Meet our Senior Leadership Team
Our PCP Senior Leadership Team bring a breadth of experience across the public, private and third sector, covering areas of health, wellbeing and education. Together, they lead our organisation, live and communicate our values and inspire our staff teams.
Carol is a proactive leader with a wealth of experience in strategic management and business development. In 2002, Carol joined Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) as a Project Coordinator managing a range of health and wellbeing projects.
Carol progressed from a middle management position to become part of the organisations Senior Management Team and became PCPs Business Development Director supporting overall business growth and strategy.
In 2013 Carol was appointed to the role of Chief Executive at PCP. In this time, Carol has worked with the organisation to increase income from £1.5m to £2.6m, extended the partnership arrangements, and in 2017 PCP’s work was acknowledged with the awarded a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Carol thoroughly enjoys the challenge of overseeing such a dynamic organisation and is passionate about supporting people to develop and reach their full potential.
Carol Gaskarth,
Chief Executive
Liz Fisher,
Deputy Chief Executive
Liz started her career as a youth and community worker in the East End of Newcastle, she ran The National Trust Inner City Project, for several years before moving into general management. Which involved her running a portfolio of National Trust Properties in the North East and Yorkshire. She never forgot her community development background and ensured all the properties in her portfolio, linked to and worked within the communities where they were based.
In 2015, she joined The Auckland Project as was instrumental in developing its link with the local community, as well as leading several the workstreams and projects linked to the development of the visitor attractions in Bishop Auckland.
As a senior leader in the voluntary sector, she has always strived to tackle issues linked to health inequalities. She sees her role at Pioneering Care Partnership as an opportunity to continue this work.
Sandra joined Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) in 2009 as a project administrator. Upon joining the organisation, Sandra knew PCP was somewhere she wanted to stay. PCP’s culture and mission ‘Health, Wellbeing and Learning for All’ makes PCP an rewarding place to work and aligned with her passion of supporting others.
Over the years, Sandra has held a number of cross-cutting roles, that have supported her own journey with life-long learning, including business development. Before moving into project management in 2020. Going forward Sandra is looking forward to the challenge of supporting the development and sustainability of not only PCP, but its staff and projects and services.
Sandra Roberts,
Governance and Development Manager
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Vicky Browning,
Operations Manager
Vicky started her professional life in press work for a charity based at the RVI in Newcastle, before moving to a software company at which she developed her marketing and business development skills.
She then joined a regional law firm in the Teesside area. She led on all aspects of the firm’s marketing and communications plans developing promotional and business development plans to drive growth.
After some years with the firm, Vicky returned to the voluntary and community (VCS) sector, joining Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency. In this role she undertook partnership and development work in economic development supporting the local VCS to engage funding streams with statutory and private sector commissioners. Later re-joining the law firm, Vicky went on to develop expertise and led in all non-legal areas of the business including strategic development, ICT, HR, compliance and risk. She moved into a Practice Director role and was the first non-lawyer to be appointed a Partner at the firm.
Vicky came back to the charity sector in 2021 joining PCP as Operations Manager. With oversight of the marketing, ICT and HR teams Vicky works with her colleagues to ensure that central functions meet the needs of the organisation. Also providing strategic development on operational growth and some compliance areas such as data protection.
Melanie has a breadth of strategic leadership, funding and management experience gained within the education, local government, and voluntary sectors. Much of this experience involved developing provision through partnership approaches and Melanie has supported organisations to successfully achieve change through working collaboratively. Her experience in delivering and managing programmes has included the development of employability and return to work programmes and she has a keen interest in how learning can support social mobility.
After leaving a successful career within local government, Melanie ran her own freelance consultancy; supporting organisations to review their provision, working with funding agencies to assess and review voluntary sector project funding applications, and working with individual clients as a leadership coach.
Melanie joined PCP in 2022 to lead on partnership working in Poverty, Health and Mental Health Transformation and she is looking forward to developing new relationships and collaborations across the voluntary sector.
Melanie Bear,
External Partnerships Manager
Jo Davies,
Finance Manager
Jo has been employed as Pioneering Care Partnership’s (PCP) Finance Manager since joining in 2018, progressing to the Senior Leadership Team in May 2023.
She has over 25 years’ experience in management accounting, covering all aspects of both public and private sectors. The majority of that time has been spent working within and managing an NHS finance team.
Jo is a qualified accountant and is a member of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She possesses knowledge and expertise in both operational and business accounting providing high level support across all business’s she has been involved with.
Jo prides herself on attention to detail and is committed to providing accurate and informative financial information to enable PCP to deliver its objectives.
Bobby has worked extensively in the delivery, coordination and management of a wide range of community health and wellbeing programmes since 2006, when he was employed as a Lifestyle Manager by Leisureworks, a leisure trust set up by the local authority to deliver services primarily in Derwentside. His experience spans almost two decades and notable projects have included family health and wellbeing, workplace health, exercise referral including cardiac rehabilitation and diabetes, exercise in the community with a specific focus on walking and cycling for older people and programmes to support physical activity, positive lifestyle change and social opportunities for young adults. Many other projects including Wellbeing for Life and Colour Your Life were delivered in partnership with Pioneering Care Partnership, where a professional and very collaborative relationship was formed.
Bobby is very committed and enthusiastic about providing opportunities for people to improve their lifestyle and health and wellbeing. He places great importance on partnership work, and working in collaboration with like-minded organisations, and firmly believes this is the best and most efficient model to achieve project outcomes. Empowering communities and giving them choice and opportunity underpin this belief.
Bobby has also worked within the education sector as a classroom teacher and was PE lead during his stella career. He fully endorses the benefits of exercise, across all age groups, with a particular focus on outdoor activities.
Bobby returned to the Health and Wellbeing sector in June 2023 with Pioneering Care Partnership and prides himself on supporting and developing teams to reach their full potential and to provide a first-class service for every user.
Bobby Hewitson,
Project Development Manager
Gayle Goldsmith,
Project Development Manager
Gayle has an extensive career working in the field of Health and Social Care. For the last 28 years she has been employed by a North-East charity providing specialist support and education to autistic adults and young people.
During this time, she has worked in a diverse range of roles, from support worker to registered manager. More recently she has been working in the position of Learning and Development Manager, coordinating, delivering, and developing bespoke training for 600 staff.
Gayle has successfully managed several CQC registered services, steering and leading change during times of uncertainty in the sector. With demonstrable experience of establishing, leading, and developing staff, she has enabled teams to provide CQC rated, outstanding person-centred care and support.
Gayle remains incredibly passionate about promoting the rights and improving the lives of vulnerable people. She looks forward to joining the team and continuing to use her knowledge and skills to support vision of PCP, and benefit others within the community.
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Lindsey Wood,
Wellbeing For Life Programme Manager
Helen Dent,
Project Development Manager
Helen brings a demonstrable wealth of experience in partnership working across various sectors. Following a long career in community safety and project work, including community consultation and restorative approaches, Helen thrived on working with communities that face inequalities and advocating to make a positive impact.
With a passion to drive change, Helen shifted her focus to education and prevention embarking on consultancy work for over eight years. Helen has worked with International businesses, nationwide local authorities, social housing providers and large academy trusts. Working with human resource and leadership teams to implement organisational change, focusing on health and wellbeing, supporting policy writing and the delivery of training programs, upskilling leadership teams on key legislation. During this time Helen also acted as an independent designated safeguarding lead for various sectors.
Helen’s continued study and working experience in mental health, mental illness and trauma informed approaches led to joining the Mental Health First Aid England Team within the national trainer program delivering on both adult and youth portfolios for seven years. Helen states she has always mirrored the strong values of the PCP and is excited to be part of the growth of projects we deliver.