Jeremy Hunt is the Conservative MP for South West Surrey, and Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.

For ten years Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's right hand man as communications strategist and chief spokesman, often witnessing history in the making. Whilst he remains an influential voice and commentator on the political stage, he's now as well known as a writer and campaigner, particularly on mental health awareness.

In the years running up to Labour's 1997 landslide win, and throughout their time in power, Alastair led communications strategy and was also no stranger to controversy. He is one of four figures credited with creating the New Labour project, fighting numerous battles in their pursuit of modernisation, including with how the media portrayed the party. He was reviled by some parts of the media but still respected for his commitment, creativity, loyalty and work rate. After leaving frontline politics Alastair published his diaries (initially three volumes, but now standing at eight volumes) as well as other autobiographical books and novels, and has continued to write extensively on sport, politics, and increasingly on mental health from a personal, social and political perspective.

Since leaving politics Alastair has been candid about his personal experiences of depression, alcoholism and mental illness, frequently examining the links between work, stress and mental health. It's a subject he's tackled in numerous interviews, documentaries and podcasts, and in his books Living Better: How I Learned to Survive Depression and The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness as well as in his novels.

Alastair works with many charities, as an advisor and often as a fund-raiser, including Leukaemia Research, Bloodwise, and a number of mental health charities including the Time to Change campaign and Alcohol Concern. He frequently contributes articles in the media including The Guardian, Telegraph and GQ, and co-hosts the podcast Football, Feminism and Everything in Between with his daughter Grace.

With humour and insight Alastair takes an insiders look at politics at home and abroad, as well as what it takes to be a successful leader (a subject he tackled in his book Winners: And How They Succeed). He also tackles reputation (his own and how others manage theirs), the media, mental health, and why people still ask him about The Thick of It so much.

Dr Phil Hammond can talk seriously or humorously, and usually both, about any health and lifestyle topic.

He has been an NHS doctor for 32 years, a comedian for 23 years, a BBC broadcaster for 29 years and Private Eye’s medical correspondent for 27 years.

Phil qualified as a doctor in 1987, was a part time GP for 20 years, spent 5 years in sexual health and currently works as an associate specialist in paediatrics in an NHS team helping young people with chronic fatigue. Phil has been a Lecturer in Medical Communication at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol.

As a journalist, he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, and gave evidence to the subsequent Public Inquiry. In 2012, Phil and Andrew Bousfield were shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for investigative journalism for their Private Eye special report on the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers, “Shoot the Messenger”. He has twice been named in the top 100 NHS Clinical Leaders by the Health Service Journal, and was voted Teacher of the Year by the medical students of Birmingham University. He was revalidated by the GMC in 2018 with the best patient satisfaction ratings his appraiser had ever seen (largely down to the fact that he is the only doctor in the NHS who gives 90-minute appointments).

Phil presented five series of “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” on BBC2, and has appeared many times on “Have I Got News For You”, “The News Quiz”, “The Now Show” and “Countdown”. With David Spicer, Phil wrote five series of the medico-political satire “Polyoaks” for Radio 4, and five books including “Staying Alive” and “Sex, Sleep or Scrabble?”. Phil was half of the award-winning comedy junior doctor double act Struck Off and Die with Tony Gardner, and has done four UK solo comedy tours, teaching audiences how to pleasure themselves sensibly and take the pressure off the NHS.

His show, ‘Happy Birthday NHS?’ celebrated its 70th birthday and provided a road map for its salvation. It toured in 2018.

Phil presented his own BBC Radio Bristol show for 12 years, “Dr Phil’s Saturday Surgery” before being sacked by the BBC in August 2018 for tweeting that he would stand against his local MP, Jacob Rees- Mogg, at the next election. Having previously been assured he would only have to stand down during purdah, the BBC did a U-turn when they realised Rees-Mogg could demand his own radio show to broadcast to constituents. This story, and Phil’s subsequent campaign to become health secretary, was featured in Phil’s 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show “Vote Dr Phil”. His other fringe show, “The Great Health Con”, explored how and why we spend trillions pursuing ‘health’ without understanding what it means.

Phil speaks widely on the daily habits of health – CLANGERS (Connect, Learn, (be) Active, Notice, Give back, Eat well, Relax, Sleep) – and tries to practice what he preaches. Phil has been married to Jo, a GP, for 26 years and she is the main reason he is so healthy. They live in North East Somerset, just a condom’s throw away from Jacob Rees-Mogg. His hat is still in the ring to stand at the next election as an independent candidate promoting intelligent kindness and health for all.

Chris Day is Director of Engagement at the Care Quality Commission.

Dr Mazhura is an Adult Development & Leadership Psychologist and International Behavioural Science and Performance Specialist.

Rachel Royall is a leader in healthcare communications and engagement. She’s founder and MD of Blue Lozenge, a strategic communication consultancy in healthcare and has led board level communications for complex organisations including IBM, NHS, HMRC, Cabinet Office, Department of Health and Social Care and local government. She is also a visiting lecturer at Quadriga University of Science and Technology in Berlin in Leadership and Engagement.

Rachel is passionate about patient and public engagement and pioneered the use of nhs.uk as a channel for patient stories, working with NHS England to create a scheme where patients have a platform to curate and tell their story at a national level by taking over the NHS twitter handle. She was part of the executive team at Barking Havering and Redbridge that helped to implement the Virginia Mason Improvement methodology. She led the engagement for the development of their five year clinical strategy and the comms and engagement programme that helped to lead the trust out of special measures.

From this role she was recruited to the role of Executive Director of Communication and Engagement for NHS Digital following Wannacry, leading the refresh of national protocols to crisis communication and the national digital transformation strategy and data programmes including the national data opt out programme.

Rachel is a Chartered Practitioner of Public Relations and is a fellow of the Public Relations Consultancy Association, Institute of Internal Communications and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Rachel is passionate about mental health and wellbeing and has led a cross-industry body campaign #HeardMentalityPR to improve the mental health and wellbeing of public relations practitioners. She is also an advocate of the living donation scheme, after donating her kidney to her partner in 2019.

Follow her on twitter @RachRoyall

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE is Chief Executive of the Queen’s Nursing Institute. Crystal qualified as a nurse at University College Hospital and has worked in some of the most deprived communities in London.

Crystal also spent 18 years in Higher Education, where her role as Dean included the development of evidence based practice within the integrated community nursing, primary and social care workforce.

Crystal is a Governing Body Nurse with Buckinghamshire CCG.

In 2016-17, Crystal chaired the NHS Improvement working group on safe caseloads in the District Nursing service.

Crystal was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 for services to community nursing and her leadership of the QNI, and is an Honorary Professor at London South Bank University.

Mark Butler is a Partner and Director at the Good Governance Institute.

Henry Carleton is a Medical Doctor and also Director of Technology & Innovation at Four Eyes Insight

Dr Michelle Horridge is a Registrar in Public Health.

David Grantham is Chief People Officer at the Chief People Officer, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

Sheni is the Head of System OD, Leadership & Wellbeing for Greater Manchester, working across whole public service system, based at the GM Health & Social Care Partnership. As part of the pandemic response, Sheni has played a key role in the set up and delivery of the Nightingale hospital in Manchester, as well as working across our Greater Manchester public services to improve the cultural transitions into a more integrated system, and a more coherent approach to wellbeing support, including authoring the GM Wellbeing Toolkit launched in March 2021.

Focused on how our workforces are developed and evolved for a more integrated approach, Sheni comes with an experienced portfolio of working across culture and leadership programmes from health, local authorities, emergency services, young people, VCSE, Creative Digital, and the cultural / creative industries. This includes developing leadership, wellbeing and inclusion programmes, complex partnership and system working, talent development pipelines, organisation design and skills development, culture and change programmes through organisations, communities, cultural organisations, festivals and education programmes - and has worked with GMCA, GMFRS, SharpFutures, Manchester International Festival, Manchester City Council, the Cultural Olympiad We Play Expo, Curious Minds, Tate Liverpool and GMMAZ / Brighter Sound.

Sheni sits on various boards and advisory groups, has a parallel career in cultural and creative industries, and is an Arts Council Short Clore & Creative Leadership Programme alumni.

Salli Pilcher has been the Associate Director of Nursing for Community Services in North Cumbria since 2014 and has held previous roles as a DN Sister, Intermediate Care Coordinator, Community General Manager, Head of Nursing and latterly ADoN within North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.

Salli has over 25 years of Community experience. She is a registered Community Specialist Practitioner in District Nursing and became a Queens Nurse in 2015.  In 2016 she was awarded the QNI Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award for outstanding service.

In 2019 Salli completed the Queens Nursing Institutes Executive Leadership Programme and is an active member of the QNI Community Nursing Executive Nursing Group which brings together Executive and Deputy Community nurses from across the country to improve patient care.

During the  last 12 months and throughout the Covid Pandemic she held the dual role of ADoN in the Surgical Care Group as well as the ICC Care Group which has given her the insight and invaluable experience of acute inpatient care within NCIC.

Salli’s drive and passion is to ensure that our communities and patients receive the best service possible – from the provision of high quality individualised care in the home or as near to home as possible, from preventative intervention, helping people take control of their own health, conditions and decisions, supporting them where needed and for those at end of life ensuring that they die with dignity in a place of their choice.

Salli is extremely passionate about supporting our staff to practice safely in the community, ensuring they have the right resource and tool kits to create and sustain an open and transparent culture #thencicway – respectful, compassionate, collaborative care.   Salli is committed to creating an environment that fosters ambition that delivers the best care for our patients, supports the development of safe working practices.

Timothy McDonald, MD JD, is the Chief Patient Safety and Risk Officer at RLDatix and is the past-President for the Center for Open and Honest Communication at the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety and a Professor of Law at Loyola University – Chicago.

Tim is a physician-attorney who has assisted more than 200 hospitals and health systems implement a culture of “normalized compassionate honesty” combined with “fair and accountable culture” transformation.

His research has focused on conducting patient safety, Just Culture, and high reliability needs assessment/Gap Analysis for organizations along with assisting them in the principled approach to unexpected events with an emphasis on reporting of patient safety events, the use of simulation and human factors analysis, the provision of emotional first aid to affected health care team members and providing open and honest communication following harm events. This approach to unexpected events also includes a commitment to communicate and provide peer support within the health care team and to communicate with patients and families throughout the therapeutic relationship, especially after harm occurs.

His federally funded research has focused on all of these domains and their impact on improving the quality of care while mitigating medical liability issues, including the establishment of teaching methodologies for all levels and professions in health care and law – some of his educational work includes the co-production of a series of award-winning Patient Safety Videos entitled “From Tears to Transparency: The Faces of Medical Error”.

He has also received numerous national and international Patient Safety awards including the American College of Medical Quality’s Founder’s Award, the Institute of Medicine – Chicago Patient Safety Award, and the Medically Induced Trauma Support Services [MITSS} Hope Award.

Martin Elliott is Chief Medical Officer at Allocate Software.

Raffaela is an experienced board director with 20 years’ experience across Local Government, NHS and the private sector. Her particular focus is on colleagues being empowered to ‘bring their whole selves to work’ and driving true inclusion through innovative people practices. She has championed inclusive recruitment and sponsored both the LGBTQ Staff Network and Staff Muslim Liaison Groups, passionately working with colleagues and patients to improve the experience of under-represented groups. She is a proud fellow of CIPD and was awarded HPMA HR Director of the Year in 2020 by Prernar Issar, NHS Chief People Officer. Follow her on Twitter @brummieHR

Alan has a wide experience within the NHS, incorporating organisational development, learning and development, leadership and management development, as well as other HR related roles. He joined the board of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in April 2017 as the Director of Workforce and is also currently the SRO for the Workforce agenda within the Black Country and West Birmingham STP and chairs the STP People Board. Previously he held the position of Director of HR and Organisational Development at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, where he had been for 5 years, with board level responsibility for a wide ranging workforce portfolio, as well as health and safety and business continuity. Prior to this, he was the Director of Workforce and Learning within the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and at that time was also a director for Skills for Care, representing the NHS. Prior to joining the NHS, Alan was in the Royal Air Force spanning a range of roles including avionics engineer, training and development, and leadership development. He holds membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Chartered Management Institute and holds an MSc in human resource development.

Dr Ruth Watson is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and the Deputy Clinical Lead (Adults) at the NHS Greater Manchester Resilience Hub. Ruth works clinically within Older Adult Inpatient Mental Health services, and has extensive experience of working with health and social care staff. Following her experience working across wards affected by COVID, Ruth joined the hub team to help lead targeted work aimed at supporting health and social care staff.

Andy Cowper has been writing about the policy, politics and management of the NHS since 2000. He is contributing editor of Health Service Journal, for which he writes regularly on NHS politics and policy. He writes HSJ’’s weekly, agenda-setting 'Cowper's Cut' column, in its first run from 2017-2019, and now in the ‘Covid19’ season from March 2020 to date.

Before this, he was HSJ’s Comment editor 2013-17 and a longstanding freelance contributor, notably on major projects on hospital care for frail older people, workforce, violence against NHS staff and mergers and acquisitions.

Andy created and edits his own website, Health Policy Insight. He is a regular columnist for the British Medical Journal on NHS politics and policy issues, and has often appeared on BBC News and LBC national radio to explain health policy issues. His broadcast work includes podcasts, as the guest on the debut issue of the successful ‘Any Stupid Questions – NHS’ podcast, as well as for the New Economics Foundation, Kaleidescope Health And Care and the BMJ.

Andy was a communications advisor to NHS Providers 2014-19, for whom he created the 'Provider Voices' series of publications. Since 2018, he has worked as a communications advisor to Allocate Software.

He worked on communications projects for KPMG’s global healthcare business 2017-19, launching their ‘Healthcare Review’ thought leadership work as lead author.

Andy was instrumental in developing and writing the NHS Academic Health Science Network’s Atlas Of Innovation www.ahsnnetwork.com/atlas.

Andy also teaches workshops on writing and communications: recent clients included Incisive Health, South London Academic Health Science Network, NHS England and the Nuffield Trust.

He has written two books: the first for Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust on their culture, staff engagement and quality improvement programmes; and the second for United Hospitals Birmingham NHS FT one their successful quality and financial turnaround and management franchise/takeover of Heart of England NHS FT.

Andy's previous writing, editing and communications roles also include:
2010-16 - Conference chair and programmer, Wellards (providers of NHS information to the pharmaceutical and medtech sectors)
2008-11 - editor, 'Commissioning Health' / NHS Clinical Commissioning Connect for NHS Alliance
2003-4 - editor, Health Director
2000-8 - editor, British Journal of Healthcare Management