
Joy Callender
Associate Director of Clinical Governance
There are various aspects to my role but overall, I am responsible for ensuring that clinical practices comply with established standards and regulations, promoting the safety and quality of patient care, ensuring we deliver the highest standards of care.
I support our organisation, our people and work in collaboration with external health care professionals, to foster a culture of safety, quality, transparency, accountability and continuous improvement within Smile Together.
I am involved in developing polices and protocols aimed at improving patients’ safety and experience. I have an active role in making quality improvements and work on initiatives for those improvements. Identify, assess, and mitigate any risks by working proactively to prevent adverse events and improve patient safety.
I oversee regular clinical audits to ensure compliance in line with clinical standards, GDC, Care Quality Commission (CQC) and HSE guidelines, and am the CQC registered ‘responsible person’ for Smile Together. I am the primary point of contact for patient plaudits, complaints, incident reporting and investigations and ensure any learnings, recommendations or actions are taken forward and implemented.
Over the years I have led a number of special projects such as Brighter Smiles, Cornwall’s first oral health programme, on behalf of Cornwall Council and our generous campaign supporters and our annual Smiles at Sea initiative where, again working in partnership, we take a mobile dental unit to harboursides across Cornwall and Brixham to treat fishermen and their dependent family members who rarely get to visit a dentist due to the demands of their work. These projects (and many more) are now managed by the Smile Together Outreach Team, which sees us making a genuine difference to the oral health of even more local communities by reaching out to ‘hard to reach’ or vulnerable people.
I began my dental nursing career in Birmingham at the age of 16 in general practice then the local authority. I moved to Scotland Health Authority delivering oral health education in Ayrshire and Aaron, targeting all age groups, in particular nursing mothers, babies and children, an experience which fed directly into shaping Brighter Smiles. In 1996 I moved to Cornwall and worked for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust and subsequently Smile Together, progressing in that time from dental nurse to specialist dental nurse, team lead, dental nurse manager, head of nursing and quality, quality assurance and compliance and now Associate Director of Clinical Governance. I love being part of the Smile Together team, working with people who are so passionate about patient care and exceeding patient expectations.
Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my family and grandchildren, but I also have a love of travelling and holidays in the sunshine.
The fun bit
Cats or dogs?
Surfing or sunbathing?
Manual or electric toothbrush?
Cornish cider or gin?
Mini or VW Campervan?
Peace and quiet or loud and lively?
Flossing or interdental brushing?
Full on roast or salad?
Football or rugby?
Rock or classical?
Under cover or outside in the elements?
Dogs
Sunbathing!
Both
Gin
Neither but I love my long awaited new car!
Peace and quiet at home; loud and lively if going out
Interdental brushing
Roast, although much prefer a good curry
Neither
Rock
Under cover, unless it’s sunny!