Professional Life

Claire Tyler (Baroness Tyler of Enfield)is the President of the NCB (National Children’s Bureau), a position she has held since August 2012.  She is also the Vice President of Relate, a position she has held since November 2012. Claire chairs the “Make Every Adult Matter” coalition of charities helping adults with multiple needs, serves on the board of Social Work England and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Step Up to Serve campaign. She is also a CentrepointAmbassador and a member of the Advisory Panel of Child’s Viewing for the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) Previously, Claire was a member of the Think Ahead Boardoverseeing a new adult mental health social work fast track programme between 2014 and 2017.

Between 2012 and 2018, Claire was the Chair of CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service). During this time the organization’s “Inadequate” OFSTED rating was replaced by an “Outstanding”. Claire was also the Chief Executive Officer of Relate, the UK’s leading relationship support agency between 2007 and 2012. This followed a number of senior positions within Government, the last of which was Director of the Vulnerable Children’s Group at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education). She also chaired the ‘Kids in the Middle’ coalition, a group of national charities and agony aunts campaigning for better services for separating parents and their children.

Before then, Claire had been the Director of the Government’s Social Exclusion Unit and a board member of the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister from April 2002 until June 2006.  From July 2000 to April 2002 Claire was the Deputy Chief Executive of the Connexions Service.

Parliamentary Experience

Clairewas nominated as a Liberal Democrat Peer in November 2010 and from 1 February 2011 has sat in the House of Lords as Baroness Tyler of Enfield. Claire is the Lead Lib Dem Spokesperson for Mental Health in the Lords.

In the Lords, Claire was a member of the Lords Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness, which reported in April 2019. Previously,  Claire chaired the Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion, which reported in 2017. She has also been a member of the Lord’s Select Committee on Affordable Childcare which reported in March 2015, the Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility, which reported in April 2016, and the Lords Select Committee on Public Services and Demography which produced the report “Ready for Ageing”.

 Claire is currently Co- chairof the following All Party Groups:

• The All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility
• The All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics

 She is also Vice Chair of:

• The All Party Parliamentary Group for Parents and Families
• The All Party Parliamentary Group on Carers
• The All Party Parliamentary Group on Strengthening Relationships
• The All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health

As Co-Chair of the APPG on Social Mobility, she helped to produce the report “Narrowing the Regional Attainment Gap”, released in February 2019 in collaboration with the Sutton Trust. Previously she help produce the report “The Class Ceiling: Widening Access to the Professions”, released in January 2017 and also chaired the Parliamentary Inquiry into Parenting and Social Mobility, which reported in March 2015.  She was the lead author of the “Character and Resilience Manifesto”, published in 2014, which was written in collaboration with the think tanks CentreForum and Character Counts. Claire also chaired the Parliamentary Inquiry into Parenting and Social Mobility which reported in March 2015.

Education

After graduating in Law and Politics from Southampton University, Claire joined the Greater London Council/Inner London Education Authority in 1978 and in 1988 she joined the Civil Service. Claire also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studiesand is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Fellow to the Academy of Social Sciences.

Other Public Engagements

For 5 years Claire was joint chair of the Social Policy Forum and has sat on the Executive Committee of the Public Management and Policy Association for 7 years. From 2002-06 Claire sat on the Poverty and Disadvantage Committee of theJoseph Rowntree Foundation.