Longfield recruits Narey as children's commissioner adviser
Neil Puffett
Friday, September 23, 2016
Former Barnardo's chief executive Sir Martin Narey is one of several high profile figures that have been signed up to provide advice to children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield, it has been announced.
Narey, who is currently a non-executive board member at the Ministry of Justice, and has also conducted separate government reviews on residential care and adoption, is joined by former president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services Alison O'Sullivan.
David Halpern, chief executive of the government's Behavioural Insight Team, also known as the "nudge unit", and Alice Webb, the director of the BBC's children's output, have also been recruited as advisers.
The four figures will join the commissioner's national advisory board - which was established as part of the Children and Families Act 2014 - and will be tasked with helping her deliver her five-year plan, Ambitious for Children. The first meeting of the new group will take place in the autumn.
Anne Longfield said: "I am hugely grateful to this fantastic group of experts for their commitment and support for my work. Each already has an immeasurable impact on children's lives in England and I'm delighted that we will be able to work together to bring about further improvement.
"My role is unique in that I work on behalf of children across the country and am accountable to them rather an executive or the government.
"It is vital that I have in place a team of experts who can advise, challenge and support what I do to ensure children thrive. I very much look forward to working with the new board and am indebted to its members for giving up their time to add real value and impact to my work."
Existing members of the board include social work Professor Marian Brandon, deputy executive director at Unicef, Lily Caprini, chief executive of Family Action, David Holmes, chief executive of Barnado's Javed Khan, chief executive of the Who Cares? Trust Natasha Finlayson, and Early Intervention Foundation trustee and member of the Youth Justice Board, Christine Davies.
