General Social Care Council

Council Board members

The GSCC currently has nine Council Board members in post. The Appointments' Commission appoints the GSCC's Council Board members on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health.

The majority of the Council Board members, including the Chair, must be lay members. Lay members are people who are not, and have not within 12 months of their appointment, been social care workers, or involved in the training, education, appointment, employment, supply, supervision, monitoring or representation of social care workers. The Council determines the strategic direction of the GSCC.

Lay members

Rosie Varley OBE - Chair

Rosie Varley OBE took up the role of GSCC Chair on November 2008. She is also Chair of the Public Guardian Board, Chair of Skills for Health Eastern Region and of the Mental Health and Disability Living Allowance tribunals.

She was Chairman of the General Optical Council until the end of December 2008 and continued on its board until 31 March 2009 as a lay member. She was Acting Chair of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE - which oversees all health regulatory bodies) until December 2008. During 2008-09 Rosie chaired a DH working group on the governance arrangements for the new General Pharmaceutical Council.

She has been an Appointments Commissioner, an NHS regional chairman, and an NHS trust chairman. Rosie is also a governor of the Priory School for children with special needs in Bury St Edmunds, and President of West Suffolk MIND.

David Prince CBE

David Prince CBE is former chief executive of The Standards Board for England which champions and ensures high standards of conduct in local authorities. He held senior positions at the Audit Commission, as managing director, strategy and resources and chief executive, District Audit.

Most of his career was in local government, where posts included chief executive, Leicestershire County Council and director of finance and administration, Cambridgeshire County Council. Non-executive independent appointments include The Committee on Standards in Public Life, Leicestershire Police Authority, Remuneration Committee of the General Pharmaceutical Council and the performance and best value committee of the Bar Standards Board.

David Plank

David Plank currently holds several positions including Chair of the General Osteopathic Council's Professional Conduct Committee. He is also a Council Member of the General Chiropractic Council and Trustee and Vice Chair, Peace Hospice, Watford.

He was formerly the Independent Chair of Connexions North London, and a Member of the Learning & Skills Council London North, and Panel Chair, GSCC Registration & Conduct Committees. Since retirement he has held the following interim management positions: Chief Executive, Workers’ Educational Association and Deputy Chief Executive at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

Prior to retirement he was Chief Executive of Enfield and Watford Councils and Director of Social Services in Hammersmith & Fulham and in Hounslow.

Jill Crawford OBE

Jill Crawford OBE is currently lead Consultant for NCT Consulting, which supports primary care trusts and acute trusts in the provision of maternity services.

She sits on the board of Independent Midwives UK and on the Fitness to Practice panel at the General Medical Council. Formerly Jill was the President of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Milton Keynes and Bradford Maternity Service Liaison committee.

John Tate

John Tate is a Barrister and until recently was Director of Legal Services at the Independent Police Complaints Commission. In addition to his current role, John is a non-executive director at NHS Kingston Primary Care Trust where he is chair of the at arms length Provider Services organisation.

He has been a senior civil servant for more than 20 years. His previous roles include Solicitor to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman, Legal Adviser to the Health Service Ombudsman and Assistant Director at the Serious Fraud Office.

Non-Lay Members

Terry Butler CBE

Terry Butler CBE is an independent advisor in public services and social care. He is a Registered Social Worker and was Hampshire County Council's Director of Social Services until August 2005.

He joined Hampshire in 1988 from East Sussex County Council, where he was Deputy Director of Social Services, having previously worked for several social services departments in London and the Midlands. Nationally, he has acted as a Government advisor and was seconded to the Department of Health to help implement the community care reforms in the early 1990s.

He was an advisor on social care to the National Patient Safety Agency until 2007 and is now an advisor to Nestor Health Care. Terry is also a member of the Information Tribunal, Patron of the Relatives and Residents Association, a non-executive director of the South Central Strategic Health Authority and an international tour leader for Jon Baines Tours. Terry is in his second term as a member of the Council.

Hilary Tompsett - Vice Chair

Hilary Tompsett is currently Professor of Social Work at Kingston University and St. George's, University of London, and Chair of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee (JUC SWEC), having been involved in social work education and research for over 20 years.

She is Co-Chair of the Social Work Reform Board Education Group and of the College of Social Work Education Advisory and Implementation Group.  She is also a member of a number of national working groups on workforce development and social work education.

She is a registered social worker and, in a professional career spanning 14 years, worked as a practitioner and manager in children's services, mental health, a renal unit and with older people. Her research interests are in interprofessional practice and decision making.

Robin Currie

Robin Currie is a Senior Research Fellow at Liverpool Hope University and an independent consultant in social care and the voluntary sector. He has worked as a practitioner and senior manager in social care in local authorities and the voluntary sector for over forty years.

He was previously a GSCC external assessor of social work training programmes and a member of GSCC's conduct committee. He was formerly a University Lecturer in Social Work and was an external examiner on University social work courses for twenty years. He served for fifteen years as an independent advisor to a local authority social services committee and as a non-executive director of Merseyside Training and Enterprise Council.

He has been a trustee of national and local charities and is currently on the Board of the Institute of Health and Social Care Research, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirappalli, India. He is a Registered Social Worker.

Gordon Ratcliffe

Gordon Ratcliffe is the Divisional Director of Services to children and young people at the NSPCC North Division.

Previously he was a Courts Section Manager and team leader for Bradford Social Services where he started working as a social worker. Gordon has also been a trustee of the National Children's Research Institute.

Council members expenses

2011

• Council Members expenses April 2011 - June 2011 (PDF 21KB)
• Council Members expenses January 2011 - March 2011 (PDF 29KB)

2010

• Council Members expenses October 2010 - December 2010 (PDF 23KB)
• Council Members expenses July 2010 - September 2010 (PDF 22KB)

Register of Council Members interest 2011 - 2012 (PDF)