Standards guidance advisory forum

The standards guidance advisory forum is supporting our work to review five pieces of our more detailed professional standards guidance.

The forum provides constructive advice and challenge on key issues to help us develop policy positions that are ethically sound and achievable, and the opportunity to explore relevant issues with the benefit of a diverse range of perspectives, expertise and experiences.

It is not a decision-making or representative body but acts as a critical friend and sounding board.

Members of the forum

The forum is made up of 12 members who bring a range of perspectives, expertise and experiences from across the UK. Members include clinical leaders and patient advocates, as well as specialists on medical ethics, the law, and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Members participate in an individual capacity, applying their experience and knowledge to the issues under consideration, rather than representing the interests of any particular organisation or group.

We selected members to make sure the group as a whole includes perspectives from a range of different constituencies and reflects the diversity of those we regulate and of patients across the UK.

Dr Olwen Williams – Chair

Olwen is a Welsh-speaking former consultant physician who worked in the field of sexual health and HIV medicine and is currently employed as a Medical Appraiser at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

She was seconded to Health Education and Improvement Wales as Associate Director of Clinical Leadership from 2023 to 25. Olwen has also held several medical leadership roles, including as Vice President for the Royal College of Physicians in Wales and President of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV.

She is currently chair of Fast Track Cymru, a newly established HIV charity in Wales; vice chair of GISDA, a charity supporting homeless young people; and divisional Vice President of the NSPCC in North Wales.

Clare Woodford – Deputy Chair

Clare is Head of Policy and Influencing at the Stroke Association. Her career includes achieving health policy change at third sector organisations, including Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Medical Association.

She is a trustee of National Voices, the health and care charity coalition, and a passionate advocate for lived experience shaping policy making.

Professor David Archard

David is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast, and has published widely in applied ethics, philosophy of law and political philosophy on the topics of democracy, consent, children’s rights, the family, reproduction, ethical expertise and the role of philosophy in public life.

He is a past member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; past chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics; current chair of the Ethics Advisory Group of the ‘Every Story Matters’ module of the UK COVID Public Inquiry; and a member of the Clinical Ethics Committee of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. He is also the Honorary Vice President of the Society for Applied Philosophy.

Chelsey Clarke

Chelsey is Lead Physician Associate (PA) at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, where she also works clinically in acute medicine.

She has completed postgraduate qualifications in healthcare leadership, project management and change management, and is actively involved in driving quality and safety improvements within both her clinical and non-clinical roles. Chelsey was previously on the post-qualification education committee within the Faculty of Physician Associates at the Royal College of Physicians, and has also worked as a clinical fellow and advisor for NHS England.

Within her NHS England role, she held responsibility for the delivery of a portfolio focusing on post-qualification training and education of PAs in the North West of England. She is also a sessional lecturer on the University of Manchester’s MSc in Physician Associate Studies programme.

Paul Deemer

Paul was a HR professional for over 35 years before his recent retirement. He worked in local government, the voluntary sector and the health service – with experience in the fields of recruitment, employee relations, employment law, and diversity.

When working for the children’s charity Barnardo’s, he took on the role of national equality and diversity manager. Paul subsequently worked as part of the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care’s equality and diversity team to help them develop the first national strategy in this area. He went on to work for NHS Employers, and helped NHS organisations to embed diversity and inclusion good practice across the NHS.

Paul continues to be a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is involved in their Policy Forum. He was honoured to be named in the 2020 People Management Diversity Power List and was also named in the Inclusive Companies Diversity Power List 2022/23.

Dr Reem Hasan

Reem is an experienced GP, currently practising at Covent Garden Medical Centre, and Chief Medical Officer for InHealth Group, the UK’s largest independent provider of diagnostic and screening services.

A transformational healthcare leader, she oversees clinical governance, patient safety, safeguarding, and professional standards across more than 800 sites, delivering over five million patient interactions each year. Reem serves as a Wellbeing Guardian, Caldicott Guardian and Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, championing data protection, psychological safety and an open, inclusive culture where staff feel safe to raise concerns.

As responsible officer, she leads appraisal, revalidation and remediation, and is an active mentor across multiple leadership and clinical programmes. She is currently completing an MBA at Henley Business School.

Dr Harleen Kaur Johal

Harleen is a resident doctor in anaesthetics in the Severn deanery and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol.

She was awarded a National Institute for Health and Care Research Academic Clinical Fellowship in 2023. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research has focused on the ethical and legal aspects of critical care, mental capacity, and best interests decision making, and addressing inequity in healthcare and academia. Harleen teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate settings and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In 2022, she co-founded the Black and Brown in Bioethics initiative, which aims to centre and elevate under-represented perspectives in the field. She also serves as a Trustee of the UK Clinical Ethics Network, and as a member of the British Medical Journal’s Medical Humanities Editorial Board.

Dr Udvitha Nandasoma

Udvitha works as Head of Advisory Services for the MDU, a medical defence organisation, which provides indemnity and medico-legal services to its members.

Prior to joining the MDU as a medico-legal advisor, he trained as a doctor in gastroenterology and general internal medicine, and worked part time in hepatology until 2023.

Dr Mary Neal

Mary is a Reader in Law at the University of Strathclyde and has published widely on medical law and ethics.

She was an expert member of the British Medical Association’s Medical Ethics Committee between 2016 and 23, and she chaired the Advisory Board of the CORALE project ('Conscientious Objection after Repeal: Abortion, Law and Ethics'), based at Trinity College Dublin from 2021 to 2023.

In 2015 she was the expert adviser to the Scottish Parliamentary committee scrutinising the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill. She has given oral evidence to various parliamentary committees: twice to the Scottish Parliament (on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill in 2024, and on a petition to amend the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 in 2022); to the Irish Parliament on assisted dying in 2023; and to the Isle of Man Parliament in 2018 on the (then) abortion Bill.

Dr Felicity Plaat

Felicity is a consultant anaesthetist in full time practice in London. Her specialist interests include obstetric anaesthesia, medical ethics and patient safety.

She is a co-opted member of the Council of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, chair of their ethics committee and co-chair of the Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group.

Professor Dominic Wilkinson

Dominic is Professor of Medical Ethics and Deputy Director of the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford. He is a consultant in newborn intensive care at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and a senior research fellow at Jesus College Oxford.

He has published more than 250 academic articles relating to ethical issues in the medical care of adults, children and newborn infants. His co-authored books include ‘Pandemic Ethics: from COVID-19 to Disease X’ (Oxford University Press 2023), ‘Medical Ethics and Law, third edition’ (Elsevier 2019); ‘Ethics, Conflict and Medical treatment for children, from disagreement to dissensus’ (Elsevier, 2018) and 'Death or Disability? The 'Carmentis Machine' and decision-making for critically ill children' (Oxford University Press 2013).

Dr Joanne Younge

Joanne is an Associate Specialist Old Age Psychiatrist, British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies-accredited Cognitive Psychotherapist, and Clinical Lead for Towards Zero Suicide. She completed an MSc Specialist Cognitive Therapy (Distinction) and established a dedicated cognitive behavioural psychotherapy service for older adults in South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust.

For nine years, she delivered multi-professional cognitive behavioural therapy training up to Master’s level at Queen’s University, Belfast and continues to support postgraduate education as a Clinical Facilitator with the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency.

She served as her trust’s first specialty, associate specialist and specialist (SAS) lead for five years, and is a founding member of The SAS Collective, a grassroots advocacy campaign to improve the working lives and retention of SAS doctors, and a trust representative on the British Medical Association Northern Ireland SAS Committee.