Ethics

 

Current voluntary role as external reviewer on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Committee for the University of Oxford. Six years' prior experience in a similar role for the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton. The work involves critical analysis of research proposals to ensure that documentation is clear, accurate, ethically sound, consistent with University policies and data protection legislation, that the principle of informed consent is upheld, and that the welfare of participants and researchers is safeguarded. It also involves review and updating of guidance and policies, for example in response to rapid advances in digital communication technology including ‘big data’, and new research interrogating secondary data originally collected for a different purpose, all of which present challenges in relation to privacy, personal identity, confidentiality and anonymity.

 

Over 20 years' experience as a manager at New Forest District Council included responsibility for:

• Staff welfare, development, appraisal and duty of care
• Reflecting organisational values and standards of conduct in dealing with staff, colleagues, elected politicians, external organisations and the media
• Investigation and resolution of internal and external complaints
• Dealing constructively and impartially with disputes, disciplinary conduct cases and allegations of bullying and harassment
• Development of policies, guidance and protocols for staff conduct and behaviour

Nine years' experience as a Trustee at the Landscape Institute included training on ‘values’ with Trustees as part of strategic business planning, introduction of codes of conduct for Trustees and review of professional codes of conduct for members, adjudication on complaints relating to alleged breaches of conduct by members, hearing appeal and giving evidence at Employment Tribunal on a disputed staff redundancy case.

Member of the Institute of Business Ethics, a charitable body that promotes high standards of business practice based on ethical values, and seeks to help organisations strengthen their ethics culture through the sharing of knowledge and good practice.  The Institute believes that all businesses should ‘take ethics seriously’, and that this must be firmly on the agenda in any discussion of corporate social responsibility or sustainability.