People moves

The latest new appointments in the social care
sector:

A person with learning difficulties has been elected joint chair
of learning difficulty charity Mencap’s National Assembly for the
first time. Steven Austin will be responsible for
chairing and setting the agenda for assembly meetings and
representing Mencap. The assembly provides an opportunity for
Mencap members to express their opinions and at least one third of
the elected assembly representatives must be people with a learning
difficulty.

Leo Finn, the former chief executive of
Northern Rock plc, is the new chairperson of the Northern Rock
Foundation, which funds charitable activity in the north east and
Cumbria. The foundation receives 5 per cent of Northern Rock bank’s
pre-tax profits annually.  

David Fielding has been appointed as a special
adviser to the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary
Organisations. He is on secondment from the National Lottery
Community Fund, where he was director of corporate services. He is
also an independent assessor for government appointments.

Health secretary John Reid has appointed two non-executive
members to the Office of the Independent Regulator of NHS
Foundation Trusts. Colin Davies and Brian Parrott
have both been appointed on an interim basis while permanent
members are recruited.
The new independent regulator was established by the Health and
Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 and will be
responsible for authorising, monitoring and regulating NHS
Foundation Trusts.

Parrott is currently chairperson of Central Suffolk Primary Care
Trust and is formerly director of social services for Surrey
Council from 1995-200, and chairperson of the Association of
Directors of Social Services resources committee. Colin Davies was
previously the chairperson of North Hampshire Hospitals NHS
Trust.

David Edmonds has been appointed as chairperson
of the NHS Direct Special Health Authority. Edmonds was previously
director general of telecommunications at Oftel, the UK telecoms
regulatory agency and his past roles include being chairperson of
Crisis, the charity for single homeless people, for six years.

Leading father’s rights campaigner Duncan
Fisher has been appointed as a commissioner at the Equal
Opportunities Commission. Fisher had already worked with the EOC on
work and life balance issues through his work as the director and
co-founder of Fathers Direct.

Kwame Akuffo and Professor Janet Walker have
been appointed as members of the social security advisory committee
(SSAC) for three years.
Akuffo has been a law teacher for the past 21 years and is
currently a senior law lecturer at Ealing Law School, Thames Valley
University. He teaches international human rights and public
international law.
Walker is director of the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies and
professor of family policy at the University of Newcastle upon
Tyne.

The Welsh assembly government have appointed Gwenda
Thomas to head a review of the progress made to date in
safeguarding vulnerable children in Wales. Thomas is assembly
member for Neath. She has served as chairperson of the social
services committees of West Glamorgan Council and Neath Port Talbot
Council. The review is expected to take around 12 months.

Gerald Oppenheim has been made director of
planning and performance in the new lottery distributor being
created by the merging of the New Opportunities Fund and the
Community Fund. He was formerly the director of policy and
communications at the Community Fund.
Vanessa Potter, previously the director of policy and external
relations for the New Opportunities Fund, has been given the same
position in the new distributor.

Helen Edwards, director of the Active
Communities Directorate in the Home Office, has been appointed as
director general of the department’s communities group.
Edwards will be responsible for the Home Office’s work on
active communities, civil renewal, race equality, faith, community
cohesion and identity cards.

Sandy Blair is leaving his position of director
of the Welsh Local Government Association in June. Blair, who
joined the association in March 2001, was previously the chief
executive at Newport Council. He is also a former president of  the
Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). The
association is currently recruiting for his replacement.

Nick Parker, a former senior partner with Price
Waterhouse Coopers, is to head the Scottish Executive’s performance
and innovation unit. His role will involve modernising government
in Scotland and improving the delivery of public sector
services.

Mark Avery has been appointed as the director
of the private and voluntary healthcare division of the National
Care Standards Commission (NCSC). Avery has 25-years’ experience of
working in health care in Australia. He was jointly appointed by
the NCSC and Commission for Healthcare Audit & Inspection
(CHAI). He becomes head of independent healthcare in April when
CHAI takes over the private healthcare responsibilities of the
NCSC.

Three further appointments have been made to the Commission
for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI) executive management
team:

Lorraine Foley has been appointed as the head
of information and analysis. She was previously a director and head
of electronic banking and cash management at the Royal Bank of
Scotland Group.

Stacey Adams has been appointed as head of
communications. She joins CHAI from the NHS Health Development
Agency, where she was responsible for communications, including
dissemination and evaluation strategies around public health.

Mick Linsell has also joined CHAI as head of
corporate services.

Heather Schroeder, area director for north
Surrey at Surrey Council with responsibility for social inclusion
and housing, is to be seconded to run Camden Council’s social
services department for three months while it recruits a permanent
replacement for Jane Held.

Held left just days before Christmas, and Camden has refused to
reveal why she resigned. She has joined the Commission for Social
Care Inspection on a secondment basis.

The director of Nottingham social services has been appointed as
head of inspection, regulation and review at the new Commission for
Social Care Inspection (CSCI).

Paul Snell will be one of six new business directors at
the CSCI. Jonathan Phillips, the Social Services
Inspectorate’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber
will be head of quality, performance and methods, and
Geraldine Macdonald, professor of social work at
the University of Bristol, will become head of information
knowledge and management.
The other business directors are Judith Thomas, David Walden and
Hazel Parker-Brown.

Baroness Jill Pitkeathley has been named as the
new chairperson at Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory
and Support Service).
Pitkethley, who is currently chairperson of the New Opportunities
Fund, was appointed after the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer told
the existing chairperson, Angela Killick, and twelve board members,
to resign following a recent critical review.

Sue Richards

Sue Richards,  the chief officer for social
services and housing at Wokingham Council in Berkshire, has been
appointed to head Northamptonshire Council’s children and
families service.
She will succeed Clive Danks, the interim director who will retire
in March.

A new chief executive has been appointed at the Revolving Doors
Agency, a charity working with offenders with mental health
problems.
Julian Corner has had senior roles in the social
exclusion unit and the Home Office, where he headed
cross-government work on the national rehabilitation strategy.  He
was due to take up his new post in January.

Lancashire Council has appointed Stephen Gross
as their new head of adult services to oversee specialist services
for people with learning difficulties, physical disabilities,
sensory impairment and mental health problems.
Gross is currently head of service for adults and older people at
Wakefield council. The new appointment is part of
Lancashire’s reorganisation of management for adult
services.

Jacqui Smith, the deputy minister for women and equality, has
announced the membership of the Commission for Equality and Human
Rights taskforce.
The new commission, chaired by Smith, will draw together the work
of existing equality commissions. Members of the taskforce include
Amanda Ariss from the Equal Opportunities
Commission, Mohammed Aziz from the British Muslim
Research Council, Tessa Harding from Help the Aged
and Pam Smith from the Commission for Racial
Equality.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has appointed the
director of Hampshire social services, Terry
Butler, to advise on patient safety work in the field of
social care.
The NPSA was set up to co-ordinate the efforts of the NHS to report
and learn from adverse incidents and ‘near misses’ in
the NHS. Butler will join a team of clinical speciality advisors on
a part-time basis.

Dr Matt Muijen is to leave his post as chief
executive of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health next
year.
Dr Muijen joined the centre as director in 1991. He previously
worked as a clinical psychiatrist and a fellow at the Institute of
Psychiatry. He is also a trustee of the charity Turning Point and a
patron of the Early Years Children’s Network.

The director-general of the British Retail Consortium,
Bill Moyes, has been named as the chairperson of
the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts.
The new Independent Regulator was established by the Health and
Social Care Act 2003 and will be responsible for authorising,
monitoring and regulating NHS Foundation Trusts. Moyes will take up
his new position in the new year.

Journalist Fiona Millar will take up the post
of chairperson on the board of the National Family and Parenting
Institute (NFPI) trustees in April next year.
She will replace the founding chairperson Dame Margaret
Booth, who will have the role of the first president of
the NFPI during her retirement.
Millar has been working as an adviser to Tony and Cherie Blair.

The National Housing  Federation has announced that its new
chairperson will be Richard Clark.
Clark is the chief executive of the Prime Focus Regeneration
Group.

Remploy, Britain’s largest employer of disabled people,
has appointed Bob Warner as its new chief
executive.
Warner has been Remploy’s finance director for the past two
years.

The charity Fostering Network has made two new appointments to
its senior management team.
Lucy Peake, who has worked in public affairs for
four years, will join the organisation as head of external affairs.
Maynard Hutchings has been appointed as head of
finance and IT. He previously worked as a resource director for the
Royal Mail.

Sue Newton

Sue Newton, the founder of a pioneering adult
placement scheme launched by Liverpool-based PSS and adopted
throughout the United Kingdom has retired from the company
Newton was recently honoured for her work by the city’s mayor at a
reception to celebrate the scheme’s 25th anniversary.

Stephen Dunmore, the former chief executive of
the New Opportunities Fund, will head the new distributor, when the
Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund are merged.

Dr Fiona Adshead has been appointed
England’s deputy chief medical officer responsible for public
health.
Dr Adshead’s new role will be to reduce health inequalities
and improve the health of the population in general, helping to
develop policies and implement programmes in areas such as the
prevention of cancer and heart disease.
She is currently director of public health at Camden Primary Care
Trust.

The head of the children and families service at Hackney
Council, Josephine Kwhali, has announced that she
is to step down.
Kwhali was the first black woman to hold the post of social
services assistant director of children and young people’s
services at Lambeth Council in 1984.
She joined Hackney at the end of 1999 when the council was under
ministerial measures and has been instrumental in driving through
changes which led to the council receiving two stars in the Social
Services Inspectorate ratings last month.

The head of knowledge services at the Social Care Institute for
Excellence will be one of seven board members at the new NHSU (NHS
University), which aims to become a new kind of university
dedicated to health and social care.
Amanda Edwards has also worked as a principal
policy adviser at the Cabinet Office’s centre for policy and
management studies and was head of personal social services quality
strategy at the Department of Health.

John Crawley, the long-serving chief executive
of the fch housing association, has announced that he is stepping
down.
Crawley has been chief executive for 20 years. The board will begin
recruiting a successor in the new year.

Debbie Jones

Debbie Jones is to become the new acting director
of health and social care at Durham Council. She will replace the
current head of social services Peter Kemp when he leaves the
council at the end of April.
Kemp, the longest serving social services director in the country,
said that it was “time to move on and take a change of
direction”.
He took the helm of Durham social services in 1986, having been
deputy director for two years.
Jones is currently the head of service for children and their
families at the council, and will shadow Kemp until he leaves his
post.

Lancashire Council has appointed Stephen Gross
as its head of adult services to oversee specialist services for
people with learning difficulties, physical disabilities, sensory
impairment and mental health problems.
The appointment is part of the council’s reorganisation of
management for adult services that aims to focus on developing
specialist services for adults. Responsibility for older people and
adults has now been split.
At present Gross is head of services for adults and older people at
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

Nurse Margaret Robertson has been appointed as
the head of a children’s hospice currently being built in Balloch,
Scotland.
Robin House expects to open in 2004 and is being funded by a
£10 million appeal by the Children’s Hospice Association
Scotland (CHAS). Robertson previously worked as deputy head of care
at Rachel House children’s hospice in Kinross, Scotland, which is
run by the CHAS.

Mark Charters

Mark Charters has joined Northamptonshire Council
as its head of community services. This is a new grouping that
includes adult social services, cultural services such as
libraries, lifelong learning and country parks.
Charters will take up his post in February and is currently head of
health and community care at Southampton Council. He will succeed
the interim director of social services Stephen Wilds.

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