My name is Emily and I am one of the Clinical Champions Project Managers at Diabetes UK. I have been in post for nearly two years and sit within the Healthcare Professional Engagement team in the Policy and Care Improvement directorate.

The Clinical Champions programme is a leadership development programme for diabetes specialists that aims to give them a set of skills to enable them to drive change to improve diabetes care in their localities. I am responsible for working with the Champions who include, nurses, consultants, GPs, dietitians and podiatrists to help them identify what needs to change in their area to improve care and then work with them to deliver this change.

A big part of my role is promoting all the good work that our Champions do. We all hear negative stories in the media about the NHS and the reason I love working on this programme is that you see the opposite side to this. The Champions are constantly positive in the face of unprecedented stress and have one goal which is to improve care for their patients. I regularly witness the Champions going above and beyond and enjoying blogging about my experience of meeting with these inspiring people.

Since graduating I have worked for charities. My previous job was at the British Lung Foundation where I enjoyed working with various stakeholders, influencing change across the UK. Improving care for people with long-term conditions is key to the survival of the NHS and I am keen to stay in this area of work and believe strongly that if we empower clinicians we can improve the delivery of care for patients.

You can follow me on Twitter @emilyjwatts.