Laura joined NHS GG&C in 2003; initially supporting administration of the West of Scotland Medical Training programme for Paediatrics. Inspired by the principles of releasing clinical time to care by improving the processes and systems which underpin the care, she went on to provide programme support to long term conditions, community wards and corporate governance programmes within NHS Ayrshire & Arran. In 2010, she became a member of Scotland’s Children’s Panel and committed to studying for an MBA with University West of Scotland. Following graduation in 2012, she started a 30-month outbound secondment from NHS A&A to SQA; where she supported implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence and learned more about the power of policy and strategic solutions to impact the systemic inequalities facing Scotland’s children and families.
In 2015, Laura joined (Public) Health Scotland as Improvement Officer, where she qualified as PRINCE2 Practitioner and EFQM Assessor, then committed to studying Master’s in Public Health with University of Glasgow. In 2016, she was appointed Content Manager for the redesign of Ready Steady Baby; a resource given to all pregnant women in Scotland at midwifery booking appointment. This involved negotiating cross-sector consensus on the best balance of evidence-based clinical and public health guidance to include in health information for pregnant and new parents. She spent 2019 working closely with PHS, NES and NSD colleagues in the Pregnancy & Newborn screening team to support national implementation of Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in Scotland. In March 2020, she was delighted to join NSD as Programme Manager for Scotland’s new Maternity Network. She is currently working on her dissertation based on early pregnancy services in Scotland and hopes to graduate in 2022. Laura said “I’m passionate about all things early intervention, prevention and reducing inequalities and look forward to working together to build a truly person-centred Network for Scottish women and families”.