Guidance

Appointments made: April 2018 to March 2019

Updated 23 April 2024

Applies to England

February 2019

Teaching Regulation Agency: professional conduct panel reappointments

The Department for Education has confirmed the reappointment of 28 panellists to the Teaching Regulation Agency’s professional conduct panel. The reappointments will commence on 1 February 2019 for a period of 4 years, until 31 January 2023.

The reappointees include 22 lay panellists and 6 teacher panellists. All panellist positions are unpaid, voluntary posts.

The lay panellists are:

  • John Armstrong
  • Angela Brown
  • Alison Feist
  • Anthony Greenwood
  • Marjorie Harris
  • Hilary Jones
  • Karen McArthur
  • Maurice McBride
  • Claire McManus
  • John Matharu
  • Esther Maxwell
  • Alison Platts
  • Kevin Robertshaw
  • Chris Rushton
  • Gill Tomlinson
  • Alexandra Ann Walker
  • Roger Woods
  • Robert Allen
  • Shamailia Qureshi
  • Diljinder Sekhon
  • Caroline Tilley
  • Surinder Dhillon

The teacher panellists are:

  • Ian Carter
  • Paul Hawkins
  • Ryan Wilson
  • Margaret Windsor
  • Steve Woodhouse
  • Alex Osiatynski

There is no declaration of political activity or conflicts of interest from any of the reappointed panellists.

Construction Industry Training Board (CITB): board member public appointments

The Minister for Skills, Anne Milton, has appointed Yvonne Kelly and Holly Price to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) as non-executive board members.

The appointments are for a period of 4 years from 19 February 2019 until 18 February 2023 and involve a time commitment of 2 days per month. The posts are non-remunerated.

These appointments have been made on merit and political activity played no part in the decision process.

Neither candidate has declared any involvement in political activities nor have any recorded conflict of interest.

Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB): board member

The Minister for Skills, Anne Milton, has appointed Lesley Birse to the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) as a non-executive board member.

The appointment is for a period of 4 years from 1 February 2019 until 31 January 2023 and will involve a time commitment of 2 days per month. The post is non-remunerated.

The appointment has been made on merit and political activity played no part in the decision process.

The candidate has not declared any involvement in political activities and has no conflict of interests.

January 2019

Construction Industry Training Board (CITB): re-appointment of board member public appointments

The Minister for Skills, Anne Milton, has re-appointed Maureen Douglas and Diana Garnham to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) as non-executive board members.

The re-appointments are for a period of 4 years from 1 January 2019 until 31 Dec 2022. The posts are non-remunerated. However, reasonable expenses properly and necessarily incurred will be reimbursed by the CITB in line with the CITB’s policy.

These appointments have been made on merit and political activity played no part in the decision process.

In accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if any declared) to be made public.

Neither candidate has declared any involvement in political activities nor have any recorded conflict of interest.

Social Work England: non-executive board members

Mark Lam has been appointed as a non-executive member of Social Work England’s board for 3 years, from 11 January 2019.

Remuneration is £350 a day for an estimated time commitment of up to 15 days per annum, with an expectation that this will reduce once Social Work England starts regulating the social work profession.

Mark is chair of the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust.

He is a digital technologist with extensive experience operating at board level for multinational business and public organisations.

As Chief Technology and Information Officer, he led the digital transformation of Openreach (part of the BT Group), the £5 billion regulated national infrastructure provider.

Mark has not declared any conflicts of interest or political activity.

Social Work England is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Education. The appointment of board members is made jointly by the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Office for Students: non-executive board members

Kathryn King and Verity Hancock have been appointed to the Office for Students (OfS) as ordinary members.

These appointments are made by the Secretary of State for Education following a competition run in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.

The appointments are made under schedule 1, paragraph 2(1)(d) of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, which permits the appointment of up to 12 ordinary or non-executive OfS board members.

Kathryn King is a full-time PhD doctoral research student at the University of Oxford, Magdalen College, a lay panel member for the General Optical Council, and a tribunal member on the Council of the Inns of Court/Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service. She was previously Chief Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales.

Verity Hancock is Principal and Chief Executive of Leicester College. She is also chair of the Members of the Learning Without Limits multi-academy trust, and a board member at the Skills and Education Group in Nottingham. She was previously a National Director at the Skills Funding Agency.

These are fixed term appointments for 5 years from 1 February 2019, ending on 31 January 2024. The role has an expected time commitment of 20 days per annum and remuneration of £9,180 per annum.

The new board members have declared the following conflicts of interest:

  • Kathryn King has declared interests in the University of Oxford where she is an AHRC-funded DPhil student and an elected student representative, and will end her student representation activities when she joins the OfS board

  • Verity Hancock has declared interests in Leicester College where she is principal, and close links with Leicester University and De Montfort University

Kathryn and Verity have not declared any political activity.

November 2018

Social mobility: 12 commissioners

Education Secretary Damian Hinds appointed the following individuals to the Social Mobility Commission to serve as commissioners for 3 years from 31 October 2018:

  • Alastair da Costa, Chair of Capital City College Group
  • Liz Williams, Group Director of Digital Society at BT
  • Farrah Storr, Editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan
  • Harvey Matthewson, sales assistant at M&S
  • Jessica Oghenegweke, project co-ordinator at the Diana Award
  • Jody Walker, Senior Vice President at TJX Europe (TK Maxx and Home Sense in the UK)
  • Pippa Dunn, Founder of Broody, helping entrepreneurs and start-ups
  • Saeed Atcha, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xplode magazine
  • Sam Friedman, Associate Professor in Sociology at LSE
  • Sammy Wright, Vice Principal of Southmoor Academy, Sunderland
  • Sandra Wallace, Managing Partner UK and Joint Managing Director Europe at DLA Piper
  • Steven Cooper, most recently Chief Executive Officer Barclaycard Business, moving to Chief Executive Officer C.Hoare & Co

A remuneration rate of £250 per day will apply for a time commitment of 1 day per month.

Two commissioners declared the following political activity and conflicts of interest:

Alastair da Costa declared that Martina Milburn, Chair of the Social Mobility Commission served on the board at Capital City College Group (she has since stepped down). Alastair also worked with the chair in a previous role when he was seconded to Prince’s Trust International as its first CEO.

Sam Friedman declared he was a member of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2017.

On 31 October, we released a press notice on these appointments.

October 2018

Reappointment of further education commissioners

Richard Atkins CBE was reappointed to the role of Further Education (FE) Commissioner.

The role is non-statutory and focuses on improving the quality and financial sustainability of colleges.

The responsibility for regulating colleges as exempt charities rests with the Secretary of State for Education, alongside legal powers of intervention under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

Richard was formerly a college principal for 21 years and has held a number of national positions, including president of the Association of Colleges.

The role of FE Commissioner is a fixed term appointment for 2 years from 21 October 2018 to 20 October 2020. It involves an ad-hoc time commitment and a remuneration of £800 per day when called upon to undertake work on behalf of the department.

Steve Hutchinson was reappointed to the role of FE Deputy Commissioner.

The role is non-statutory, with the responsibility for regulating colleges as exempt charities resting with the Secretary of State for Education, alongside legal powers of intervention under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

Steve is a qualified accountant and a former FE finance director, with significant experience working with colleges on strategic finance work.

This is a fixed term appointment for 2 years from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2020. It involves an ad-hoc time commitment based on the FE Commissioner’s caseload. Remuneration is £700 per day when called upon to undertake work on behalf of the department.

Andrew Tyley was reappointed to the role of FE Deputy Commissioner.

The role is non-statutory, with the responsibility for regulating colleges as exempt charities resting with the Secretary of State for Education, alongside legal powers of intervention under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.

Andrew is a qualified CIPFA accountant and has an MBA in public service. He is also a former finance director and college principal.

This is a fixed term appointment for 2 years from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2020. It involves an ad-hoc time commitment based on the FE Commissioner’s caseload. Remuneration is £700 per day when called upon to undertake work on behalf of the department.

All FE Commissioners have not declared any interests that could conflict with their role and they have not declared any political activity.

September 2018

Student loans complaints and appeals: independent assessors

Department for Education (DfE) ministers, and ministers in the Welsh Government, have appointed the following individuals to serve as independent assessors for student finance appeals and complaints for 3 years from 1 September 2018: Nahied Asjad, Alison Miller-Varey, Philip Geering, Joanne Smith and Margaret Obi. A remuneration rate of £500 per day pro rata will apply for casework undertaken.

Reappointments were approved for the following independent assessors: Deborah Gibson and June Brown (whose terms of appointment have been extended by one year to May 2019), and Jonathan Willis, Peter Wrench, Emma Davy, Michaela Jones and Naseem Malik (whose terms of appointment have been extended by 3 years to May 2021).

All appointees confirmed that they have no political activity or conflicts of interest to declare.

Social Work England: board members

Jonathan Gorvin, Dr Andrew McCulloch, Dr Helen Phillips and Baroness Tyler of Enfield were appointed as non-executive members of Social Work England’s Board for 3 years, from 10 August 2018.

Remuneration is £350 a day for an estimated time commitment of up to 15 days per annum, with an expectation that this will reduce once Social Work England starts regulating the social work profession.

Jonathan Gorvin is currently Head of Regulatory Policy and Development at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a trustee of the Science Council. Previously, Jonathan worked internationally in a variety of policy and strategy roles, across several professional and regulatory bodies. In 2015, as Head of Regulatory Affairs at the Press Recognition Panel, he developed the regulatory framework for recognising press self-regulators following the Leveson Inquiry.

Dr Andrew McCulloch is chair of GMC Services International, a board member of Healthwatch England and a freelance consultant in health and social care and international development. Until 2017 he was chief executive of the Picker Institute Europe – a world leader in evaluating and reporting on patient/staff experiences in health and social care. Prior to joining Picker, Andrew was chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation. He was previously a civil servant at the Department of Health.

Dr Helen Phillips is chairman of the board of the Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and chair of the Legal Services Board. She was the founding chief executive of Natural England, establishing the organisation as a new environmental regulator. She has strategic and operational experience across a range of bodies.

Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Claire Tyler) has recently stepped down as chair of the board at the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) after serving 2 terms. Cafcass is the largest employer of social workers in the country. Previously, Claire was CEO of the national charity Relate and before that she was a senior civil servant at the Department for Education (DfE). Claire became a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords in 2011 and recently chaired the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion.

The new board members have declared the following political activity and conflicts of interest:

  • Baroness Tyler became a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords in 2011
  • Dr McCulloch’s partner is a social worker

Social Work England is a non-departmental body of DfE. The appointment of the board members is made jointly by the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Office for Students: ‘Student experience’ board member

Martha Longdon was appointed to the Office for Students (OfS) board as the ‘student experience’ board member.

The appointment is made under Schedule 1 of the Higher Education Act 2017, and in satisfaction of the requirement in paragraph 2(3) for the appointment of a board member with experience of representing or promoting the interests of students.

Martha was appointed following a competition run in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Martha will have a lead responsibility for ensuring that the OfS board oversees the embedding of student engagement within the culture and structure of the organisation, and will act as linchpin between the OfS student panel and the board.

Martha Longdon is a MSc student studying Neuropharmacology at Nottingham Trent University. For the 2017 to 2018 academic year she has been the elected president at Nottingham Trent Students’ Union. Martha is currently the deputy chair for the OfS Subject TEF Natural Sciences Panel, and will step down from this role when she takes up the position on the OfS board.

This is a fixed term appointment for 3 years from 1 October 2018 ending on 30 September 2021. The role has an expected time commitment of 20 days per annum and remuneration of £9,180 per annum.

Aside from her role on the OfS Subject TEF Natural Sciences Panel, Martha has not declared any conflicts of interest or any political activity. Interests of all OfS board members are available on the OfS register of interests.

Office for Students: Independent Statutory Reviewer

Alexandra Marks CBE was appointed to the role of Independent Statutory Reviewer of the OfS. The Statutory Reviewer will review disputed decisions of the OfS relating to Access and Participation Plans under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, and decisions made with respect to Access Agreements under the Higher Education Act 2004.

Alexandra is a Deputy High Court Judge and since 2002 has been a recorder (crime and civil) on the South Eastern Circuit. She is also a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission and chair for the Board of Trustees of the Prisoners’ Education Trust.

This is a fixed term appointment for 5 years from 1 October 2018, ending on 30 September 2023. The appointment will involve an ad-hoc time commitment based on the number of decisions requiring review at any given time. Remuneration is £1,500 per day, when called upon to undertake a review.

Alexandra has declared interests involving 2 higher education providers: University of Westminster and the University of Oxford. Her interests will be accessible on the OfS register of interests.

Appointments to the School Teachers’ Review Body

Secretary of State for Education appointed Harriet Kemp and Andrew Waller to serve as members of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) for 3 years from 1 September 2018. The appointments involve a time commitment of approximately 25 days per year and remuneration is £300 a day.

The STRB provides independent advice to the government on pay and conditions for teachers and school leaders in England and Wales.

Both appointees confirmed that they have no political activity or interests to declare.

August 2018

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel: members

Sarah Elliott, Mark Gurrey, Karen Manners, Professor Peter Sidebotham, Dale Simon CBE and Dr Susan Tranter were appointed as members to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

The new members will work with the Chair, Edward Timpson CBE, and the Chief Social Worker for England (Children and Families), Isabelle Trowler, to commission national reviews of child safeguarding cases that they believe are particularly complex or of national importance.

The 6 new members will each receive remuneration of £400 per day, for a 3 year term, beginning on 14 May 2018. They will undertake a minimum of 3 days’ work per month for the panel.

The new members declared the following political activity/interests:

  • Sarah Elliott, non-executive director at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and the chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) for Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset
  • Mark Gurrey, chair of the South Gloucestershire Improvement Board and chair of the LSCB for Devon & Wiltshire
  • Karen Manners, recently retired Deputy Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police
  • Professor Peter Sidebotham, associate professor in Child Health at Warwick Medical School, consultant paediatrician at South Warwickshire NHS Trust and a designated doctor for safeguarding children at Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
  • Dale Simon CBE, a qualified barrister and previously the Director of Public Accountability and Inclusion at the Crown Prosecution Service. She is currently a non-executive director and chair of the Standards Committee at the Parole Board
  • Dr Susan Tranter, executive headteacher of Edmonton County Schools and chief executive of Edmonton Academy Trust. She is a member of the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) Strategy Group and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner

July 2018

Office for Students (OfS): Interim Statutory Reviewer on access and participation plans

Geraint Jones QC was appointed as interim Statutory Reviewer of the OfS from 25 June 2018 until 30 September 2018. The Statutory Reviewer will review disputed decisions relating to access and participation plans agreed by the OfS under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.

Geraint Jones was previously appointed as the Statutory Reviewer of the Office for Fair Access in January 2013. He is recognised as a leading commercial and Chancery practitioner with extensive experience of judicial review work.

The appointment was made by exception without competition under paragraph 3.3 of the Governance Code on Public Appointments, with the agreement of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Sam Gyimah, the Minister for Universities, will appoint a permanent Statutory Reviewer by 30 September 2018.

This interim appointment will involve an ad hoc time commitment based on the number of decisions requiring review at any given time. Remuneration is £1,500 per day.

Geraint Jones has not declared any conflicts of interest or political activity.

Social Mobility Commission: chair

Dame Martina Milburn was appointed chair of the Social Mobility Commission. The Social Mobility Commission monitors progress towards improving social mobility in the UK, and promotes social mobility in England. It is an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by DfE.

Dame Martina was appointed for a 5 year period from 13 July 2018. The terms of appointment involve an estimated time commitment of 3 days a month.

Dame Martina has not declared any political activity. She declared that she is a non-executive director of the National Citizen Service in her application, although she is now stepping down from that role.

Office for Students: Interim Student Experience Board member extension

Universities Minister Sam Gyimah has extended Ruth Carlson’s interim position as a member of the OfS Board and Student Panel.

The interim appointment began at the start of the year and ended on 30 June 2018. It has been extended until 30 September 2018 or until the permanent student experience member takes up their appointment, if this is before the end of September.

This extension was made with the agreement of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

We are recruiting for a permanent appointment and expect to appoint a permanent student experience board member by 30 September. This appointment will involve an expected time commitment of 20 days per year. Remuneration is £9,180 per year.

Ruth Carlson is a student at the University of Surrey, where she is a student ambassador for civil engineering. She has experience as a course representative, as a former president of Surrey University Women’s Football Team and has also worked in other institutional and regional representative forums. She is also a member of the OfS Student Panel. She has not declared any conflicts of interest or political activity, as noted on the OfS Board member’s register of interests.

June 2018

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel: chair

Edward Timpson CBE was appointed chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel. The panel will commission national reviews of child safeguarding cases that they believe are complex or of national importance. They will be responsible for supervising the quality of national reviews, and will work with the new What Works Centre for children’s social care to share lessons across the sector.

Edward was appointed for a 3 year period from 20 March 2018. The terms of appointment involve an estimated commitment of 3 days per week for the initial set-up phase of the panel, reducing to 1 to 2 days per week thereafter. Remuneration is £550 per day.

Edward Timpson is a Conservative Party member. He was a Conservative party member of Parliament, and Minister of State for Children and Families until 9 June 2017. Edward was appointed as chair of Cafcass in April this year. He also works in unpaid roles as an adviser to the Children’s Commissioner for England, an adviser to the Board of Trade, and leads DfE’s review into school exclusions.

May 2018

Institute for Apprenticeships: board members

Jessica Leigh Jones and Professor Malcolm Press were appointed as non-executive members of the Institute for Apprenticeships board for 5 years, from 1 June 2018.

It is anticipated that the appointments will involve a time commitment of 2 days a month, including attending the board’s bi-monthly meetings, and board activities may amount to more than 2 days in one month and less in another. Annual remuneration for the roles will be £15,000.

Jessica Leigh Jones and Professor Malcolm Press have not declared any political activity.

April 2018

Social Work England: chair

Lord Patel of Bradford was appointed as the chair of Social Work England. Social Work England will be the new regulator for all child, family and adult social workers in England.

The term of the appointment is for an initial period of 3 years from 19 March 2018. The appointment will involve a time commitment of 10 to 12 days a month in the setup phase, reducing to 1 day a month once Social Work England starts regulating the social work profession. Remuneration is £450 a day.

Lord Patel of Bradford was a Labour peer until his appointment as chair of Social Work England. On appointment he chose to change his affiliation from Labour to non-affiliated.

Social Work England will be set up as a non-departmental body of DfE. The appointment of the chair is made jointly by the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.