back to menuThe Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) has started an initiative to provide NfCG members and Groups with information about appointments to public bodies. This has arisen following a meeting between Roy Phillips, a Public Appointments Advisor to the DETR, and our then Chairman, Marie Jennings.
There is currently taking place, in his words, "a great effort to bring about a sea-change in the complexion of the public bodies that the Department sponsors. As well as seeking to appoint more women and people from ethnic minorities, the Ministers in the Department are keen to see more people appointed who can contribute from the perspective of the consumer or users of services with rather fewer people from the business end, usually from traditional career patterns". Step forward NfCG people!
The Department is thinking along the lines of three methods of informing us, and no doubt other 'consumer' bodies, of future appointments.
Firstly it is setting up web sites for all its public bodies. Those seeking information about these bodies and forthcoming appointments should find it on the DETR website at www.detr.gov.uk/contacts/index.htm.
Secondly, all the Department's sponsoring bodies have been given our details so that they can inform us of forthcoming appointments, together with job descriptions of the posts.
Thirdly, NfCG Individual and Group Members might like to have their details placed on the Department's database of those seeking appointments. This would mean that the sponsor teams handling appointments could ask DETR to search the database for those with appropriate skills and experience for the posts they seek to fill.
Mr. Phillips invites those who think they might be interested in having details on the Department's
database to write to him and send him their CV: Roy Phillips, Public Appointments Advisor, FSP Division, DETR, Zone 8/E9, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE.
Direct phone number 020 7890 6797 (fax 6769), e-mail roy.phillips@detr.gsi.gov uk
If anyone is appointed to a DETR public body through this initiative, or in fact in any other way, NfCG would like to know. Please inform our Assistant Secretary, Kathy Liggins at the office at Brunel University (see page 16 for details).
Chairman Roy Bisson thanks all of you who have returned the questionnaire concerning Representation and Communication. . If you still have not done so, do it now as the information can be added to the database at any time. The task is now to add the new information and build up a valuable bank of data on members, interests, knowledge and experience. We need people who can represent NfCG, and therefore consumers generally, and also reply to consultation papers in a number of fields, though particularly in personal finance and food matters. This database will help us find you!
Stella Walsh
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