Meet Our Trustees

Chair of Trustees Dr David Allen

David Allen is a retired clinical psychologist who spent his whole career working with people with intellectual disability and specialised in supporting adults with severe behavioural challenges for over two decades. This included leading the development of and managing one of the largest NHS community services for this group. He has a longstanding interest in positive behavioural support and ethical reactive strategies and was founding co-editor of the International Journal of Positive Behavioural Support. He has held honorary chairs at the universities of South Wales, Cardiff and Kent. David is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID). 

Vice Chair of Trustees Dr Karen Jankulak

Karen has been a trustee since 2023. She is a family carer who has received valuable support from the CBF in the past, and is keen to widely share the realities of supporting vulnerable people with complex needs, while also being very ambitious about what that support should look like. She lives in Wales and is particularly passionate about advocating for support in rural areas. She has presented to various government and third sector groups, particularly on the subject of constipation, and is part of a family carer advisory group working with the Open University’s social work programmes. She is a medieval historian in her other life. 

Treasurer Clare Million

Clare is a Chartered Accountant and also holds a Diploma in Charity Accounting. Now retired, she was, for 15 years, Director of Finance and Administration at top 100 charity United Response, which supports people with learning disabilities and mental health problems. Clare’s previous experience was in the commercial sector, and as an auditor in the accountancy profession, including at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Italy.  Volunteering plays an important part in Clare’s life in retirement. As well as the CBF, she volunteers for the RSPB as leader of the local group and for the British Trust for Ornithology.

Trustee Sophie Cooper

Trustee Justin Hunt

Justin became a Trustee of the CBF in 2026. He is also Head of Communications at the Youth Futures Foundation, the What Works Centre for Youth Employment. His career spans policy, public affairs and strategic communications, with a focus on promoting evidence-informed decision making in policy and practice. He has worked across the public, private and third sectors, primarily in education and employment, with a strong emphasis on supporting young people to achieve positive education and employment outcomes. 

Trustee Dr Nicholas Manktelow

Nik is a researcher interested in ways that academic evidence can improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. He has worked on research projects relating to people with intellectual disabilities since 2019, including work focused on community-based services for children with intellectual disabilities and behaviours that challenge. He currently works at the Intellectual Disabilities Research Institute (IDRIS) at the University of Birmingham. Prior to academic research work, Nik worked for almost a decade in social care roles directly supporting people with intellectual disabilities and autistic people in the community. 

Trustee Alexander Rook

Alex is a public law and human rights solicitor and founding partner of Rook Irwin Sweeney LLP.  His work has always focused on achieving social justice. He acts for individuals and charities in the full range of judicial review cases, with particular specialisms in health and social care, mental capacity and human rights law.  Alex has successfully won judicial review cases at every level within the British court system, including winning the first Supreme Court case in relation to the law on consultation (Moseley v London Borough of Haringey [2014] UKSC 56).  He has been instructed to intervene on behalf of national charities (Age UK, SENSE, RNIB, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the National Children’s Bureau) in three separate Supreme Court cases in recent years. 

Trustee Kate Sanger

Kate Sanger is a mother of three, her youngest daughter has a severe learning disability and complex needs. Kate learned very early on in her daughters life, that she would have to advocate and navigate a system that was not designed to meet her daughter’s needs. This led Kate and her eldest daughter to create a resource and tool that would enable her youngest daughter to have a voice in the world but also give all those supporting her a tool to not only understand her for the unique wonderful individual that she is, but to also enable her carers to have a rapport with her and build a good relationship.  Over the past 30 years, Kate has worked voluntarily with many charities, agencies, and the Scottish Government to educate and create better resources for children and adults with learning disabilities, Autism, and who are Neurodivergent. This group of individuals are the group of people who were being failed by the system and sadly were also being restrained and secluded unnecessarily. Kate and another parent went to the Scottish Government to Petition for a mandatory change in the education system. It took 10 years of hard work and emotional trauma, but they were successful in March 2026 when Scotland passed Daniel Johnson’s Bill: ‘Restraint and Seclusion in (Scotland’s) Schools Bill’. Kate has been part of the CBF for 23 years, and she is now proud to be a trustee.