Caroline Slocock
Director, Civil Exchange
Caroline set up Civil Exchange in 2011. She is also a founding member of A Better Way, a network hosted by Civil Exchange which is committed to improving services and strengthening communities. She is a co-convenor of the network.
Caroline has over thirty years experience, including working at the highest levels in Government and the wider public and voluntary sectors.
In government, Caroline was the first female Private Secretary at No 10, working as Private Secretary to two Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and then John Major, between 1989-1991. At the Treasury, she advised the Chancellor on public sector priorities and reformed the public expenditure system, and also worked to improve the culture and working practices of that department. At the Department for Education and Skills, she oversaw an expansion of childcare and early years education, working closely with voluntary organisations and local authorities to deliver services on the ground.
In the wider public service and voluntary sector, she was the Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission between 2002 and 2007, a statutory body which promoted equal opportunities between men and women; and then moved on to become Chief Executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, a not for profit organisation providing legal advice to asylum seekers, between 2007 and 2010.
She has written many influential publications on civil society including A Shared Society? The independence of the voluntary sector in 2017, Whose Society? the final Big Society Audit and in 2022 edited and contributed to Building a Bigger We, a collection of essays by social activists about how to improve services and build stronger communities. Working with the Early Action Task Force and Community Links, she produced many publications, most recently Making a Good Place: how to invest in social infrastructure in 2021 and, in 2022, Why don’t we invest in early action?
She speaks on many different platforms on civil society matters, including abroad, and is a regular commentator in the media.
She is the author of the book, People Like Us: Margaret Thatcher and Me.
Lynne Berry
Associate, Civil Exchange
Lynne Berry has more than 30 years experience in the voluntary, public and not for profit sectors. She has worked in central and local government, been Chief Executive of two national charities (recently WRVS and earlier the Family Welfare Association), Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the General Social Care Council and Executive Director of the Charity Commission. In addition she has been Chair and Trustee of many national charities.
She is currently the Chair of Breast Cancer Now, created from the merger of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Campaign, Deputy Chair of the Canal and River Trust and Chair of Bwrdd Gland?r Cymru (CRT in Wales); founder of Public Benefit; and until recently a non-executive Director of Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust. She also recently acted as Chair of the Commission to the Voluntary Sector and Ageing,
Lynne is also working with a number of universities including Cass Business School, City University London, where she is a Visiting Professor, and Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner, to link the corporate and voluntary sectors, support social enterprise and to encourage women’s leadership and professional experiences to be valued in all sectors.
She has been been Chair, Chief Executive, Trustee and Non-Executive Director of many public and third sector bodies and an advisor to enterprises, the corporate sector and community businesses. I have been named by Cranfield University as one of the ‘100 Women to Watch’ in relation to the Boards of the FTSE100
Lynne has served on many Government bodies including the Office of Civil Society Advisory Board and several Better Regulation Taskforces, most recently to reduce burdens on charities and social enterprise.
She is one of the co-founders and co-Chairs of the network, Women in Public Policy, which aims to get more women involved in Public Life.
She has received a number of national awards and honours for her work in social care, in bringing health and social care together and for her innovative approach to building partnerships between the different sectors. She is a frequent broadcaster, speaker and writer on the voluntary and community sector.
For more information see www.lynneberry.co.uk
Daniel Harris
Associate, Civil Exchange
Daniel is Managing Director of DHA, a public sector relations organisation specialising in achieving social change. He is a communications professional with nearly twenty years’ experience at senior levels of central and local Government and the not-for-profit sector.
Daniel has led numerous initiatives helping government and the public sector to transform policy and bring their services closer to the public. On equalities, international development, democracy, human rights, the arts, the role of civil society, family policy – and in many other areas – Daniel has helped organisations create strategies and communications that deliver real change – winning new resources, improving legislation and shaping the public discourse.
Daniel set up DHA in 2000 with the idea that people and society are at the heart of policy-making and communication and has since worked with Government departments, major national agencies including the Arts Council England, the Audit Commission, the Association of British Orchestras, the Charity Commission, NHS Direct, the Equal Opportunities Commission and charities including Scope, Help the Aged, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
He also advises Governments in developing countries creating and delivering health and education communications.
David Harker – In memoriam
Founding Associate, Civil Exchange
David Harker was a founding Associate of Civil Exchange and a contributor to two Big Society Audits. He died on 2 March 2015. At his death, he was Chair of the Pensions Advisory Service and a non-executive Board member of Ofgem, the gas and electricity regulator, and the Financial Conduct Authority. For thirteen years between 1997 and 2010 he was CEO at Citizens Advice, the national organisation for Citizens Advice Bureaux, where he raised its profile and influence on policy makers, secured funding to create an IT network linking its 3,300 outlets which captured over 6 million client interactions a year, created a franchise agreement for all member bureaux, and radically overhauled its governance.
From 1989 to 1997 David worked with the national disability charity, Sense, latterly as managing director. Over eight years he helped transform it from a former self-help group into the leading organisation in its field in the world. During that time it grew eightfold.
During the 1980s David spent five years as a management consultant, advising central and local government, funding bodies, and community and voluntary organisations, and four years as the director of Lady Margaret Hall Settlement in south London, which he joined at a time of crisis, secured its future and developed a number of innovative projects, including some early social enterprises.
David had also been both a councillor and a senior local government officer. He was one of the first people in the voluntary sector to appreciate the value of an MBA, from London Business School in 1986. He was a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management and received a CBE in 2011.
