Trustees and Honorary Officers' Biographies

Claire Tyler (Baroness Tyler of Enfield), NCB President

Claire Tyler (Baroness Tyler of Enfield) became Chair of CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) in February 2012. Previously, Claire was the Chief Executive Officer of Relate, the UK's leading relationship support agency between 2007 and 2012. This followed a number of senior positions within Government, the last of which was Director of the Vulnerable Children's Group at the DfES (now the Department for Education). She also chaired the 'Kids in the Middle' coalition, a group of national charities and agony aunts campaigning for better services for separating parents and their children.

Before then, Claire had been the Director of the Government's Social Exclusion Unit and a board member of the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister from April 2002 until June 2006.  From July 2000 to April 2002 Claire was the Deputy Chief Executive of the Connexions Service National Unit.

After graduating in law and politics from Southampton University, Claire joined the Greater London Council/Inner London Education Authority in 1978 and in 1988 she joined the Civil Service. Claire also has a Diploma in Management Studies and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She is joint chair of the Social Policy Forum and sits on the Executive Committee of the Public Management and Policy Association. From 2002-06 Claire sat on the Poverty and Disadvantage Committee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

In November 2010 she was nominated as a Working Peer and from 1 February 2011 sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Tyler of Enfield taking an active role in health and social care, welfare reform, social mobility and children and family policy.

Honorary Officers

Elaine Simpson,  Chair of NCB

Elaine joined Serco at the end of 2002 to run the then new large Education Walsall contract, which had been compulsorily outsourced to Serco.  In 2004 she was promoted within Serco to the role of Managing Director of the Education business which grew well under her leadership.  Before leaving Serco in July 2012, Elaine was Global Director of Children's Services, focussing on the capitalising of the many business opportunities available in the education and children's services market, enhancing and maintaining Serco's pre-eminent position in this market. 

Prior to joining Serco she spent twenty-five years in Local Government working in senior roles across a number of North-West local education authorities in the UK.  For the last five years of her time in Local Government she was in Sefton where she was Chief Education Officer.

Elaine has a degree in Mathematics, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and started her career as a careers officer helping young people to make decisions about their future.

Since February 2012 Elaine has taken on the role of Non-Executive Director for the Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Trust.

Married to Edward with two children, Rozzie 18 and Nicky 15, having come very late to motherhood.

Jane Held, Vice Chair

Jane Held took retirement from local government service in April 2004 and is now running her own consultancy company. Her background is in children's social work and she began her career working in children's homes. She was Director of Social Services in Camden before retiring and previously Director in Southend on Sea.

She was also co-chair of the Children and Families Committee of the Association of Directors of Social Services for three years. She has worked with a range of national bodies in the last three years, has published a range of reports and reviews and is on the Board on the Children's Workforce Development Council, and a Trustee for Family Action and for the Fostering Network.

She is currently the Independent Chair of the Suffolk Permanence Panel and also the Independent Chair of the Leeds Safeguarding Board as well as an Associate for the LGID Safeguarding Programme.  She has 32 years' experience in social care and has a national reputation and profile as a child care expert.

David Rimington, Treasurer

David is married with two adult children. He has worked as an accountant in the commercial sector for most of his career. He served as a trustee for Together Working for Well-being, a mental health services charity of a similar size to NCB, and was formerly a trustee of its pension fund. He also undertook some work for the homelessness charity Shelter and is involved with young people as secretary of his local canoe club.

Trustees

Dr Sarah Davidson MBE

Sarah is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in a nationwide, specialist children and young people's service at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is the Deputy Clinical Director on the Professional Clinical Psychology Doctorial Programme, and Programme Leader of the MSc in International Humanitarian Psychosocial Consultation at the University of East London.  She is the Psychosocial Advisor for the British Red Cross, and was previously the Vice Chair of the British Red Cross Board of Trustees. She is also Trustee on the Board of Interhealth.

Mike Greig FCMA, MA, MSc

Following an executive career as Chief Financial Officer of public technology businesses, including 20 years as CFO RM Education plc, Mike took early retirement to pursue other interests. He is currently a non-executive director of Aberforth Geared Income Trust, a listed Investment Trust, a trustee of 5 other charities and a pension scheme. He and his wife were foster carers and in particular therapeutic foster carers for children with disrupted backgrounds and challenging behaviours prior to adopting a child. They helped establish a charity to support vulnerable families and help teach them to be successful parents.  They are also involved in pastoral care in their local church.

Dewi Hughes

Dewi has twelve years' experience as an educational psychologist
including several years representing colleagues on the National Executive Committee of the Association of Educational Psychologists, which involves serving on the Professional Policies Committee.  Through this work he has access to peer reviews of educational and psychological research on child and adolescent development. He brings a psychological perspective to the work of the Board and to the issues which NCB is currently working with.

Councillor Ken Meeson

Ken Meeson is Leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands where he has held a number of posts including Chair of Social Services and Education Committees and for nearly 10 years was Cabinet Member for Children and Young People.

He has a long history of involvement with young people with the Scout Association where he has been a Scout Leader, County Commissioner, County Chairman and now local Safeguarding Coordinator.  Nationally he was for many years a member of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board and currently serves on the Employer Board. Ken previously represented the LGA on NCB's Board of Trustees before standing down at the time of board re-organisation. He has however remained on our Audit Committee and also chairs the Audit Committee for the National Youth Agency, where he is an LGA nominated Trustee.

Ken chairs the multi-agency Solihull Partnership which has oversight of the local Children's Trust and chaired the previous Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership. He also served for 20 years as chair of Governors for a Special School with a high ratio of children on the autistic spectrum, has a special interest in services for young carers and also unaccompanied asylum seeking children. In his spare time he is a Lay Hospital Manager under the Mental Health Act dealing with the rights and welfare of detained patients.

Dr Helen Mackinnon

Helen is Clinical Services Development Leader and Senior Practitioner at the child bereavement charity Winston's Wish. She initially studied medicine at Oxford and St Thomas' Hospital before qualifying as a GP. During her years in general practice Helen had a special interest in the care of children, especially those with life-limiting conditions and special needs. Helen then worked as a Director of Music, latterly at the King's School, Gloucester, before training as a music therapist and counsellor. Working as a music therapist in many children's settings further developed Helen's interest in vulnerable children and led to training in adult and child bereavement.

In addition to being involved in direct clinical work with children, young people and families, Helen also runs the Winston's Wish national training programme, is the national Helpline manager and the charity's lead on research, evaluation and publications.

Helen has a special interest in bereaved children and young people, young carers of parents with chronic or life-limiting conditions, children with special needs and those at risk of offending and the potential role of music therapy in many of these areas. She is looking forward to working as a trustee with the NCB and its partner organisations.

Peter Phippen

Peter has spent nearly 30 years in the media industry, holding board positions in the UK, USA, India and Australia. For many years he was a Board Director of BBC Worldwide Ltd, for whom he developed and ran BBC Magazines; he was also President and CEO of BBCWorldwide Americas Inc, launching the TV channel BBC America and chairing a joint venture with Discovery Inc.

Peter is now Deputy Chairman of Immediate Media Co, a large PE-backed magazine and digital company and Chairman of Sift, a VC-backed pure-play digital B2B company; he is a Director of The National Archives and holds a number of other non-exec positions. And in 2011 Peter founded EastWest Relations Ltd., a business he continues to chair, to help western media companies identify and secure opportunities in India and to enhance trade with south-east Asia.

Cecile Wright

Cecile is Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University, researching issues of education, social justice with particular reference to 'race', social class and ethnicity. She is the author of over 100 publications including books, reports and journals. Her recent publication is 'Black Youth Matters': From School to Success (2010) (with Standen and Patel), pub Routledge. She has been a member of various Government Advisory Groups, focusing on issues of education.

Cecil Worthington

Cecil qualified as a Social Worker from the Ulster University Jordanstown, Northern Ireland, in 1978 with a BA (Hons) in Social Work.  Cecil has worked during his career with the full range of client groups; older people, family & child care, mental health and disability services. 

His current post is Director of Children's Services/Executive Director of Social Work in the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, a post he took up in May 2009.  His operational responsibilities include family & child care services, child health, paediatric services, child & adolescent mental health services and children with a disability.

Cecil lives in Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland, and is married with three grown up children and three grandchildren.