Professor, the Lord Patel of Bradford OBE was appointed as Senior Independent Board Director at Cygnet in April 2020.

Lord Patel brings deep expertise in mental health care, including in the areas of substance misuse and community cohesion. While serving the UK Government, Lord Patel held roles as the National Strategic Director for the National Institute for Mental Health England, and as a member of the Post-legislative Scrutiny Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Lord Patel also has significant experience serving on both public and independent sector boards, including chairing for six years the Mental Health Act Commission, the national body responsible for overseeing the care and treatment of all patients detained under the Mental Health Act.

He was Chair of the Delivering Race Equality (DRE) Board, one of the largest mental health race equality programmes ever undertaken, which implemented a major multi-million pound Government national strategy across England and Wales.

Having been awarded an OBE for his ‘Services to Ethnic Minority Health Issues’, Lord Patel also holds a number of academic accolades within the healthcare sector, including an honorary Doctorate of Health from the University of Bradford and Professorial Fellow of Mental Health from the Institute of Mental Health Nottingham.

Having been a regulator across a number of regulatory agencies and frameworks, Lord Patel offers invaluable insight and experience in this area.

He is also the Current Chair of Social Work England, the regulator for all child, family and adult social workers in England as well as being the Chair of the Independent Health Providers Network.