partners, on the other, with a focus on tackling health inequalities. National Voices and NAVCA act as joint co-ordinators of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, which is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency. She will also lead on the development of new policy areas based on the expertise and insight of our members and the communities they represent.
Pavi Brar
Pavi is Senior Policy Advisor at National Voices. She has just completed her Masters in Global Health and Social Justice at King's College London. She works to combat health inequalities, particularly for minority ethnic and other often marginalised community groups, and has a keen research interest in digital exclusion. She is assisting on furthering the work of the Health Inequalities conference in Spring 2021, including an upcoming health inequality campaign and racial justice workshops. Outside of her work at National Voices, Pavi also volunteers with a student-led think tank, Generation Maastricht, working to encourage youth participation and engagement in health and social affairs issues.
Rosie Moffat
Rosie is Communications Manager at National Voices. Rosie oversees and leads on National Voices' communications channels across social media, email campaigns and webinars. She also devises communications strategies and plans across all of our work, and ensures that the important work National Voices does reaches key audiences by managing media relations.
Lucy Seymour
In the role of Policy and External Affairs Officer, Lucy supports the work across three key areas in National Voices; policy, communications and membership. Lucy’s role is integral to our work advocating for equitable, person-centred health and care services, ensuring this work is authentically developed with our members, and effectively communicated to our wider network. Prior to joining National Voices, Lucy completed her BA in Visual Communication, before going on to study Public Health for her MSc. Lucy also has previous experience volunteering for long-term condition organisations, in addition to a keen interest in tackling both gender and accessibility inequities, and improving the use of data, across healthcare.