Highland Marketing has appointed Dr Jane Brightman as a member of its advisory board, to add a social care perspective to its debates on health and care technology and the guidance it provides to the agency and its clients. 

Highland Marketing is a PR, marketing and content agency with more than 20 years’ experience in health and care tech and med tech. It employs or works with more than 30 specialists in strategy, content campaigns, and sales acceleration. The company’s advisory board is made up of NHS and industry experts and holds regular debates on health and care tech topics and provides advice and guidance to the agency and its clients on market issues and effective communications approaches. 

Brightman recently became director of workforce strategy at Skills for Care after two-years as assistant director of programmes at NHS England. She said: “I follow the discussions that you publish, and I am keen to bring the social care voice to them. The more we talk about social care, the more system leaders are likely to sit up and listen. Also, I want to make sure that we are talking about social care properly. That we are not just paying lip-service to the NHS and care, but recognising social care as an important sector in its own right.” 

Brightman started her career with not-for-profit care provider Anchor Trust and developed an interest in training and technology. She was director of a private training provider before moving to Skills for Care in 2016, where she worked on national workforce initiatives, qualifications and learning. 

Brightman moved on ahead of the second wave of Covid-19, as the pandemic was leading to new interest in digitalising social care, integrating health and social care, and using technology to support remote working and care for people in their own homes. Brightman says one of her concerns is to make sure that momentum is reinvigorated. At NHS England, she worked on system reform and the digitalising social care programme, which aims to get digital care records into 70% of providers by March. 

NHS England is also driving programmes to create shared care records across England and to explore the potential of care tech. Brightman said: “Digitising in social care is moving in the right direction, but there is a lot more to be done, particularly on interoperability and digital skills. Skills for Care is working on a workforce strategy for adult social care, and digital will be a big part of that, because we want to make sure that technology is used to support our fantastic social care workforce and the people they support.” 

Susan Venables, co-founder and client services director at Highland Marketing, said: “We are really pleased that Dr Brightman has agreed to join our advisory board. We had the privilege of working with her during the Covid-19 pandemic and were impressed with her knowledge of and commitment to social care. I am confident she will continue to be a strong and effective voice for her sector and look forward to hearing her perspective on health and social care digitisation as we head into an election year.”