Our consultancy is informed by industry experience.
KBC’s Managing Partners both have the unique advantage of clinical experience. This provides a candid appreciation of both clinical and non-clinical team workforce challenges across the public and private healthcare sectors.
Our Leadership team is supported by a UK-wide network of affiliate consultants, each with their own principal area of expertise.
Matthew Bluck
Managing Partner
Having started his career as a nurse, working in a Regional Burns Unit, Matthew moved to a city centre Emergency Department, before an interest in Health Care Ethics and Law led to a move into medical workforce planning before specialising in clinical workforce reviews.
Today, Matthew is a clinical workforce expert with unparalleled experience having led KBC for over 14 years delivering sensitive, complex projects and reviews for over 50 NHS clients, Royal Colleges, regulatory bodies, and clients in Qatar, Dubai and the Republic of Ireland.
Outside of KBC, Matthew has delivered workforce projects in the NHS and private sector for over 23 years, holding positions within the North Western Deanery, two Strategic Health Authorities, a large Acute teaching hospital and three private sector organisations.
In a joint post as a Workforce Development and Change manager and as a member of the NHS North West Improving Junior Doctors’ Working Lives Team, Matthew delivered the clinical workforce plan for the making it better consultation, the largest in the history of the NHS; and supported the early implementation of the European Working Time Directive for Junior Doctors and the 2003 consultant contract across the North West.
Over the last 10 years, Matthew has returned to NHS posts to cover vacancies and maternity leave for clients, with Management roles in Surgery and Emergency Medicine. Matthew also returned to an NHS post to support the Covid response in North Wales.
Helen Maynard
Managing Partner
BSc Hons (Clinical Practice), RN DipHE (Professional Studies – Nursing)
Helen brings over 26 years of health service and 11 years healthcare consultancy experience, having held numerous posts in the NHS (and beyond).
Helens posts have mainly been in the MAU and Emergency settings. She was also Senior Nurse for the Metropolitan Police Service, where she and the wider team were instrumental in changing the strategic direction of health care delivery by introducing custody nurses into the custody setting. Most recently Helen has worked as a Matron in an Emergency Department in a large London trauma centre.
Helen joined KBC over 11 years ago, initially starting out as an SME, taking ownership of clinical engagement, providing clinical teams with a strong voice in all our projects, to help achieve greater client satisfaction. Now as Managing Partner, Helen brings a unique skill set, her aspiration on every project is to ensure the right level of clinical engagement, working collaboratively with teams to ensure purposeful involvement and active contribution. Helen strongly believes KBC’s success relies on ensuring clinical team are listened to, their insights explored and represented.
Passionate in her work for KBC, both on projects and in leading the strategic direction of the business, Helen leads our large affiliate network with a focus on progressive engagement, and a positive patient and staff experience being at the core.
Helen’s experience of working in NHS teaching hospitals shapes her collaborative approach to consultancy with both clinical and management teams. Helens leadership of KBC promotes the inclusive, open and transparent culture within the company which ensures all our team contribute to our mission to be the best.
Julie Merry
Chief Finance Officer
Headshots by Laura Lewis Photography
Our Core Team is comprised of healthcare professionals.
Highly motivated to make a measurable difference, they’re passionate about transforming clinical and management team efficiencies with effective workforce reviews.
Headshots by Laura Lewis Photography
Sophie Cookson
Business Manager
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc
Sophie joined Kendall Bluck Consulting in 2021 and has successfully supported a number of significant reviews, including financial recovery and workforce reconfiguration projects across diverse organisations in complex health systems.
Ben Swift
Principal Consultant
BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences, BSc (Hons) Air Transport Management
Ben is our newest recruit to KBC. He has a first-class honours degrees in Biology and Air Transport Management and is a qualified commercial pilot.
Ali Garland
Lead Nurse
MSc (Advanced Clinical Practice) and qualified ANP
As an ANP in cardiothoracic surgery, working within the medical rota to manage the ward-based care of patients, Alison has worked as the lead for pre-op cardiac surgery
Catherine Hey
Nursing SME
MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, BSc Nursing Sciences, RN.
Catherine is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in the Emergency Department at a busy teaching hospital. Catherine has extensive ED experience working at Band 7 for a number of years before completing her MSc and moving into an Advanced Clinical role.
Adrian Levine
Medical lead
BSc, MBBS, FRCS (CTh)
Having qualified as a Doctor in 1987, before progressing to the post of Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at a large NHS Trust for over 19 years, now Adrian brings a wealth of practical and consultancy experience to our team as Medical Lead.
Beccy Tombs
Your Marketing Team
Working as our Lead Marketing Consultant at Your Marketing Team
Beccy manages KBC’s Marketing Strategy and implementation, shaping the tactical communications plan to support growth and new client acquisition.
We have a team of affiliate consultants each with their own individual area of healthcare expertise.
Our commitment to working with current and ex-healthcare practitioners ensures we have a unique understanding of sector specific challenges, supporting our vision to recommend efficiencies that support and enhance department productivity.
Offering a truly independent expert view, our approach is structured around a three-stage programme designed to support organisations through incremental workforce alignment.
We work in partnership with all stakeholders, utilising proprietary software to develop the most effective people strategy to staff clinical services. This is underpinned by whole organisation diagnostics designed to identify future support needs.
ALIGN
REVIEW
REALIGN
Our mission is to create best-practice workforce alignment strategies to facilitate the most cost-effective way to staff clinical services. All services are unique to an individual client’s needs.
For many patients, the gateway to care is the Emergency Department (ED). Through interviews with lead clinicians we build clinical workforce models which align to departmental activity.
Our comprehensive proprietary diagnostic and modelling tools can be utilised across multiple departments from medical, surgical, women’s and children’s services to mental health and clinical support.
Diagnostics highlight if, and where, there are workforce efficiency opportunities, providing high level advice on a range of solutions and insights to inform decision making.
Job Planning is critical for consultants to ensure that their career progress aligns with both their individual and team aspirations and ambitions, as well as their organisations priorities.
Reconfiguration is the process of improving patient care by making significant changes to the organisation of, and delivery of healthcare services.
Business Manager
Sophie joined Kendall Bluck Consulting in 2021 and has successfully supported a number of significant reviews, including financial recovery and workforce reconfiguration projects across diverse organisations in complex health systems, with multiple acutes sites, in geographically challenging areas; city centre teaching hospitals; and district general hospitals.
Sophie brings excellent organisational and project management experience. Sophie has a pivotal role in ensuring the diagnostic process runs smoothly. Sophie assists the teams to ensure IP and data sharing arrangements are secured as soon as possible. She has experience of identifying and working with trust representatives, identifying the key stakeholders to ensure correct feedback structures, booking in meetings well in advance of time so as not to disrupt diaries at the end of the project.
Sophie provides constant support both internally to KBC and to the NHS teams ensuring all the groundwork is covered and the diagnostic process is delivered to the highest standard with the minimum disruption to our clients.
Prior to joining Kendall Bluck, Sophie has experience working in clinical admin within accident and emergency departments. Here, a great understanding of the patient journey from admission to discharge and the service processes behind the journey was gained which provided insight into patient outcomes. This led to an interest in improving patient services and the effect of workforce.
Principal Consultant
Ben is our newest recruit to KBC. He has a first-class honours degree in Biology and Air Transport Management. Post-university Ben attended CAE Oxford to qualify as an A320 pilot. He has always had a keen interest in Health Care so when the Covid 19 pandemic began he offered himself as a volunteer to the NHS. This then resulted in Ben working as an Interim Service Delivery Manager for 3 years.
Ben led on local change, including service and contract negotiations, which had a direct impact on patient experience. He supported local teams on a clinical area redesign. He was adept at developing creative solutions to problems, this included having complex conversations with internal teams and NHS suppliers.
Ben brings excellent communication skills, a fine eye for detail, and with his strong mathematical background and NHS experience, he is able to support the KBC team with project management, financial analysis, and project delivery. Ben is also a pilot for a commercial airline.
Lead Nurse
MSc (Advanced Clinical Practice) and qualified ANP
Alison qualified in 2004 and completed a post in medical assessment at Southampton before joining a Southeast emergency department in 2005 where she remained until 2016, the last three years of which she spent as a trauma coordinator and an expert in trauma care and management from resuscitation to discharge.
Alison has also worked as an ANP in cardiothoracic surgery, working within the medical rota to manage the ward-based care of patients including complex case management, change management and cohesive MDT care. Alison was the lead for pre-op cardiac surgery – leading a team to implement a case management system to improve patient pathways and experience, including enhanced recovery after surgery including pre-habilitation and optimisation.
Now working as a ANP in General Practice, Alison continues to use her extensive skills to provide direct patient care in the primary care setting.
Nursing SME
MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, BSc Nursing Sciences, RN.
Catherine is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in the Emergency Department at a busy teaching hospital. Catherine has extensive ED experience working at Band 7 for a number of years before completing her MSc and moving into an Advanced Clinical role.
Catherine has supported a number of KBC ED reviews, undertaking a significant role in the management of staff interviews.
Medical Lead
BSc, MBBS, FRCS (CTh)
Having qualified as a Doctor in 1987, before progressing to the post of Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at a large NHS Trust for over 19 years, now Adrian brings a wealth of practical and consultancy experience to our team as Medical Lead.
The MD, of a UK-based company that teaches specialist resuscitation courses around the world, Adrian can also be found in the business circuit delivering motivational speeches focused on optimising team performance.
At KBC, Adrian uses his specialised knowledge to advise on the optimisation of service processes to support efficiency.
Your Marketing Team
Working as our Lead Marketing Consultant at Your Marketing Team, Beccy manages KBC’s Marketing Strategy and implementation, shaping the tactical communications plan to support growth and new client acquisition. Comprising a blend of in-house consultancy skills and external expertise, Your Marketing Team provides bespoke marketing support to KBC Healthcare Consultants.
With over 25 years’ experience working in professional Marketing roles, Beccy specialises in Marketing Strategy, Communications and Branding, having worked internationally in Formula One, The America’s Cup and The World Rally Championship.