Professor Mike Bewick appointed Chairman of CECOPS CIC

We are delighted to announce that Professor Mike Bewick has been appointed CECOPS’ Chairman.

Professor Bewick brings a wealth of experience to CECOPS, having worked as a GP for many years and as an executive board Medical Director. He has held senior positions in strategy development and commissioning in Primary and Secondary Care. He was also Deputy Medical Director to Sir Bruce Keogh at NHS England.

Professor Bewick has wide-ranging experience including planning, commissioning and providing services, leading clinical and management teams on a local, regional and national basis, and advising on policy for NHS England to the Secretary of State and Government Ministers.

In his role at a national level he developed a significant interest in quality and safety; initially while conducting several of the Keogh reviews and then in promoting incident reporting in Primary Care.

He acts as a mentor to several clinical entrepreneurs as part of the national programme and sees the value of developing standards in the application of technologies in health and care.

Professor Bewick is enthusiastic about becoming involved with CECOPS as he understands the role assistive technology has (e.g. digital health, telecare, wheelchair services) in supporting people to live independently, manage their own care, and in helping governments and organisations meet a range of strategic objectives.

Brian Donnelly CECOPS’ CEO says: “It is a great honour to have someone with Mike’s senior level experience as CECOPS’ Chair. CECOPS is growing significantly across the UK, and is generating international interest, especially with our expansion into the digital health and telecare space. Mike’s seniority and relevant experience of the sector is what we need to take us to the next level. I look forward to working with Mike.”

Professor Bewick says: “I am excited by my appointment as CECOPS’ Chair. Getting the right assistive technology in a timely way supports many strategic and policy objectives, both nationally and internationally, and this is the key aim of CECOPS with its standards and accreditation scheme. I am particularly impressed that the work of CECOPS covers planning, commissioning and delivery of all assistive technology services across all sectors. CECOPS is unique in offering assessment of organisational readiness, sharing good practice, scaling up and driving continuous improvement. I look forward to chairing CECOPS and working with the team.”

About CECOPS: CECOPS CIC is a community interest company (social enterprise) and is the independent not-for-profit standards and accreditation body for all assistive technology services e.g. digital health, telecare, community equipment, wheelchair services. We work with many NHS, private and third sector organisations and local authorities in the UK, with growing international interest.

Compliance with CECOPS’ standards is a regular feature in tender specifications. Assessments of services are undertaken by independent quality and risk specialists, HLS Healthcare Risk Solutions.

CECOPS has developed outcome-based Codes of Practice for various assistive technology services including the first ever International Code of Practice for Planning, Commissioning and Providing Technology Enabled Care Services.

As well as accreditation against our Code, the CECOPS model includes training for commissioners, providers and clinical and technical staff across all assitive technology services, as well as our unique self-evaluation and continuous improvement software tool, iCOPS®.

Our work simplifies the planning, procurement and contract management of services and has a continuous improvement focus.

We have a Strategy and Delivery Unit, made up of independent experts.

We also specialise in assessing and accelerating organisational readiness before adopting new services, sharing good practice and scaling-up.

If you would like to find out more about CECOPS and how we can support you, please get in touch.

Contact: T: 01494 863398 | E: support@cecops.org.uk | W: www.cecops.org.uk | Follow: @cecops