Kamran Mahmood, Contract Manager, Birmingham Community Equipment Loans Service.
In 2017 Birmingham Community Equipment Loans Service recruited Claire as a Clinical Lead Equipment Specialist OT. Her role was specifically to focus on the huge overspend within the specialist equipment budget and to support clinicians and commissioners to become more cost effective. In the space of 12 months, through her meticulous nature and expert knowledge, Claire had saved well over a million pounds. Moreover, she had developed excellent relationships and collaboration with our prescribers, who were fully engaged with new processes and ways of working and found themselves benefitting massively from Claire’s expertise, support, and the advice she was able to provide around specialist equipment.
Claire has gone on to become an integral in developing and shaping the service into one which operates more efficiently, but most importantly without compromising on meeting the needs of our citizens.
Charanjit Kanth, former Interim Occupational Therapy Team Manager, Sandwell MBC.
From the moment Claire started her role in Sandwell, it was clear to see she had the skills and vision to make it work. Despite the tricky role of gatekeeping orders, she quickly became well liked and respected for her knowledge and critical reasoning skills, with OTs actively seeking her guidance when approaching complex equipment provision cases.
Claire clearly shared her vision for special ordering with management and clinical leads, inviting key professionals to join her in writing guidance and criteria, which enabled them to own the changes being made. It’s not an easy thing to do but Claire managed to reduce spend and improve the quality of the service! Claire has been gone from Sandwell for five years now, and people still talk about her and what a transformation she brought to the Equipment Service.
Isobel McGrath, Community Equipment Service(CES) Therapist Solihull
Although I had many years experience working as an OT and had good knowledge regarding equipment provision, moving to work as a therapist within a Community Equipment Service brought different and new challenges. Claire offered her support and mentoring from day 1 which enabled me to make well informed decisions with confidence. Her knowledge and expertise within the specialised field of Community Equipment provision is second to none and her advice and support regarding specific queries proved to be invaluable.
Anna Evans, Clinical Services Manager for Equipment, Worcestershire
I moved to my new role with responsibility for clinical authorisation of special equipment and strategic responsibility for equipment provision for both adults and children. My previous role was in quality and as a therapist I had mostly paediatric experience. I really valued Claire’s knowledge and expertise when we met together to question and curiously explore some of the problems I was trying to solve, and to get an independent, expert opinion on specific cases where there were differences of opinion.
Sarah Windsor, Warwickshire ICE service
I have had the pleasure of working with Claire for several years through our NAEP organization’s regional networking meetings. I have always found Claire to be friendly, professional and approachable. Through her vast knowledge and expertise in community equipment, especially around specialist equipment, Claire has become the regional “go to” person for technical advice, good practice and problem solving.