Who Cares? Scotland Director of Influencing, Claudia Macdonald, has announced that she will be leaving the charity after nine years.
Claudia established Who Cares? Scotland’s Influencing directorate, attracting investment and support for her vision to put people with experience of care at the heart of decision making.
Starting with the Listen campaign, Claudia brought the sector, elected members and supporters together under the banner of listening to Care Experienced people. From there, Claudia grew Who Cares? Scotland’s policy work and media presence, supporting people to have their say and hold those with power accountable. Claudia also directed Who Cares? Scotland’s contribution to The Care Review, overseeing a participation programme that spanned a number of years and heard the views of thousands of people.
Claudia’s work led to fundamental changes to the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. Claudia built a coalition of support from within the sector and supported Care Experienced people to speak to members of the Scottish Parliament. As a result of this work, people in care are now entitled to stay until the age of 21, five years more than before.
Louise Hunter, CEO of Who Cares? Scotland said:
Claudia is leaving us with a strong legacy of amplifying voice and achieving progressive change at the highest levels of government. She has made a real difference and people’s lives are better as a result of her determination and effort.
Whether Claudia was supporting people to have their say in Parliament; creating campaigns that brought people together; or, most recently, supporting the organisation’s stability by taking on the role of interim CEO, Claudia did so with unrivalled commitment and passion.
She leaves the organisation in good stead and I wish her well with everything else she will go on to achieve.
