Eddie began his career as a social worker, later becoming Director of Care and Support within Adult Social Care at Sheffield City Council. He has worked in Lancashire and Cumbria in a range of managerial roles and during the flu pandemic was seconded to the Department of Health in London.

For nearly all his career, developing personalised services for older people has been central to his life and work. He has worked alongside a number of voluntary or private sector organisations seeking to plan, run and improve services in partnership with older citizens. Eddie has led on establishing amongst many others: the 50-plus congress and the expert elders network in Sheffield, along with a range of modern housing with care support services.

As Director of Care, he saw at first hand the benefits of the work of Action For Elders to older people in the projects run both within the council’s own directly managed resource centres and independent sector care homes. Eddie is keen to use his passion, knowledge and experience to assist Action for Elders grow and provide opportunities for older adults to sustain or improve their health and wellbeing.

Since his retirement in 2013, Eddie has become a keen photographer. He is also kept very busy with four grandchildren. He drives the lunch club minibus, helps out with a soup run for the homeless and is treasurer at his local church. In between, he and wife Sue like to escape in their touring caravan for some peace and quiet!

Contact: eddie.sherwood@actionforelders.org.uk

Maggie’s began her career in local radio, moving on to become a reporter on the South Wales Evening Post. She has 30 years experience in public relations, with senior roles in business-to-business, utilities, rail transport and science education.

Maggie is married to Mike and they live in Mumbles, Swansea with their west highland white terrier, Bobby. She has two adult children and is very much a ‘hands-on’ grandmother to her four grandsons.

Now semi-retired, Maggie is an active member of Rotary, holding both marketing and public image roles in the South Wales District. She is also a very keen blogger on positive ageing.

Maggie has limited spare time, but still manages to fit in various hobbies and activities. She enjoys reading, cooking, keeping fit and crochet.

Paul is a Business Consultant within the NHS and has extensive experience of working in the Health and Social Care environment at both operational and strategic levels. He has worked at senior level positions within the NHS and has expertise in Programme & Project management and innovative business solutions with procurement, service re-design strategic planning, delivery and governance. Paul has also had responsibility for the successful procuring several large scale programmes ranging from clinical services to non-clinical services. Having the advantage of both aspects of commissioning and direct service delivery this has provided unparallel expertise within these areas to ensure that the services preserve quality while delivering the agreed outcomes.

Paul Provides consultancy to the Health Service on service developments with expertise in Service and strategic Management. He has written and published several articles on service re-design and operational issues and speaks at national conferences as a subject matter expert on health care development. He is closely involved in our project implementation and evidence base.