Simon Beresford, Co-opted trustee Expand Simon is a co-opted member of the Children England board. Simon leads the Fundraising & Marketing Department at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), responsible for all fundraising including high value partnerships, individual giving, online and offline marketing, and supporter care. He also coordinates the DEC Fundraising Directors Group, bringing together the senior fundraising and public engagement leaders from across DEC member charities to collaborate on maximising DEC appeals for disaster affected communities. Simon has over 17 years’ experience in fundraising for a range of causes, including children and young people’s services, palliative care, international development and humanitarian relief. Simon holds an MSc in NGO Management from Cass Business School and a Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. Outside of his internationally focussed work, Simon has remained a long-term volunteer for children and young people’s charities in the UK. Prior to joining as a co-opted trustee for Children England, Simon was previously a trustee for Children England member charity Spurgeon's for 6 years.
Vivienne Evans, CEO, Adfam Expand Vivienne Evans OBE is the Chief Executive of Adfam, the national umbrella organisation for children and families affected by someone else’s substance misuse. She has a long history of senior positions in the public and charity sectors with a background in drug and alcohol education, prevention and young people, and families and substance misuse policy and practice. She is a former member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and chaired its working group on the implementation of the report of the inquiry into the children of problem drug users - Hidden Harm. She has also chaired the Drug Sector Skills Consortium, funded by the Department of Health, and the Family Drug and Alcohol Court Advisory Group. She is a board member of the International Society of Substance Use Prevention and Treatment, Alcohol Change UK and The Halley Stewart Trust.
Why hasn't the government told me my taxes won't support child protection after 2020? Expand Cuts in funding from central to local government can be difficult to spot. Changes like the one planned for 2020 tend to be described as 'freeing up' local authorities to retain their local rates and ending 'dependency' on a centralised system. Greg Clark, then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, explained in the 2016-17 local government finance settlement: "Ultimately, Revenue Support Grant* will disappear altogether, as we move to 100% business rates retention." What isn't mentioned is that this means people's income tax, still gathered by central government, is no longer being spent on the services we expect, and that what we're losing is the vital redistributive power of national, needs-based funding to every area in the country. *Funding from central to local government is brought together in the 'formula grant' and has comprised varying proportions of the Revenue Support Grant and business rates over the years.