BASE National Executive Committee
BASE is governed by a National Executive Committee elected by its members within each of the seven regions. The role of the NEC is to provide support and scrutiny as well as linking the national organisation with grass roots members. The NEC meets several times a year; you can find details of our annual reports, Treasurer's reports and AGM minutes here.
Laura Davis
Position:
Chief Executive
Laura has extensive experience of the Supported Employment sector, managing Ways into Work from 2005 and taking it out of the local authority as a community interest company in 2015. Leading the new organisation as Managing Director, Laura won a number of new contracts to rapidly expand the service. In 2018, Laura left to take up a new role as Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Julia Green
Position:
Chair of BASE National Executive Committee
Julia is the Manager of the Employment and Disability Service (EADS) and LIVE (learning, independence, volunteering and employment) teams, both specialist supported employment services within Northamptonshire County Council. Both teams provide bespoke support to people across Northamptonshire with disabilities and complex health conditions, working hard to raise aspirations and supporting people to achieve meaningful and sustainable employment.
Matt Britt
Position:
Vice Chair
Matt has over twenty years experience of working in social care and has worked within local authorities, colleges and, primarily, the third sector. He has a broad range of experiences from delivering vocational qualifications, project managing ESF-funded projects and developing social enterprises that employ people with learning disabilities.
Alex Seddon
Position:
Treasurer
Alex is the Head of Supported Employment & Community Enterprise for Discovery based in Somerset. She has been working in the social care industry for 10 years and has over 20 years’ experience of working in employment and training. Alex has worked with local authorities, DWP, colleges and other third sector providers to deliver on a variety of contracts throughout the UK.
Lee Corless
Position:
National Employer Lead
Lee is a Executive Vice President of Global Expansion with years of experience working within the financial, technology, and recruitment industries. Having been part of the leadership team building arguably the world's leading Autism at Work programme within one of the largest global investment corporations, Lee is now recognized as one of the world leaders in the neurodiversity inclusion space and is an accomplished, in demand, global speaker.
As an autistic self-advocate, Lee supports the advancement of adapting the workplace to embrace neurodiversity and encourage neurodivergent individuals to seek employment.
Robert Elston
Position:
European Lead
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Robert has over 30 years experience of working within Supported Employment and manages Status Employment, a voluntary sector agency supporting people with mental health needs in south London. He has been active in the European Union for Supported Employment, for many years acting as Treasurer. Robert has also been Treasurer of BASE since it was founded in 2006 until 2023
Mel Walls
Position:
National Lead for Supported Businesses
Mel is the Supported Business and Social Enterprise lead for BASE members and provides a link to the Supported Business Steering Group, which acts as a voice for Supported Businesses across the UK.
Neryssa Charman
Position:
Devolution Lead
Neryssa Charman is a Programme Manager at Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). As part of Manchester’s trailblazing Working Well team, she manages a range of employment programmes including IPS and Supported Employment.
Dean Atkinson
Region:
Midlands
Dean is the chair of our Midlands Regional Network and represents Midlands members on the National Executive Committee. He started his career in Adult Social Care in the 1980’s working in residential care and day services for people with learning disabilities. In 1993 he was involved in setting up and managing Coventry’s first employment service for people with learning disabilities. He attended his first supported employment conference, loved the approach and the people he met and has been passionate about the impact it can have on people lives ever since. Dean currently has strategic responsibility for supported employment in Coventry along with responsibility for managing a large portfolio of ESF funded projects as part of the Council’s Employment and Skills Service.
Joanne Spurgeon
Region:
North West
Ramsay Taylor
Region:
North East
Ramsay has been working within Adult Social Care since 2013 beginning his career as a support worker for United Response and took a vested interest in supporting disabled people into employment. Ramsay started working as a Job Coach and went onto manage the operations of United Response’s Supported Employment services, running adult social care, DWP and education funded programmes. Ramsay is now working with Durham County Council to develop the DurhamEnable Supported Employment initiative as their Development and Quality Manager.
Alistair Kerr
Region:
Scotland
Alistair represents Scottish members on the National Executive Committee. He has been involved with Supported Employment & sustainable procurement since 2002. In 2012 Alistair supported The First Minister in Scotland to launch the Supported Business Advisory Board in partnership with Senior Procurement Officials from Central Government Procurement Directorate. This Board is still in operation today. In 2012 he supported the First Minister to launch a ground breaking social enterprise in Scotland, in response to thousands of disabled workers being made redundant in the UK, enabling the Scottish Governments Sustainable Procurement Strategy & Duty to be enacted for those who meet the EU Procurement definitions to tender for such contracts from both the public & private sectors. Alistair is a co-founder of three Supported Business Procurement Frameworks, Central Government Procurement, Scotland Excel & NHS Strategic Procurement.
David Stenning
Region:
South East
David is the operations lead for Kent Supported Employment. He started his career in Supported Employment over 12 years ago as an Employment Support Officer. David has worked on various programs that have supported people with disabilities and disadvantages to seek, find and sustain employment, including DWP, ESF, NHS and school funded programs. He is keen to promote and develop the way the region engages with and supports employers.
Shona Howes
Region:
South West
Petra Kennedy
Region:
Wales
Petra represents Welsh members on the National Executive Committee and is the Secretary of BASE Wales. Petra has been involved with Disability Employment Services and Supported Employment since 2002 and is keen to develop the involvement of Welsh members.
Nerise Oldfield-Thompson
Nerise spent 15 years within the local authority and voluntary sectors delivering and managing supported employment before taking the leap into self-employment. Following a number of years as a BASE associate, Nerise was appointed as Operations Manager for Inclusive Trading CIC in January 2022 and now leads our commercial activity. When she has a few minutes to herself she spends time in her allotment and, being a typical 'Geordie', shows leeks at her local leek show.
Lily Beyer
Position:
Project Manager: Internships Work
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Lily has been working within the field of Supported Employment since 2016, bringing her industry experience as a project coordinator to her roles. She has specialised in Supported Internship working across Wales, England and Iberia to develop quality Supported Internship provision by working closely with educators, local authorities, supported employment agencies, businesses and government. She is passionate about giving young adults with learning disabilities meaningful employment opportunities and specialises in delivery and development of job coach training.
Liz Mellor
Position:
Training Manager
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Liz is passionate about the power of supported employment. She has worked in the sector since 2006, when she created and built a supported employment service for people with a learning disability. Initially working alone, she went on to grow and manage the team and supported many people into paid employment.
She is a qualified tutor with many years experience of delivering training in adult and community education as well as to those with special educational needs, she's also a qualified and experienced assessor.
Liz also brings to her work, her wide knowledge and experience from working in mental health services; both hospital and community settings. She is a qualified RMN.
She can also draw on the knowledge and experience of service monitoring of quality of provision both in supported employment and adult and community learning.
We often say during training that supported employment is a people-y business and Liz is a people-y person.
David-Aiden Palmer
David provides admin support for BASE & Inclusive Trading and works alongside Nerise Oldfield-Thompson, Operations Manager.
Gillian Parker
Gillian is a communication consultant who has maintained BASE’s social media presence since 2013. A sociology graduate, she describes herself as a mature self-confessed "geek" who loves all things techie.