Meet the committee

DEAC is a Committee made up of 14 members, a special adviser on Trade Union issues and a Chair.

We feel it is important that there is a mixture of people on the Committee. This helps to ensure it gives advice that takes into account the many different ways that different people look at things and the experiences that they have had.

The Committee include representatives of:

• employers
• providers of services for disabled people
• self-employed policy analysts and consultants
• organisations of and for disabled people
• trade unions

Initially the full Committee met four times a year across Great Britain. More recently, DEAC has engaged in project work - working in small groups focusing on particular issues. Because of this, the Committee has now agreed to have three main meetings a year in England, Scotland and Wales. This helps us to be informed of what is happening locally as well as in Great Britain as a whole.

Chair of DEAC

Elaine Noad

Prior to the appointment of chair of DEAC, Elaine was a senior social work manager in local government and was seconded to the Scottish Government. She was also a commissioner with the Disablity Rights Commission until September 2007. She is a member of the Parole Board for Scotland and a volunteer committee member for Sanctuary Housing Association (Scotland) and a non executive director off the Health and Justice audit committees for the Scottish Government.

 

 

 

Members

Steve Cairns

Steve is Director of Information, Advice and Employment services for Scope, the national disability organisation. With 20 years experience in the voluntary sector working in community development and providing direct support services to disabled people and their families, Steve’s current responsibilities include strategic leadership of Scope’s Employment services, Scope Response, Scope Cymru, DIAL UK and the Face 2 Face national parent support service. He is based in Wales and has experience of working in Wales and with the Welsh Assembly on diversity.

 

 

 

Cheryl Cullen

Cheryl is Director of Employment, Training and Skills (ETSS) for the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID) and has strategic responsibility for the service. As part of this, she works with a policy and research team that contributes to DWP consultations. Cheryl's experience includes leading a team of RNID senior managers, working within RNID as an Employment Adviser, Co-ordinator, Manager, and Deputy Director; and developing links with Jobcentre Plus and its programmes.

 

 

 

Mark Deal

Mark is Head of Research and Development at Enham, an organisation that provides employment, vocational training, social housing and care and support services to disabled people. Mark's role includes researching and establishing new services to improve the social inclusion of disabled people. Mark was awarded a PhD in Disability in 2006.

 

 

 

Agnes Fletcher

Since becoming a consultant in 2007, Agnes has worked for public and voluntary sector clients, providing strategic advice, consultancy and training on a number of disability and single equality schemes. Before that she was Director of Policy and Communications at the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), responsible for managing its research, policy and communications functions. Agnes has experience of communicating with diverse groups of disabled people, including those who do not identify themselves as disabled. She also has knowledge of inclusive communications, disability policy and mental health issues, having been lead officer for the DRC's Mental Health Action Group.

 

 

Adam Gaines

Adam is Director of Prostate Scotland a voluntary organisation, aimed at increasing awareness and treatment of prostate disease. His previous roles include Disability Rights Commission Head of Policy and Communications in Scotland and later the Commission’s Director Scotland. He was also Director of Public Affairs for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, where as well as responsibility for the Council’s public affairs, he acted as Secretary to the Working Group on Government Relations which developed the Compact between the Government and the voluntary sector. For four years he headed up the Royal National Institute for Deaf People’s Campaigns and Public Relations Division and prior to that was Director of Research and Information at the NUS.

 

 

Lorraine Gradwell MBE

Lorraine is the Chief Executive of Breakthrough UK Ltd-an organisation run by disabled people providing them with training, independent living skills and employment support. She was also a member of the DTI Small Business Council taking on the role of “Disability Champion”. Recently she has been involved with the development of a national “policy think tank” on disability issues.

 

 

 

Catherine Graham

Catherine is a former Supported Employment Development Manager for Dumfries and Galloway Council, and past chair of the Scottish Union of Supported Employment. She is now self employed, dividing her time between Choose Life, Mental Health Awareness and Supported Employment.

 

 

 

 

Asif Iqbal

Asif is deaf and uses British Sign Language (BSL). He has a wide experience of deaf and disability issues and is Media/Project Manager for Deaf Parenting UK and a former Trustee for UK Council on Deafness. His recent work with Local Authorities and NHS included representing and consulting with a large number of deaf, disability and ethnic minority organisations on a senior level. He has contributed to youth, deaf, disabled and black minority ethnic communities and has been heavily involved in a range of local and community projects for BSL service provision.

 

 

Christine Jess

As one of the Glasgow's Equal Access to Employment Strategy Managers, Christine has extensive experience of working across the private and public sectors. During her career - which has focussed on issues relating to diversity and inclusion - Christine has worked as a Social Inclusion Manager, a Charter Mark Assessor and in a variety of roles within employment and education services. Currently Christine's work, linked to the Welfare to Work Agenda, is an ambitious strategy to join up all agencies in the city around the issue of employability - including key areas such as health, social care, housing, education, training and employers.

 

 

Deborah Parker

Deborah is Chief Executive of Progress Recruitment, a third sector disability employment agency enabling disabled people and employers to benefit from working together. She created Progress Recruitment from a Local Authority service, which was incorporated as a limited company in November 2001. Her passion for inclusion through employment has spanned almost 20 years. She has remained faithful to a supported employment model that is based on respect for the human rights and dignity of all, the belief that all people can learn and all things are possible, a commitment to working collaboratively and always aiming for excellence. She reached the final of Businesswoman of the Year 2008 and won the Social Enterprise of the Year award 2008.

 

 

Rachel Perkins

Rachel's background is in psychology. She is the Director of Quality Assurance and User/Carer experience at the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. Rachel has responsibility for the Trust's Race Equality Scheme and has, for the last 15 years, led her Organisation's vocational services. She has extensive knowledge of disability issues in relation to employment with particular reference to people who experience mental health problems. Rachel has also written and spoken widely on these issues and has established a number of successful programmes to help people with mental health problems to access employment.

 

 

Dr Peter Purton

Peter has been appointed as an adviser to DEAC on Trade Union issues. Since 1998, he has been Policy Officer at the TUC, responsible for disability and LGBT equality. His work involves developing and promoting TUC policy on disability, especially in employment, organising TUC campaigns, preparing advice for the TUC General Council and affiliated unions, and organising and servicing the TUC's democratic structures for disabled trade unionists, an annual conference and the committee elected by it. After obtaining a first degree and then a DPhil from Oxford, he spent many years working in the voluntary advice sector.

 

 

Liz Sutherland

Originally a teacher, Liz has worked in the voluntary sector since the early 1980s. Her roles have included: Director of LEAD Scotland (Linking Education and Disability); a 3 year project at the University of Edinburgh pioneering CALL Scotland centre; and Children in Scotland where she established the first multidisciplinary Special Needs Forum for children with disabilities. She has also worked freelance with voluntary organisations, local authorities, further and higher education institutions across the UK in the field of education and disability. She was a member and team leader of the first HEFCE funded National Disability Team and worked with the Open University in Scotland as their adviser to disabled students. In her last full-time post she was a Policy Adviser with the Equality Challenge Unit ECU and was responsible for disability and age issues. She has taken early retirement but is a lay member of the employment tribunal service and active in various voluntary organisations.

 

Niccola Swan

Niccola has a portfolio of roles encompassing diversity, disability and mental health. Before that she was a banker, concluding her 25 year career with Barclays in 2005 as Regional Director for the North-East. She spent four years as Diversity Director for the Barclays Group globally. When she left Barclays, she became Deputy Chief Executive for the Employers’ Forum on Disability for 2½ years. She is now the deputy chair and non-executive director of Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust (which provides mental health and learning disability care), is a magistrate in Bradford, a board director of Dignity in Dying, and a Leeds Home Start volunteer. She also writes on diversity.