BABICM council is formed of volunteers from the membership. Members can apply to be on council as vacancies become available at the AGM each year (which is held at the summer conference). Members are voted in for 3 years and continue as volunteers. There is a minimum number of 12 council members at any one time.
BABICM council meets 6 times per year, 2 face to face and 4 webinar. Council members are required to attend meetings regularly and should more than 2 meetings be missed over the 12 months they are asked to step down. The council works to support BABICM’s aims and to act as representatives of the membership.
BABICM is committed to having a diverse and inclusive community of Council members. Our Council is an inclusive forum where ideas, suggestions and best-practice are welcomed and considered in an open and transparent way.
We welcome and encourage nominations from the broadest possible range of people, recognising that this diversity brings huge value to the work we do. BABICM is dedicated to equality of opportunity and we actively promotes a diverse and inclusive environment.
When selecting candidates, we give some consideration to our aim to maintain a broad range of professional backgrounds and skill sets, representative of the membership on council and in working groups.
We actively encourage and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly those from under-represented and minority groups.
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Louise has devoted her 35+ year career to the field of brain injury and neurorehabilitation. With a background in Neurological Occupational Therapy, including Senior and Lead OT roles at the Priory, Highbank in the 1990s and responsibility for the transitional living service providing inpatient and outreach rehabilitation, Louise moved into case management in 2002, starting her business, A Chance for Life Ltd. Under her leadership, the business has grown into a highly respected provider of Case Management, Rehabilitation and Support services, serving the North of England and Scotland. Louise acquired Neurocare Physiotherapy in 2021, adding this specialist Neurological Physiotherapy service to the A Chance for Life Ltd family.
Louise has a passion for the great outdoors and a firm belief in the therapeutic value of spending time in nature. In her personal life, this is reflected in her love of gardening, caring for her animals, walking, wild swimming or spending time on the Dunkirk Little Ship she and her partner have lovingly restored. Professionally, Louise has taken this passion as the inspiration for Owl Barn – an innovative new service which offers OT-led programmes basing therapy around activities such as horticulture, animal husbandry and crafting, delivered from a beautifully adapted stone barn set in 6 acres of the Lake District National Park.
Louise’s enthusiasm for collaboration, combined with a feeling of responsibility to use her skills and resources to help improve the lives of people affected by serious injury has led her to be an active participant in the brain injury community. She is a member of Headway North Cumbria, served on the Northern Acquired Brain Injury Forum committee for many years and, prior to taking on the role of Chair, served on the BABICM Council from 2018 to 2024.
Stacey qualified as a Solicitor in 1998 and is a Legal Director at Enable Law and a Director of Foot Anstey Trust Corporation Ltd. She heads up the Court of Protection Team at Enable Law. This is a team of approx. 30 supporting in the region of 170 clients managing assets exceeding £150m. Stacey is regularly instructed by other firms to provide expert evidence in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation in relation to the costs of a professional Deputy or Trustee and has given evidence to the Court in that capacity.
The vast majority of the clients they support at Enable Law have sustained an acquired brain injury. That could be as a result of a birth injury, a clinical incident or other traumatic event. Her clients will invariably have sustained multiple and profound injuries leading.
Stacey has significant experience of supporting clients with complex needs. The work undertaken can range from complex applications to the Court of Protection, to buying and adapting properties and supporting with the implementation of care and therapy packages.
She is a strong advocate of multi-disciplinary collaboration. As a Deputy she believes it is essential to work very closely with all those supporting my client to ensure they remain at the heart of the decision making process and are enabled, where possible, to make their own decisions. Where they lack the capacity to do so, collaboration ensures she is able to make best interests decisions based on all of the relevant information.
Stacey is a firm believer that as a Deputy, one of the most important things to do is to take the time to build relationships with our clients and their ‘team’ to understand their wishes, feelings and beliefs.
Jo qualified as a Registered Nurse in 2013 and has worked in the healthcare Industry since 2008. She started her career as a support worker at a local care home progressing through various position within the NHS and private sector.
Prior to her move into case management, she held senior management positions in private healthcare managing nursing homes. Jo was directly responsible for both clinical and non-clinical staff in a fast pace environment proving support from both a clinical and operations perspective. During that time, she had exposure to investigating and managing staff disciplinaries and investigations which included referring a registrant to a professional body and providing evidence during the trial.
Jo has worked in the case management industry since 2019 working as a Case Manager and Clinical Manager. During her career in case management, she discovered her love for complexed orthopaedic injuries and gained an interest in brain injury. She became a Registered Practitioner member at BABICM in 2020 and joined the BABICM council in 2024.
Jo has completed various post-graduate education to compliment and build on existing knowledge and skills. She has recently completed the Level 7 Operations Management Diploma to continue to build on her existing operational management experience.
As a person, Jo likes to get stuck in and relishes a challenge. As well as working within the case management industry, Jo enjoys spending time with her young daughter who has the same fire and determination in her belly as she does. In-between all that, Jo has been renovating a 200-year-old house with her husband Dan as well as rescuing several animals over the years.
Tracey is a Registered General Nurse and has extensive experience in the management of clients who have sustained neurological injuries, having worked in neurological rehabilitation and management for over 10 years in the NHS before becoming a Case Manager in 2007.
Tracey is now a Neurological Case Manager and one of the founding Partners of COOCI Associates LLP who specialise in case management services for highly complex cases, working with both adults and children, helping clients and families whose lives have been significantly changed through personal injury or clinical negligence. This is achieved this by co-ordinating timely rehabilitation opportunities that facilitate life and living for people who have experienced a change in their health and social status.
Tracey has been a member of BABICM for many years and joined the Training Events Group in 2018 to enable her to contribute to the training and development of case managers across the sector.
Viv is an Occupational Therapist and Brain injury Case Manager with over 30 years of clinical experience in rehabilitation and case management. She is a founding partner with Three Case Management and one of the Directors of the 3HUB Case Management community.
Viv has experience in training and supervision and before developing our business was employed in the NHS for 25 years most recently as a neurorehabilitation team manager setting up an award winning service in the south east.
Ella qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1992 initially commencing her career in community settings with a special interest in working with brain injured clients before joining JSParker Case Management Ltd in 2001.
Ella progressed to manage the JSP Northeast Office, the JSP Scottish office and the JSP Expert Service until she left in 2019. During this time Ella was a BABICM Council member and chaired a Scottish working group, until her 6 year tenure was completed. Together with co-founder Jane Paige, Ella started a brain injury and complex case management service at Northern Lifetime Ltd from September 2019 onwards.
The company has grown and offers primarily a case management service but also provides a small occupational therapy and expert witness service. Ella is a director of Northen Lifetime and enjoys sharing the management of the small to medium sized independent practice. Independent status enables Ella and the team to prioritise shaping support to creatively and flexibly meet client’s needs with a bespoke approach.
Ella has always maintained a practitioner caseload and currently enjoys working with a small group of clients, all of whom have sustained an acquired brain injury. Her lengthy experience pf case management since 2001, and the fact that she likes to immerse herself in the everyday challenges of case management, means that she is well placed to support others. Ella also carries a small caseload of expert case management and occupational therapy clients.
Ella has been an advanced member of BABICM since around 2006, and re-joined Council in July 2025, as Chair of Professional Practice and Membership Group. (PPMG) Ella also completes advanced membership reviews within her role on PPMG.
Louise is a paediatric and adult case manager and nurse who is also certified in trauma informed practice and additionally qualified in public health nursing. Working with children, young people and adults, she is able to support clients and their families following traumatic brain injuries, complex orthopaedic injury and amputation/limb loss.
Louise is proud to have a compassionate approach and a strong commitment to supporting children, young people, adults and their families through positive case management pathways. She is particularly experienced in treating multiple members of the same household and hold strong connections and positive working relationships with excellent clinicians and therapists to ensure the clients’ needs are at the centre of well-formed, passionate and competent MDTs.
Through her case management roles she has developed experience in supporting young people through school and university following traumatic brain injury and supporting the management of daily living activities, self-care and fatigue support.
Previous nursing roles have enabled Louise to develop an understanding in managing a significant case load whilst being responsible for the improvement of the health and wellbeing of the clients and families in her care; reducing health inequalities and improving access to support from within the home, clinics and other healthcare settings. Louise has worked within community care nursing for clients inclusive in working with a range of respiratory conditions, dermatology and wound care as well as supporting vulnerable clients in chemotherapy and haematology day units both in hospital and community settings. Across the number of communities she has worked within she has gained knowledge and experience of supporting clients with a diverse range of vulnerabilities and challenges with ongoing risk assessment being paramount. Communication and equality for SEN are two specialist areas of interest.
Louise is excited to further understand BABICM’s ongoing education and work in supporting members to help their clients following a brain injury in my new voluntary role.
Helen has been a case manager at Head First for the past five years. Prior to this, she worked as a phsysiotherapist within the NHS brain injury services. She has had a varied caseload of complex ABI clients, both pre and post litigation and has a good and clear understanding of both the clients needs and the role of the case manager. She has implemented community rehab programmes and worked well within the team, assessing, managing, co ordinating, facilitating, advocating, and providing high quality documentation as required to ensure the best outcome for her clients. She is very personable and well-liked by her peers and is a valued member of both our team and the other teams with whom she works. She is practising in line with the BABICM competencies and aims to complete her advanced membership this year. She would be an excellent addition to the council and would contribute sharing ideas and her knowledge of best practice.
Helen is a keen sports woman and is completing the London Marathon in aid of the National Brain Appeal. She has completed many sporting adventure challenges in aid of charities and including some with clients. In her spare time, she volunteers for the Army Cadets and prior to becoming a physiotherapist, she was involved in project management and engineering in Africa. She has many different skills that she has been able to transfer, complimenting her skills as a case manager.
Ben is an OT by training, and he started working with adults with brain injury in Sydney, Australia, in 1998. He started working in the case management field in Sydney in 2000. Ben moved to the UK in 2005 and since then has been employed by the NHS at the RNRU – Homerton Hospital in Hackney London, and then a case management company in Suffolk, England in 2007. He incorporated Ben Holden Ltd, a specialist case management company for adults and children, also based in Suffolk, in 2009. Over the last four years, Ben has been transitioning from being mainly a case manager to now mainly being a Managing Director of a large and growing case management company. Ben was previously involved with the BABICM council and various subgroups from around 2009-2011 and he would be interested to return and help the profession develop and flourish.
Vic qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2002 from the University of Derby, initially commencing her career in both hospital and community settings with a special interest in neuro rehabilitation before joining Anglia Case management in 2009. Vic has progressed, to become a Clinical Team Lead for Children and Young People, and now sits on the Senior Management Team. This role encompasses her passion for staff development, as it includes the supervising and training of Case Managers, and the management of ACM’s Assistant Case Managers.Vic has a small, complex case load of children and young people with brain injuries, cerebral palsy and other complex disabilities. Her previous experience in neuro rehabilitation, in hospital and community settings has given her an excellent understanding of the challenges and complexities faced by clients and their families after sustaining a brain injury. She uses her therapy background to support young people with the transition from the parental home to adult living where she works in conjunction with other professionals to enable her clients to meet their rehabilitation goals and housing adaptations. Vic has experience of managing the challenges which arise in a child’s education, including the co-ordination of services in relation to Educational Health Care Plans and sourcing of an appropriate school to ensure a child’s needs are met.
Vic also undertakes occupational therapy expert work.
Vic is an advanced member of BABICM and has been an active member of Professional Practice and Membership group since 2016, within her role on PPMG Vic completes the advanced membership reviews.
Andrew is the Director at AKA Case Management Ltd and was previously a Director and Treasurer of BABICM. He has worked with clients with brain injury and complex needs since 2006. His background is in Psychology and he has over 20 years experience in training and lecturing.
Andrew has worked in both England and Australia and has specialised in working with clients in the community who exhibit challenging behaviour to extreme challenging. His experience includes working with individuals who have endured trauma and abuse, brain injury, mental health challenges and multiple diagnoses.
Andrew has a passion for Motivational Interviewing (MI), delivering training in MI in England and Australia. He also has experience in delivering training in ABI, positive behaviour support, problematic sexual behaviour and systemic dialectical behaviour therapy.
Daniel is a HCPC qualified music therapist with over two decades of experience in his profession. He has dedicated his clinical work to support children and families, focusing on attachment, bonding, and resilience. Throughout his career, Daniel has provided therapeutic interventions in a range of environments, including prisons, mental health settings, and special and mainstream schools, working with children suffering from various conditions, including brain injuries.
Daniel is highly regarded in his field and has held memberships in several umbrella organisations, including the Neurologic Music Therapy Advisory Council and the World Federation of Neurorehabilitation. Additionally, he currently serves on the Editorial Board of the NeuroRehab Times.
In 2013, he co-founded Chroma. As the Managing Director of Chroma, he leads the largest and foremost provider of HCPC regulated Creative Arts Therapies services in the United Kingdom. Chroma’s team of over 100 art, drama, and music therapists work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, supported by Chroma’s experienced management team.
Daniel is a regular contributor to conferences and other speaker opportunities within the world of case management and PI/COPD and remains passionate about the collaborative role the creative arts therapies can play within these sectors. He is also passionate about supporting the case management world to continue to develop robust practice, innovative thinking and resilience/self-care within its members.
Daniel enjoys keeping fit through triathlon, and has two daughters.
Abbie is a renowed specialist Case Manager working with adults and children who have sustained a brain injury.
Abbie is an Occupational Therapist by background and started working for the NHS in 2003. After starting work as a Case Manager in 2016. Abbie was acknowledged for her Case Management work, being awarded Catastrophic Case Manager of the year by the CMSUK in 2022.
Abbie works closely with her clients and clinical teams to devise personalised, goal driven treatment and support plan to achieve the best outcomes. She is passionate about client centred care which is, in part, why she was presented with the award by CMSUK and also previously shortlisted for various Case Management accolades.
After setting up AU Associates in 2018 Abbie has supported, supervised and grown her team of Specialist Case Managers to provide input to clients in the Northeast and Yorkshire. Abbie is known to always be available for her team and the wider Case Management community as a source of information and support.
Abbie’s passion and knowledge for the profession proceeds her. An example of this was through Abbie’s determination to become CQC certified in a climate where this was not the norm for ‘small’ Case Management companies; she had to jump through many hoops to achieve this. AU Assocaites were added to the register and audited shortly after achieving a ‘Good’ standard of care; no mean feat. Abbie has offered her time, support and guidance to other companies looking to achieve the same.
Abbie works with litigation cases on both a joint and single instruction basis and maintains a highly professional relationship with all parties involved in a claim. She is an excellent communicator.
Working across the spectrum of Case Management (with adults, children, multitrauma, brain injury, pre and post claim, medical neglegance etc.) has allowed Abbie to build a wealth of clincal and experiencial knowledge which she is happy to use to guide and advice others. Abbie is well connected in the Case Management wider community and is always eager to build others’ networks whether that be new Case Managers and reputable KCs or introducing ‘new to the scene’ clinicians to well established teams.
Outside of working as a Case Manager and being the director of a successful business, Abbie has been the Director of Headway Teesside since 2020. Abbie is always willing to give her time to support others where she can.
This is echoed in her involvement in local charites such as Middlesbrough Women’s Street Watch.
Jennifer Whittall is a very experienced Case Manager, specialising in SCI, ABI, and more often than not combined presentation of a complex nature.
Jennifer qualified in 1982 and has worked in the Medico-Legal / Case Management roles within the sector for over 26 years.
Jennifer is a qualified Physiotherapist who prepares Expert Witness Report for Care, Physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Prior to this, Jennifer was a Senior Physiotherapist and then Manager of the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries.
As Director of Jennifer M Whittall Ltd, Jennifer leads a team of Specialist Associates. The company is CQC registered.
It is a small team delivering a high standard of client focussed and personalised service and applying for this nomination Jenny would hope to bring pragmatic input to the organisation of the day to day challenges of working in the sector; with all the demands placed upon Case Managers and how the organisation can support them with all the changes being offered in the field.
The Ethos of Jennifer M Whittall, personally as well as for her team, is to facilitate the clients to lead a fulling lifestyle, not just based on care alone, but also lifestyle, activities and always seeking for opportunities for the clients to look into and “have a go”.
Jennifer has a good network with many individuals and rehabilitation teams.
Jennifer is well known in the field of Case Managers and Experts as well as the Midland Centre for spinal injuries.
Minnieke qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2004 and worked in various settings throughout her career. Her last position as an Occupational Therapist was as Clinical lead in an Acute Neurology setting. In 2016 she became a case manager – her caseload being predominantly adults with an acquired brain injury. In 2023 Minnieke became the business director for CCMS, a case management company supporting clients and children with brain injuries and spinal injuries. She continues to carry a small caseload and provide care and OT expert witness reports to the courts.
Minnieke is passionate about her role as case manager and business director to ensure her clients gets the best service, during their rehabilitation and beyond. She is particularly interested and dedicated to supporting and training support staff, in understanding and managing clients with a brain injury.
Minnieke has joined BABICM council to develop herself further, but also contribute in a positive way to improve the lives of brain injured individuals, by ensuring that case managers supporting these clients understand the nuances and challenges they face. She is passionate about educating not only case managers and support workers, but other relevant professionals.
Minnieke has recently gained her Advanced Registered Practitioner Membership with BABICM.
A registered general and mental health nurse by background Sally has worked in the case management sector for 11 years. Sally also developed the client liaison role within a leading law practice and worked for over 20 years in the NHS in various rehabilitation settings.
Sally is Head of Case Management and Expert Witness at A Chance for Life and established company covering the North of England and Scotland. She has overall responsibility for the clinical direction of both the case management and expert witness services and is a member of the senior management team.
Her areas of responsibility include maintaining clinical practice and policy, quality and compliance, staffing and developments within clinical practice. She holds a small case management caseload and an ever-growing expert witness caseload both consist of adults with brain injuries and complex needs as a result of trauma as well as adults and their families living with with mesothelioma.
Sally has been a member of BABICM for many years achieving Advanced Membership in 2011. She strives to adhere to and advocate for the principles, guidelines and competencies within practice at A Chance For Life and across the case management sector.
She has worked on TEG until 2025 and now chairs the Magazine group developing the popular quarterly publication alongside other colleagues in the industry.