Kirsten Windfuhr

Dr. Kirsten Windfuhr is Associate Director at NHS Benchmarking Network and is responsible for the development and delivery of a UK wide portfolio of work across mental health, learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder services.  Kirsten and her team deliver bespoke analytic and national benchmarking projects for NHS and non-statutory provider organisations as well as local, regional and national organisations including NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland, charitable organisations, and local authorities. The NHS Benchmarking Network also works with international colleagues including the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL). 

Dr. Windfuhr’s career has spanned academic research, national commissioning of clinical audit programmes and strategic commissioning of local health and care services.  A psychologist by background, she worked at the University of Manchester as an academic researcher at the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health and the NIHR funded Greater Manchester Applied Research Collaborative Mental Health programme. Her interests and publications have focussed on suicide prevention, mental health, and health services research more broadly.  As Associate Director for Quality and Development at the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) she was responsible for commissioning national clinical audit programmes across clinical areas including mental health before taking on a strategic commissioning role for local health and care services as Director of Integrated Commissioning at Manchester Health and Care Commissioning.