Roger is the Children’s Rights Director for England, with national statutory functions to ascertain and report the views of children living away from home or receiving social care services, to advise on children’s rights and welfare, and to identify and raise children’s rights and welfare issues he considers significant. The post is hosted by Ofsted, having previously been hosted by the National Care Standards Commission and then the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Roger and his team produce a continuing series of Children’s Views reports on the views and concerns of children. These can be accessed on the children’s website www.rights4me.org, following the “Be Heard” link.

In the past, Roger has worked as a university Research Fellow, in social services management including a period directing a county social services department, and as a policy adviser at the Department of Health. He was an author of the original National Minimum Standards for welfare in children’s homes, boarding schools, residential special schools and residential further education colleges. In the 1970s he initiated paired reading for parents to help children read, and gained his PhD for treatment of bedwetting in children. He still runs a weekly treatment clinic for bedwetting. Roger is President of “ERIC” (the national charity for continence in children), a Member of the Children’s Workforce Development Council. He was awarded the OBE in 2001 for services to children.