Meet The Team
Maria Nelligan - Chair
Maria is an experienced Registered Nurse and on completing her Registered Nurse training in Learning Disabilities in Ireland, moved to Australia to extend her experience in 1987.
She migrated to the UK in 1990 and worked as a Community Nurse in Merseyside where she continued to develop her skills and interest in physical health, when she became the Board Nurse in the local Primary Care Trust.
Maria has held a number of operational, clinical and professional lead roles until her appointment as Deputy Director of Nursing & Therapies.
Maria then went on to be appointed as Executive Director of Nursing & Quality in 2015 at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare. During her time there, Maria played a pivotal role in the Trust achieving a CQC rating of Outstanding in 2019.
Maria joined the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) in September 2019.
She is passionate about quality improvement, service user and carer involvement and continuing professional education. She is the Executive Professional Lead for Nursing, AHPs, Psychology and Social Work.
Maria is the Trust Lead for Learning Disability and Autism transformation and is the Chair of the North West Learning Disability and Autism Operational Delivery Network. She has been a long standing member of the national Mental Health and Learning Disability Directors Forum where she has a role of Secretary and Editor
Mahesh Odiyoor - Deputy Chair and Clinical Lead
Mahesh is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychiatry of Intellectual Disabilities at Cheshire and Wirral partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP). He is part of the teams at Greenways Assessment and Treatment unit, Macclesfield and Eastway Assessment and Treatment unit, Chester which have been rated as “Outstanding” by CQC.
Mahesh is currently the Strategic Clinical Director for the Learning Disability, Neurodevelopmental disorder and Acquired Brain Injury care group at CWP. He is also the Strategic Clinical Director at the Center for Autism, Neurodevelopmental Disorder and Intellectual Disability (CANDDID) which has been set up with the aim to promote training, teaching and research in the areas of Autism, ID and other NDD.
Mahesh has a keen interest in service development and has been involved with the Transforming Care programme since inception in a variety of roles. Mahesh is currently the clinical lead and deputy chair of the Northwest Operational Network (ODN) for Autism and Learning Disabilities. The ODN has been coordinating the work in the NW region on models of care of CYP with ID and /or Autism as well as people with Autism without ID and risk stratification of the risk of admission to hospital
Mahesh is an Executive member of the Faculty of Intellectual Disability at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and also represents the Mersey region as the regional specialty representative.
Mahesh has a keen interest in teaching and research. He also enjoys playing tennis and a good book.
Waqar Hussain - Project Manager
Waqar joined Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust in 2015. Prior to this worked in HR in London. Waqar started to project manage the ODN in May 2022. Waqar graduated from LSE and has as masters degree in Consulting and leading in organisations: psychodynamic and systemic approaches organised by the Tavistock Consultancy based at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
Waqar has helped develop community organisations for over 15 years.
Waqar enjoys running and walks.