Melanie Weatherley: key facts
- Kind of voice
- Sector leader
- Role
- Chair
- Organisation
- Lincolnshire Care Association (LinCA)
- Organisation based in
- Lincoln
- Quoted on
- Adult social care & reform
- Press citations held
- 4
- Most recently quoted
- 8 Sept 2026
Who Melanie Weatherley is
Melanie Weatherley MBE is Chair of the Lincolnshire Care Association (LinCA), a position she has held since 2016. She co-founded Walnut Care in 2002, now one of the largest domiciliary care providers in Lincolnshire, employing over 200 care professionals and providing 600,000 care visits annually. LinCA represents a range of independent and voluntary sector care providers across Lincolnshire, working to improve standards of care and giving members a voice locally and nationally. Weatherley is also Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance, a national body bringing together care associations to engage with the wider health and care system, and is a Fellow of NICE and Skills for Care. She received an MBE in 2020 for services to social care, including establishing the Care Home Trusted Assessor Scheme. She has consistently argued for fairer pay for care workers, increased government funding for social care, and closer integration between social care providers and the NHS.
“Social care does not need its own version of the NHS. An arm's-length body sitting above the system is not what we have been calling for, and it is not what determines whether people receive good care. A national framework is essential, but it can be built within the structures we already have.”
References for this biography
- 1.Melanie Weatherley MBE – DHSC Social Care Blog — Establishes her founding of Walnut Care, LinCA chairship since 2016, MBE for setting up the Care Home Trusted Assessor Scheme, the nurse associate scheme, and her Fellowship of NICE and Skills for Care.
- 2.Melanie Weatherley MBE announced as speaker at major UK care events – Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce — Confirms her role, MBE, LinCA membership numbers (386 providers, 21,000 workers), and her public-speaking profile on social care reform.
- 3.Lincolnshire Care Leader Appointed to National Care Body – Homecare.co.uk — Documents her appointment as Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance and her role as CEO of Walnut Care.
- 4.User details – Melanie Weatherley MBE – Lincolnshire MordernGov — Official public record confirming her title as Chair of LinCA, the organisation's correspondence address (Greetwell Place, 2 Lime Kiln Way, Lincoln, LN2 4US), and her membership of the Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Board and Lincolnshire Integrated Care Partnership.
Notable achievements
- Appointed MBE in 2020 for services to social care, including establishing the Lincolnshire Care Home Trusted Assessor Scheme. Source ↗
- Led a nationally first-of-its-kind scheme to train care workers to become nurse associates. Source ↗
- Appointed Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance, the national body representing local care associations, having been nominated by four care association chairs. Source ↗
- Chaired LinCA since 2016, during which time it has represented 386 providers and 21,000 care workers across Lincolnshire. Source ↗
What Melanie Weatherley has said
“Social care has been left on the 'too difficult' pile by successive governments for far too long. A change of leadership cannot become another excuse for delay. It must be the moment the country finally grips this.”
co-chair of the Care Association Alliance · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · Care Leader: new PM must take social care off the “too difficult” pile, and Burnham must stand by his word ↗
“The Care Association Alliance welcomes the creation of the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body and the first Fair Pay Agreement for care workers. For too long, the people who provide hands-on care to some of the most vulnerable in our society have not been paid or recognised in line with the skill and responsibility the job demands.”
co-chair of the Care Association Alliance · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · First-ever adult social care fair pay agreement announced ↗
“Andy Burnham wrote the last serious blueprint for a National Care Service in 2010, and watched it scrapped within weeks. He now has the mandate to finish what he started.”
Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · INTERVIEW: What does Andy Burnham mean for social care? Two MPs give their verdicts ↗
Where Melanie Weatherley has been quoted
- Care chief: ‘We never needed our own version of the NHS, we need a national funding settlement’carehomeprofessional.com · 8 Sept 2026
- Care Leader: new PM must take social care off the “too difficult” pile, and Burnham must stand by his wordcarehomeprofessional.com · 8 Sept 2026
- First-ever adult social care fair pay agreement announcedcarehomeprofessional.com · 8 Sept 2026
- INTERVIEW: What does Andy Burnham mean for social care? Two MPs give their verdictscarehomeprofessional.com · 8 Sept 2026
Related media coverage
Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.
Contact & links
- Websitehttps://www.linca.org.ukpublished here ↗
- Staff pagehttps://lincolnshire.moderngov.co.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=1450
- LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-weatherley-mbe-b3427b34/
Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.
Chief executives, directors and spokespeople of trade bodies, representative associations and charities speaking for the sector. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 8 Sept 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.