Dr Jane Brightman joins the Highland Marketing advisory board

Workforce and digital expert brings a strong social care voice to the board’s debates and guidance for the dedicated health tech agency and its clients  

Dr Jane Brightman has joined the Highland Marketing advisory board, to bring a strong social care perspective to its debates on health and care technology and the guidance it provides to the agency and its clients.

Dr Brightman, who recently became director of workforce strategy at Skills for Care after two-years as assistant director of programmes at NHS England, said: “I follow the discussions that you publish, and I am keen to bring the social care voice to them.

“The more we talk about social care, the more system leaders are likely to sit up and listen. Also, I want to make sure that we are talking about social care properly. That we are not just paying lip-service to ‘the NHS and care’, but recognising social care as an important sector in its own right.”

Dr Brightman started her career with the UK’s largest not for profit care provider, the Anchor Trust, and soon developed an interest in training and technology. She was director of a private training provider before moving to Skills for Care in 2016, where she worked on national workforce initiatives, qualifications, and learning.

Dr Brightman moved on ahead of the second wave of Covid-19, as the pandemic was leading to new interest in digitising social care, integrating health and social care, and using technology to support remote working and care for people in their own homes.

One of her concerns now is to make sure that momentum is reinvigorated. At NHS England, Dr Brightman worked on system reform and the digitising social care programme, which is aiming to get digital care records into 70% of providers by March.

NHS England is also driving ambitious programmes to create shared care records across England and to explore the potential of care tech. “Digitising in social care is moving in the right direction,” Dr Brightman said, “but there is a lot more to be done, particularly on interoperability and digital skills.

“Skills for Care is working on a workforce strategy for adult social care, and digital will be a big part of that, because we want to make sure that technology is used to support our fantastic social care workforce and the people they support.”

Highland Marketing is an established PR, marketing and content agency with more than 20 years’ experience in health and care tech and med tech. It employs or works with more than 30 experts in strategy, content campaigns, and sales acceleration.

The Highland Marketing advisory board is made up of NHS and industry experts. It holds regular debates on hot topics in health and care tech and provides advice and guidance to the agency and its clients on market issues and effective communications approaches.

Susan Venables, co-founder and client services director at Highland Marketing, said: “We are really pleased that Dr Brightman has agreed to join our advisory board.

“We had the privilege of working with her during the Covid-19 pandemic and were impressed with her knowledge of and commitment to social care. I am confident she will continue to be a strong and effective voice for her sector and look forward to hearing her perspective on health and social care digitisation as we head into an election year.”