22 May 2017
The Chief Minister, Senator Ian Gorst, has appointed three commissioners to Jersey’s new
Care Commission: Ann Abraham, Alison Allam and Siân Walker.
The Care Commission is being established in advance of the Regulation of Care (Jersey) Law 2014, which comes into force towards the end of 2017. It will be responsible for overseeing the quality of care provided to Islanders either in their own homes (domiciliary care) or in key care services (care homes, children’s homes and adult day care services).
Ann Abraham is a trustee of the Picker Institute Europe, an international charity working to improve the quality of health and social care. From April 2014 to April 2017 she was chair of Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. Her previous roles include Parliamentary Ombudsman for the UK and Health Service Ombudsman for England, and chief executive of Citizens Advice.
Alison Allam, who grew up in Jersey, is a social researcher and holds a doctorate in social policy. Her main areas of interest are disability and ageing. She is currently a panel member of the NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) Health Services and Delivery Research Programme, and has previously sat on NICE’s (the UK’s National Institute of Care Excellence) quality standards advisory committee.
Siân Walker is a qualified social worker and has previously had operational and strategic senior management responsibility for adult social care services, including mental health services, learning disability services, acute hospital social work and integrated health and community care services. She also chairs a number of Adult Safeguarding Partnership Boards in the UK.
Senator Gorst said “Having appointed a chair to the Jersey Care Commission, I am now delighted to appoint three other commissioners, each of whom will bring to the Care Commission a different set of skills and experiences. Their collective know-how will support the Commission to operate effectively across a multitude of care settings.”
Chair of the Care Commission, Glenn Houston, said “The appointment of these three commissioners, alongside the future anticipated appointment of a local service user, will help to ensure that the Jersey Care Commission gets off to the best possible start. We will be able to draw on a diverse range of hands-on experiences and skills to oversee and help drive improvements in the quality of care provided to Islanders. Now that commissioners have been appointed, we will be cracking on with the task ahead.”
The three appointments follow the appointment, in March 2017, of Glenn Houston as chair of the Commission. A campaign is also underway to recruit a local service user to the Commission, in order to ensure that the voices and experiences of local residents are represented.
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