Chair – Amy Whitelock Gibbs
Amy brings a significant wealth of knowledge and experience to the role, with a career spanning national charities, local government, and parliament. She has both lived and professional experience of mental health services, previously leading policy and campaigns at Mind for five years and holding political oversight for mental health prevention and support services in Tower Hamlets. Amy is currently Chief Executive of Tutors United, which provides free English and Maths tuition to children who need it the most, and was previously CEO at Birthrights, the human rights in childbirth charity. Amy has previously held roles at Unicef UK and The Children’s Society, campaigning with young people to secure policy and practice change. Amy has also been a local councillor in Tower Hamlets, where she led in Cabinet on adults’ services, education and children’s social care, and is currently independent Chair of Tower Hamlets Together, the health and care partnership.
Vice Chair – Clare Stafford
Clare has worked within the mental health field for 25 years. She has extensive experience as a senior manager commissioning and providing mental health services in the voluntary and NHS sectors, including two years as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Health. Prior to her role at the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, Clare worked for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, developing services for people with long term conditions as well as depression, anxiety and related mental health problems. Since joining the Trust she has overseen an increase in their charitable activities, notably expanding training and resources to better equip young people, parents and professionals to support mental health and wellbeing. Clare is also Chair of the governing body for Cranbury College in Reading, Berkshire.
The Steering Group
The Steering Group acts as an executive group within the Coalition and is responsible for decision making. We currently have senior representatives of the 12 member organisations who are responsible for taking the direction of the coalition forward.
The CYPMHC team
Charlotte Rainer
Coalition Manager
Charlotte joined in January 2020 as Coalition Lead for the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition. Charlotte leads on the Coalition’s work, including their policy and public affairs work.
Prior to this, Charlotte worked as Policy Officer for Mental Health and Wellbeing at The Children’s Society where she was responsible for the charity’s policy work in this area. Charlotte also previously worked for her Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, where she played a role in performance monitoring.
If you have any questions about the Coalition then please do get in touch!
Shizana Arshad
Coalition Coordinator
Shizana has worked for the CYPMHC since 2016, bringing a wealth of operational skills in organising events, managing the coalition’s website, membership and weekly briefings.
Shizana made the leap into the charity sector in 2015 working for an educational social enterprise as a Project Manager managing the delivery of PSHE programmes in primary schools. She also assisted in the development of a child resilience workbook aimed at helping children experiencing mental health problems.
To look after her mental wellbeing, Shizana enjoys spoiling her cat and getting stuck into a good movie.
Zainab Shafan-Azhar
Policy and Public Affairs Assistant
Zainab started working for CYPMHC in June 2023 after finishing her BSc in Psychology at UCL. Prior to this, Zainab worked with young people as a tutor, an applied behavioural analysis tutor and also as a befriending mentor.
This is her first time working in policy and public affairs and working actively in the charity sector. She loves the opportunity to amplify the voices of those unheard, and the ability to do so whilst working in such a warm and supportive environment.
Working here gives Zainab the joy of growing as a professional and a person day by day, which is something she has always wanted from a job. She also loves writing and has her own blog about life, mental health and spirituality.
We are proud to be hosted by:
Centre for Mental Health is a charity with over 30 years’ experience in providing life changing research, economic analysis and policy influence in mental health. Over the last decade, our work has expanded to include physical health, wellbeing, inequality and multiple disadvantage across the life course.
