Membership
The Committee has between 10-13 statutory members in addition to the Chair. Under the Social Security Act 1980, one member has to be selected after consultation with representatives of employers, one after consultation with employees, and one after consultation with the Head of the Northern Ireland Department with responsibility for social security. In addition, the Committee must have at least one member with experience of work among, and the needs of, chronically sick and disabled people. If possible, this member should be a chronically sick or disabled person. It is customary for one member to be appointed following consultation with the Scottish Executive and one following consultation with officials of the Welsh Assembly Government. All members are involved across the whole range of the Committee's business and are not expected to represent sectional interests.
The Committee has an agreed Code of Practice and a Register of Interests in line with the Cabinet Office requirements for all advisory bodies.
Co-Opted Members
Co-opted Members are appointed by the SoS and serve the Committee for three years. Their membership with the Committee is on a non-statutory basis. Their remit is to bring expert advice from their particular domain or field of interest.
Members' Biographies
Sir Richard Tilt joined the Prison Service in 1966 as a graduate entrant, and worked in a variety of prison establishments before governing Bedford and Gartree prisons. From 1990 he worked in Prison Service HQ, first as Head of Industrial Relations, then as Director of Services. In 1994 he was appointed Director of Security, and in the same year he became Director-General. He retired from the Prison Service in 2000. He was an NHS Chair for six years and is the Social Fund Commissioner. In 2007 he was appointed to chair the Independent Complaints Panel for the Portman Group (Alcoholic Drinks Industry Regulation). He is a governor of de Montfort University. He was a Churchill Fellow in 1991 and was knighted in 1999.
Kwame Akuffo is Chair of Ealing Racial Equality Council and also Chair of the free law clinic, Community Advice Programme (CAP). He is co-founder of the Equality and Human Rights Centre West London and has been a law teacher since 1982. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at Ealing Law School, Thames Valley University. His research interests and publications are in International Human Rights, Trusts and International and Comparative Law. He is engaged in issues of equality, diversity and cohesion in Ealing where he has also worked for many years in community relations and community legal service delivery. He is a JP and a member of the Family Panel. He served as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Wormwood Scrubs until 2004.
Les Allamby is Director of Law Centre (NI). He is a solicitor and sociology and social administration graduate. He is a social security adviser involved in advocacy before the Social Security Commissioner, and with taking cases to the ECJ and ECHR on social security issues. He is currently a member of the Legal Services Commission in Northern Ireland and from 2006, was a member of the Legal Services Review Group in Northern Ireland. From 1999-2004 he was the Chairperson of the Standards Committee for Northern Ireland, reporting on the quality of decision making for social security and child support. He has written widely on legal and social policy issues. He has also served as an election monitor and supervisor in Bosnia and Pakistan, Pakistan and Georgia.
John M Andrews OBE is Chair and founder of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), a charitable initiative by the Chartered Institute of Taxation to give a voice to the unrepresented in the tax/tax credits systems. LITRG also founded Tax Help for Older People (TOP) which has 650 volunteers giving pro bono tax help to low income pensioners through telephone help and face to face delivery. He has a particular interest in the ways that the DWP and HMRC might work together to provide a better, joined-up service to their most vulnerable customers. He has been involved as a full-time volunteer in the charity sector for the past dozen years and was awarded an OBE in 2003 for his charitable services. In an earlier life he was the national Head of Tax at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and was an author of a number of tax books.
Simon Bartley is Chief Executive of UK Skills. He was educated at Durham University where in 1979 he graduated with a BSc in Engineering Science and Management and in 1985 with an MSc in Management Science. Simon is a Chartered and a European Engineer, a Member of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and of CIBSE and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Technology and of the City & Guilds of London Institute. He is Chair of Summit Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the Building Services Engineering Sector which covers the electro technical, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration and plumbing industries, a Member of The City & Guilds Council and a Director of the Centre for Enterprise. Simon's other business representations include him being a past Chair of the CBI's Small and Medium Enterprise Council. He currently Chairs both the 14-19 Diploma Steering Group for Construction and the Built Environment and the BSI SME Policy and the BSI Standards and Policy Committees. Simon is Chair of Providence Row Charity, a Charity for the homeless in the East End of London.
Brigid Campbell studied Classics before entering the civil service, working mainly with expert advisory committees in the medical field. She subsequently underwent teacher training, spent five years in a Citizens Advice Bureau, and went on to study law and qualify as a solicitor. After a short spell in practice, she joined the teaching staff of The College of Law and became the College's Head of Welfare Law, co-authoring the student textbook used for the Legal Practice course. She was appointed to the Independent Tribunal Service (now The Tribunals Service) in 1995, and was until her retirement a part-time Chair, with particular experience in disability and incapacity appeals. Since retiring from the College of Law in 2000 she has returned to Citizens Advice, where she works mainly in social policy.
Dr Angus Erskine is a freelance research and policy consultant. He has been a lecturer at the Universities of Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh and the, then, Sunderland Polytechnic. He has many years of experience working with local area-based anti-poverty initiatives. He is particularly interested in social security delivery in rural areas and the rights of citizens. He was Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Policy and Review Editor for the Journal of Social Policy. He has researched and written on social security, employment, social exclusion and poverty and co-edited The Student's Companion to Social Policy and The Dictionary of Social Policy.
Alison Garnham is joint-Chief Executive of the Daycare Trust, taking up her position in June 2006. Prior to this, for nine years she was the Director of Policy and Research at One Parent Families. She worked for many years as a welfare rights adviser and for a number of women's organisations before, in 1989, joining the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) where she co¬-authored a number of publications about the Child Support Act. She has subsequently written about lone parenthood and child poverty, including an edition of 'Poverty: the Facts', published by CPAG. Before joining One Parent Families she was Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) where she remains an Honorary Research Fellow.
Carolyn George is a freelance writer and trainer and has worked in the welfare rights field for nearly 30 years. She has worked in the Citizens' Rights Office at Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), with Citizen's Advice and with other advice organisations, giving advice both to members of the public and to other advisors. She has been a part-time lecturer in Law at the University of Northumbria (1994-2003), including supervising students in its Student Law Office. She is an experienced advocate and was part of CPAG's legal team. She was a lay member of the Social Security Appeal Tribunal Panel (1984-1999). Carolyn has extensive experience in providing training and information. She is an author of CPAG's Housing Benefit and Council Tax Legislation and the Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook and has contributed to a large number of other publications.
Professor Elaine Kempson is Professor of Personal Finance and Social Policy Research and Director of the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol. She is an internationally known and respected authority on consumer financial issues, and has over 20 years experience in conducting research into various aspects of personal financial services. In recent years, this has included a large body of work on access to financial services and financial inclusion, over-indebtedness, and the need for financial education. Elaine was appointed as the first independent reviewer of the UK Banking Codes in 2002 and was reappointed to review the Codes again in 2004. She is a member of the BERR advisory group on over-indebtedness and HM Treasury's Financial Inclusion Taskforce. She is also a non-executive director of the Financial Ombudsman Services and was, until recently, a non-executive director of the Banking Code Standards Board. In 2007 Elaine was awarded a CBE for services to the Financial Services Industry.
Maureen A Reith is a social worker with over nineteen years experience. She has provided a social work service over the years to all client groups including childcare, criminal justice and learning disabilities. Since 1995, she has specialised in community care, providing a service to individuals, carers and families affected by disability. One of many roles included working with the Independent Living Fund (ILF) as a Social Work Assessor. Ms Reith is registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and was appointed as a Mental Health Officer in 2003. In 2005, Ms Reith was appointed and continues to serve as a General Member of the Mental Health Tribunal Service for Scotland. Ms Reith's interest in SSAC stemmed from her experience in social work, which provided her with a unique insight into the impacts and effects of social welfare provisions on the public.
Pat Smail is a research consultant and partner in Focus Consultancy, undertaking social research and evaluations across the public and charitable sectors. She was a non-executive director of Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust for ten years; she acted as Trust Convenor for Complaints and held special responsibility for children and young people's services. She is a registered social worker and has worked in both Wales and England, primarily in children and family services. She is past Chair of MIND Monmouthshire and retains an interest in mental health policy. Her current research interests include severe child poverty, children and young people's participation in decision-making and community regeneration. She takes a particular interest in equality and diversity issues.
Nicola Smith is a Senior Policy Officer in the Economic and Social Affairs Department of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) where she covers a range of labour market and social welfare policy. Nicola was previously responsible for the coordination of the work of the TUC’s Commission on Vulnerable Employment. Prior to joining the TUC, she was employed as a Principal Researcher at the Centre for Economic and Social Exclusion, where she managed a range of research focusing on welfare-to-work and anti-poverty policy. Nicola has also held research and policy posts at the Children and Young People’s Unit within the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), and at Barnardo’s Policy and Research Unit.
Professor Janet Walker is Emeritus Professor of Family Policy in the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Until 2005 she was director of the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies. She has led over 45 studies in the fields of marriage and divorce, parenting, criminal justice and services for children. She has been an expert consultant to the Council of Europe and a non-executive Director of Newcastle City NHS Trust where she was responsible for dealing with complaints from the public and overseeing services for the elderly. She is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Family and Parenting Institute and Trustee of the National Academy of Parenting Practitioners. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.
Professor Robert Walker is Professor of Social Policy, University of Oxford and Fellow of Green Templeton College. He has devoted his career to informing policy advance on issues related to social security, poverty and social exclusion in Britain and elsewhere through the assembly and dissemination of evidence and by direct engagement in the policy process. After a spell in the civil service, he worked at the Universities of Kent and York before directing the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and becoming Professor of Social Policy, University of Nottingham. He has undertaken over 60 research projects and published 18 books including 'Social Security and Welfare' (OUP-McGraw-Hill, 2005). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.