About SCIE - who we are

Allan Bowman, Chair of the Board

Allan has been chair of SCIE since March 2006. A qualified Social Worker, Allan began his career in social work in Scotland in 1972. He has held various posts north and south of the border; he was director of social work in Fife for 11 years and strategic director for health and social care in Brighton & Hove for six years. Latterly, Allan has been head of programmes for the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. There he had responsibility for a range of regeneration initiatives including the New Deal for Communities. Specialising in child protection and home care, he has spoken extensively on these subjects internationally and provided advice and consultancy on a range of community care and health issues in Europe and Canada.

Ziggi Alexander CBE

Ziggi was appointed to the board in April 2005. An independent management consultant, Ziggi was the last chairperson of the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work. Ziggi has worked widely with a number of other organisations in the health and social care field, including the King's Fund. She has held executive roles in local government and the NHS, and is currently on the Group Boards of both Nestor Healthcare plc and Southern Housing. She has published books and articles on management development, race equality, librarianship, Mary Seacole, and the early history of black communities in the UK.

Nadra Ahmed OBE

Nadra has 24 years of social care experience, particularly in the private sector where she has developed, planned and opened care homes. Nadra has been actively involved in debating social care and has a special interest in workforce development issues.

Shokat Babul

Shokat was appointed to the board in June 2002 by the SCIE board and the Welsh Assembly Government. Shokat is Chief Executive of Plasgeller Nursing Homes and is chairman of Care Forum Wales, an umbrella organisation that acts as an information exchange for care providers. Shokat has spent most of his career in the social care sector working for a local authority, in the voluntary sector and as a domiciliary care provider. He also represents private employers in the Care Council for Wales' Care Forum which is responsible for exploring key social care workforce issues in Wales.

Professor Peter Beresford OBE

Peter is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University. He is also chair of the national user-controlled organisation, Shaping Our Lives. Peter is involved in several health and social care organisations and committees, including the Disability Rights Commission, the Mental Health Action Group, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Independent Living Committee and Involve. Peter has written and co-authored several books and regularly writes for national publications including 'Community Care' and 'The Guardian'.

Dr Jon Glasby

Jon Glasby is Professor of Health and Social Care and Co-Director of the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. A qualified social worker by background, he leads a national programme of research, teaching, policy advice and consultancy around adult health and social care. A regular contributor to professional publications such as Community Care and the Health Service Journal, he also sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Integrated Care.

Edwina Grant

Edwina Grant is Corporate Director of Children’s Services for Nottingham City Council. She is Hon. Secretary of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services.

Edwina is an adviser to the Local Government Association and is a Board Member of the National Foundation for Education Research.

Before joining Nottingham City, Edwina spent 20 years in local government posts with a number of Council’s. Prior to this she was a teacher and special educational need specialist.

Mike Lauerman CBE

Mike Lauerman works as an independent consultant in social care and children's services. .

He originally qualified as a Chartered Engineer and entered Social Services in 1972. In 1989 he moved from Kent to the post of Director of Cleveland Social Services following the child abuse enquiry.

Mike was Director of Social Services in Hartlepool following local government reorganization; Director of the Adoption and Permanence Taskforce and subsequently Looked After Children Taskforce from 2000 to 2006. He recently completed work with the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) as Regional Change Agent for Children, Young People and Families in the North East

Mike is also the Chair of Skills for Care North East Regional Committee and Board Member of Skills for Care.

Ann Macfarlane MBE

Ann was appointed to the board in January 2007. Ann Macfarlane is a leading Disability Rights and Equalities Consultant, focusing on health and social care as it affects older people. She specialises in Independent Living and Direct Payments and has been involved in the Disabled Peoples' Movement in the UK for many years. She is a consultant for the National Centre for Independent Living, an 'Expert by Experience' for the Commission for Social Care Inspection and works with the Social Care Institute of Excellence on Projects as well as being on the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights Age Reference Group. She is well recognised in the local community for her voluntary sector commitment and has roles within Disability and Health Organisations. She received her MBE for her involvement in disability issues and her work with disabled people nationally and internationally.

Jo Munyard

Jo has 11 years experience in social care including mental health, domiciliary care, fostering, domestic violence, learning disabilities and is now working for Peverel Care Services as an Estate Manager.

Jo was Chair of the West Kent Domestic Violence Forum and set up a voluntary organisation in West Kent offering free counselling to survivors of abusive relationships.

Andy Nash

Andy is currently Senior Honorary Fellow in the School of Public Policy at Birmingham University.

Prior to this he worked for the Department of Health on the development of various policies including 'Independence, Well Being and Choice' - the adult social care green paper and more recently on the 'Commissioning framework for health and well-being'.

Jenny Owen

Jenny was appointed to the board in January 2007. Jenny is Executive Director for Adults, Healt & Community Wellbeing at Essex County Council and is also currently Vice President for the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). She has 32 years experience in the field of Social Services, 20 in local government and 12 years as a senior civil servant at the Department of Health. She is a Board member of Research in practice for adults (ripfA) and on the Board of Governors for a Mental Health Foundation Trust

Terry Philpot

Terry is a writer and journalist on social policy. He has written and edited several books on subjects as diverse as adoption, social work practice, therapy, the voluntary sector and learning disabilities. He has also published reports on private fostering, kinship care and residential care for older people.

Terry is a Trustee of the Michael Sieff Foundation. He was formerly editor of Community Care magazine and has won several awards for journalism.

Ian Sutherland

Ian was appointed to the Board in March 2008 by the SCIE Board and NI Assembly. Ian is Assistant Director of Mental Health Services in the Southern Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland. Ian qualified as a social worker in Nottingham in 1986, and has worked in Statutory Services in Northern Ireland since 1990. He has acted for several years as member of the BASW Executive within Northern Ireland.

Julie Jones, Chief Executive

Julie joined SCIE as chief executive in July 2007. She was previously Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Children's Services at Westminster City Council. During her 25 years at Westminster she also held the roles of principal research and planning officer, director of social services and director of adult social services. She has had responsibility for Housing Services in Westminster since 2000. Julie began her career in social services in Camden in the early 1970s as a research and planning officer. She has chaired and contributed to a variety of pan-London and national social care initiatives over a wide range of issues. She was chair of Greater London Association of Directors of Social Services before being elected vice president of ADSS. She was president of ADSS in 2005/06. In 2003 she was awarded an OBE for services to social care in London.

Amanda Edwards, Deputy Chief Executive

Amanda has responsibility for managing SCIE's work programme, which includes reviewing the evidence, the production and dissemination of practice guides and the development of Social Care Online, formerly the electronic Library for Social Care (eLSC). Amanda has experience in policy, practice and service delivery, gained from her time in both central and local government. Previous to her role at SCIE, Amanda was a Principal Policy Adviser at the Cabinet Office in the Centre for Management and Policy Studies. Before that she was at the former Social Services Inspectorate where she worked on a number of policy areas about the provision of social care and social services.

Stephen Goulder, Director of Corporate Services and Workforce Development

Stephen has responsibility for providing leadership of corporate services, acting as company secretary, developing corporate planning and performance measurement. Stephen joined SCIE in January 2007 from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority where he had worked as Director of Corporate Support since April 2003. Before that he was Deputy Chief Executive of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for three years. He had previously spent ten years in management posts in the NHS. A member of the Institute of Health Services Management, Stephen has a first degree in Biochemistry and a Masters degree in Business Administration.