Speakers

Rukshana has been working in the NHS and charitable sector for over thirty years as a provider, commissioner, Board member and senior leader using inclusive coproduction methodologies to inform all her work. She is Barnardo’s first Director of Health, leading the transformation of the largest children’s charity in the UK to a health & social care provider. Rukshana is a Non-Executive Director at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, an Advisory Commissioner for the Health Devolution Commission and is Co-Chair of the Child Equity Collaborative with Sir Michael Marmot.

Rukshana keeps patients, carers, families and communities at the heart of all her leadership roles. The Child Health Equity Collaborative has centred the voices of children and young people to shape an equity framework with 3 ICSs. As chair of IBD UK, a collaborative of 17 Royal Colleges and patient organisations, she led the first co-production of standards with patients to develop a digital benchmarking tool now used by all IBD centres across the UK. During her career she has brought about key directional changes in the health sector such as the PALS Pathfinder Pilots, which led to the introduction of patient advice and liaison services in every hospital in England and the Patient Choice system is now used by all GPs.