Phil Taylor OBE Chair of Trustees for Pact Expand Having completed 35 years’ service, Phil Taylor retired in 2013 as the Governing Governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Awarded an OBE for his outstanding contribution to HM Prison Service in 2011, Phil’s career has spanned 12 prisons, including HMP Swansea where he supported and oversaw the development of the Community Chaplaincy scheme as a trustee. Phil also supported Pact and the Tudor Trust to enable the development of the new Family & Visitors Centre at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, and developed a range of partnerships to improve the prospects of prisoners on release. Phil has been a member of the Butler Trust awarding panel, hosted BBC Question Time in the Wormwood Scrubs chapel, and participated in the Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretaries Front Line Forum for 3 years providing operational feedback to the Secretary of State and Ministers. As well as acting as a Coach and Mentor to senior managers across the prison estate, he has been a member of the Brent Social Mobility Commission chaired by Lord Jim Knight, and has acted as Project Director for an ESF project, The Active Inclusion Learning Network, a two year project (2013-15) working across the EU to enhance the employment objectives of the socially disadvantaged.
Sarah Mann Deputy Chair of Trustees Expand The latter part of Sarah Mann’s career in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice was spent in the National Offender Management Service working mainly with the probation service. She headed units responsible for the assessment and management of offenders (including intensive alternatives to custody and integrated offender management) and for the development and delivery of punitive and rehabilitative elements of community sentences. She was closely involved in the introduction of evidence-based practice across the probation service and led the development team that created the Offender Assessment System (OASys). Her career also included 18 months on secondment to the voluntary sector. She was a trustee of the Prisoners’ Families and Friends Service from 2012 until its merger with Pact in June 2014.
Nick Smart Pact Trustee and Pact Futures CIC Director Expand Nick has worked in the Criminal Justice System since 1979. He was Chair and CEO of the London Community Rehabilitation Company, delivering Probation services to 30,000 service users across the capital, from its inception in 2014 through its sale to private owners. Nick was previously CEO of Surrey & Sussex Probation Trust (SSPT). In this role, he led a pioneering project that resulted in a radical revision of National Standards for the supervision of offenders. He also chaired the Sussex Criminal Justice Board. Nick has held a wide range of senior management responsibilities within Probation. He has taught social work students up to post graduate level and was a front-line practitioner for15 years Throughout his long career, Nick has always been committed to the importance of the relationship between providers and service users at individual, family, group and community level, as a key factor in promoting positive change. Since stepping down from LCRC, Nick has sought to continue to contribute to the sector. In addition to joining Pact's Board of Trustees and becoming a Director of Pact Futures CIC, Nick is a Fellow and Director of the Probation Institute and is providing mentoring to third sector leaders in his home city of Brighton.
Paul Booton BEd(Hon), MA, N.PQ.H Trustee Expand Paul spent 39 years in education working in Bath, Yate and Hitchin. During his time in education he had experience in finance and personnel issues. He had a particular interest in ensuring that students participated in sports and coached Rugby and Basketball teams. He represented the UK at the World Sports Congress in Italy and was a Trustee of the Hitchin Boys' School Charitable Trust. He has also served as a Borough and Parish Councillor.
Paula Harriott Trustee Expand Paula is Head of Prisoner Engagement at Prison Reform Trust. She was previously Head of Involvement at Revolving Doors Agency 2015-2107, where she provided consultancy to two Big Lottery programmes on service user involvement, as well as supporting the active involvement of the Lived Experience Team in the national Liaison and Diversion service. As Head of Programmes at User Voice 2010-2015 she led on development of service user involvement in prison and probation, as well as forensic mental health services. Her passion for working with excluded members of the community stems from personal experiences as a prisoner 2004-2012. Her personal experiences and associated research – The experience of being a female prisoner Listener, a qualitative study submitted as part of a post graduate diploma in integrative psychotherapy, and The Health Needs of Women Offenders in Resettlement, commissioned by HOB PCT – sharpened her commitment to raising awareness of the issues faced by prisoners and to campaign and proactively deliver services which support both prisoners and ex-prisoners to progress personally and strategically past the stigma of imprisonment and multiple exclusion.
Tom Leman Trustee Expand Tom qualified as a lawyer in 1994 and since then has been working with founders, investors, directors and corporates in connection with mergers and acquisitions, fundraising and corporate governance – not something you would automatically associate with Pact! However, Tom has had an interest in the criminal justice sector ever since studying criminology and penology as part of his law degree. Tom believes in positive change and leads his firm’s cultural change program, sits on his firm’s Community Investment Steering Group and coaches and mentors colleagues to be the best they can be. Tom wants to help change the narrative around criminal justice, make people stop and think about prisoners as fellow human beings and to make people prioritise rehabilitation over punishment.
Alastair Gordon Trustee, Hon. Treasurer Expand Alastair is a qualified accountant having worked for Arthur Andersen for 12 years. He then spent 10 years in various senior financial roles with Berisford International plc, a London listed conglomerate. This included 3 years in New York managing mergers and acquisitions and as CFO of the North American operations. This was followed by a further 10 years with SDL plc as CFO of this technology based translation business. He managed the Initial Public Offering in 1999 and a number of strategic acquisitions before stepping down in 2008. He subsequently held a number of non-executive directorships including Chairman of Plus500 plc, floated in 2013. As part of his involvement with SDL, Alastair helped establish the SDL Foundation to support small structural and sustainable charities, and Alastair chaired the Trustees board through 2017. The main objective of the Foundation was supporting early stage income generating schemes or education and vocational programs that lead to the participants being able to generate income and support their families. The Foundation was available to the SDL offices in some 40 countries and was specifically orientated to projects where the SDL employees were involved in giving their time and/or applying their personal skill sets to the benefit of the recipient organisations.
Cathy Corcoran Trustee Expand Having served as CEO of the Cardinal Hume Centre based in Westminster for 15 years, Cathy stood down from full-time work in 2018. The Centre works with homeless young people, badly housed families, refugees and migrants helping them to access the support and develop the skills they need to overcome the barriers they face. Putting each individual at the heart of its work, the Centre offers a suite of services from welfare benefits and immigration advice to English and digital inclusion, family activities and residential services for 16 to 21 year olds. With an income of £3.4 million, the Centre welcomes some 1,200 people per year, with a staff of 63 and over 100 volunteers. Before joining the Centre, Cathy was the International Director at CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development with ultimate responsibility for development programmes and emergency response across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In addition to travelling extensively, Cathy was the main media spokesperson for CAFOD as well as a key player in its public awareness and education campaigns. In both roles Cathy was fully engaged in both fundraising and advocacy work. She has been a Trustee of various charities including Chair of the Caritas International Emergency Aid Commission based in Rome, Christian Aid, Jubilee Debt Campaign, and CSAN - Caritas Social Action Network. She is currently a Trustee of the Plater Trust and the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. Cathy was awarded an OBE in 2002 for her contribution to co-ordinating the response to famine in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Margaret Cripps Trustee Expand Margaret spent most of her professional career at Chase Manhattan Bank and the Chase Investment Bank in New York and in London, in commercial lending relationship management and project finance. She grew up in America and has lived in the UK for 33 years. Her involvement in the prison system came as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board for two prisons in Buckinghamshire from 2009 to 2017; she was Chair of the Board from 2012 to 2016. She is a Trustee of St Scholastica’s Retreat, an almshouse in Buckinghamshire, and has been a Trustee of St Teresa’s Catholic Independent School from 2011, where she was also Chair of Governors from 2014 to 2020. She is active in her local Catholic parish and has served on the pastoral council, helping to coordinate areas of Catholic education and outreach including the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation in Adults) programme for her own and surrounding parishes.
Cleo Metcalf Trustee Expand Cleo has spent the last 20 years working in senior management positions for well-respected social enterprises in Sheffield/South Yorkshire. Early in her career she spent nine years as Business Manager and CEO of a non-profit social enterprise call-centre before joining Groundwork, a national environmental regeneration charity, where she was responsible for all aspects of safeguarding and governance for Trustees. Cleo is currently the Business Development Manager for a youth charity specialising in working with people aged 13 - 24 who are at risk of engaging in criminal activity. Among her achievements in this role, she has developed and successfully tendered a Home Office-funded anti-gang, gun and knife crime strategy for young BAME males. Cleo brings a wealth of lived experience to the Pact Board, having first engaged with Pact to seek advice for her father in prison. After receiving support which still resonates with her, Cleo asked Pact for any opportunities to share her experience. She was asked to become a Pact Ambassador and has subsequently shared her story with senior HMPPS officials, the Director General of Prisons and the Secretary of State for Justice.