Congratulations to PEF’s charity leaders

PEF would like to congratulate Debbie Scott, Chief Executive of Tomorrow’s People for her nomination by David Cameron to join the House of Lords as a Conservative peer and Jean Gross, previously Director of Every Child a Chance Trust, for her appointment by the Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls, as England’s first Communication Champion.

Under Debbie’s leadership, Tomorrow’s People has supported over 400,000 people on their journey back into work and her appointment recognises her tremendous contribution to the ongoing welfare-to-work debate.

David Cameron said that Debbie “has been one of the most inspirational figures behind our thinking on welfare reform and tackling poverty. She has had years of experience fighting poverty on the front line and understands exactly what is needed to help the worst off in our country climb the ladder.”

The creation of a Communication Champion was a recommendation in the 2008 Bercow Report on services for children with speech, language and communication needs, and forms part of the government’s Better Communication Action Plan developed in response to the Bercow review.

Commenting on Jean’s new position, Ed Balls said “Her background and wide experience makes her uniquely qualified for the role. In her current role as Director of the Every Child a Chance charity, she successfully championed effective literacy and numeracy intervention for our lowest achieving, disadvantaged children through the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts programmes; we look forward to seeing the same impact in her new role.”

PEF would also like to welcome Diana Hatchett on board as Every Child a Chance Trust’s new Director.