Our Board

The Chair of the Care Inspectorate Board and its nine members are appointed by Scottish Ministers and play a vital role in the governance of the Care Inspectorate. They bring a wealth of experience and wide-ranging skills, along with a passionate interest in care, social work and child protection.

The Chair of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Dr Denise Coia and the Convener of the Scottish Social Services Council, Garry Coutts also sit on our board.

The Board sets the strategic direction of the Care Inspectorate, taking account of legislation and policy guidance from the Scottish Government

Click here for Register of Members interests 2011/12

Click here for Code of Conduct (April 2011) 

Board Meetings take place at least four times a year. You can find all papers and minutes from our Board Meetings here. 

Click on each picture to find out more about each board member.

 

 

Paul Edie, Chair

 

Cllr Paul Edie has served as a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Edinburgh since 1994. From 2007 he served as Convenor of Health, Social Care and Housing Committee, and as a Non-Executive Director of NHS Lothian for that time. He was also a Member of the Lothian and Border Community Justice Partnership. Prior to becoming a full-time councillor, Paul worked with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, mainly in quality assurance.

 

 

Anne Haddow

Anne looks after her daughter who has profound physical and intellectual disabilities. She is Vice Chair of the Princess Royal Trust Fife Carers Centre and a family member of PAMIS, an organisation who provide support for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, their family and paid carers. Dr Haddow is involved in health and social work groups which aim to deliver high quality services to people with disabilities and their families and is a member of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). Dr Haddow brings strong skills to this role in relation to Ttam working and constructive challenge along with skills in engagement, listening and analysis.  She will bring intellectual rigour coupled with first hand experience and knowledge on behalf of users and carers.

Cecil Meiklejohn

Cecil has been the main carer for her partner who has a chronic health condition that has affected his mobility and is wheelchair dependent. She has worked voluntarily with disabled people to design and develop their own enabling services. In her working life, Mrs Meiklejohn has worked in a local authority as a services provider, assessing people with particular needs and delivering appropriate interventions, mainly housing assessments, advice, information and adaptations. As a current elected member with Falkirk Council, she also has experience of working with committees, scrutiny and governance. Mrs Meiklejohn brings strong skills in analysis, engagement and listening, along with extensive experience both as a carer/user and as a provider of services.

David Wiseman

David started his social care career as a care officer in a home for older people before going on to work for Strathclyde Region in a variety of positions. He then joined South Lanarkshire Council, as Head of Strategic Services in the Social Work Department, where he also had responsibility for the Registration and Inspection Unit. Following a period of secondment to COSLA, he returned to South Lanarkshire as Head of Older People's Services before joining the Care Commission as Director of Operations in February 2002, becoming the Director of Strategic Development and Depute Chief Executive of the Care Commission in 2005. Mr Wiseman is a member of the U.K. wide Residential Forum, whose purpose is to promote the achievement of high standards of care for children and adults in care homes and schools, and to contribute to improving the quality of service to the public. He is a Board member of a charity, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS). Mr Wiseman brings strong skills in analysis and challenging constructively, strategic business planning and a good understanding of developing new risk based approaches to scrutiny.

Denise Coia

Dr Coia is a Consultant Psychiatrist. She is currently Principal Medical Advisor (Mental Health) within the Scottish Government and was appointed as Chair of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) in September 2010. Previously she was Vice President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (London) and Chair of the College in Scotland. She was a Board member of the Clinical Standards Board and latterly Quality Improvement Scotland for 7 years. As Honorary Senior Lecturer at Glasgow University she has a long standing research interest in health care service redesign and public involvement in health care provision and was a Board member of Medical Research Scotland. She has worked in an advisory capacity with a range of voluntary organisations.

Douglas Hutchens (Deputy Chair, acting as chair from 1 April 2013)

Douglas is a director of a consultancy organisation working mainly with public sector and third sector organisations, having retired from the Scottish Health Service where he was Director of Planning and Corporate Affairs of a national NHS Board. Mr Hutchens is a non-executive of the Scottish Government, Vice Chair of the Scottish Association for Mental Health, a Disability Qualified member of the UK Judiciary Appeals Tribunal and a member of the Children's Hearing System in South Lanarkshire. He cares for two service users and is a strong supporter of disability rights and enhancing the lives of people with disabilities in Scotland. Mr Hutchens brings strong skills particularly in listening, influencing and challenging constructively with a good understanding of equality issues. He has the ability and experience to bring a carer perspective to the Care Inspectorate Board along with a good understanding of the bigger picture.
 

Garry Coutts

Garry is Convener of the Scottish Social Services Council and chair of NHS Highland. He has previously been an elected councillor in both Edinburgh and Highland where he chaired the Housing and Social Work Committee. Garry has worked in the voluntary sector and has also worked as a self employed consultant. He runs a small training company specialising in media and communication training for clients in the voluntary, private and public sectors.

Ian Doig

Ian Doig is an experienced non-executive board member. He is committed to developing the effectiveness and accountability of public bodies and to the modernisation of public services.

His practical experience includes strategy development, financial management, audit committees and risk management. He is experienced in building partnership working between public services, partnerships at the interface between the public, private and charity sectors and with professional bodies. 

Ian has served as a non-executive director on a range of Scottish Government bodies, including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the National Records of Scotland, the Scottish Court Service and the Scottish Social Services Council.

He is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant and admitted member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Previously he held executive posts as CIPFA Director for Scotland and senior finance directorate posts with a range of local authorities.

 

Michael Cairns

Michael has extensive experience as a social work practitioner and manager in local authorities in England and Scotland. He has also worked in the voluntary sector as Director for Age Concern and Director of RNIB Scotland. He was seconded from RNIB to Scottish Government from 2004 to 2007 to help coordinate the review of community eye care services. For the past three years he has been a member of the Scottish Social Services Council. Mr Cairns has broad experience of managing and developing services in the statutory and voluntary sectors and brings strong financial and risk management knowledge to this role. He has strong experience of change management and possesses strong skills in influencing, engagement, persuasion and analysis.

 

Morag Brown MA

Morag has over 30 years experience in public service, demonstrating skills at operational, development and strategic levels. She has practiced as a qualified social worker, community worker, senior training officer and senior manager of social work, social care and health services. Ms Brown has demonstrated the capacity to increase and improve on the range of services and quality of care, improve partnership approaches and lead service change. She has been a member of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Group and is soon to take up appointment as a non-executive member with Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board. Ms Brown brings her extensive experience of social work delivery along with strong skills in engagement, influencing, analysis and constructive challenge.

Sally Witcher OBE

Sally has wide-ranging experience in the fields of equality and social inclusion, child poverty, disability and independent living. She has senior-level management and leadership experience gained in both public and voluntary sectors and as an advisory body Chair, with the Disability Employment Advisory Committee - Westminster Government. Dr Witcher currently works as a freelance consultant in Edinburgh and her previous roles include Deputy Director in the Office for Disability Issues with the Department of Work and Pensions, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group and Campaign Worker for Disability Alliance. She has a doctorate on social inclusion and diversity and has been a member of many research advisory bodies, including the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. As a disabled person she is a user of social care services. She was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to disabled people. Dr Witcher brings to this role high level skills in communication, team working and challenging constructively along with a strong ability to deal with complexity, a strong user focus and a commitment to reflect the social needs of disabled people in the business of SCSWIS.

 

Theresa Allison

Theresa has worked with children and their families in a variety of settings within different local authorities over the last 10 years. She is currently the General Manager of the largest voluntary sector childcare organisation in Edinburgh. As an Associate of the Chartered Management Institute she has a proven track record of effective leadership at both strategic and operational levels and extensive experience of influencing organisational development to bring about transformational change and positive learning cultures. Mrs Allison brings strong skills of analysis, engagement, listening, negotiation and influencing to this role. She also has a strong understanding of the relevance and importance of team working and will bring a provider perspective to bear.