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.

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.

Dr Louise Brown

Dr Louise Brown After starting her career as a Child Protection Officer at the NSPCC in Bristol, Louise spent a brief period at the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the University of London. In 1996 she moved to the University of Bath to establish a research centre with a focus upon evaluating social work services. Over the last 15 years she has gained considerable experience of research in social work, using a range of methods from randomised control trials to supporting service user–led research. In 2002 Louise moved into an academic post at Bath where she combines social work education with her research interests into the role of innovation in improving social work practice.

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.

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.

Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs

Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs is Chair of Volunteering England and Board member of Consumer Focus and OPM (Independent centre for the development of public services). Sukhvinder is a member of the Administrative Justice Tribunals Council. Previously, she was CEO for eight years at the Social Justice Agency, the Barrow Cadbury Trust and prior to that, CEO of the Runnymede Trust and founding/elected Chair of the European Network Against Racism. She has served on a number of public bodies, including the Better Regulation Commission, Queen Mary‘s NHS Trust and the Local Government Association’s review into health inequalities. Sukhvinder was a judge on the Guardian Public Service Awards for three years.

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 OBE

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 Care Quality Commission and works with SCIE 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. In 2009, Ann was awarded an OBE for services to disabled people.

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 has a management background in local government and NHS and started his career as a social worker. He has also worked in national inspection and regulation, service improvement and policy development and implementation at the Department of Health.

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

Stephanie Palmerone

Steph Palmerone is employed by Grove Investments primarily to support Barchester Healthcare and Castlebeck. Her role concerns strategic planning and developing relationships with public sector partners. Prior to moving into this role Steph worked for a large mental health trust. She was part of the original team established by the Department of Health to implement ‘Valuing People’, which focuses on people with learning disabilities. Steph has worked for over 20 years within health and social care, starting as an occupational therapist. She has worked in commissioning and provision as well as within health and social care.

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. In 2009 Julie was voted ‘social care personality of the year’ at the Ceretas Home Care awards and in 2010 she was awarded a CBE for services to Local Government.

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 leading of corporate services and SCIE’s workforce development theme. 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.

David Walden, Director of Adult Services and Regional Development

David Walden joined SCIE as its first Director of Adult Services and Regional Development in April 2009. Prior to that he spent 5 years as Director of Strategy at the Commission for Social Care Inspection. His responsibilities at CSCI included advising and reporting on social care policy, corporate and business planning and monitoring, stakeholder engagement and CSCI’s publications and reports, including the annual State of Social Care report. David is also a Non-Executive Director of the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA). In 2003, he was Transition Director for the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts. Before that he worked for the Department of Health for over 25 years, including heading the Community Care Branch and then the Health Promotion Division, and he was Private Secretary to Sir Roy Griffiths, Deputy Chairman of the NHS Management Board. David became Head of Social Care Policy at DH in 1999. He has had two spells in the “outside” world – as Personnel Director of Poole Hospital and as a Director of Anchor Trust, England’s largest not-for-profit care and housing provider for older people.