Our management team

Sarah began her career as a youth worker in Wales and was a founding member of the then-Children and Young People’s Welsh Assembly. She worked in a variety of statutory and voluntary settings, particularly with vulnerable young people and in supporting young people’s participation.

Sarah went on to hold positions in local authorities in youth work, service planning and service improvement, supported by a Master’s in Strategic Management.

Sarah worked for Skills for Care and Development from 2005 to 2015, ultimately being Executive Director for the UK-wide partnership, expanding the work of the Sector Skills Council to address a range of workforce challenges across social care, early years and childcare. During this time, she also volunteered as the chair of a charity supporting young people and as an independent visitor.

In April 2016, Sarah joined Social Care Wales as Director of Improvement and Development where she had oversight of workforce development, service improvement, research, data and innovation, and became Chief Executive in July 2024. Sarah is committed to compassionate and systems leadership to support social care and early years services in Wales. Sarah has two children and is a Welsh learner.

David grew up in North Wales and attended Swansea University. His career has spanned time in public, private and voluntary sectors with a focus on improving user experience. David recently joined Social Care Wales after working for Welsh Government.

During his time in Welsh Government, he oversaw a major programme of customer service improvements. He was the lead official for Operation Jasmine, an independent review into neglect in care homes in Gwent, on behalf of the First Minister.

David went on to become the lead official for the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care Act (Wales) 2016. He was also the Programme Director for the establishment of Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW). David then developed and managed the new programme for social care that emerged from Sustainable Social Services: A Framework for Action.

Outside work, David is a Charity trustee for the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. He has been a school governor in Swansea and a public speaking coach. David was the inaugural Chairperson of the World Schools Debating Council in Singapore in 2001.

David is proud to work for a national organisation that supports effective services for people across the country.

Lisa began her career in consulting, project management and leadership roles in the UK and Australia in sectors including health care, utilities, IT, media and telecommunications. Her work focused on how to manage customer relationships, including strategy development, operational design, job design and recruitment, business process design, and leading large-scale implementation and change management projects.

Lisa then changed career, deciding to focus on public service. After postgraduate studies in development and health policy, she spent seven years at the London School of Economics. There she carried out research on international social care systems and gained a PhD on government approaches to improving quality in residential care for older people.

Lisa joined Social Care Wales in 2018 as Assistant Director of Research, Data and Innovation. In the role, she worked across Wales to set up research, innovation and data services for the social care sector, led the development of the Insight Collective support and services, and co-developed the ‘Ymlaen’ strategy.

In September 2024, Lisa became our Director of Improvement and Development. She feels enormously privileged to have the opportunity to lead our broader improvement and development work, and to support people leading and working in social care across Wales.

Having grown up in Cardiff, Lisa returned to the city in 2017 after many years in London and Sydney.

Jo is a chartered accountant with a strong background in finance, leadership, and social purpose. She started her career in accountancy practice, working with a range of organisations – many in the charity, third and housing association sectors.

Her interest in making a positive difference led her into housing, where she worked with Hafod and Bron Afon Community Housing Association. As part of the senior leadership team at Bron Afon, Jo played a key role in shaping the new organisation’s values, culture, and systems. She developed strong financial and governance reporting frameworks and grew her passion for working with people and community-focused organisations.

Jo has also worked in the medical manufacturing sector, specialising in urology products. In this fast-paced environment, she took the lead in finance, HR, IT and facilities, supporting the managing director with high-quality reporting and business planning.

Later, Jo joined Cwmpas, a co-operative focused on building a fairer and greener economy. As Director of Finance and Resources, she led a digital transformation project, introducing new systems for finance, payroll and customer management, and transferring to cloud-based solutions. She also oversaw organisation-wide changes that improved the ways of working for everyone.

More recently, Jo has worked with Llais, where her role focused on making corporate services and operations stronger, and supporting its important mission of public representation.