Dame Philippa Russell D.B.E.
Philippa Russell was appointed as Chair of the Prime Minister's Standing Commission on Carers, launched by Gordon Brown on September 3rd 2007.
She was Disability Policy Advisor to the National Children's Bureau and was formerly a Commissioner with the Disability Rights Commission and Director of the Council for Disabled Children.She is a member of the National Learning Disability Task Force, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
She has Honorary Doctorates from the University of York and King Alfred's College of Higher Education, Winchester for her work with disabled children and their families and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire. She was awarded an OBE for her work with children with special educational needs and their families, and the CBE for services to disabled people. In the 2009 Queens Birthday Honours List, Philippa was made a Dame.
In 1990 she was awarded the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Centenary International Award for women who have contributed to the field of learning disability. She was also awarded the 4Children Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 for her work in developing childcare and other services for disabled children and their families. In 2005 she was awarded the RADAR (Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation) Lifetime Achievement Award for the furtherance of the human and civil rights of disabled people.
She is the parent of a son with a learning disability and has wide contacts with voluntary and user organisations with an interest in disabled children, young people and their families. In this context, she is a trustee of the National Family Carer Network, the Mental Health Foundation and 4Children and is Chair of MOVE (a new charity established under the auspices of the Prince of Wales's National Disability Partnership to support the inclusion of children and adults with complex disabilities in school and community).