Susannah Howard- Head of Enable East

Susannah Howard is the ‘Head of Enable East’. Before setting up Enable East in 2009/10, Susannah was ‘Head of Eastern Development Centre’ with responsibility for delivering an annual budget of around £8 million of development and improvement work in health and social care in the East of England. This included projects and programmes commissioned by GO East (DH and DCSF), NHS East of England, Improvement East and local authorities and NHS organisations around the region. 

Susannah is nationally and internationally recognised for her knowledge and expertise in mental health and care services. From 2002 – 2008 she was Programme Director and Regional Director for the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) and before that the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE). She was responsible for the first ever national publication by NIMHE in 2002/3, ‘Cases for Change’ which set out the case for a revolution in mental health services in England. 

Susannah began her career as a Research Psychologist and then worked in a variety of academic and managerial positions for the Department of Health, World Health Organisation (WHO), The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Research Unit and Health Advisory Service. In 1995 she was the author of the first ever national standards for adult mental health services in the United Kingdom published by the Clinical Standards Advisory Group. She also contributed to the development of ICD-10 and HoNOS. In 1999 – 2001 she was involved in the early work to establish methods for the Commission for Health Improvement (now the Care Quality Commission).

She has published widely and worked with the World Health Organization in several countries including in Sri Lanka and the West Bank and Gaza. Since 2005 she has represented the UK on mental health issues in an official capacity to WHO and the European Commission as the UK National Counterpart for Mental Health. As such has given evidence on behalf of the Department of Health in the House of Lords and she continues to accompany Ministers on international business on mental health and hosts international visitors to the United Kingdom. 

In 2007 she led a successful bid to the Big Lottery Fund for £4 million which supported the establishment of a regional portfolio of 25 local ‘Well-being in the East' projects based in the voluntary sector, social enterprises and statutory sector organisations – including some specifically focusing on the needs of older adults. 

Susannah is committed to and passionate about: 

• supporting the involvement of patients and the public in developing and improving our health and social care system. In 2008 under her leadership the Eastern Development Centre was described in an external review as having achieved the ‘gold standard’ in this area
• seeing a more person centred, holistic approach to health and social care. In 2009 she published the ‘Whole Life Workbook’ which went on to inform the development of new Department of Health policy on personalisation
• supporting the continued development of community organisations, the non-statutory sector and social enterprise in solving problems in their local communities
• seeing the common sense application of effective project and programme management tools and techniques. She has in her career been responsible for overseeing the management of several hundred high profile projects and programmes in the health and social care sector.

She has been inivited to speak on this theme to various national and international audiences including a presentation to the World Healthcare Congress in Boston, Massachusetts in December 2010. 

Susannah is also passionate about her family and finds that the demands of her husband Darrell, the six children in their family, Dennis the dog, sailing and scuba diving are more than enough to keep her occupied in her spare time. 

Contact Details

Email: susannah.howard@enableeast.org.uk
Mobile: 07855 818419