Lord Warner

Lord Norman Warner is an independent member of the House of Lords having left the Labour Party in 2015. He was a Minister of State in the Blair government from 2003 -2007 responsible for NHS reform amongst other subjects. He was a member of an independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support that reported in 2011 to the Coalition government with reform proposals incorporated in the Care Act 2014 but whose implementation has now been delayed until 2020.

In April 2014 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Commissioner for Children’s Services following critical Ofsted reports. He has served 4 years on the Lords Science and Technology Committee; a Lords Select Committee reviewing adoption law; and the Joint Select Committees on the draft Care and Support Bill and the draft Modern Slavery Bill.

He was the senior policy adviser to the Home Secretary after the 1997 Election; and set up and chaired the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales from 1999 to 2003. As Kent’s Director of Social Services from 1985 to 1991 he was heavily involved in reform of community care. He has chaired voluntary organisations and the National Council of Voluntary Organisations, as well as working as a management consultant and advising private companies. Earlier in his career he was a senior civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Security.

In 2011 he published a book about reforming the NHS entitled “A Suitable Case for Treatment” and in 2014 he co-authored a report on “Solving the NHS care and cash crisis.” In March 2015 he co-authored a report “Letting Go – can devolution solve the NHS cash and care crisis?” His interests are theatre, cinema, reading, exercise, food, travel and sports.