Isobel has been a civil servant since 1997, and has spent most of her career in the Department for Work and Pensions and its predecessor departments, as well as a short spell in the Policy Unit at number 10. At DWP she undertook roles related to policy on welfare reform in many different guises, including replacing incapacity benefits and disability employment programmes, and the early stages of development of the Work Programme. She has also led delivery in a Jobcentre Plus District and undertaken change programmes and legislation of various sorts, and most recently was the DWP Executive Team’s chief adviser on the business strategy for the Department.
In late 2013 Isobel left DWP to move to the Department of Health and lead the Cost Recovery Unit, which is focused on helping the NHS to recover more of the money that visitors to the UK should be paying for their treatment.
Isobel works three days a week (Monday to Wednesday) and lives in Wimbledon with her husband and 2 little girls.
As the mother of young children, I spend a lot more time thinking about supporting people at the beginning of their lives than towards the end of their lives. But my daughters are statistically likely to live to be a …