Since May 2007 Jo has been Executive Director of Adults’ and
Community Services for the London Borough of Lambeth. Her portfolio
includes adult social care, community safety, culture and communities.
Previously she was Corporate Director of Housing & Social Services
for Luton Borough Council and latterly Corporate Director of Housing and
Community Living.
Jo held a number of senior posts in the Social Services Inspectorate
(SSI). She was formerly Head of Policy where her responsibilities
included leading the transition of SSI from the Department of Health
into the Commission for Social Care Inspection and co-ordinating SSI’s
relations with other inspectorates and developing SSI policy on
inspection and performance. She had a period of secondment from SSI as
Director of Social Services in the Corporation of London. Jo was
Assistant Chief Inspector for the SSI in London for 4 years, responsible
for assessing the performance of social services, as well as being
Director of Older People and Children for the NHS Regional Office in
London. She led the successful Quality Protects national development
programme to transform children’s services for the Department of Health.
Jo has a degree in politics, as well as being a qualified teacher and
registered social worker. She taught with the United Nations in the
Pacific for two years before working in residential childcare in
Australia. She worked for 4 years at St Charles Youth Treatment Centre
in Essex, a therapeutic secure community, which looked after some of the
most disturbed young people in the country. She spent 10 years working
in mental health in the London Borough of Islington, including leading
on the closure of Friern Hospital, a large psychiatric hospital.
She is a co-opted board member of NHS Lambeth.
She is a Trustee and Executive member of ADASS and co-Chair of the
Workforce Development Committee, a board member of Skills for Care and a
member of the Social Work Reform Board and development group for the
College of Social Work. She was awarded a Fellowship by the University
of Bedfordshire in 2007.
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