Heather has a proven track record in providing occupational health expertise to the Engineering and Manufacturing sectors.

Qualifying as a Physiotherapist from the University of Birmingham, Heather started her occupational health career with Rover at Longbridge in 1995, and moved to manage the Physiotherapy Department at BAE SYSTEMS Ltd in Barrow in Furness in 1997. Developing the services and expanding the department Heather demonstrated savings of over £300K per annum.

While in Cumbria Heather also acted as an advisor to one of the BACK in WORK 2000 Government projects advising SMEs on the management of return to work after back pain.

Establishing her own business in 2005 Heather has been helping businesses in Derbyshire to manage musculoskeletal absence through her "Work Performance" Programmes.

In 2007 Heather was appointed as a visiting lecturer on the MSc in Vocational Rehabilitation at Sheffield Hallam University and as an advisory Occupational Health Consultant to the Engineering Employers Federation (East Midlands and Mid Anglia).

Heather is currently involved with course developments for health professionals - educating them in how to support their patients to return to work more quickly and encouraging better communication with employers. In 2009 Heather has spoken at 3 conferences on topics around health and return to work - "Working with Employers" (Salfrod University - Health, Work and Well being conference) "Dismantling the Return to Work Wall" (ACPOHE Rehabilitation Matters Conference) and "Supporting the Skeleton in the Workplace" (Vocational Rehabilitation Association Conference). Heather has also been elected to the Executive Committee of ACPOHE - Association of Chartered PHysiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics, as Education Officer.

September 2009 sees the launch of the new "Work Performance Clinics" in the East Midlands area - an innovation in provision of early intervention return to work services - click here for more info.

Associates

Jain Holmes - Consultant Occupational Therapist, specialist in Vocational Rehabilitation

Jain Holmes is an occupational therapist registered with the Health Professions Council and graduated in 1990. She has worked in the NHS in the fields of neuromedicine, neurosurgery and neurorehabilitation, learning disabilities as well as general medicine. She has worked in the United States of America in the fields of older adults, rehabilitation and vocational rehabilitation.

As a senior lecturer, Jain worked at Sheffield Hallam University helping to develop and teach their MSc in Vocational Rehabilitation.

Jain has been working in the independent sector for 10 years in a non-adversarial role developing rehabilitation programmes for a wide variety of clients.

Jain has been actively involved with designing return to work rehabilitation, job analyses, job and workplace modifications as part of her role as an occupational therapist.

She is experienced in negotiating with employers, solicitors, insurance companies, medical practitioners and allied health professionals.

Jain is the author of a recently published (2007) book on Vocational Rehabilitation - follow the link for more info.