Caroline Evans, who has passed away aged 56, was intensely sociable with a huge circle of friends and enjoyed a highly successful working life during which she became a powerful advocate for health care in Cumbria.
An outstanding occupational therapist, Caroline was proud of being the first clinical manager of the Woodlands Hospice in Liverpool, which she helped to build from the ground up, playing a leading role in recruitment, training and development.
After returning to her Cumbrian roots, she made a stellar rise to become associate director of operations for the county’s Partnership NHS Foundation Trust community care group.
Caroline was at the heart of implementing the Integrated Care Communities (ICC) model now increasingly seen as the most effective model for health care.
This sought to bring teams of professionals together and keep people at home rather than in hospital. After one year, accident and emergency admissions reduced in North Cumbria while increasing nationally.
“Caroline pretty much drove the process,” said David Lee, who worked alongside her on ICC formation. “If she hadn’t have driven it along, I’m not sure it would have been the success it is today. She was a really popular and much loved manager and leader.”
Caroline was born in November 1965, at Penrith Maternity Hospital, a site she came to know very well professionally, as her career developed.
She was the only child of John and Lorna Sharpe, of Clifton. Her father is a retired Cumbria police inspector while her mother worked as a care home matron at Greengarth on Bridge Lane, Penrith, where Caroline learned to care for others from an early age.
She was educated at the town’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School before gaining a College of Occupational Therapy diploma after three years’ study at Liverpool’s Institute of Higher Education.
Caroline was first employed as a rotational occupational therapist at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, and, between 1989 and 1995, was a senior grade occupational therapist at Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool.
She left and founded the city’s still-thriving Woodlands Hospital, which was opened in 1996 by the Duchess of Kent.
In her first foray into taking nationally recognised management courses she studied on and gained a certificate in managing health services — being placed second in her year nationally.
More recently, she received the Nye Bevan award for aspirant directors from the NHS Leadership Academy for executive health care leadership.
Caroline met her future husband Tim — then a university law lecturer and now a criminal barrister — in Liverpool on 5th November, 1988. They were engaged a year later and married at Clifton parish church, near Penrith, in September, 1990.
They initially lived in Liverpool but moved to Cumbria in 1997 when Caroline became pregnant with their first child, Laura, settling in the Lyvennet Valley. A second daughter, Louisa, was born in 1999.
Between 2002 and 2009, Caroline worked as a specialist palliative care occupational therapist for the Cumbria primary care trust, mainly based in Penrith.
She and Linda Graham worked together as clinicians. Linda said: “Staff and patients were always Caroline’s primary focus.”
Then came a three-year stint as professional team lead in occupational therapy and allied health. Caroline worked with clinical commissioners and other health professionals to redesign neuroscience pathways for patients.
During that time, she was also scheduled care manager with responsibility for community nursing and rehabilitation. And it was in this role, in particular, that she began seeking to improve the relationship between hospital-based and community care, developing that by championing the ICC model of health care.
Former colleague Angie Reynolds said: “She was a people person. There was no hierarchy. In Caroline’s world, the cleaner was as important as the chief executive.”
Caroline became neurosciences service manager for the trust, and then network manager through which she managed a budget in excess of £13 million and more than 300 staff across East Cumbria.
As she rose to the post of associate director of operations for North Cumbria community services, she was in charge of a £33 million budget used to deliver services rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission while leading a 1,000-strong workforce.
Joanna Forster Adams, the trust’s former executive director of operations, said: “She just wouldn’t compromise in terms of the care people needed. She made people feel treasured and special.”
In February last year, Caroline joined Keswick-based Calvert Reconnections — the UK’s first acquired brain injury rehabilitation centre — as an advisor
and committee member. The facility opened last June.
Head of service Claire Appleton said: “She absolutely leaves a legacy because she inspired us all to get the service open and deliver a really high standard.”
Embracing community life to the full, Caroline was heavily involved in campaigning and fundraising for a millennium children’s play area project in Crosby Ravensworth.
She loved reading and the outdoors; her garden and the various animals kept at home, including horses and chickens; foreign travel; cars, including a Mini Clubman and Audi convertible; but above all her family and many friends.
After retiring due to ill health, Caroline died at home having received excellent care from the Penrith district nursing team she had previously managed.
Her funeral service was held at St Lawrence’s, Morland, and taken by the Rev Sheila Clark.
Arrangements were by Glyn Jones & Son, of Appleby, and donations in her memory will be divided between Cancer Research UK and Penrith district nurses.
