Profile : Carolyn Berkeley JP
Carolyn Berkeley is in her 7th year as a member of the Council on Tribunals. She talks to Adjust about her role on the Council and her hopes for the future.
Carolyn is chair of the Council's user issues group and deputy chair of the social affairs committee. Originally from Glasgow, she left the city after graduating from university to avoid the well trodden path of female graduates in the 60's into teacher training college. Carolyn went to ICI as a trainee in marketing and then moved to Glaxo, to work in the company's economics department. Ironically, after having a family, Carolyn did go to teacher training college. But rather than a career in the classroom, it led to many other things and laid the foundations for her long involvement with public service bodies.
She says, "I trained and became a lay inspector for Ofsted in the mid 90's. It was a fascinating experience because in those days the teams were not set as they are now and the professionals on the team were very sceptical about lay members. You had to work hard, very quickly, to make a good impression and it taught me a very useful lesson in establishing credibility, that has stayed with me."
As well as education, health is another area of interest and expertise for Carolyn. She was chair of Enfield Community Care NHS Trust, non-executive director and mental health manager of Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust and is now Chair of Enfield Primary Care Trust.
Before joining the Council, Carolyn was a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunals, so has firsthand experience of the tribunals world.
She says, "I joined the Council after seeing an advert that said it was looking for people with experience in mental health and education. I'm very interested in exploring issues from the point of view of the user. It's extremely difficult to gain knowledge from users about their experiences, other than through user groups because, with the exception of mental health, going to a tribunal is often a once in a lifetime occurrence. There are few opportunities for feedback and any we do have may be influenced by the outcome of the hearing. So I'm really looking forward to reading the report of Hazel Genn's latest research into diversity and user experience, which is due to be published soon."
Carolyn welcomes the changes that are taking place within the Council as it prepares for unification.
"The Council has worked hard over the last 18 months to reposition itself to meet the new challenges ahead. I'm extremely pleased with how we have become much more proactive, particularly in our work to find out what tribunal users really feel about the system.
"It is about time that administrative justice was recognised as a key part of the legal system. Many more ordinary citizens come into contact with administrative justice through the tribunal system than any other part of the legal system. Unification will strengthen the Tribunals Service and ensure that users have access to a robust, independent and well managed tribunal system," she says.
Carolyn lives with her husband in north London. They have two grown up daughters. To relax, when not in her garden, she enjoys creating semi precious jewel necklaces.
She concludes, "I think you're either a campaigner or a doer. I'm a doer and wanted to get involved in projects where I could make a difference. And I think we do make a difference at the Council. Being able to call upon the wide range of expertise across Council members and through our committee work, we strive for a consistently excellent service and share best practice with the aim of giving users a positive experience of administrative justice, whatever the outcome."
(October 2005)