Sian joins Cygnet’s Advisory Board, led by the esteemed Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, along with Dame Clare Gerada DBE and Mark Stephens CBE.
Sian is highly regarded as one of the leading strategic communications and marketing specialists in the country, with extensive experience in the health sector.
Welcoming the new appointment, Cygnet CEO Dr Tony Romero said: “We are privileged that Sian has chosen to offer her valuable insight and considerable experience to help enhance our work at Cygnet.
“Sian brings a wealth of knowledge in relation to impactful campaigns and engagement across health and social care, as well as being a passionate champion of wellbeing and social causes.
“The importance of how we relate to people and demonstrate why we care – not just for those entrusted to us but also for our staff and the wider communities we serve – is a vital part of delivering the high quality services we are proud of.
“We have strong foundations to build upon and I look forward to Sian’s support and scrutiny of how we develop this further.”
Sian said: “I have always been an advocate of bringing parity of esteem between mental and physical health and, whilst we have seen progress, there is still much to do. I believe telling the stories of those giving and receiving care is an opportunity to encourage greater awareness and discussion across the health and social care sectors.
“I am looking forward to offering my independent advice to contribute towards Cygnet’s direction of travel so that more people can access the right support when they need it.”
Beginning her career in journalism, Sian started out as a BBC trainee and later as a producer on Radio 4, with the Today programme before later becoming GMTV’s political correspondent based in the Westminster Lobby.
In 1999 Sian moved into Government and spent 12 years as Director General for Communications at the Department of Health and NHS, serving six Secretaries of State for Health, leading numerous public health marketing campaigns including Change4Life, aimed at tackling childhood obesity. She also campaigned hard to ensure mental health was a priority in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Sian is a long-standing member of the Management Committee of Women of the Year and in 2010, was awarded a CB in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the NHS and Department of Health.
Sian is currently working with Liva Health, an advisor to the tech scale-up, Huma Therapeutics and is a Trustee of Diabetes UK. She was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of GPs.
She is a single Mum to teenage twins and loves music, horseback riding and travelling especially to Africa where Sian is involved in a horseback safari in the Okavango Delta.