About us

The Foundation for Nursing Leadership is a website developed over a number of years by David Dawes and Ali Handscomb and aims to be the best collection of nursing leadership resources on the internet.

Dave Dawes

Dave Dawes is a nurse and is the founder and CEO of Entreprenurses CIC and was the co-founder and Co-Director of the European Nursing Leadership Foundation. He is also a Director of SELNET and Community Health Action Partnerships which are social enterprises in the Northwest and is on the steering group of the Social Enterprise Coalition’s Health and Social Care Forum.

Prior to this he worked at the Department of Health and before that was one of the youngest Chief Executives in the NHS managing a £92 million budget. He has held a number of management posts in Health Authorities, Primary Care and Hospital Trusts and has been on the board of many third sector organisations including some national charities. He has a Masters Degree in Healthcare Management and Diplomas in Nursing, Healthcare Management and Health Economics. At the NHS Leadership Centre, he was the Primary Care Nursing Lead and has developed and supported nurse leadership at Board and Executive level in Primary Care Trusts.

He is an experienced web developer, web designer, podcaster and blogger and jointly led the e-learning programme which won the Institute of IT Training Award for e-learning project of the year in 2003. He has built a number of websites for NHS and commercial organisations and his Busynurse podcast was the most downloaded nursing podcast on iTunes. He has also been active in the Royal College of Nursing since 1990 and established the Nurses in Executive and Strategic Roles forum.

He lives in Buxton with his wife Linda, his son Ben, a very fat cat and a manic puppy.

Ali Handscomb

Ali is a project leader for major service change at Pennine Acute Trust. She continues to work as an independent consultant on small consultancy projects and is an active mentor and coach. She is a former Director and founder of the European Nursing Leadership Foundation. She has worked both in the UK and Ireland developing workforces and designing programmes, both face to face and e-learning for both the NHS and the private sector. She is an experienced podcaster and blogger and was jointly responsible for the popular busynurse podcast.

At the NHS Leadership Centre, Ali was the national programme manager for Leading Empowered Organisations (LEO) and the RCN Clinical Leadership Programme. She was responsible for facilitating networks of trainers and programme administrators across the country and for ensuring that over 34,000 nurses went on the programme. She jointly led the e-learning programme which won the Institute of IT Training Award for e-learning project of the year in 2003.

Ali has previously worked within higher education as a lecturer and tutor and has developed programmes across a range of clinical pathways. She has written a number of new courses within higher education at Diploma and Degree level. She is a LEO facilitator and coach and is an associate of Leeds University, Centre for the Development of Nursing Policy and Practice (CDNPP). She is also an associate of OPP delivering Myers Briggs step 1. Ali has extensive experience in facilitating both large and small groups and is consistently rated as excellent by participants on programmes.

During the 1990’s as the regional HIV/AIDS counsellor for the North West, Ali worked to bring services for over 80 patients with haemophilia and HIV/AIDS together across Primary and Secondary care. She ensured that the interface between community services and the hospital were effective and efficient and promoted interdepartmental and interdisciplinary working at all levels.

As a former Co- Director of a television and audio production company, Ali has worked on numerous of multi media projects. She has edited newspaper articles for publication in the national press and produced and edited promotional videos. Ali has also published articles in professional journals and is a reviewer for Nursing Management. She has been a member of a variety of voluntary organisations and professional bodies and regularly. presents and facilitates at conferences both in the UK and internationally.

Ali has a Masters in healthcare management.