Clare has worked in the NHS for all her career, in clinical practice, education and management. Her career started in nursing, and a desire to make a bigger difference saw her as runner up in the 1999 Nurse of the Year awards. She was programme lead for primary care education at the University of Derby before being seconded into her first national level role in 2002. She became the Head of Interprofessional Care Programmes at the proposed NHS University 2002-2005 before joining the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement in 2005. Whilst at the NHS Institute she led a number of capability building initiatives including supporting 50 English Universities to include improvement science in their the pre-registration health programmes, launched a fellowship scheme and developed a framework for improvement education. She completed her Doctorate in 2012 having researched the sustainability of service improvement using the clinical microsystems approach to change management.

Since 2013, Clare has worked at the NHS Leadership Academy where she is currently a Head of Service. She holds a mixed portfolio including patient engagement, research, evaluation and impact as well has supporting academic input into Academy activity.  She has previously been responsible for managing the new suite of national core programmes which have won national and international awards for excellence in both content and digital learning approaches. Clare continues her interest in quality as a member of the Health Foundation Q initiative and is a life long learner, passionate about the development of health and care staff.