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Dame Jo Williams to launch Spring Term Open Lecture Series

The University of Kent's Spring Term Open Lecture Series begins on Friday 25 January with a lecture by Dame Jo Williams DBE, Chief Executive of Mencap.

Hosted by the University's Tizard Centre and titled Death by indifference - failure of the NHS to deliver good quality health care to people with a learning disability, the lecture will take place at 6pm in the Brabourne Lecture Theatre, Keynes College, on the University's Canterbury campus. There is disabled access to Keynes College and the lecture theatre. Open lectures are free and open to all.

Dame Jo Williams began her career in 1971 as a social worker at Shropshire County Council. She moved to Cheshire County Council in 1973 and spent the next 19 years in a variety of operational roles. In 1992, she began five years as the director of social services at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council. She then moved on to the post of director of social services at Cheshire County Council; a role she held until 2002.

She is or has been president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, a member of the Association of the Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, a trustee of the EveryChild Board, Chair of the Research in Practice Partner-ship Board and a member of the National Learning Disability Taskforce.

She joined Mencap as chief executive in March 2003.

Other speakers in the University of Kent's Spring Term Open Lecture Series include: Sir Simon Jenkins, columnist and writer; Jo Brand, comic and writer; The Rt Hon John Redwood MP, former Cabinet Minister, writer and chair of the Conservative Policy Group of Economic Competitiveness; and Professor David Bellamy OBE, international botanist, writer and broadcaster.

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 1:44pm 17 January 2008