Kamlesh Kumar Patel, Baron Patel of Bradford, (born 28 September 1960) is a member of the House of Lords. Having been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours, he was created a life peer as Baron Patel of Bradford, of Bradford in the County of West Yorkshire on 8 June 2006. He currently sits as a non-affiliated peer, as of 20 March 2018, but has previously sat as a crossbench (2006–2008), Labour (2008–2012) and Labour and Co-operative (2012–2018) peer.[1]
A qualified Social Worker, he worked in inner city Bradford and then established a number of Third Sector agencies working with those misusing drugs and those with mental health problems; later moving to academia working with a number of universities.
On 19 March 2018, Lord Patel of Bradford was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care as the Chair of Social Work England. Social Work England is the regulator for all child, family and adult social workers in England.
Lord Patel of Bradford was previously chair of the Mental Health Act Commission.[2] He was a commissioner of the Healthcare Commission and The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. He has over 200 publications and has authored a number of national reports, including The Patel Report into Prison Drug Treatment.
Lord Patel is senior independent director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), appointed in 2016.He is vice president of the British Board of Film Classification, appointed in May 2018. He is president of the Royal Society for Public Health and the Institute of Healthcare Management and patron/chairman of a number of not-for-profit organisations working in the health, education, social care and criminal justice sectors. He is senior independent director of Cygnet Healthcare and chair of its UK Advisory Board. He is chair of the Independent Health Providers Network, Breaking Barriers Innovations and the India Business Group and a member of Oxford Somerville India Centre. He is patron of Southampton University India Centre, and adviser to the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary University London.
On 5 November 2021 he was appointed as a director and chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, after the previous chairman Roger Hutton resigned following the result of investigation into racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Lord Patel was born on 28 September 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya, to a family of Gujarati descent. His family relocated to the Horton area of Bradford in the early 1960s, and he was educated at the Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School. It was there that he was taken under the wing of two sports teachers, who coached him to become captain of the school cricket team, and as a result he joined the local Manningham cricket club.[3]
Lord Patel spent three years as a social worker with Bradford Council, before going on to work with drug addicts at the Bridge Project, and then setting up his own project to work with vulnerable children.
In March 2018 Lord Patel was appointed the first chair of Social Work England, the new dedicated social work regulator.[4]
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly Gules and Azure a rose Argent barbed and seeded and issuing from each barb a protea slipped Or. |
| Crest: | Out of a lotus Or a peacock's head Azure beaked Or.[5] |
| Supporters: | Dexter an elephant Azure the trappings Gules fringed and tasselled Or sinister an elephant Gules the trappings Azure fringed and tasselled and both armed Or. |
| Badge: | A rose Argent barbed seeded and issuing from each barb a protea slipped Or. |