Executive Leadership Team
This team is responsible for the day to day running and wellbeing of the organisation.
Julie Layton was appointed as Chief Executive of Advance in 2015, having worked for the organisation for a number of years as Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive.
Julie is a qualified accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has extensive experience in the social housing sector. She is a strategic, visionary leader who is passionate about improving the lives of vulnerable people and believes the non-profit sector has a big part to play in delivering change. Her philosophy is to embed a collaborative and open culture within the organisation and to inspire and empower people to perform well.
Julie has developed partnership working initiatives to ensure Advance can work with others to provide more high quality support options to customers to enable them to live the lives they choose.
In 2017 Julie was appointed to the Board of the Association of Mental Health Providers and is keen to take an active role in shaping the future of the Association and the mental health sector.
As Executive Director of Housing, Lucy Sivasundram leads our provision of housing for people with disabilities and mental health conditions, ensuring we meet and exceed regulations, and deliver excellent assurance and customer engagement to enable our customers to live fulfilled and independent lives.
Lucy joined Advance in October 2024, our 50th anniversary year, following four years in a similar role at Ability Housing, and previous senior roles held over many years in housing and support provision. She is also an active member of the Learning Disability and Autism Housing Network and passionate about improving services for everyone to live settled and thriving lives.
Tracy Lanes joined Advance as Executive Director of Support on 1st August 2023.
Tracy has over 20 years’ experience at Director level within organisations who provide housing and support for people with a learning disability, autism and a mental health condition.
As Executive Director of People and Change Sarah Toye is responsible for the strategic leadership of our People function, to deliver positive employee and manager experiences consistently and accurately across all aspects of HR, from Recruit to Retire, enabling our workforce to perform at their best while being valued, appreciated, and safeguarded.
Sarah joined Advance in January 2023 having spent the past 12 years working in senior HR roles for a charity/Not For Profit organisation delivering care and support services for elderly people and adults with learning disabilities. Sarah’s HR background was developed within the manufacturing and service sector before moving into the social care.