Chair and Panel biographies

Professor Alexis Jay OBE Professor Alexis Jay was appointed to the Panel of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2015. She was appointed as Chair of the Inquiry by the Home Secretary in August 2016.

Alexis Jay is a visiting Professor at Strathclyde University, where she chairs the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in . She worked for over 30 years in social work, working with vulnerable families in deprived communities.

In 2005 Professor Jay was invited by the to set up the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) – a government agency to inspect all aspects of social services provided by Local Authorities. In this role, she was Chief Executive and Chief Inspector of Social Work for Scotland. After the SWIA was merged into the Care Inspectorate in 2011, she took up the newly created post of Chief Social Work Adviser to Scottish Ministers.

In 2014, Professor Jay led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in , an investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham in South Yorkshire. Her initial report, published in August 2014, identified that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013

She is also Chair of the Life Changes Trust, which seeks to improve the lives of young care leavers and people with dementia, and of the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS), a government-funded centre based in the University of Strathclyde which carries out research and improvement activity within the children's sector in Scotland. Professor Jay was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Strathclyde in November 2015.

Ivor Frank Ivor Frank is a barrister with four decades of experience in child protection, human rights and family law. He was brought up in care himself and has represented and campaigned for children in care as a member of the parliamentary groups Looked After Children and Care Leavers and Care Leavers' Voice. Ivor has advised the Home Office on the issues of forced marriages and international child abduction. He has served as a Trustee of Buttle (now Buttle UK) which makes grants to vulnerable children and young people in need. He now serves as a Trustee of the Rees Foundation which has similar objectives.

Professor Sir Malcolm Evans KCMG OBE Malcolm Evans is a Professor of Public International Law at Bristol University where he has taught for over 25 years. His work focuses on issues concerning torture and torture prevention and also with freedom of religion or belief and has written extensively on both subjects. He has worked extensively on human rights issues for numerous international bodies and NGOs and is currently a member and Chair of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture. From 2002 until 2013 he was a member of the Advisory Council on the Freedom of Religion or Belief of the Organisation for security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He is also an independent member of the UK Foreign Secretary’s Human Rights Advisory Group.

He was awarded an OBE for services to the prevention of torture and the promotion of religious liberty in 2004.

Drusilla Sharpling CBE Drusilla Sharpling, a barrister, was appointed Chief Crown Prosecutor for Central Casework in the Crown Prosecution Service in 1997, and then Chief Crown Prosecutor in the London Area in 2002.

In 2009 she took up the position of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary with responsibility for 13 forces covering Wales, Midlands and the South West.

Drusilla was responsible for the national child protection inspection programme and the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate portfolio, working with other criminal justice inspectorates across a range of issues. She has recently published a number of reports about the quality of the police response to children who need protection.