Jane Campbell (charity worker)
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Dame Jane Campbell, DBE is a Commissioner of the Disability Rights Commission and of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR). She also serves as Chair of the Disability Committee which will lead on the CEHR Disability Programme. She was the former Chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).
In 1996 she co-founded and directed the National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL) where she worked for six years before being appointed by the Minister for Social Care to chair SCIE. She is an active leader in the social care field and a campaigner and adviser for disability reforms.
She was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a so-called "terminal" condition. She cannot lift her head from the pillow unaided and needs a ventilator to help her breathe at night. She uses a powered wheelchair and has a computer on which she types with one finger.
As chair at the British Council of Disabled People and co-director at NCIL, Jane saw these organisations through pioneering work in the field of independent living, civil rights, peer counselling and equal opportunities. In 1996 she co-authored a book called Disability Politics and was knighted in the Queen's 2001 birthday honours.
In 2003, Jane was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from Bristol University and another in social sciences from Sheffield Hallam University. Currently, Jane is exploring the notion of a human rights perspective of social care.
In February 2007, it was announced by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that she will be made a life peer and will sit as a Crossbencher. She will use the title Baroness Campbell of Surbiton
