Caroline Millar
Eighteen years working in the UK consumer movement has given Caroline a deep and varied expertise with public,
private and voluntary sector organisations, their users and customers. For the last ten years as a consultant
she has advised organisations on user involvement, performance measurement, complaints handling and communications.
Her "hot button" interests are accountability and governance in public interest organisations. She was Business Manager of "Public Concern at Work", a campaign promoting and support public interest whistleblowing and practical advice to employers on public interest concerns in the workplace.
A qualified teacher, Caroline was educated in Scotland and studied at Cambridge and City Universities .
MANAGING THE CONSUMER INTEREST
Caroline has engaged with NHS trusts, utility companies, consumer bodies and government departments in
improving customer satisfaction and mechanisms for involving users and customers in decision-making.
She has set up and run complex complaints procedures which comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
She has produced training materials for managers, employees and consumer representatives, delivered
training programmes. Caroline has recently researched and written a report for the National Children's
Bureau looking at the use of Social Enterprise as a means of delivering services for children and young people.
A GREEN FLAG FOR USER INVOLVEMENT
Caroline has just completed four years as a Non-Executive Director of City and Hackney Primary Care Trust
where she led on patient and public involvement and communications. She was also Vice Chair of the London Passenger
Users Committee for several years. She has served as a parent governor in a primary school in Hackney where she
initiated the setting up a of Parents' Forum. She is Vice-Chair of the user group for her local park which recently won
a Green Flag award and a commendation for its effective work with users. Caroline is a member of the Nursing and
Midwifery Council's Reference Panel and is consulted regularly on the consumer perspective.
As a PCT Non-Executive Director she was closely involved in City and Hackney's consultations with its highly diverse community on changes to the provision of continuing care and more recently on its planned changes to primary care premises and services. She is currently working on a DfES project to develop a toolkit and training programme to support schools in setting up and running Parent Councils.
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
As London Regional Manager for the Office of Water Services (Ofwat) in the early 'nineties Caroline helped develop
links between the regulator, the customers and the newly privatised water companies, managed complaints, developed the
first Codes of Practice and helped set standards of service. Caroline was later Business Manager of National Consumer
Council Services, a consultancy business run jointly by NCC and Deloitte and Touche.
Caroline at M-A-C
As a M-A-C Associate Caroline worked with NHS Quality Improvement Scotland on a focused consultation on
their Patient Focus and Public Involvement Framework during 2006. She is also taking a lead on our work to
support schools and local education authorities in developing greater parental involvement. She worked with
the Partnership at the "public involvement summit" M-A-C organised with Wandsworth CHC and the local health
economy in 2003 and edited the final report of that meeting.