桃色视频

Sarah Jackson

RNLD, BSc (Hons) Professional Studies (Forensic Issues), MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (Health and Social Care)

Forum Chair

Sarah is a Registered Nurse in Learning Disabilities who began working in NHS learning disability services in 1999. Since then, she has undertaken a variety of clinical, operational, and programme management roles, with a particular focus on reducing health inequalities for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

Sarah has been a member of the RCN Learning Disability Forum Steering Committee since January 2022 and assumed the role of Chair in January 2026. She was honoured to receive the RCN Forum Committee Member of the Year Award in 2025 in recognition of her submission of an emergency resolution at Congress 2023, focusing on health inequalities experienced by autistic people, which was unanimously agreed upon. She also led the development and publication of 桃色视频 Position Statement on this topic.

Sarah has been privileged to contribute to several NHS England national programmes of work, including the development of the National Autism Programme, Ask, Listen, Do (which focused on feedback, concerns, and complaints), STOMP-STAMP, and the development of Care, Education and Treatment Reviews.

In her current role, Sarah is a Consultant Nurse and Approved Clinician at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, where she serves as the clinical lead for Specialist Autism Services. This service has received two HSJ Patient Safety Awards: Community Care Initiative of the Year (2022) and Mental Health Initiative of the Year (2023).

Sarah is Co-Chair of the UK Autism Consultant Nurse Network, which provides a platform for peer support, collaboration, and the sharing of expertise. She is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Edge Hill University, where she supports both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education programmes.

Amy Hodkin

Forum Steering Committee Vice Chair

Amy Hodkin is a dual-qualified Learning Disability Nurse and Social Worker who graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2016. During her training, she represented students in relation to Strengthening the Commitment: The Report of the UK Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing Review. This was a formative experience, both personally and professionally, and continues to influence her commitment to ensuring that student learning disability nurses are visible, valued and have meaningful opportunities to influence the future of the profession. She is passionate about ensuring that the voices of students and early-career nurses are heard and represented.

Amy has ADHD and is a passionate advocate for neurodiversity, inclusion and creating environments in which people can thrive. She is also a parent and carer to two autistic children with learning disabilities, giving her additional personal insight into the experiences of families navigating health, education and social care systems. She is keen to support RCN members who may be balancing professional responsibilities with caring responsibilities and to promote greater understanding of the contribution and challenges faced by family carers.

Amy's professional background is predominantly within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), spanning inpatient and community settings. Her experience includes working across inpatient wards, Core Team, the Autism Support Clinic, Duty and Learning Disability and Mental Health Team. She currently works as a Residential In-Reach Nurse, supporting children and young people who are cared for by the local authority. Her practice is underpinned by a commitment to compassionate, person-centred and rights-based care. In 2022, she received the Compassionate Care Award, reflecting her belief that compassion should be embedded not only in clinical practice but also in leadership, workplace culture and the wider health and social care system.

Amy has held several regional and national leadership and development roles. She undertook a secondment from Sheffield Children's Hospital, working in partnership with South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Sheffield Hallam University as an Autism and Learning Disability Nurse Champion. Her work focused on raising the profile of learning disability nursing, attracting people into the profession, supporting students, strengthening workforce development, promoting co-production and contributing to strategic planning, service improvement and innovation.

This work led to a regional role with NHS England as a Clinical Fellow in Learning Disability Nursing for North East and Yorkshire. In this capacity, she has contributed to the development of a regional Learning Disability Nursing Workforce Blueprint, bringing together priorities around data and insights, attraction, education and training, workforce models and needs, and career pathways and leadership. Her work is driven by a commitment to strengthening the visibility, sustainability and influence of learning disability nursing, ensuring the profession is recognised as an essential part of delivering high-quality, equitable care.

Amy is also the founder of the Intellectual and Learning Disability Nurses Community of Practice, a grassroots initiative bringing together student, qualified and retired intellectual and learning disability nurses from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Through quarterly online meetings, the community provides opportunities for connection, shared learning, professional development, collaboration and collective advocacy across the five nations.

Beyond her professional roles, Amy is passionate about community development and creating opportunities for young people. In March 2023, she founded Younghearts Soul Club, establishing a free, fortnightly youth club supported by a dedicated team of volunteers. The initiative provided young people in her local community with opportunities for connection, belonging and positive experiences, while recognising their wider holistic needs. She also enjoys fundraising for community projects and charities.

As Forum Steering Committee Vice Chair, Amy is particularly passionate about strengthening the collective voice of learning disability nurses, recognising the contribution of colleagues working across the NHS, independent and voluntary sectors, and creating meaningful opportunities for connection, representation and professional influence. She believes that the future of learning disability nursing depends on recognising its diversity, valuing lived and professional experience, investing in the next generation of nurses and ensuring that the profession has a strong and influential voice in shaping health and social care policy and practice.

Michelle Curran

Michelle has been a Registered Learning Disability Nurse since 1994 and holds additional qualifications including RNCYP, SPQ (Community Nursing), NMP, and MSc Advanced Professional Practice. She is currently employed as a Consultant Nurse for Learning Disability by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland, where she provides strategic leadership and creates opportunities for nursing role development within the specialty.

She serves as Co-Chair of the UK Learning Disability Consultant Nurse Network and has been instrumental in establishing representation for Northern Ireland’s Consultant Nurses for Learning Disability at a national level.

Michelle is actively engaged in research at local, regional, and national levels, and has co-authored several publications in peer-reviewed nursing journals. In her consultant role, she promotes the integration of research into everyday evidence-based practice.

In collaboration with multidisciplinary colleagues, Michelle developed and co-delivered “Unlocking Abilities,” a training programme for mental health inpatient staff caring for people with learning disabilities. This work led to Belfast Trust becoming the first trust in Northern Ireland to participate in UK Learning Disability Benchmarking.

Michelle’s current interests include the development of a brain health programme and research into healthcare accessibility and equity for people with learning disabilities.

Scott Taylor

Registered Nurse

Scott is proud to be a Registered Learning Disability Nurse, based in Edinburgh working within NHS Lothian as a Nurse Consultant, and also as Co-chair of the Scottish Learning Disability Nurse Leads Group.

Previously he has worked with Edinburgh Napier University, Scottish Government, and NHS Fife on wide range of initiatives, projects and studies.

His current work activities stretch across the four practice pillars – expert practice, facilitating learning, leadership, and research. With a key focus being the annual health check, acute hospital services, service redesign, and building research capacity.

Having competed a SPQ, BSc, and MSc with Queen Margaret University, and further MSc with University of Stirling focused on the shared experiences of people with a learning disability and acute hospital nurses during care episodes; Scott is now working on several research projects.

Scott says "it is an honour to be a member of RCN Learning Disability Nurse Forum, which provides valuable opportunities to confirm, assert and develop the significant contribution we all bring to improve the health outcomes for people with a learning disability."

Claire Welch

RN(LD) Community Learning Disability Nurse, Powys Teaching Health Board, NHS Wales

Claire is a RN(LD) within the Community Learning Disability Team for Powys Teaching Health Board. She has worked in Wales across various healthcare settings including a medical ward, community team and complex care. Her passion lies in quality of life for individuals with a learning disability and fully believes in equity and equality across healthcare.

Claire is also a member of the Learning and Intellectual Disability Nursing International Alliance. While studying for a nursing degree, following a 30-year career in corporate, trade and educational publishing, Claire was co-winner of the RCN Wales, Nursing Student Award at The Nurse of the Year, Wales, awards, for her outreach work with Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) and the University of South Wales promoting learning disability nursing.

Katy Welsh

Professional Lead Learning Disability Nurse, Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Katy qualified as a Learning Disability Nurse in 1988 and since then, has held a number of different posts across learning disability services in Devon, including Community Nurse, Acute Liaison Nurse, Primary Care Liaison Nurse, Clinical Team Leader and her current post as Professional Lead Nurse.

Katy鈥檚 special interests are in relation to the physical health needs (and health inequalities) of people with learning disabilities. 

Katy is also a Queen鈥檚 Nurse and uses her professional networks to raise the profile of learning disability nursing at every opportunity. 

Katy is keen for learning disability nurses to celebrate and share the work they do and has organised several Learning Disability Nursing Forum events both locally and regionally to showcase and share best practice. 

Giselle Cope

Practice Development Facilitator, Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS)

Since Giselle qualified as a registered nurse in learning disabilities in 2000, her career portfolio has included working in various leadership positions within the NHS and Independent sector. Giselle currently works with individuals and teams within various programmes and bespoke mentorship offered by FoNS across health and social care. She also leads on learning disability nursing.

Giselle is programme director of FoNS' newest programme; The Creating Caring Cultures Fellowship for early career Learning Disability Nurses in England. She feels privileged to be able to empower, enable, and inspire others to put into practice improvements and innovations which can totally transform patient care and experience.