Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Baroness Casey of Blackstock
Office1:Victims' Commissioner
Term Start1:May 2010
Term End1:12 October 2011
Predecessor1:Office created
Successor1:The Baroness Newlove
Office2:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start2:30 October 2020
Life peerage
Birth Name:Louise Casey
Birth Date:29 March 1965
Birth Place:Redruth, England
Education:Oaklands Catholic School
Alma Mater:Goldsmiths, University of London
Party:None (crossbencher)

Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock, (born 29 March 1965), is a Crossbench peer and former British government official.

She was the deputy director of Shelter in 1992, the head of the Rough Sleepers' Unit (RSU) in 1999, a director of the national Anti-Social Behaviour Unit (ASBU) in 2003, head of the Respect Task Force in 2005 and the UK's first Victims' Commissioner in March 2010. She became director general of Troubled Families on 1 November 2011. In February 2020, Boris Johnson appointed her as an adviser to help tackle homelessness,[1] [2] and she was later appointed as Chair of the Rough Sleeping Taskforce, which was set up to curb rough sleeping during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] In July 2020 she was nominated for a crossbench peerage.

In August 2021, Casey was appointed to review the circumstances and prepare a report on the spectator invasion of Wembley Stadium, London, in July 2021 when thousands of ticket-less spectators broke through security arrangements for the final of the UEFA Euro 2020 football tournament.[4] [5]

Later in 2021, Casey was appointed to lead an independent review of culture and standards into the Metropolitan Police in London following the murder of Sarah Everard.[6]

In 2024, Casey was reportedly touted by Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer for a ministerial role in a future government, should he win the general election.[7]

Early life

Louise Casey was born on 29 March 1965 in Redruth, Cornwall, to Peggy and Martin Casey, a union representative at Plessey.[8] She was educated at Oaklands Catholic School, near Portsmouth, and graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, with a degree in history.

Career

Casey began her career with the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), administering benefit payments for homeless people. She then worked for the St Mungo Association, a charity that helps homeless people. She became director of the Homeless Network in London, before becoming deputy director of Shelter in 1992. At Shelter she gained a reputation as an "ambitious, pragmatic worker who got results" and was largely responsible for the creation in 1998 of Shelterline, the country's first 24-hour telephone helpline for homeless people.[9]

Rough Sleepers' Unit

Following the 1997 general election, the Labour government in December that year created the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), which had tackling rough sleeping as one of its priorities.[10] In April 1999 the RSU was created and Casey appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as its head, referred to in the media as the "homelessness czar". With an eventual budget of £200 million, the RSU's aim was to reduce the number of rough sleepers in England by two-thirds by April 2002.[11] The RSU published its strategy in December 1999.[12] [13]

In November 1999 Casey said that the activities of some charities had the effect of keeping homeless people on the streets: "With soup runs and other kinds of charity help, well-meaning people are spending money servicing the problem on the streets and keeping it there. Even The Big Issue is perpetuating the problem." The editor of The Big Issue disagreed with her comments.[14]

In November 2000, the government launched the RSU-led "Change a Life" campaign, which encouraged people to give money to homelessness charities instead of to beggars, following research suggesting that 86 per cent of beggars used drugs. Casey said giving money to beggars was "misplaced goodwill".[15] The donations hotline set up as part of the campaign was closed in March 2002, having collected £10,000, with advertising spending of £240,000.[16] The RSU achieved its target in November 2001, several months before the deadline, but allegations were made that they had used underhand tactics; Casey responded that they were false.[17] With her work at the RSU finished, she became director of the newly created Homelessness Directorate.[18]

Anti-Social Behaviour Unit

In January 2003, Casey became head of the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit (ASBU) at the Home Office. Introduced in 1998, an Anti-Social Behaviour Order is a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour.[19]

Respect Task Force; crime adviser

In September 2005, Casey was appointed head of the Respect Task Force as part of Blair's "respect agenda", becoming known as the "respect czar".[20]

The Respect Action Plan, launched in January 2006, was designed to deal with anti-social behaviour and problematic young people and families.[21]

In December 2007, the task force was closed down, and Casey moved to another job concerned with community policing.[22] Her review of "Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime" was published in 2008, being based largely on her contact with the public.[23]

She recommended the requirement, introduced in December 2008, that offenders doing community work should wear fluorescent orange jackets with the words "community payback" printed on the backs.[24]

In October 2009, while working as the government's neighbourhood crime adviser, Casey said that the justice system favoured criminals, and the public wanted a justice system that was not a "criminal's justice system".[25]

Victims' Commissioner

On 30 March 2010, Casey was appointed the inaugural commissioner for victims and witnesses,[26] created under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, whose objective is to "promote the interests of victims and witnesses, encourage good practice in their treatment, and regularly review the Code of Practice for Victims which sets out the services victims can expect to receive".[27] As Victims' Commissioner, Casey said crime victims were treated poorly by the system,[28] and suggested jury trials were unnecessary for many lesser offences.[29] She held the post from May 2010 to October 2011 and was succeeded by Baroness Newlove in March 2013.[30]

Troubled Families programme

It was reported in September 2011 that Casey would work with Prime Minister David Cameron in dealing with the consequences of widespread rioting a month earlier,[31] and she resigned from the position of Victims' Commissioner on 12 October 2011.[32]

She became Director General of the Troubled Families Unit on 1 November 2011.[1] The programme intended to focus interventions on the 120,000 most dysfunctional families to break the cycle of abuse.[33] In July 2012 Casey published the Listening to Troubled Families report which featured 16 case studies following interviews with families about their situations.[34] In a half-way report released in November 2013, the government stated that 22,000 families had been "turned around".[35] [36]

Casey left the programme in 2015, and an official evaluation by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) published in 2016 found that despite the £1 billion spent on the programme, it had failed to have any significant impact.[37] In response Casey stated: "They had not, frankly, put any of the caveats in the public domain" and that "they have misrepresented their own research".[38] NIESR disputed these statements.[39]

Rotherham investigation

Following the publication of a report by Alexis Jay on the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, Casey was appointed by Eric Pickles to lead the inspection of the children's services at Rotherham council. The Guardian reported on 10 September 2014: "In his written ministerial statement, Pickles says he has directed Casey to consider how the council exercised its functions on governance, children and young people, and taxi and private hire licensing.'"[40]

Casey's report was published on 4 February 2015, and found that the local authority's child sexual exploitation (CSE) team was poorly directed, suffered from excessive case loads, and did not share information.[41] [42]

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, said the local authority was "not fit for purpose", and announced proposals to remove its control from the councillors and give it to a team of five appointed commissioners.[42] The Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said that his party had "let people down in Rotherham".[43] However, Casey's report was also heavily criticised by social work academics in Community Care in March 2015:[44]

"There are troubling aspects of the report...the process by which it was prepared, in particular the lack of rigor [sic] and transparency in the methods used to gather and analyse data...This gap [in methodology] ...should concern us as it goes to the heart of issues of accuracy."

Review of community cohesion and extremism

After the end of the Rotherham report, Casey was asked to undertake a broader review of community cohesion and extremism. The report criticised the Home Office for a lack of strategy to integrate new immigrants into communities and to respond to extremism among Muslims.[45]

The Review was finally published on 5 December 2016.[46] The Review stated segregation and social exclusion are at "worrying levels" and are fuelling inequality in some areas of Britain. Women in some communities are denied "even their basic rights as British residents". The report described the plight of women in some Muslim communities, who were "less likely to speak English and more likely to be kept at home". Among Casey's recommendations were that immigrants could take "an oath of integration with British values and society" and schoolchildren be taught about British values.[47]

In March 2018, while speaking on BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour, Casey suggested that, in order to encourage integration, the government should set a target date for "everybody in the country" to speak English. Conservative MP and former immigration minister Mark Harper welcomed the comments.[48]

Rough sleeping taskforce

In February 2020 Casey was appointed by Prime Minister Johnson to carry out a review of the government's strategy on homelessness, which aimed to end rough sleeping by 2024.[49] This work was redirected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she is credited with arranging temporary accommodation for close to 15,000 rough sleepers as part of the government's Everyone In initiative.[50] In May 2020 she was appointed to chair a specialist taskforce on rough sleeping, which worked with local authorities to prevent the return of rough sleeping as the lockdown lifted.

In August 2020 Casey announced that she had resigned from her government advisory role, including chairing the taskforce, stating that she wished to concentrate on her responsibilities in the House of Lords following her acceptance of a crossbench peerage the previous month.[51]

International homeless work

Casey is the Chair of the Institute of Global Homelessness.[52] She left the civil service in 2017 to help establish the Institute, with the aim of delivering an international solution to homelessness across the world.[53]

Metropolitan Police

On 20 March 2023, Casey's report into the Metropolitan Police was released. It found the Met to be institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic.[54] One key publicised finding was that the Metropolitan Police was a "boys' club", despite having been led by Cressida Dick, a woman, from 2017 to 2022.[55] The report was criticised by Galop, an LGBT anti-violence charity, for not investigating transphobia.[56]

Media work

In January 2024 Casey examined issues affecting modern Britain in a BBC Radio 4 series Fixing Britain with Louise Casey; the five episodes covered rough sleeping, hunger, children in care, violence against women, and cohesion.[57]

Appointments

Baroness Casey has a series of appointments, including:[58]

Honours and assessments

Casey was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2008 Birthday Honours[1] and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to families and vulnerable people. In the 2020 Special Honours, she was granted a life peerage as a crossbench peer,[60] and was created Baroness Casey of Blackstock, of Finsbury in the London Borough of Islington, on 30 October 2020. She was introduced to the House of Lords on 13 September 2021.[61] She was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2023.[62]

In February 2013, Casey was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[63]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dame Louise Casey CB. GOV.UK. 15 September 2016. 15 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161115135851/https://www.gov.uk/government/people/louise-casey. live.
  2. News: Profile: government crime adviser Louise Casey. Batty, David. The Guardian. 16 June 2008. 27 August 2011. London, UK. 16 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150916051954/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/jun/16/justice.prisonsandprobation. live.
  3. Web site: 2 May 2020. Dame Louise Casey to spearhead government taskforce on rough sleeping during pandemic. 25 August 2020. HM Government. 30 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200830151123/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dame-louise-casey-to-spearhead-government-taskforce-on-rough-sleeping-during-pandemic. live.
  4. https://www.thefa.com/news/2021/aug/06/euro-2020-review-update-20210806 Terms of reference for independent review into the EURO 2020 final
  5. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/59516147.amp Euro 2020 final disorder: Ticketless thugs 'could have caused death' at England v Italy game
  6. News: Sarah Everard: Baroness Louise Casey to lead review into Met Police . 9 October 2021 . BBC News . 8 October 2021 . 9 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211009044403/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58833349 . live .
  7. News: Wright . Oliver . 15 May 2024 . Sir Keir Starmer lining up Baroness Casey for ministerial role . 15 May 2024 . The Times . en . 0140-0460.
  8. News: Adams . Tim . 2023-08-20 . Louise Casey: 'We need a change of government. This lot are spent' . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-12-25 . 0261-3077 . 25 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231225100104/https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/aug/20/louise-casey-government-make-or-break-peoples-lives-own-amusement . live .
  9. News: Profile: Louise Casey. BBC News. 6 July 2005. 8 October 2021. 20 August 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070820051850/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4655185.stm. live.
  10. Fairclough, Norman (2000). New Labour, New Language?, Routledge, p. 51.
  11. Noaks, Lesley; Wincup, Emma. (2004). Criminological Research: Understanding Qualitative Methods, SAGE Publications, p. 147.
  12. Web site: "Coming in from the cold: the Government's strategy on rough sleeping". dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120829194645/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/roughsleepersstrategy.pdf. 29 August 2012. dmy-all.  . communities.gov.uk, 16 December 1999; accessed 8 September 2011
  13. http://www.communities.gov.uk/archived/publications/housing/cominginfromcold?view=Standard webpage
  14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/519627.stm "Charities 'promote homelessness'"
  15. Noaks, Lesley; Wincup, Emma. (2004). Criminological Research: Understanding Qualitative Methods, SAGE Publications, pp. 147–48.
  16. Summerskill, Ben; Newey, Guy. "Beggars hotline ditched as flop" . The Guardian, 3 March 2002; accessed 7 September 2011.
  17. Morrison, James; Seymenliyska, Elena. "Rough sleepers unit 'fiddled the figures'", The Independent, 23 December 2001; accessed 30 August 2011.
  18. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/dec/20/publicservices13 "Homelessness tsar"
  19. Walker, David. "Civil servant squares up to anti-social behaviour" . The Guardian. 2 January 2003. Accessed 6 September 2011.
  20. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/sep/07/publicsectorcareers.careers "Ins and outs"
  21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4598664.stm "Respect action plan: At-a-glance"
  22. Wintour, Patrick. "Blair's Respect agenda ditched, claim Tories", The Guardian, 24 December 2007; accessed 6 September 2011.
  23. Pratt, John. "Penal excess and penal exceptionalism: welfare and imprisonment in Anglophone and Scandinavian societies". p. 264. In: Crawford, Adam (ed) (2011). International and Comparative Criminal Justice and Urban Governance: Convergence and Divergence in Global, National and Local Settings, Cambridge University Press; accessed 22 January 2018.
  24. Ford, Richard. "Offenders on community work projects will have to wear orange bibs", The Times, 27 November 2008; accessed 8 September 2011.
  25. Ford, Richard. "Crime adviser says justice system is seen as ‘too sympathetic’ to criminals", The Times, 19 October 2009; accessed 8 September 2011.
  26. [Patrick Wintour|Wintour, Patrick]
  27. http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/vc/ "Victims' Commissioner"
  28. Casciani, Dominic. "Crime victims treated like the 'poor relation'" . BBC News. 20 July 2010. Accessed 8 September 2011.
  29. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11680382 "Cut jury trials, says victims' champion Louise Casey"
  30. Book: Newlove, Baroness. Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses: Report for the Secretary of State for Justice 2013–14. 2014. Helen Newlove, Baroness Newlove. 5. Annual report. Victims' Commissioner. 1 September 2023. 1 September 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230901143516/https://cloud-platform-e218f50a4812967ba1215eaecede923f.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/6/2021/12/VC_Annual-Report-2013-14-1.pdf. live.
  31. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14819727 "Riots: Louise Casey – Blair's respect tsar – to aid PM"
  32. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/louise-casey-quits-as-victims-commissioner-2369409.html "Louise Casey quits as Victims Commissioner"
  33. News: Mulholland. Helene. 18 July 2012. Troubled families need one-to-one help to break cycles of suffering, says Casey. 25 August 2020. 3 December 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211203114938/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/jul/18/report-englands-most-troubled-families. live.
  34. Web site: Casey. Louise. 18 July 2012. Listening to troubled families. 25 August 2020. 29 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200929191033/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/listening-to-troubled-families. live.
  35. Web site: 25 November 2013. Troubled Families programme on track at half way stage - Press releases. 22 January 2018. GOV.UK. 23 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180123190445/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/troubled-families-programme-on-track-at-half-way-stage. live.
  36. News: Patrick Wintour. Eric Pickles hails progress in tackling 'troubled families'. The Guardian. 15 September 2016. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304085045/http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/25/problem-families-department-for-communities. live.
  37. http://www.niesr.ac.uk/publications/national-evaluation-troubled-families-programme-final-synthesis-report#.WEbW2OlvjIU National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme - Final Synthesis Report
  38. News: Foster. Mark. 20 October 2016. Louise Casey: I did not ask DCLG to sit on critical Troubled Families report. Civil Service World. 25 August 2020. 21 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200921144847/https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/louise-casey-i-did-not-ask-dclg-to-sit-on-critical-troubled-families-report. live.
  39. http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/public-accounts-committee/troubled-families/written/42437.pdf Written evidence from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research to the Public Accounts Committee
  40. News: Louise Casey to conduct inspection of children's services in Rotherham. Guardian. Wintour. Patrick. 10 September 2014. 15 December 2016. 17 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160917062238/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/10/louise-casey-inspection-childrens-services-rotherham. live.
  41. Web site: Inspection into the governance of Rotherham council and subsequent intervention. GOV.UK. 15 September 2016. 23 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210123105551/https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/inspection-into-the-governance-of-rotherham-council. live.
  42. News: Government in Rotherham Council takeover after abuse inquiry. 4 February 2015. BBC News. 15 September 2016. 14 December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201214083834/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-31130750. live.
  43. News: Rotherham abuse scandal: Ed Miliband 'deeply sorry'. BBC News. 15 February 2015. 20 June 2018. 10 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181110101020/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-31479039. live.
  44. Web site: Louise Casey report into CSE represents a missed opportunity for children. 20 March 2015. 13 October 2016. 14 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161014061931/http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/03/20/louise-casey-report-cse-represents-missed-opportunity-children/. live.
  45. News: McCann. Kate. 14 September 2016. Teach integration to prevent extremism, Government-backed review expected to say. Daily Telegraph. UK. 12 October 2016. subscription. 13 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161013075609/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/14/teach-integration-to-prevent-extremism-government-backed-review/. live.
  46. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-casey-review-a-review-into-opportunity-and-integration The Casey Review: a review into opportunity and integration
  47. Web site: Segregation at 'worrying levels' in parts of Britain, Dame Louise Casey warns. 5 December 2016. 19 December 2016. BBC News. 19 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161219064814/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38200989. live.
  48. News: 'Set date for everyone to speak English'. 2018-03-12. BBC News. 2018-03-12. en-GB. 5 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180405174138/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43370514. live.
  49. News: Walker. Peter. 26 February 2020. Government pledges £236m to tackle rough sleeping. The Guardian. 25 August 2020. 23 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200823051315/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/26/government-pledges-236m-to-tackle-rough-sleeping. live.
  50. News: Booth. Robert. 20 August 2020. Fears over 'vacuum' as top UK homelessness adviser steps down. The Guardian. 25 August 2020. 24 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200824220135/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/20/fears-over-vacuum-as-top-uk-homelessness-adviser-louise-casey-steps-down. live.
  51. Web site: Simpson. Jack. 20 August 2020. Dame Louise Casey steps down as Rough Sleeping Taskforce head after three months. 25 August 2020. Inside Housing. 22 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200822173755/https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/dame-louise-casey-steps-down-as-rough-sleeping-taskforce-head-after-three-months-67588. live.
  52. Web site: The Institute of Global Homelessness . 24 February 2021 . 2 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210202122841/https://ighomelessness.org/about-us/ . live .
  53. Web site: Profile: Louise Casey. King’s College London. 24 February 2021. 1 April 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210401203652/https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/louise-casey. live.
  54. News: Met police found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic. Vikram. Dodd. 21 March 2023. The Guardian. 21 March 2023. 21 March 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230321000506/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/21/metropolitan-police-institutionally-racist-misogynistic-homophobic-louise-casey-report. live.
  55. News: Met Police: Women and children failed by 'boys' club', review finds. Mackintosh. Thomas. Manning. Lucy. BBC News. 21 March 2023. 21 March 2023. 21 March 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230321105658/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65015479. live.
  56. Web site: Galop's statement on institutionalised homophobia and transphobia in the Met Police . 2 May 2023 . 2 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230502010207/https://galop.org.uk/news/galops-statement-on-institutionalised-homophobia-and-transphobia-in-the-met-police/ . live .
  57. Web site: Fixing Britain with Louise Casey . BBC Radio 4 . 5 January 2024.
  58. Web site: April 2024 . Register of Lords' Interests . House of Lords.
  59. Web site: Governance . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220803020731/https://www.pwcf.org.uk/about-prince-waless-charitable-fund/governance . 3 August 2022 . 26 June 2022 . The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund.
  60. Web site: 31 July 2020. Political Peerages 2020. 6 August 2020. Gov.uk. 3 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200803225316/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/906078/Political_Peerages_2020.pdf. live.
  61. Introduction: Baroness Casey of Blackstock . Parliament of the United Kingdom . House of Lords . 13 September 2021 . 814 . 1123 .
  62. Web site: 2023 . Spring 2023 Fellows for Conferment by Institution . 2024-01-18 . Academy of Social Sciences.
  63. Web site: BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour - The Power List 2013 . Bbc.co.uk . 1970-01-01 . 2016-09-15 . 15 February 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130215063524/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb/features/power-list-100 . live .

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