The Cleft Development Group
About the Cleft Development Group (CDG)
The Cleft Development Group (CDG) has the overall responsibility for steering the work of the Cleft Registry and Audit NEtwork (CRANE) Database and has representation from patient groups, clinicians and commissioners.
The CDG is responsible for guidance on all aspects of the delivery of re-organised cleft care in England and Wales and, when asked, by Scotland and Northern Ireland. It gives advice to the cleft centres, to health authorities, trusts, boards, commissioning groups and consortia and to the Departments of Health in England and the devolved administrations. It represents all stakeholders in cleft care and works with all to ensure the highest quality of cleft care in the UK to all patients who need it. It inherited the responsibilities of the Cleft Implementation Group and the Cleft Implementation Monitoring Group, which were advisory groups which help implement the centralisation of cleft services after the Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) report 1998.
The CDG acts as a steering group, providing strategic governance for the project and has ultimate responsibility for the running of the CRANE database. It is responsible for providing data for cleft births and cleft treatment for England and Wales and it endeavours, with the cooperation of the health services in Scotland and Northern Ireland, to do so for the whole of the UK.
The national CRANE database had two primary functions when established:
- The recording of all birth and demographic data related to children born in England and Wales with the congenital abnormality of clefting of the lip and/or palate, and where possible extending this to the whole of the UK and Ireland.
- The recording of all treatment of children in England and Wales with clefts of the lip and/or palate and the outcome of such treatment, and where possible extending this to the whole of the UK and Ireland.
The Terms of Reference for the CDG are available to download here. If you have any questions about this information, please contact crane@rcseng.ac.uk
Please find below a list of current members of the CDG.
Members of the Cleft Development Group (CDG) in September 2021
| Simon van Eeden | Chair, CDG |
| Mary Bance | Network Managers/Coordinators Representative, Network Manager, Cleft Net East |
| Victoria Beale | Clinical Director, North West, IoM & North Wales Cleft Network |
| Neil Brierley | Lead Clinician, Cleft Net East |
| Alistair Cobb | Clinical Director, South West Cleft Service |
| Christine Couhig | Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist, Newcastle |
| Rebecca Crawford | Clinical Psychology CEN Lead |
| Claire Cunniffe | CLAPA Chief Executive |
| Sinead Davis | Chair, CEN for Cleft ENT and Hearing Consultant ENT Surgeon |
| David Drake | Clinical Lead, Cleft Care Scotland |
| Martin Evans | Clinical Director, West Midlands Cleft Service |
| Helen Extence | Clinical Director, The Welsh Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate |
| Louisa Ferguson | Chair, Cleft Surgery Training Interface Group |
| Toby Gillgrass | Lead Clinician, Scotland |
| Norman Hay | Clinical Director, North Thames Cleft Service |
| Chris Hill | Clinical Director, Northern Ireland Cleft Service |
| Peter Hodgkinson | Clinical Lead, Newcastle Site, Northern and Yorkshire Cleft Service |
| Sarah Kilcoyne | Chair, NIHR Clinical Studies Group of Cleft and Craniofacial Anomalies |
| David Landes | Public Health Consultant |
| Kate Le Marechal | Clinical Director, Evelina London Cleft Service |
| Joanna May | Chair, Paediatric Dentistry CEN |
| Felicity Mehendale | President, Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Jason Neil-Dwyer | Clinical Director, Trent Regional Cleft Lip & Palate Network |
| David Orr | Clinical Director, Plastic surgeon and cleft surgeon, Irish/Dublin Cleft Service |
| Ginette Phippen | Clinical Director, Spires Cleft Lip & Palate Network SLT CEN and Lead Groups representative |
| Sandip Popat | Chair, Restorative Dentistry CEN |
| Helen Robson | Lead Cleft Nurse Specialist, North West and North Wales |
| Craig Russell | CRANE Clinical Project Lead / Clinical Lead, Scotland |
| Heather Sahunta | Chair, Cleft Nursing CEN |
| David Sainsbury | Representative for The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons |
| Siobhan Sawey | Paediatric audiologist. Northern Ireland Cleft service |
| Julia Scott | Orthodontic CEN Lead |
| Ian Sharp | Deputy Chair CRG for Paediatric Services Representative; and Clinical Director, West Midlands Cleft Centre |
| Antonia Sinclair | Community Engagement Coordinator, CLAPA |
| Jackie Smallridge | Consultant Paediatric Dentist, CleftNetEast |
| Alistair Smyth | Clinical Lead, Leeds Site, Northern and Yorkshire Cleft Service |
| Lucy Southby | Interim Clinical Lead, Cleft.NET.East |
| David Steel | Programme Associate Director, NHS National Services, Scotland |
| Marc Swan | Clinical Director, The Spire Cleft Service Representative, The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons |
| Guy Thorburn | Chair, Surgical CEN |
| Imogen Underwood | Clinical Director, West Midland Cleft Service Chair, SLT CEN |
| Jan van der Meulen | Senior Epidemiologist, Clinical Effectiveness Unit |
| Rachel Willis | Clinical Lead, Cleft Net East Chair, Othodontics CEN |
| Yvonne Wren | Chief Investigator, Cleft Collective |
Cleft Development Group Minutes
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – November 2022
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – June 2022
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – February 2022
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – October 2021
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – May 2021
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – January 2021
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – October 2020
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – June 2020
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – November 2019
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – May 2019
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – November 2018
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – May 2018
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – January 2018
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – October 2017
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – May 2017
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – October 2016
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – May 2016
CRANE Database – Cleft Development Group Minutes – October 2015
If copies of earlier minutes are needed, please contact crane@rcseng.ac.uk
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