11 September 2006 - Government announces membership of Independent Living Review Expert Panel
Membership of the Independent Living Review Expert Panel was announced today by Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People.
The role of the Expert Panel will be to shape and steer the Independent Living Review which has been set up to identify imaginative and practical solutions to support independent living for disabled people. The Independent Living Review Project Team will report regularly to the Expert Panel.
Anne McGuire said:
“ I am pleased to announce that Dame Jane Campbell, former Chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, will chair the Expert Panel. Rob Greig, National Director for Learning Disabilities, will be Vice Chairman.
“ Expert Panel members include a range of experts in the field of independent living, including disabled people, and people from organisations of disabled people, user-led groups and service delivery organisations.”
Members of the Independent Living Review Expert Panel are:
Dame Jane Campbell: Expert Panel Chair, Disability Rights Commissioner, Former Chair, Social Care Institute for Excellence
Rob Greig: Expert Panel Vice Chair, National Director for Valuing People, Co-chair of Learning Disability Task Force
Saghir Alam: Disability Rights Commission, lead Commissioner for Partnership and Capacity Building, member of CENTREX Race and Diversity Panel
Ian Basnett: Chair of Independent Living Committee, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Nasa Begum: Principal Adviser for Participation, Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE)
Zoe Carter: User Involvement Network for Mental Health Services in North Essex
John Dixon: Joint Chair of Disability Committee, Association of Directors of Social Services
David Gardiner: UK Older People’s Advisory Group, Better Government for Older people
Fazilet Hadi: Director of Policy, Royal National Institute for the Blind
Frances Hasler: Head of User Participation, Commission for Social Care Inspection
Rowen Jade: Office for Disability Issues Advisory Group
Raymond Johnson: National Manager, People First
Elaine Morton: Chief Executive, Independent Living Funds
Menghi Mulchandani: Chair, National Centre for Independent Living
Jo Williams: Chief Executive, Mencap
Jean Willson: Chair of Centre 404 (formally Islington Mencap), a local organisation founded by parents of children with learning difficulties, which provides family support, learning and leisure opportunities, and supported housing
Gerry Zarb: Head of Independent Living Strategy, Disability Rights Commission
Government Departments on the Office for Disability Issues Board of Management will also be represented on the Panel.
Dame Jane Campbell, Chair of the Expert Panel commented:
“I am delighted to have been asked by the Minister to Chair such a knowledgeable and diverse group who will shape and steer the Independent Living Review. The remit is ambitious but I am confident that together we can achieve significant developments in pushing forward independent living for all disabled people, so we can participate fully in society.”
The first meeting of the Expert Panel is being held today, 11 September 2006. Detailed proposals from the Review are expected to be published in Summer 2007.
Notes for editors
- The Independent Living Review was established in response to a recommendation in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report, Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People.
- The Review will be a cross-government project led by the Office for Disability
Issues (ODI). It will initially take twelve months and will:
- Bring together the views and experience of officials from central and local Government, disabled people and organisations of disabled people
- Develop imaginative new solutions in the areas of health, social care, transport, employment and housing
- Develop thinking on the relationship between independent living and individual budgets
- Make practical proposals to support independent living
- Biographies of Expert Panel members are attached
- Website http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk Email independent-living-review@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
For media enquiries contact: Jess Prasad
DWP Press office: 020 7238 0766
Out of hours pager: 079 659 108 883
Website: www.officefordisability.gov.uk
Expert Panel member biographies
Dame Jane Campbell, Chair of the Independent Living Review Expert Panel, is an independent health and social care policy adviser. She has been a Commissioner of the Disability Rights Commission since its inception in 2000, and has recently stepped down as Chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Jane Campbell has a long history of parliamentary lobbying for disabled people’s civil and human rights. She has been recognised for her work twice in the Queen’s birthday honours (in 2000 and again in 2006) and is the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees.
Rob Greig, the Vice Chair of the Expert Panel, is the National Director for Valuing People. This involves working closely with the Government’s Office of Disability Issues. He also co-chairs the Government’s Learning Disability Task Force. Before this, Rob worked as an advisor to organisations on how to develop better services and support for disadvantaged people. This included being the external advisor to Government on the development of Valuing People.
Saghir Alam is serving as a Disability Rights Commissioner, and is the lead Commissioner for Partnership and Capacity Building.
He has extensive experience and knowledge of human rights and diversity, particularly multiple forms of discrimination, and has been working with Central and Local Government on equality and diversity issues. He is a member of the Race and Diversity Panel of CENTREX, the National Police Training Authority, and a Patron of the Ethnic Disabled Children’s Society and Trustee of Action on Disability and Development.
Dr Ian Basnett is a doctor, working full-time as a consultant in public health in the NHS, but as a disabled person has been involved in many disability and independent living initiatives. He chairs the Joseph Rowntree's Independent Living committee and has been a member of many organisations led by disabled people, such as the National Centre for Independent Living Management Committee during its development and various local disability organisations.
Nasa Begum is Principal Adviser for Participation at the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) with responsibility for ensuring that service user and carer participation is embedded throughout all of its work. She has a background in research and training and has published work on service user participation, race equality, gender, community care and independent living. Nasa has used social care services throughout her life and been active in independent living and service user and carer participation work both in a professional and personal capacity for over 20 years.
Zoe Carter is a service user/survivor of the mental health system and a disabled person. She works as the Training and Research Coordinator for the User Involvement Network for Mental Health Services in North Essex, a service user-led organization that focuses on user participation. The main focus of her work is training service users to be trainers. Another focus of her work is around Direct Payments for mental health service users.
John Dixon is Director of Adults’ Services for West Sussex and Co-Chair of the Association of Directors of Social Services’ Disabilities Committee. He is also Deputy Chief Executive of West Sussex County Council. As Co-Chair of the Association of Directors of Social Services’ Disabilities Committee, John is actively involved in national developments around Health and the future direction of Adults’ Services including commissioning and well-being.
David Gardiner represents the London Region on the Better Government of Older People UK Advisory Group and the programme’s advisory bodies: The Housing and Older People Development Group (HOPDEV), an independent body supported and sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health (DH), Care and Repair England, Housing Corporation, Joseph Rowntree, Audit Commission and hact, a development agency that acts as a catalyst for change in the housing sector. He is Chair of Lambeth’s Older People’s Forum, a trustee of Age Concern Lambeth and a member of the Primary Care Trust / Local Authority Older People’s Partnership Board.
Fazilet Hadi is Group Director of Policy and Advocacy at RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind). Fazilet started her career as a solicitor working in law centres providing free legal advice on a range of social welfare issues. Fazilet then moved into local government, where she worked on equal opportunities, policy and implementation.
Frances Hasler is Head of User and Public Involvement at the Commission for Social Care Inspection. She has been involved in independent living issues for most of her career. She is an expert on Direct Payments. Formerly, Frances was chief officer of the National Centre for Independent Living. She has also worked for regional and local organisations of disabled people. Since April 2005 she has been a Commssioner for the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Rowen Jade is a member of the Equality 2025 Advisory Group, which was set up to make recommendations on the role and design of Equality 2025, the national forum for organisations of disabled people to enable disabled people to communicate directly with government. After graduating with a law degree she worked for the Alliance for Inclusive Education, several Centres for Inclusive Living and now as a freelance consultant in disability equality, as well as campaigning for an inclusive education system. She specialises in work with young disabled people and has pioneered the setting up of a Personal Assistance Support Scheme in Bristol.
Raymond Johnson is the National Manager of People First (Self Advocacy), a Disabled People’s Organisation run by and for people with learning difficulties which encourages people with learning difficulties not only to speak up for themselves but also to stand up for their rights. People First campaigns about issues that are important to a lot of people with learning difficulties and disabled people. He has worked in the Disabled People’s movement for over 15 years.
Elaine Morton is the Chief Executive of the Independent Living Funds (ILFs) which supports over 17,000 people across the UK with a budget of £264 million for the 2006/07 year. Her experience centres on managing government administration to positively support independent living with maximum choice and control for disabled people. The ILFs work closely with local authorities and are currently involved with Individual Budget pilots as one of the income streams.
Menghi Mulchandani is the Chair of the National Centre for Independent Living. She is the Chief Executive of Action Disability Kensington & Chelsea, a Centre for Independent Living, having worked in the Disability and Social Care Sector for over 15 years. As a disabled person she has direct experience of the barriers that disabled people face on a day to day basis. She has extensive user consultation experience and is a Direct Payments personal assistant user herself.
Jo Williams is the Chief Executive of Mencap. She has served on several government taskforces – she is an advocate for partnership working across different agencies and involving service users. She is a trustee of the Who Cares Trust and EveryChild Board, and Chair of governors of the Ian Mikardo School in Tower Hamlets. Jo is also a member of the Research in Practice Partnership Board. She is currently a member of the National Learning Disability Taskforce and is co-chairing the Third Sector Taskforce with Ivan Lewis MP, Minister for Health.
Jean Willson is currently the Chair of Centre 404 (formerly Islington Mencap) which has Housing, Leisure and Learning, and Family Carer Support Services for over 1000 people with a learning disability in Islington. She is acts as champion for people with high support needs, and those going through transition on Islington’s Partnership Board. She is an independent social worker, an assessor for the Independent Living Fund for North London, a trainer and consultant.
Gerry Zarb is Head of Health and Independent Living Strategy at the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). He was formerly Disability Programme Director at the Policy Studies Institute from 1992 to 2001. He has extensive research and consultancy experience on a range of disability issues, with a particular interest in independent living, and is recognised as one of the leading analysts in the field. He is currently leading DRC's work on independent living and health inequalities.