Valerie Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland
Valerie Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland was born on September 5, 1940. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Valerie Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland
Valerie Georgina Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland, (5 September 1940 – 23 March 2025) was a British social worker, first chief executive of Childline, child and adult welfare advocate and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Her illustrious career was almost de-railed, midway, in the aftermath of the death of a child on an 'At Risk register' in the statutory London authority where she had led the service, but she was exonerated in the subsequent inquiry, and was able later to diversify her contribution to numerous Third sector organisations and to public policy. Her discovery, through her work at Childline, of the suspected pervasiveness of child abuse, and specifically of child sexual abuse in society - and how it was then being fostered by prison life and burgeoning media - led her to call in 1990 for a Royal Commission to look into the sexual abuse of minors. It took another 25 years before a Public Inquiry, known as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, was set up by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, to look into the matter in England and Wales.