Faye Theobald
Head of health protection (physical health, resuscitation and infection prevention and control), Cygnet
Faye qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 2009 and began her career in acute medicine before moving into specialist cancer care. She spent 11 years working within a leading cancer centre, developing expertise in complex clinical leadership, patient safety, and service improvement.
She now works as Head of Health Protection, leading strategy across Physical Health, Resuscitation, and Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) within mental health, learning disability, neuropsychiatric, rehabilitation, and community services. Her role focuses on strengthening clinical governance, improving workforce capability, and embedding physical health as a core component of high‑quality care in non‑acute and community settings.
A key driver of her work is the well‑documented mortality gap affecting people with severe mental illness and learning disabilities, who experience significantly poorer physical health outcomes and reduced life expectancy, often due to preventable or under‑recognised conditions. Faye uses this evidence to advocate for parity of esteem, ensuring physical health is valued, prioritised, and delivered with the same rigour as mental health care.
Under her leadership, services have seen substantial progress in staff education, clinical pathways, and organisational understanding of common physical health conditions, supporting earlier recognition of deterioration, safer escalation, and improved self‑management for service users.

