Spokespeople

Simon Hewett-Avison joined Independent Age as Assistant Director of Services in 2018. Simon has spent the last 10 years in the charity sector working at Teenage Cancer Trust and Shine and before that worked across both private and public sectors. He has experience across health, education and social care and has particular interest in mental health, social isolation and loneliness.

Simon has been a trustee of several charities including the Voluntary Youth Service in Devon and is currently a trustee with Daybreak who provide unique social and therapeutic respite days for people living with dementia, helping couples stay together at home and delaying or avoiding residential care.

Morgan Vine has been the Campaigns Manager at Independent Age since June 2019. She is passionate about improving the systems that older people rely on and leads our campaigns calling for free personal care and changes to the Pension Credit system. Morgan ensures that older people, and those close to them, are involved in the development and delivery of our campaigns, and that their voices are heard by decision makers at the highest level.

Across her career she has campaigned to improve policy and legislation on health and social care, employment, benefits and accessibility. She has worked for numerous high profile charities including Age UK, RNIB, Parkinson’s UK, Which? and Versus Arthritis. She is an active member of several coalitions and has Chaired the Continuing Healthcare Alliance and the Prescription Charges Coalition. Morgan is also currently a Trustee for Age UK Bromley and Greenwich.

Phil Mawhinney joined Independent Age in December 2018. He is a Policy Manager, overseeing our work on emotional wellbeing, including mental health issues affecting older people.

He has wide experience working in the charity sector on issues like poverty, consumer affairs, fraud/scams, racism, financial inclusion and the voluntary sector. His previous roles were at Age UK, the Runnymede Trust, Toynbee Hall and Community Action Southwark.

Anna joined Independent Age in 2015 having previously held research roles at the Young Foundation in London and Institute for the Future in California.

At Independent Age her work has focused on health and social care, loneliness, and family relationships. Anna has a particular interest in residential care and led a pilot with Healthwatch Camden to explore what older people and their families want from care homes. She is author of the report, We need to talk about caring: dealing with difficult conversations.

Gill joined Independent Age in January 2019. She previously held a number of policy roles in the Civil Service, most recently at the Department of Health and Social Care. Gill has led Independent Age’s policy work on Pension Credit, and covers a number of other areas relating to financial security.

Shelley Hopkinson joined Independent Age in November 2018 from the New Zealand Government where she was involved in a schools’ policy project at the Ministry of Education. She has previously worked as a Public Affairs Manager for the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission and for Action for Children where she successfully influenced policy and legislation on a range of issue. She also has experience working for members of Parliament in Westminster.

Shelley is focussed on building Independent Age’s relationships across national and local government, Parliament and Whitehall and is passionate about ensuring that the issues affecting older people’s lives are high on the political agenda.