Ealing Mencap has undergone a change of leadership;  Julian Hillman has retired this year after 17 years a the helm, but we're delighted to have found his successor, Lesley Dodd.

Lesley is delighted that she has returned to working in the voluntary sector after 14 years working in social care in the public sector.

Her last role was Principal Manager for Health & Disability Services in Kingston-upon-Thames where she played a wide ranging part, acting both as commissioner and also provider of services and setting up new support where there was no existing provision.

She is very proud of her involvement in many of the projects she set up such as Asperger Syndrome Service and KingstonLD, the website for people with Learning Disabilities in Kingston. Lesley was also part of the 'Transformation Team' and has a lot of experience around the personalisation agenda, supporting people to use their personal budgets and she has seen some great outcomes for people who have received their own personal budget.

At age of 13 Lesley used to volunteer at St. Lawrence's Hospital in Caterham. This was a live-in unit for around 2000 people with learning disabilities. At the age of 18 Lesley joined the staff in the Female F2 ward and was going on to qualify as a learning disability nurse when marriage and children beckoned. Needless to say St Lawrence's is now a housing estate, which is a good thing as long stay hospitals were and are thankfully things of the past.

Lesley believes that working in this environment shaped her future career and has always worked since then to continually advocate and actively support people with learning disabilities to live ordinary lives in their own community.