Meet The Team

Dawn Wood

Chief Executive Officer

I joined Mencap in September 2016 as Community Support Manager after working in various roles across social care for over 30 years. My career has spanned meaningful positions, including care assistant and memory support worker for people with dementia at Age Concern and BUPA, as well as Gateway Worker and service manager within Kirklees Council’s Early Intervention & Prevention portfolio. These experiences allowed me to develop a deep understanding of the importance of person-centred care.

Driven by a commitment to continuous learning, I self-funded my ILM Level 5 qualification and earned a Certificate in Higher Education in management for health and social care organisations from Leeds Met University. I then became a registered manager for a social enterprise where I successfully developed a large, newly built Extra Care Scheme—an exciting, challenging, and rewarding milestone in my career.

Now, as CEO of Mencap, I am proud to lead an organisation that shares my passion for empowering people with learning disabilities to live fulfilling lives. This mission resonates deeply with me, not only professionally but personally. My lived experience of supporting an uncle with a learning disability and three young grandchildren with additional needs has given me a unique perspective and unwavering drive to advocate for inclusion, dignity, and opportunity for all.

At Mencap, I treasure the diversity of my work, from improving service quality to enhancing health, well-being, and happiness for those we support. With every strategy and project, I ensure that the voices of the people we serve remain at the heart of everything we do.

Outside of work, I find joy in nurturing my organic vegetable garden, experimenting with new recipes, and traveling abroad to discover different cultures.

I joined Mencap in Kirklees in April 2013 after working for 15 years in the private sector. During my 15 years in the private sector I worked in Manufacturing SME’s mainly as a cost & management accountant. My main specialisms are Finance & Business, Administration, IT systems, Quality, Compliance, HR and general management.

After leaving college with A levels in hand I perused a number of professional qualifications starting with a Diploma in Social Sciences in 2001 (Open University), followed by an NVQ level 5 Accounting Technician (AAT) and finally qualified to professional level with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 2010.

I have really enjoyed my time here at Mencap in Kirklees and it’s the people that make it so special. No day is the same and the variety of challenges offered both strategic and operational certainly keep me busy. It’s been fascinating to learn all about the Third Sector and all that Mencap in Kirklees has to offer the people we support.

In my spare time I play guitar in a local rock band and enjoy writing music and performing live. When I’m not at work or playing music I enjoy spending time with my family and friends.

Joe Spencer

Business & Finance Development Director

Tracy Sims

Head of Support Services

I have been employed by Mencap in Kirklees since December 2019, managing community support, which reduced to becoming only supported living during Covid times. This created an opportunity to really focus, invest and develop supported living. We have since grown supported living options for people around Kirklees who need assistance.

I have nearly 30 years’ of experience working in adult social care, within specialist learning disability services. In an earlier life, I worked at a residential home. I was part of the major resettlement programme during the 90s, brought about by the government-led closure of many long-stay hospitals across the country. This experience gave me passion and determination to ensure we support vulnerable people to have the life that they choose, with opportunities that we often take for granted. I have experience in supported living, community support, reablement and transition.

I have gained NVQ level 4 in both Social Care Management and Health and Social Care, along with a degree in Learning Disability Studies from Manchester University, amongst relevant training courses over the years.

I have a son and a daughter who are both adults now. My free time is often spent walking my dog or at the farm with my horse and horsey friends. Having horses is not a glamorous life by any stretch … When I do sit down I enjoy reading, I like nothing more than a gripping psychological thriller that I can’t put down.

Board of Trustees

I left school in 1966 and started my working life as an Office Junior in a Huddersfield solicitor’s office. My next job was as cashier/clerk for the Bradford and Bingley Building Society where I stayed until I had my first child in 1972.

In 1974 I gave birth to our second daughter Suzanne, after a few months it became apparent that Sue was not making the progress that her elder sister had and there began our lifelong journey with Learning Disability.

I met Jill Robson at a group run by a lovely lady for mums of disabled children. Jill introduced me to another lovely lady, Ivy Pardon, who soon had me folding Tombola Tickets! This was my introduction to Mencap and almost forty years later I am still involved. I remember Ivy saying how good it was to have young people involved, I am now looking for young people so that I can repeat her words!

I retired from work last year after almost twenty-five years as a school support assistant and now as well as Mencap I work in a charity shop one morning a week, do some volunteer driving and help at our local cricket club.

Having a child with a disability does change your life, it is not always easy, but through Suzanne, I have met many people from all walks of life, had lots of ‘interesting experiences’ and rarely been bored.

Linda Wrigley

Chair

Jill Robson

Vice Chair

After a chequered early career (secretary/model/researcher/psychology lecturer) I joined Social Services in 1986 to set up an employment agency for people with disabilities.

I then went on to manage Kirklees services for people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments and learning disabilities and during this time gained a Masters degree from Leeds University in the management of Health and Social Care.

2004 saw a move to Mencap but my contact with the organisation goes back long before that. When I was at home with two small children, one of whom has multiple disabilities, I was a campaigner for change and was instrumental in setting up the first group home in the area and the first independent day service for people with a learning disability.

Now my younger son, David, lives in his own home supported by Mencap staff so I have had the opportunity to experience our services from a consumer’s perspective. Our older son, Simon, lives in Helsinki in Finland which we visit regularly and now regard almost as a second home.

David Birch

Secretary

I am a partner in a law firm, where I work as a healthcare solicitor. My professional role therefore includes guiding health and social care organisations in the delivery of safe and lawful care. During my working day, my role sometimes includes supporting care providers making best interest decisions for people who don’t have the capacity to make their own decisions about care and/or treatment. I therefore have a role in seeking to ensure good communication and support for individuals, families and professionals, in connection with complex and/or serious decisions. Through my work as a solicitor, I see the importance of involving individuals and their families in decision making. I also see the impact that good care can make upon improving the lives of individuals, and their families.

My professional experiences are greatly helped by the invaluable insights provided by my wife and family. My wife works as a mental health nurse, supporting people with learning disabilities, and her youngest brother has learning disabilities.

When I first met some of the staff from Mencap in Kirklees it was immediately clear to me just how passionate they were about their work for Mencap, and just how much they all care for the people that they support. I was delighted to be asked to join the Board as a trustee, as it gives me an opportunity to use my skills, and develop new skills, to contribute to the great work being done by Mencap.

During my spare time I enjoy going for long family walks with our ‘cute but bouncy’ Cavapoo Bella, swimming, and climbing with my daughter and friends.

I joined Mencap as a care assistant when the Victoria Road home opened in August 1992. Since then I think I can claim to have worked in almost every department and at many different levels in the organisation from support worker to manager. Having experience of working in residential care, community support and day services has helped me bring a different perspective to board meetings in that I can often see issues from the staff’s point of view.

It was with great sadness that in 2006 I had to take early retirement on ill-health grounds because my whole adult life up to that point had been devoted to Mencap and the people we support.

So when I was invited to join the Board I jumped at the chance to contribute to the organisation in a different way. I am passionate about the rights of people with learning disabilities and want to ensure we enable them to have the best life possible.

My own health problems in recent years have given me an even greater understanding of the frustrations and difficulties many of the people we support must experience – and an even greater commitment to the work of Mencap.

I am married to Joanne and have two children.