BORIS JOHNSON MATTHEW 5 v 44

Although I am very smashed up inside I do feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to do this and showed me something today. Boris Johnson doesnt even realise the horrific thing the Pentagon has got planned for this country. It is eugenics and it is wicked.

So I am going to light a candle and pray for Boris Johnson. I have got a special lovely place where the wild animals go and I am going to sit there for a while and pray for Boris Johnson to be enlightened. The Lord told us to Love one another, He wasn't talking about romance or sex or anything natural like that, He was talking about our supernatural, our spirits, which He wants to fill with love, kindness, peace and all goodness to one another.

The terrible terrible goings on in the bio robotics labs, they are not "science" they are torture, cruel and evil. We need proper scientists , observers, healers, inventors, people and institutions that will bless man and beast,  not Dr Frankenstein style institutions who cause pain and torture and suffering and callousness. That is not science. Eugenics is not science, it's primative, cruel, backwards.  We are not meant to hurt other animals and each other, the Lord forbade us to do that.  We should use our bodies, our hearts and souls to bless one another and the creatures we share this planet with.

I hope Boris Johnson gets to read this. I hope he will read it then pick up his Bible, if he had one and reads the life story of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please Boris Johnson, please be like the man in Luke 17 v 11 to 19. We all need healing, we all need our Saviour. Please. Your friend Dominic Cummings is going the wrong way. Eugenics is absolutely evil.  I will pray for you to be enlightened Boris Johnson and light a perfumed candle for you.

VIRGIN BROADBAND

Virgin Broadband. I would like someone from Virgin to explain to me how knocking someone's internet which they've paid for for the day is "improving the service"

Id also like to know (but I know damned well no one from Virgin will tell me) why our internet is up and down like a yoyo most days. And I would like to know the names of all the people they have authorised to spy on me using anti terrorism legislation that was never in a billion years meant to be used on whistleblowing institutional child trafficking victims!!!!!

THE EMBEZZLEMENT OF OUR NHS

LET'S SEE IF WE CAN FIND OUT WHO OLIVER GRIFFITHS IS.

Brexit: Department for International Trade hiring "almost exclusively from Whitehall", says recruitment chief

Written by Civil Service World on 29 November 2016 in News

DIT officials say Whitehall has trebled its trade policy staff numbers since the referendum, and stress focus on training up existing staff rather than drafting in outsiders

The Department for International Trade wants to build the trade skills of existing civil servants rather than buy in outside help as the UK prepares to leave the European Union, according to the new organisation's director of capability.

In the months following this summer's Brexit vote, much attention has been paid to the lack of trade policy experience inside Whitehall, a result of four decades in which responsibility for trade deals involving the UK has been handed to the EU.

The Department for International Trade wants to build the trade skills of existing civil servants rather than buy in outside help as the UK prepares to leave the European Union, according to the new organisation's director of capability.

In the months following this summer's Brexit vote, much attention has been paid to the lack of trade policy experience inside Whitehall, a result of four decades in which responsibility for trade deals involving the UK has been handed to the EU.

"We start from a core that was strong on trade policy," he said. "We had about 45 people in June that were focused on trade policy – albeit within the context of that being a support position for the European Commission in the EU. Now that's the core that we're building from. We're about 100 up from that."

Last week's Autumn Statement confirmed that the Foreign Office and Department for International Trade are to be given an extra £26m a year by 2019-20 to strengthen trade policy capability, and CSW understands that this extra money will lead to a five-fold increase in the number of people working on trade issues across government.

Griffiths said that the DIT's leadership had "an important decision" to make as it expands: whether to "buy" in or "build" trade policy clout.

"Our strong preference will always be to build," he said. "And our focus on recruitment to date has been almost exclusively from Whitehall."

A dedicated trade faculty has already been set up in the Foreign Office to help with what Griffiths called the "huge weight" of building those skills among existing civil servants, and James Norton – DIT's HR and organisational development director – said the department had plans to grow its trade policy staff numbers to 350 "by the end of the year".

John Alty, the DIT's director general for trade policy said the department's work remained "very much at a planning and exploratory stage" before next year's expected triggering of Article 50, the formal process by which the UK kicks off two years of talks on its EU exit.

Until then, Alty pointed out, the UK has "an obligation as members of the EU not to run an independent trade policy", although he said the department had already heard from countries "interested in talking to us about future trading arrangements".

"We obviously feed into the preparations for the Article 50 negotiations in so far as they may affect trade," he said. "But the direction of travel will become clearer as the government takes these decisions about how it wants to negotiate with the EU."

Meanwhile, Griffiths set out the scale of the task facing the DIT in the years ahead, pointing out that a typical free trade agreement is split into 20 to 30 chapters, each covering a different area of the economy. Such agreements are, he said, usually supported by a team of "50-100 people, depending on how big the negotiation is".

Griffiths said that striking deals at that scale will call for officials both with detailed policy knowledge and the "experience and skills to carry out a negotiation in a very complex multi-stakeholder environment".

It was on this second area, he added, where Whitehall may need to eventually draw on outside help.

"We've done a lot of the latter in the civil service in the past," he said. "But I think it would be a mistake to just look at the civil service and so, as we move into that detailed negotiation phase [...] in the future we would certainly be looking to have those posts opened to the best and the brightest both in the public and private sectors."

https://www.ft.com/content/68e4d7aa-ae6b-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4

Oliver Griffiths, director of capability at the trade department, told a parliamentary committee last year that trade negotiators were not “mythical creatures” and many civil servants had the relevant skills. He said at the time that Whitehall needed to recruit “across the piece” to address the shortage of trade negotiators, but said the “strong preference” was to recruit internally.

Policy Engagement: Meeting with the United States …

https://www.babinc.org/pe-traderep-dit

BritishAmerican Business will host Assistant USTR Dan Mullaney and Department for International Trade, Director of Americas Negotiations, Oliver Griffiths, for a roundtable with BAB Members on the work of the UK-US Trade and Investment Group and present issues affecting transatlantic trade and investment

Boris gives ‘cast iron guarantee’ NHS is NOT up for sale ...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10432994/jeremy-corbyn-produce…

9 hours ago · "Oliver Griffiths, the Director for Americas Negotiations at the Department for International Trade, (OG) followed by updating on recent …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38143122

The UK is retraining civil servants as post-Brexit trade negotiators but is also set to "buy in" expertise from outside, a top official has told MPs.

The UK's capacity to negotiate trade deals with other countries after Brexit has been queried, with up to 100 staff needed alone for a single agreement.

Oliver Griffiths said negotiators were not "mythical creatures" and current staff had many of the skills required.

But he said the civil service would need to recruit "across the piece".

Whitehall is expected to have to recruit thousands - as many as 30,000 according to a recent internal Deloitte's assessment - of civil servants to deal with the challenge of extricating the UK from the EU after June's referendum vote.

There are particular concerns about a shortage of trade negotiators, given that many of the UK's most experienced professionals in this field are currently working for the EU - which arranges trade deals for all member states including the UK - and are not guaranteed to return.

'Experienced core'

Giving evidence to MPs on the international trade select committee, senior officials said they were "ramping up" their operations in light of the Brexit vote - with the new international trade department led by Liam Fox now employing 2,700 staff.

Mr Griffiths, the department's director of trade policy capability, said the UK had 45 trade policy experts at the time of the referendum vote and this number was now "100 up on that".

"We start from a core that was strong on trade policy... albeit that being a support position for the European Commission," he said.

Although there was more to trade policy than negotiating bilateral agreements, Mr Norton acknowledged that reaching deals with countries outside the EU after Brexit would draw heavily on the department's resources in the coming years.

"A free trade agreement is typically 20 to 30 chapters, covering a particular area like agriculture or services," he explained. "You would tend to have an individual that is leading at that chapter level - a specialist that understands that policy area very well.

"You will then have a level of deputies that will provide the co-ordination and oversight of the text that is being produced and then you will have a chief negotiator that sits at the top. It is a pyramid structure and you can imagine a free trade agreement team being 50 to 100 people."

'Mythical creature'

As it looked to supplement its already "experienced" team, Mr Griffiths said the civil service's "strong preference" was to recruit internally - meaning training existing civil servants rather than recruiting negotiators from other countries.

But he added: "We have an important decision to make which is effectively do we buy or build. The focus of our recruitment to date has almost exclusively been from Whitehall. But what that puts is a huge weight in terms of up-skilling and training.

"We have a trade faculty that has been set up by the Foreign Office that is going to be playing a huge role."

Asked by SNP MP Angus MacNeil, who chairs the committee, whether the UK was simply replacing an experienced Brussels-based bureaucracy with a less experienced London-based one, Mr Griffiths said there was a danger trade negotiators were being seen as "mythical creatures".

To be a negotiator, he said, people had to understand the policy areas at stake and to have the experience and skills to "carry out a negotiation in a very complex multi-stakeholder environment".

"We have done a lot of the latter in the civil service in the past but I think it would be a mistake to just look at the civil service," he added.

"As we move into that open and detailed negotiation phase, we will certainly be looking to have posts that are open to the best and brightest in both the public and private sectors."

I'm going to have to put this here as well

More intriguing than a John le Carré thriller, the shadowy story behind Brexit is a tailor-made blockbuster involving eccentric billionaires, far-right cabals, spies, spivs, technological skulduggery and a host of unscrupulous politicians supported by an unwitting cast of millions of UK citizens.

The Westminster Lair

Central to the story, an opulent area of Westminster; the lair of a plethora of right-wing, far-right and lunatic fringe climate change deniers, which are centred on 55 and 57 Tufton Street.

Owned by businessman Richard Smith, 55 Tufton Street has stealthily played a significant role in what could be the defining moment in 21st century UK political history. It’s now the visible tip of an enormous neocon iceberg whose raison d’être is to deliver a mechanism for radical change of a magnitude that will massively impact the lives of a still largely oblivious UK population.

Within the walls of these innocuous Westminster town houses, a well-funded collection of closely connected groups have been diligently astroturfing, lobbying, coercing, plotting and scheming with politicians and media platforms for years with the aim of delivering a Brexit that would be consistent with the ideology of their foreign paymasters.

The Nine Entities

55 Tufton St, we learn from Shahmir Sanni, the whistleblower who was involved with Vote Leave, who was also a tenant before moving to nearby Westminster Tower, then BeLeave and the Tax Payers’ Alliance, against whom he has brought a claim for unfair dismissal, is where what he describes as ‘The Nine Entities’ meet. These entities are:

• The Adam Smith Institute (Great Smith St)
• Brexit Central (55)
• The Centre for Policy Studies (57)
• Civitas (55)
• The Global Warming Policy Foundation (55)
• The Institute for Economic Affairs (Lord North St)
• Leave means Leave (55)
• The Office of Peter Whittle (The New Culture Forum) (55)
• The Tax Payers’ Alliance (55)

Shahmir recounts how these ‘Nine Entities’ took part in biweekly meetings chaired by ex BBC and Telegraph journalist, Jonathan Isaby, who having worked at the ‘Tax Payers’ Alliance’ since 2011, when he was appointed their political director, became their chief executive in 2014, and then ‘moved’ to Brexit Central to become their editor; a common enough scenario amongst the ‘Nine Entities’ apparently, who Shahmir alleges operate a ‘revolving door’ policy of employment between each other.

Shahmir explains:

“Meetings take place at 55 Tufton Street every other Tuesday (“The Tuesday Meetings”). Attendance at the Tuesday Meetings varies, but is usually attended by all or substantially all of the Nine Entities. The Respondent and its staff lead the Tuesday Meetings, which are typically chaired by Mr Isaby. The purpose of the Tuesday Meetings is to agree a common line on political topics in the news between the Nine Entities, and to co-ordinate the public messaging that the individual organisations can then issue on that topic.”

The Thin Veil Slips

During the referendum, Vote Leave was at pains to distance itself from the Arron Banks funded Leave.EU and particularly their frontman, Nigel Farage.

Vote Leave’s rationale was that Leave.EU and Farage  had a reputation for trading in the gutter, a gutter overflowing with society’s racist element, a reputation that could have easily discouraged their own supporters from voting to leave the EU.

Despite this reservation, Vote Leave weren’t adverse to using the votes Farage brought with him to get the Leave campaign over the line; just 635,000 votes swung the election in Leave’s favour.

But today, that thin veil of contentious respectability has slipped. Faced with a resurgent Remain movement, as the Brexit turkeys come home to roost, Leave means Leave has found a home at 55 Tufton St.

Co-founded by Richard Tice, an active member of the Leave.EU hierarchy, Leave means Leave has now welcomed Nigel Farage who’s using it as a platform for his ‘return to frontline politics’.

As seen below, Leave means Leave is almost a reincarnation of Conservatives for Britain, little more than a collection of impotent right-wing backbenchers and ERG members who excel in little more than populist rhetoric and dog-whistle politics.

Leave means Leave’s chosen home is a significant development in that, for the first time, it brings two of the main characters of the separate strands of the Leave campaign into proximity at 55 Tufton St, Matthew Elliott and Nigel Farage.

High profile, charismatic, media savvy Farage has always been there to distract the electorate away from the true objectives of Brexit.

From UKIP, through to Leave.EU and now Leave means Leave, the same simple yet effective messaging of taking back control of borders, sovereignty and trade policy from unelected EU bureaucrats is the false populist rhetoric designed to maximise media attention and mislead their target; the low-information voter, so essential to the delivery of the EU referendum, who is fed-up with what’s on offer from our two main parties.

By comparison, the adenoidal Elliott maintains a much lower profile. A far less charismatic individual, he appears clumsy, awkward and easily challengeable during combative media appearances.

However, where Elliott excels is in his tenacious approach and being politically attuned to like-minded individuals from the international far-right. He’s made the UK’s secession from the EU his life’s work, as can be seen in this quote from a letter he sent to Vote Leave coordinator and now adviser to Leavers for London, (before mysteriously disappearing from their website), Alexander Shayler:

DEAR ALEXANDER,

WE DID IT! IT WAS THE BIGGEST DECISION OF OUR LIFETIMES; MANY OF US HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS CHANCE FOR DECADES; THE COUNTRY DID THE RIGHT THING, AND VOTED LEAVE. 

A graduate of the London School of Economics, Elliott is a founding member of many of the groups at Tufton St who have engineered the real Brexit; not the Leave campaign fantasy wrapped in a union flag but the real far-right ideology designed to deliver a low-tax, small state, deregulated economy that will have a detrimental affect on the lives of the very UK citizens they coerced into believing they were voting Leave for reasons other than to negatively impact the NHS, public services, schools and the day-to-day lives of the vast majority of the people of the UK.

The LSE describes its BSc Government degree as “Politics is about power, conflict and ideas. The study of politics involves analysis of the ways in which individuals and groups define and interpret political issues and seek to shape government decisions.” Elliott took to this like a duck to water and, since graduating with a First in this subject, he’s attempted to practice exactly what he was preached.

Setting up groups as vehicles designed to shape government decisions was a strategy enthusiastically embraced by Elliott. It was also a strategy used to promote an agenda set by people from another country.

Beginning with the Tax payers’ Alliance, as a co-founder with Andrew Allum, Elliott went on to become a founding member of Business for Britain (the prototype for Vote Leave), Big Brother Watch and, alongside Dominic Cummings, Vote Leave.

Whilst at Vote Leave Elliott was involved in the registration of a host of grassroots organisations that appeared to be simply a delivery method for Vote Leave’s astroturfing tactics. Prior to the referendum, over twenty groups, all using the ‘for Britain’ title, were registered, including Muslims for Britain, Veterans for Britain and Women for Britain.

Post-referendum, Elliott went on to set-up BrexitCentral, manned predominantly by personnel from Elliott’s stable, such as former fashion student, Darren Grimes who was magically transformed into their deputy editor behind Jonathan Isaby. BrexitCentral surprisingly secured unfettered access to Parliament by obtaining a journalistic pass allowing them to gain access to prime minister’s briefings and the lobby; much to the chagrin of traditional journalists attempting to report the facts rather than attempting to deliver little more than an agenda.

Elliott’s Brexit strategy wasn’t simply deployed during the months prior to the referendum. Following the 2015 general election, Elliott was involved in setting up Conservatives for Britain, a group of MPs that included the usual suspects such as Steve Baker, David Campbell Bannerman MEP, Bernard Jenkin, Bill Cash, John Redwood, Owen Paterson, James Cleverly and Tom Pursglove; a vehicle for backbenchers who organised a rebellion in the Commons to ensure purdah was reinstated into the Referendum Bill. You can watch Elliott explain here how an organisation not yet formed, set-up ‘Conservatives for Britain’.

Elliott explained that this small victory “was absolutely vital for a fair and balanced campaign” which, in hindsight, was an astonishing claim now that the full facts surrounding Vote Leave’s campaign strategy and tactics are a matter of record.

The evidence was there for all to see a long time before the referendum. The Electoral commission knew of Steve Baker’s plan to set-up organisations to circumvent the spending restrictions; they were also aware that in November 2015, Vote Leave set-up a fake company so that two students could heckle David Cameron at the CBI conference.

The stunt was widely described as “grubby” and former minister Eric Pickles called for Vote Leave to be denied the lead status for the then forthcoming referendum, but campaign Dominic Cummings responded, “You think it’s nasty? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

We now know that Elliot and Cummings’ Vote Leave carried on lying, cheating and breaking the law with impunity; friends in high places indeed.

Elliott had also played a significant role in the ill-fated ‘Conservative Friends of Russia’, an organisation whose Tory MP membership later resembled rats deserting a sinking ship when the groups motives were brought into question following the discovery that their head contact at the Russian Embassy, Sergey Nalobin, was a spy who was later expelled from Britain.

Echoing the later cultivation of Leave.EU’s Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore by the Russians, the group was thought to be little more than an FSB influence operation, causing the organisation to later reinvent itself as ‘The Westminster Russia Forum’.

Elliott, far-right, photographed on a staircase with his ‘Friends of Russia’ inside the Duma during a ten day visit to Russia in 2012.

Away from the think tank world, the ever busy Elliott was also a partner in ‘Awareness Analytics Partners’, known as A2P, this company specialises in areas similar to Cambridge Analytica. A2P is funded by the ultra conservative, creationist DeVos family and the Koch brothers, people who are synonymous with right-wing organisations such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. You can read Wendy Siegelman’s excellent investigation into Elliott’s involvement in A2P here.

Most intriguing of all, Elliott has had substantial involvement with two heavyweight organisations, the Atlas Network and the Legatum Institute.

Elliott and The Legatum Institute

Since January 2017 Elliott had been a senior fellow of the secretive and publicity shy Legatum Institute; a senior fellow until they decided to distance themselves from him, along with fellow poputchik, their Director of Economic policy, Shanker Singham.

Bad publicity for Legatum, concerning Elliott and Singham’s high-profile involvement in shaping the government’s Brexit policy, came to a head when MP Liam Byrne, using parliamentary priviledge, suggested that Legatum was being financed through money ultimately derived from Russia. Legatum, since the arrival of Elliott and Singham, had forged close links with Michael Gove and Boris Johnson and were constantly in the news as their frequent policy meetings with the government were widely reported.

This attention was far too much for New Zealander Christopher Chandler, the Dubai based businessman and founding partner of the Legatum Group who in turn had pumped millions into the London based Legatum Institute. Elliott and Singham both left in March 2018 with Singham subsequently finding employment at ‘nine entities member’ the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Now at the IEA, Singham simply carried on where he had left off with Legatum, as can be seen here in this Newsnight video:

http://www.brexitshambles.com/brexit-scam-we-need-to-talk-about-tufton-street/

TOM O CARROLL AT THE HOUSE OF LORDS QUAFFING CHAMPAGNE

https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/17477076.convicted-barrow-paedophile-is-thanked-at-charity-event-at-the-house-of-lords/

A NOTORIOUS paedophile - who campaigned for sex with children as young as ten to be legalised - was invited to a House of Lords bash by a charity.

Tom O’Carroll, a former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), which campaigned to lower the age of sexual consent, was among 60 guests who were thanked at a reception for donating money to Book Aid International.

Book Aid International is a charity which sends books to children in Sub Saharan Africa and around the world.

Speaking to a national newspaper at his flat in Barrow, the 73-year-old said: “I was kind of a guest of honour.

“A few years ago I did give a pretty substantial amount.

“I was invited by one of the members of the Lords, who is patron or chairman.”

In 1980 he wrote a book entitled Paedophilia: The Radical Case, in which he argues some sexual relationships between an adult and a child should be “normalised”.

O’Carroll was a key activist for PIE – which was set up in 1974 to campaign for a change in the law – and was once described as ‘one of the most infamous perverts on Earth’.

He was jailed in 1981 for ‘corrupting public morals’ and again more than two decades later for child sex offences.

He received a two-and-a-half year jail-term at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in December 2006 for two counts of distributing indecent images of children.

Book Aid International’s chief executive Alison Tweed said: “We were all shocked to learn of Mr O’Carroll’s history. We have already taken action to sever all ties and will increase our vigilance for future invitation-only events. We hope that this incident does not in any way affect our ability to continue our vital work helping children around the world to achieve their potential.”

She confirmed O’Carroll donated less than £500 in total over three separate occasions since 2015 and this money had been refunded. No children were at the event.

A House of Lords spokesperson said: “The event sponsored by Lord Boateng, on behalf of Book Aid International, met the rules regarding the use of banqueting facilities in the House of Lords.

I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL ARE TELLING THE TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT. TOM O CARROLL SHOULD BE IN PRISON.

A message from our Chief Executive

You may have read a news piece this week regarding a convicted paedophile attending an event hosted by Book Aid International at the House of Lords last December.

Unfortunately this story is true.

We of course had absolutely no knowledge of this individual’s history. He was one of over 400 people on a mailing list invited to this short reception.

I would like to reassure you that no children were present at this event and that this person has had no contact whatsoever with any children through his donations to Book Aid International.

We exist as a charity to give children a brighter future by sending books that will support their education and open their minds to the world around them. We are therefore dismayed that this individual should have attempted to associate himself in any way with our charity.

Below, you will find  a statement which we sent to The Sun newspaper after becoming aware of this incident:

In respect of Tom O’Carroll’s attendance at a Book Aid International reception in the House of Lords on 17 December 2018

Book Aid International is a small charity, established in 1954, which sends books to communities in Sub Saharan Africa and around the world in order to improve literacy and change lives.

The charity is shocked to learn that a donor who attended a short reception at the House of Lords is a convicted paedophile. The background of this individual was unknown to the charity and, had it been known, he certainly would not have been invited to the event.

Mr O’Carroll donated less than £500 in total over three separate occasions since 2015 and this money has been refunded.  Mr O’Carroll was one of 400 people on a mailing list who was invited to the House of Lords reception, with 60 turning up on the night. Book Aid International complied fully with the requirements laid down by House authorities and there were no children present.

Alison Tweed, Book Aid International’s Chief Executive, said: “We were all shocked to learn of Mr O’Carroll’s history. We have already taken action to sever all ties with Mr O’Carroll and will increase our vigilance for future invitation-only events. We hope that this incident does not in any way affect our ability to continue our vital work helping children around the world to achieve their potential.”  

Lord Paul Boateng, chair of Book Aid International, said: “The charity does excellent work globally, has strengthened its procedures and have expressed regret for any embarrassment caused. They continue to deserve the public’s support.”

Book Aid International also complies with all laws and regulations as set out by the Charity Commission, the Institute of Fundraising and the Direct Marketing Association. It is not current practice for charities to screen all donors – as it would be impractical to do so – although established due diligence policies are in place for those donating large sums.

Please rest assured that we remain committed to our work of bringing books and the joy of reading to people around the world and we will not be deflected from our mission by this very unfortunate incident.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Tweed
Chief Executive
Book Aid International

BETHANY IS STILL BEING TREATED WITH APPALLING CRUELTY

HOW ARE THEY ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH THIS AWFUL TREATMENT OF THIS AUTISTIC GIRL? SHE'S NOT A CRIMINAL SHE IS AUTISTIC! THEY DID SIMILAR TO ME PUT ME IN A CELL IN 1972 AND I'M ALSO ASPERGER SYNDROME AND NOT A CRIMINAL. THEY WOULDN'T EVEN GIVE BETH ANY WATER TO DRINK 2 DAYS AGO! STOP IT, NOW,STOP TORTURING BETH, NOW!!!😠

Bethany: Health secretary sorry over care for locked-up autistic girl

Jeremy has told Sky News he is not confident Matt Hancock will stick to his promises

The health secretary has apologised to an autistic girl who is locked up 24 hours a day without human contact.

Matt Hancock told Sky News that "the current plan" is to get Bethany - whose full name cannot be published - moved to a "more appropriate setting before Christmas".

Asked by Sky News' Sophy Ridge if he would say sorry to Bethany's father Jeremy, Mr Hancock said: "Of course I apologise to Jeremy, and frankly to Bethany, for the things that have gone wrong in her care."

Image: Bethany is locked up without human contact

Image: Matt Hancock says the plan is to move Bethany before Christmas

Bethany was sectioned under the Mental Health Act when she was 15 because she was deemed a risk to herself and others. She has been locked up for almost three years.

Her distraught father has previously told Sky News that his daughter "is not an animal" after saying she is being held in a "cell" where food is served to her by sliding it across the floor.

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Mr Hancock said: "I've met Jeremy and I insisted on a serious case review into Bethany's care, which I've received a couple of weeks ago - and in fact we've published the executive summary, which is very unusual because these things are highly sensitive and Bethany's case is incredibly difficult and complex.

"There are 10 recommendations in that review, which we are considering very carefully, essentially looking at how we can take those forward.

• London Tube stations evacuated after dust cloud fills platforms

"Bethany does need to be moved and we're lining up where we can move her to, we've got to get that right.

"The current plan is for her to be moved to a more appropriate setting before Christmas, I very much hope that will happen."

In response, Jeremy was asked on Sky News if he was confident his daughter would be move this year. He replied: "No, but it has to happen now, because Matt has announced this on television.

"It's great to have the apology but without the actions that follow, that apology means nothing.

:: Listen to the Behind the Headlines podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

"I'm quite sure that Bethany will be aware [of Mr Hancock's comments] and Bethany will hang on every word that Matt Hancock has said, so I hope he has something up his sleeve."

Jeremy added: "To me, this is yet more promises, we've had three years of promises to do the right thing for Beth.

"We've had to take NHS England to court to get an apology, to get an acceptance that they are delaying her move back to the community."

Sponsored Links

• 

J.C.

It was 2000 years ago a man they called J.C.
Came riding into town one day, upon a grey donkey
A quiet man, self assured, no pistols by His side
The only weapons carried was his heart, no love denied.
His Holy mission was to heal and teach the world in peace
And stop the hate division that was evils sad bequeeth.
The ones that can't stop hating gnashed their teeth and plotted war
They murdered Him. And then His rising they tried for to ignore.
And now we have another man who people call J.C.
Riding his bicycle, buses and trains, around this sad country.
He brings a smile to everyone, even as they weep
This country is in a sorry mess, people living in the street.
The evil ones will gnash their teeth and plot their wicked plans
They'd love to stop this gentle dude, theyll kill him if they can!
But the sun is shining through the gloom. The night is almost through.
When we begin to live the way the Other Guy said to do.

The Crisis Team

Looks like they're not coming after all. They could have at least phoned, or at the very least left a cowardly anonymous blog comment as they usually do. It's pretty much what I expected though, the usual abusive nonsense. Am I really that scary?

MIND is not a safe place for child trafficking victims

A history of Mind

Note: The language and names used throughout this factsheet are those current at the time: for example, Mind was originally known as ‘The National Association for Mental Health (NAMH)’ or ‘the Association’; in 1972, the name ‘MIND’ was adopted; and then changed again in the nineties to ‘Mind’.  Also, some of the language used to describe mental distress, would not now be acceptable, but was current at the time in question

Origins

Mind was was established as The National Association for Mental Health in 1946 by the merging of three major mental health organisations. These were:

• the Central Association for Mental Welfare (established in 1913)  led by the pioneering Dame Evelyn Fox, this organisation worked through local groups of volunteers to help mentally handicapped people

• the National Council for Mental Hygiene (established in 1922), which had a strong educational bias and stressed the social causes of mental illness

• the Child Guidance Council (established in 1927), which set up the first child guidance clinics and launched training courses for their staff.

Between them these organisations had a fine tradition of working in the mental health sector. They were responsible for a series of important firsts, including the first homes for mentally handicapped people, the first school counsellors, and the first training for child psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, educational psychologists and teachers of mentally handicapped children.

The amalgamation was recommended by the Feversham Committee on voluntary mental health associations, which reported in 1939. The formal merger had to wait until the end of the Second World War, but the organisations worked together during the war through the Provisional Council for Mental Health. The Government asked the Council to take on the task of providing a national aftercare service for people discharged from military service on psychiatric grounds. Extended to civilians, it was the beginnings of community mental health care.

The beginnings of the National Association for Mental Health coincided with the development of the National Health Service and the welfare state. It was a period of rapid growth and change. Many voluntary organisations had to redefine their role, as many of the services they used to provide were taken over by the state. In psychiatry, new drug treatments and, perhaps more importantly, campaigning by enlightened professionals, meant that many long-stay patients could be discharged, and new patients needed much shorter periods of hospital care. The doors of the psychiatric hospitals began to be opened, and the public took an increasing interest in mental health issues.

Aims

The aims of the Association, as stated in its first annual report (1 April 1946-31 March 1947), were:

1. to foster a wider understanding throughout the community of the importance of mental health in all the relationships of everyday life, and to establish the principle that its foundations must be laid in early childhood if healthy mental and emotional development is to be achieved
2. to spread a knowledge of the ways by which mental health may be achieved and maintained
3. to provide and encourage the provision of courses, lectures and conferences for the general public, and for various groups of professional workers dealing with mental health problems
4. to encourage and advise on the setting up of training facilities for personnel in the mental health field, and to establish and maintain professional standards of work
5. to encourage and promote the establishment of treatment and training facilities for adults and children suffering from mental and nervous disorders or who are mentally subnormal or defective or who present behaviour problems
6. a) to supply information as to existing facilities for the prevention and treatment of mental and nervous disorders
   b) to give an advisory service on schools and homes for individual children and adults suffering from such disorders or from mental defect
   c) to provide and promote community care for persons handicapped by mental or nervous disorder, including epilepsy, or by mental subnormality or defect
7. to promote international contacts with mental health organisations throughout the world, to assist in the organisation of world mental health congresses, and to promote friendly international relations.

Structure

Membership

In 1947, membership of the Association cost one guinea per year (£1.05).

At this time, members of the council were all medical and associated professionals, representing organisations such as the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency, the Magistrates Association and the Royal Colleges of Nursing, Physicians and Surgeons (the Royal College of Psychiatrists did not yet exist).

Staff

During this period, the staff at the Queen Anne Street office was led by a medical director (until 1953) and a general secretary. The departments included a library and information service, residential services, social services, and training and education. Staff included psychiatric social workers and educational psychologists, and there was a panel of medical consultants who could be called on for their expertise.

The local associations

Although some local mental health groups existed before the NAMH was set up (Cambridgeshire Mental Welfare Association, for example, was formed in 1908), the development of the local associations movement really dates from the early 1960s. By that time it had become clear that the statutory services could not meet all the needs of people who were experiencing mental distress or had learning disabilities. As a result, the NAMH strengthened its campaign for improvements at a local level. The resulting publicity attracted many people to the mental health movement, and local associations affiliated to the NAMH sprang up throughout England and Wales.

Training and education

The Association ran courses for, among others, doctors, educational psychologists, psychiatric and social workers, health visitors and teachers.

At this time, the NAMH worked with people with learning disabilities, as well as those with mental health problems. Its courses for teachers of children with learning disabilities were for some years the only courses available. These training courses were gradually phased out during 1970 to 1971, following the hand over of responsibility for the education of mentally handicapped children to the Department for Education from the Department of Health. Colleges of further education gradually adopted their own teacher training courses.

Services

In 1946, the NAMH ran (in the language of the time) 11 agricultural hostels for mentally handicapped men, two homes for mentally defective children, two holiday homes for mental defectives and mental hospital patients, and one convalescent home for epileptics. The following year, a second convalescent home, an approved school, a home for pre-delinquent children, and a home for old people, were added.

Other than Feversham, a school for children with behaviour problems, which opened in September 1969 and closed in 1997, the other institutions that the NAMH was responsible for had all closed or been taken over by other bodies by 1983.

Campaigning – towards community care

By the late fifties, the forthcoming Mental Health Bill, which eventually became law in 1959, was the focus of the Association’s campaigns. In 1958, the Association’s quarterly journal Mental health commissioned articles on ‘The public and the Mental Health Bill’, ‘The Mental Health Bill and the psychopath’, ‘The new Bill and the mental deficiency services’ and ‘The new look in the care of the mentally ill’.

The proposed Mental Health Bill aimed at reorientating mental health services away from institutional care, towards care in the community. The NAMH pledged its support for the Bill, while voicing reservations. There was concern at the lack of provision for adequate mandatory community services and at the failure to address the training of qualified staff. The Association commented on the Bill at the time: “it will not give us better buildings for our mental hospitals, it will not in itself give us the extensive research for which the services crave, and it will do nothing to provide trained staff...(and) it is little more than a half-hearted attempt at promoting the preventive services where the future of this whole subject lies”.

The community care approach was boosted by a remarkable speech made at the Association’s annual conference in March 1961 by the then Minister of Health, Enoch Powell. In this he announced proposals to close the large psychiatric hospitals. Edith Morgan (then the local associations officer) commented later in a BBC radio interview: “We all sat up, looked at each other and wondered what had happened, because we’d been struggling for years to get the idea of community care and the eventual closure of mental hospitals on the map and here it was offered to us on a plate”. 

But there was still a recognition within the Association that adequate community care provision was still a long way off. The annual report of 1963 to 1964 says, “…the concept of community care is now no longer new and is generally accepted. But, as we anticipated, it has become clear that local authority provisions are inevitably lagging behind the new demands created”.

Including users

By the late sixties, the Association began to become more of a voice for patients. An article in Hospital world in 1969 expressed the view that the NAMH had: “developed from a polite, reassuring body, uttering words of comfort to all those involved with mental health, to an organisation which is now firmly on the side of the patient and not at all scared of speaking its mind when the need arises”.

The Association’s encounter with the Church of Scientology may have contributed to this shift in emphasis. In 1969, the Scientologists branded orthodox psychiatry as a system of murder, sexual perversion and monstrous cruelty, and the NAMH as a criminally motivated ‘psychiatric front group’. In October 1969, a number of Scientologists applied for membership of the Association, and it became apparent that they were trying to take over. Their membership was withdrawn and, after a court case, the matter was resolved in the Association’s favour. Mary Applebey, who was director from 1951 to 1974, said, perhaps rather generously, in a speech for Mind’s 30^th birthday in November 1976, “Scientology represented in an exaggerated form one aspect of disillusionment with the official mental health line”.

The MIND campaign

In 1971, its 25th anniversary, the Association launched the MIND campaign to clarify its policies and aims, and to attract much-needed funds, under the leadership of the new campaign director, David Ennals. It was the first time that the Association had launched a major public education and fundraising campaign. The MIND campaign had seven main objectives:

1. to create concern for mental health and to challenge apathy and neglect
2. to overcome ignorance of the origins of mental disorder and its treatment
3. to improve services for the mentally disordered in hospital and community
4. to support the relatives of the mentally disordered who may need as much help as the patients
5. to mobilise voluntary help – in psychiatric hospitals, hostels, sheltered homes, in social activities for ex-patients, children’s playgroups and in support of patients’ relatives
6. to raise funds for the work of the National Association for Mental Health and its local associations – to provide more schools for maladjusted children; more hostels, ‘half-way houses’; day centres, industrial training units and other facilities to aid recovery or retraining
7. to sponsor research directly and through the mental health research fund.

The campaign was so successful that in 1972 the NAMH adopted the new name ‘MIND’. The logo of the newly renamed organisation was a dove with the name ‘MIND’ in capitals.

At the end of the MIND campaign David Ennals left the organisation to return to Parliament, and Mary Applebey also left after 22 years as director, feeling that MIND should be free to move in a new direction. The new director, Tony Smythe, brought experience in the field of human rights. One new initiative was the setting up of an executive committee, which, “added a degree of immediacy to the running of the organisation”, and enabled staff at all levels to take on more responsibility and participate in the policy-making of MIND. This was probably the start of a process that eventually led to the involvement of service users in management and policy decisions. Another change at this time was the move to new premises in Harley Street.

The change from NAMH to MIND was much more than just a change of name: it was a complete change of emphasis. During 1971 to 1972, the organisation’s objectives were rewritten to stress MIND’s function as a lobbying group, and for the first time support for the patient’s family became a specific aim. In 1974, three strategies were given priority:

• MIND was to establish more regional offices in order to cover every part of England and Wales, and more support was to be given to local MIND associations
• three of MIND’s residential establishments were to be transferred to other agencies – in future projects were to be of a “pioneering, innovative, and experimental nature”
• the advisory service, which was dealing with an increasing number of legal and welfare rights queries, was to be expanded.

Following this last decision, the legal and welfare rights service began in 1975 with the appointment of MIND’s first legal officer, Larry Gostin, who wrote A human condition (1959) – MIND’s proposals for reforming the Mental Health Act. An article in Social work today said that this book became a basis for the Mental Health Act Commission Code of Practice: “…the 1983 Mental Health Act owes much to his tenacious battles for patients’ rights and the need for advocacy”. In 1979, the legal and welfare rights service became a fully-fledged legal department and began to take test cases.

Mind in recent years

Campaigns

The original MIND campaign lasted from 1971 to 1973, and was followed by many others.

• 1976 Home from Hospital – highlighting the housing problems faced by people with mental health problems
• 1977 Rehabilitation – demanding more and better services, and employment opportunities
• 1979 Alert! – highlighting the needs of elderly people who are mentally infirm
• 1981 MIND in Action
• 1983 to 1987 Tranquillisers – aimed at raising public awareness of the problems associated with benzodiazepine drugs (such as Valium) and the difficulties people experience coming off them
• 1983 Manifesto for a New Mental Health Service – Common Concern – with the goal of developing a comprehensive local mental health service
• 1986 A Better Life – designed to “create a climate of outrage about the lack of resources for the development of a local network of care”
• 1988 People First
• 1992 Stress on Women – to raise awareness of sexual harassment on psychiatric wards, the problems of mixed wards, and issues for mothers
• 1994 Breakthrough! Community Care – promoting a user-centred holistic approach to community care
• 1997 Respect – focusing on the discrimination faced by people with mental health problems
• 2002 My Choice – aiming to widen the choice of treatment for people with mental health needs
• 2003 Benefits – drawing attention to the difficulties mental health service users face in claiming social security benefits
• 2004 Ward Watch – campaigning for better conditions in hospitals.
• 2005 Access all ages – for better mental health services for older people
• 2006 Building solutions – about mental health and the built environment, including both hospital and work settings
• 2007 Ecotherapy – the green agenda for mental health

Many of these campaigns have led to significant breakthroughs, in prescribing practice, government policy, and in encouraging new understandings of mental health and the issues faced by service users. Successes have included the Home from Hospital campaign, the Yellow Card Scheme (part of the Breakthrough! Community Care campaign) and the Mind Inquiry – Creating Accepting Communities (part of Respect).

Home from Hospital

The 1976 Home from Hospital campaign led to increased information about existing housing projects and provided the stimulus for many new ones; doubling the accommodation available in the community. By November 1976, the local MIND associations had provided an extra 130 group home places, to add to the 800 already in existence.

Other housing schemes involved the Housing Corporation and housing associations, and adult fostering. A joint project with Shelter investigated the possible use of short-life property for people leaving hospital. MIND was heavily involved in the preparation of two Granada television programmes, as a result of which many offers of homes were received from the public.

Yellow Card Scheme

Mind’s Yellow Card Scheme was set up as part of the Breakthrough! campaign. The idea was to give users of psychiatric services an opportunity to report on the side effects of their medication. The card was based on the official yellow cards doctors use to report on side effects of drugs to the then Medicines Control Agency (MCA), but also asked about how much information people received at the time their drugs were prescribed, the help they received from their doctors, and the efficacy of their drug treatment.  Copies of the returned cards were sent, at their request, to the MCA.

A first report was produced in 1996, and a further report in 1998. The scheme was relaunched in 2000, with the specific aim of seeking more information on prescribing practice for people from Black and minority ethnic communities, and a report was published in 2001.

Mind has continued to press for mental health service users to be able to report side effects of drugs directly to the Medicines Control Agency. In 2003, following reports of problems with the antidepressant drug paroxetine (Seroxat), and two television programmes highlighting the nature and extent of the problems, Mind’s Chief Executive, Richard Brook, was invited to be on a committee reviewing the use of SSRI antidepressants. In 2004, he resigned from the committee, saying that the (by now renamed) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had deceived the public by not revealing all that was known about these drugs and allowing them to be prescribed in a dangerous manner, with incomplete information. In 2005, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency launched a trial scheme for users of medicines to report adverse effects directly, and this scheme was made permanent in 2007.

Mind Inquiry – Creating Accepting Communities

This inquiry into the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, and their relatives and friends, was set up as part of the Respectcampaign. It sought to consider:

• the experiences of people with mental health problems, in particular the extent to which they are discriminated against and the extent to which they are socially excluded by society
• what measures are needed to protect those with mental illness against discrimination and prejudice
• initiatives that have taken place within the mental health and other fields that have demonstrated effectiveness in overcoming discrimination and social exclusion
• whether a code of practice could be drawn up from those successful initiatives in order to influence government policy and practice.

The inquiry panel was chaired by Lincoln Crawford and included Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Darcus Howe, Denise Platt, Ivan Massow, David Crepaz-Keay, and Baroness Pola Uddin. The inquiry report, Creating accepting communities: report of the Mind inquiry into social exclusion by Sara Dunn, was published in 1999.

Phase two of Mind’s Creating Accepting Communities work was the Social Inclusion Initiative, which had the aim of developing measurable criteria to create models of mentally healthy living. The Initiative looked at the components that help to improve the quality of life for people with enduring mental health problems. These included issues of race/culture/diversity, arts and sport, employment, education and training, and housing and neighbourhood. The models were developed in consultation with other sectors, including local authorities, education, employment and public health bodies. The work began with a pilot project, developed in Merton during 2000. This project centred around a cyber café, to promote access to the Internet and develop mental health service users’ computer skills.

Structure and networks

Regional offices

The MIND office in Wales opened in 1972 and was renamed Mind Cymru in 1997. In 1976, the Northern regional office opened, and by 1979 there were MIND offices in Trent, Yorkshire, and the North West. In 1982, West Midlands MIND opened and the Trent and Yorkshire offices combined. South East MIND opened in 1984, starting off in Harley Street and then moving to City Road. In 1986, South West MIND opened; it was renamed South and West Mind in 1999. In 2000, the regional offices were closed down, leaving the two national offices in England and Wales.

The local Mind associations

There are now about 160 local Mind associations affiliated to Mind. Local associations have grown in the scope of their activities, as well as in their numbers. Today, they run housing schemes, day centres, social clubs, and many other projects for users and carers. Each year the work of the local associations is acknowledged by the Mind Good Practice Awards.

In 1999, Mind’s internal structure was changed, and a local Mind support team was set up to improve liaison between the national organisation and the local associations.

Mind Link

The Mind Consumer Network was set up in 1987 to inform and advise Mind on the experiences, views and opinions of service users, and to have a direct route into policy development. The following year, the Network was renamed ‘MINDLINK’ and had doubled its membership. It formed a consumer advisory panel with members from the regions, reporting to the council of management. By 1993, there were over 1,000 members, and Mind Link was becoming increasingly influential, being asked to write training manuals on user empowerment and to help with the work of the Mental Health Task Force. Membership continues to grow, and there is now a list of user/trainers available to provide training on mental health issues.

Rural Minds

Rural Minds was started in 1997, with the aim of combating the disadvantages experienced by people with mental health problems who live in rural areas in England. A review found that people in mental distress in rural areas face stigma, lack support structures and have limited access to information about what services are available. The review also found that women and people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities are more at risk of mental health problems.

Rural Minds set up a national resource centre for rural mental health, with a library of practical resources and reference materials. Information and training were offered to volunteers and professionals, and a network of individuals, statutory and voluntary organisations in rural communities is being developed, influencing purchasers and providers of mental health services by working with user networks.

Connecting Minds, a teleconferencing scheme to enable people in remote areas to hold travel-free meetings, was started in 2001. The programme started in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Northumberland, and included partner organisations.

Since April 2004, Rural Minds’ work has been integrated into Mind’s core activities, so that rural issues will be evident in all areas of its work.

Diverse Minds

Diverse Minds – set up in 1997 and still running - is an initiative aiming to help make Mind’s policy and practice more responsive to Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Its functions are to:

• be integrated into Mind and its policies and campaigns
• act as an information and contact network for Diverse Minds members and related organisations
• put forward suggestions for Mind’s future work
• have one co-opted place, with voting rights, on Mind’s Council of Management
• participate in Mind through regional forums in the (then) six English Mind regions and Wales
• promote, encourage and support training on race and cultural awareness in Wales and the English regions
• provide/promote training for Black and minority ethnic workers, carers and service users/survivors.

Projects

Changing Minds (1998-2000)

Changing Minds developed from the Avon Measure, a user-centred approach for assessing needs, created by South West Mind in partnership with representatives of users, survivors, the voluntary sector and professionals from Avon Health and Bristol Social Services. The Measure is an assessment document filled in and owned by the user, offering a chance to describe the help they would like. This covers 25 topics, including housing, money management and mood swings.

Changing Minds’ objectives are to:

• strengthen and enhance the ability of statutory, independent and voluntary agencies a) to deliver service user-centred needs assessment in their own services, and b) to develop services that more fully reflect the needs and expectations of mental health service users
• empower service users, their advocates and befrienders to achieve responsive and relevant services from all community agencies.

Training, information and publications

Training

While training for teachers was phased out in the early 1970s, Mind’s training courses have also developed in response to changing circumstances and now include legal training courses, mental health awareness, working with postnatal depression, and seminars on specific subjects, such as psychiatric drugs and help for those who hear voices.

Information

The information service has gradually developed over the years, answering calls from members of the public, mental health professionals and mental health service users. Information is also provided by letter, and latterly by email. In 2003, the information service was outsourced to Broadcasting Support Services (BSS) in Manchester, with backup from Mind head office, where a specialist library is maintained.

Publications

In the early days of the Association, its publications mainly related to childcare. Mind has been innovative in developing materials for school children on mental health. In the late 1970s, several friezes were published, designed to create an opportunity for teachers to talk about mental health in the classroom. The bird and the word, materials for mental health education in secondary schools, was first produced in 1998.

The Association’s original quarterly magazine was Mental health, which cost 5/- per year, or 2/6 for members. Openmind is now Mind’s bi-monthly magazine. Designed for people who use mental health services and the people who provide them, it has a readership of 11,000.

The list of materials produced by Mind has gradually expanded over the years, and now includes many award-winning booklets on many different subjects related to mental distress. Mind also runs the UK’s only specialist mental health mail order service, selling a wide range of publishers’ titles.

During 2003, Mind adopted a new logo and brand for all its publications.

National awards

Mind runs a series of national awards, designed in part to highlight good practice and to gain publicity for mental health issues.

Mind Book of the Year/Allen Lane Award

The Mind Book of the Year Award was started in 1981 by MIND and the National Book League, in memory of Allen Lane. The prize is awarded to a book, either fiction or non-fiction, published during the past year, which deals with the experience of emotional distress and fosters a deeper understanding of mental health. In 2000 and 2001 it was funded by the Royal Literary Society, and in 2002 by Abbey National. In 2007 it was sponsored by BT.

1982   The art of starvation, Sheila Macleod

1983   Annie’s coming out, Rosemary Crossley and Anne McDonald

1984   Depression: the way out of your prison, Dorothy Rowe

1985   Art as healing, Edward Adamson

1986   A woman in custody, Audrey Peckham

1987   Talking to a stranger: a guide to therapy, Lindsay Knight

1988   The minotaur hunt, Miriam Hastings

1989   Out of mind, J Bernlef

1990   No winner

1991   The trick is to keep breathing, Janice Galloway

1992      The catch of hands, Benedicta Leigh

1993      50 years in the system, Jimmy Laing

1994   Scar tissue, Michael Ignatieff

1995   Mustn’t grumble, Ed. Lois Keith

1996   Phone at nine just to say you’re alive, Linda Hart

1997   Push: the life of Precious Jones, Sapphire

1998   Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski

1999   Remind me who I am, again, Linda Grant

2000   Making us crazy, Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk

2001   My name is Gabriel, Kate Rankin

2002   The noonday demon: an anatomy of depression, Andrew Solomon

2003   Will the circle be unbroken: reflections on death and dignity ,Studs Terkel

2004   Giving up the ghost, Hilary Mantel
2005   The cruel mother, Siân Busby

2006   Borrowed body Valerie Mason-John
2007  Living with mother Michèle Hanson

2008  The Father I had Martin Townsend

2009  The Boy with the topknot  Sathnam Sangheera

2010  Sectioned: a life interrupted  John O’Donoghue

2011 Diary drawings: mental illness and me Bobby Baker

Mind Journalist of the Year Award

1995 Cal McCrystal

1996 David Brindle, The Guardian

1997 Euan McGrory, The Northern Echo

1998 The Big Issue

1999 Roger Dobson, freelance

2000 Peter Tory, The Express

2001 Adam James, freelance

2002 Sarah Boseley, The Guardian

2003 Sophie Goodchild, Independent on Sunday

2004 Simon Garfield, freelance

2005 Joanna Kowalski, Nottingham Evening Post

2006 Emma Forrest, Health Service Journal

2007 Derek Draper and Dr Cecilia d'Felice, Psychologies magazine

Student journalist of the year

2007 Helen Thompson, University of Cardiff newspaper, Gair Rhydd

Bigot of the Year Award

1995 Jaci Elliot

1996 Lenny Lottery, The Sun

1997 Martin Sharpe, The Sun

1998 Andrew Mosby, Time Out

1999 Roger Todd, Sunday Express

2000 Paul Gilfeather, The Sun

2001 David Mellor, People

2002 Nigel Nelson, The Sunday People

2003 David Mellor, The Sunday People

Mind Champion

In 2004, the Bigot of the Year Award was discontinued, and in its place a Mind Champion Award was started. Readers of Openmind were invited to nominate the person who, in their view, made the most important contribution to challenging discrimination against people with mental health problems during the past year.

2004 Frank Bruno
2005 Joanna Bennett and BBC Radio 4’s The Archers
2006 Peter Campbell (Mind Diamond Champion), mental health system survivor, activist and writer.
2007 Stephen Fry
2008 Liz Miller
2009 Alastair Campbel
2010 Rachel Perkins

This factsheet was written by Katherine Darton, and updated 2012.

Appendix – officers 

Patrons

1946 HRH Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent

1968 HRH Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvie

Presidents

1946 the Rt Hon R A Butler (d.1982)

1990 Lord Ennals (until his death in 1995)      

2000 Lord Bragg (Melvyn Bragg)

2011 Stephen Fry

Chairs

1946 the Rt Hon the Earl of Feversham (until his death in 1963)

1963 Lord Balniel MP

1969 Christopher Mayhew MP

1978 Lady Bingley

1984 Lord Ennals

1989 Timothy F Durkin

1994 David Peryer

2001 David Henry

2012 Ryan  Campbell

Vice Chairs

1946 Lady Norman

1962 Lady Adrian

1966 vacancy

1967 Dr David Clark

1975 Charles Clark

        Dr Douglas Bennett (exact date not known)

1984 Dr Hugh Freeman

1988 Mike Lawson

1994 Judith Morgan-Freer

1995 Lisa Haywood      

2006 Alison Cowan and Keith Cornford

2012 Alison Cowan and Lesley Dixon

Treasurers

1946 Sir Otto Niemeyer

1964 RG Raw

1967 JQ Hollom

1975 Charles Clark

1978 Michael Edwardes-Evans

1987 Rev Jim Moore

1996 Roy Daniels

2003 John Tomlinson          

2006 Maureen Dickson

2011 Mike Starkie

Directors/chief executives

1946 Miss M C Owen (general secretary; there was also a medical director)

1951 Mary Applebey

1974 Tony Smythe

1982 Christopher Heginbotham

1989 Ros Hepplewhite

1992 Judi Clements

2001 Richard Brook

2006 Paul Farmer

Mind's senior management team

The Senior Management Team have overall corporate responsibility for Mind’s strategy, leadership, management and organisation performance.  The team focus at a strategic level on the business of Mind and on the delivery of its activities.

• Paul Farmer CBE - CEO
• Paul Ward - Chief Operating Officer
• Andrew Vale - Managing Director of Mind Retail
• Kathleen Miles - Director of Fundrasing
• Karen Mellanby - Director of Networks and Communities
• Sara Moseley - Director of Mind Cymru
• Sophie Corlett - Director of External Realtions
• Sue Baker - Director of Time to Change

Paul Farmer CBE - Chief Executive Officer 

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006.

He is Chair of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), the leading voice of the UK’s charity and social enterprise sector. Paul is also a trustee at Lloyds Bank Foundation which invests in charities supporting people to break out of disadvantage at critical points in their lives.

Paul is Chair of the NHS England Mental Health Taskforce - bringing together health and care leaders and experts in the field, including people using services, to lead a programme of work to create a mental health Five Year Forward View for the NHS in England.

Paul has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College Oxford and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

Paul Ward - Chief Operating Officer

Paul has nearly thirty years’ experience in the mental health field having managed mental health services and commissioned mental health services. He has served on a number of government working groups in the mental health field, and early in his career lead a major mental health hospital re-provision programme.

More recently Paul has joined the board on a mental health NHS foundation trust in a non-executive director capacity. He has also been a non- executive director on a strategic health authority and has held senior management positions in both the NHS and charity sectors.

Paul joined Mind from Terrence Higgins Trust, where he had been Deputy Chief Executive since 2000 and Acting Chief Executive. He brings with him a wealth of experience in charity sector leadership, as well as around community mental health strategy and service provision planning.

Andrew Vale - Managing Director of Mind Retail

Andrew is responsible for the strategic direction of the 160 Mind shops and for developing new income streams through other trading platforms. Mind Retail is maximising the brand opportunities offered by its high street presence and is planning an extensive programme of new shop openings and refurbishments.

Andrew has a retail background which blends commercial with the charity sector, having worked for Marks and Spencer, Birthdays, British Heart Foundation and Age Concern England (latterly as Head of Retail at the merged charity Age UK).

Andrew plays a prominent part in the Charity Retail Association including time spent as a board member.

Kathleen Miles - Director of Fundraising

Kathleen Miles has been Director of Fundraising at Mind since 2007. Kathleen is responsible for the direction, development and delivery of both Mind’s fundraising and Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing hub. Together the team of c.140 staff raise c.£30m pa from a range of sources, and deliver a range of successful Workplace Wellbeing initiatives, including Mind’s Training and Consultancy and our Workplace Wellbeing Index.

Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing hub also delivers our Time to Change employers work, along with our partner colleagues at Rethink Mental Illness, and a programme to support the needs of Blue light emergency service workers. The team have been heavily involved in supporting our work following the Farmer/Stevenson Thriving at Work report, launched last October.

Kathleen has a voluntary sector background, having worked in a range of organisations over the past 26 years, both in service development and delivery and in fundraising. Amongst her previous roles she has worked at NSPCC and Oxford University. She also holds a MSc in Voluntary Sector Organisation from the LSE.

Karen Mellanby - Director of Networks and Communities

Karen is Director of Networks and Communities at Mind. She is responsible for the direction, management and development of the Networks and Communities Department which undertakes work with the national affiliated local Minds network and supports leadership and social participation in communities. This includes overseeing a range of programmes across the network that promote quality in local mental health service development and delivery; including a quality mark; grants programmes; peer learning and knowledge sharing; innovation and business development; equality improvement and community action.

Prior to joining Mind in 2013, Karen worked at Locality as Director of Programmes, overseeing a range of high profile national programmes to support effective community led development and enterprise.  Before that she was Deputy Chief Executive at Action for Advocacy, where she was actively involved in promoting and supporting the provision of independent advocacy for users of health and social care services. She holds an MA in Applied Social Studies and Diploma's in Social Work and Management, and with over 20 years experience working in the voluntary sector, has direct experience of providing services and support for older and disabled people and users of mental health services.

Sara Moseley - Director of Mind Cymru

Sara yw Cyfarwyddwr Mind Cymru ac mae’n un o Gyfarwyddwyr Gweithredol Mind hefyd.  Mae’n Cadeirio Cynghrair Iechyd Meddwl Cymru a’r ymgyrch wrth-stigma, Amser i Newid Cymru.  Mae’n ymddiriedolwr ac yn Gyfarwyddwr gyda Chyngor Gweithredu Gwirfoddol Cymru (WCVA) ac mae’n Aelod Annibynnol o Fwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Caerdydd a’r Fro.

Mae gan Sara gefndir ym maes newyddiaduraeth, cyfathrebu ac ymgysylltu â’r cyhoedd a hithau wedi bod yn Gyfarwyddwr Cyfathrebu ar gyfer Llywodraeth Cymru, ar gyfer Ymddiriedolaeth Iechyd fawr yn Llundain ac ar gyfer Centrepoint, yr elusen digartrefedd i bobl ifanc.  Mae’n frwd iawn ynghylch galluogi lleisiau a phrofiadau pobl i gael eu clywed a’u rhannu ac ynghylch gwella mynediad at wasanaethau a chymorth effeithiol a thosturiol. 

Mae gan Sara ferch 19 oed a mab 17 oed sy’n fyddar, mewn addysg brif ffrwd ac sydd newydd gael mewnblaniad yn y cochlea.

Mae hi’n siarad Cymraeg yn rhugl ac yn dod o Aberystwyth yn wreiddiol.

Sara is Director of Mind Cymru and an Executive Director of Mind. She Chairs the Wales Alliance for Mental Health, and the anti-stigma campaign, Time to Change Wales. She is a trustee and Director of WCVA (Welsh Council for Voluntary Action) and an Independent Member of Cardiff and Vale UHB.

Sara has a background in journalism, communication and public engagement having been Director of Communications for the Welsh Government as well as a large London Health Trust and the young people’s homelessness charity, Centrepoint. She is passionate about enabling people’s voices and experiences to be heard and shared and about improving access to compassionate and effective services and support.

Sara has a 19 year old daughter and 17 year old son who is deaf, in mainstream education and has recently received a cochlear implant.

She is a fluent Welsh speaker and comes originally from Aberystwyth.

Sophie Corlett - Director of External Relations

Sophie Corlett is Director of External Relations at Mind. She has been at Mind since 2002 and is responsible for Mind's policy and campaigning, media, communications, legal and information services. Sophie is also responsible for the delivery of the Crisis Care Concordat project at Mind, a project funded by NHS England to support local areas across England to improve their response to people in mental health crisis.

Amongst other things, Sophie is on the Management Board of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health which develops guidance on care and treatment for people with mental health problems and is on the trustee board for the Centre for Mental Health. She is a regular spokesperson for Mind in the media.

Sue Baker - Director Time to Change

Sue leads Time to Change, England’s biggest ever programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination. She is responsible for leading and delivering this exciting social movement in England. 

Time to Change is an ambitious £20 million programme (funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief) being delivered by leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

Sue previously worked for the leading mental health charity in New Zealand setting up marketing, campaigns and fundraising programmes and supporting the world’s largest campaign to address the discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, using human rights and mental health promotion models.  She also worked for nine years as Head of Media at Mind, in particular carrying out the UK’s first survey of the extent and impact of discrimination (in the mid 90s). 

She has also been a Director of a leading substance misuse charity where she was responsible for marketing treatment services, delivering business growth and developing marketing and fundraising.