Redthread Chair, Paula McDonald joins London Policing Board

September 25th, 2023

We are delighted to announce that Paula McDonald CBE, Redthread’s Chair of Trustees, has been selected to join the London Policing Board (LPB). The LPB has been established in direct response to Casey Review recommendations into the culture and standards of the Metropolitan Police Service and will be chaired by Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London.

Paula joins a prestigious and esteemed panel of experts who comprise the LPB. Following Baroness Casey’s recommendation the LPB will “oversee and scrutinise the changes needed and ensure full transparency and accountability to Londoners, while maintaining the operational independence of the Commissioner.”

Other members of the board include: Sayce Holmes-Lewis – Founder & CEO of Mentivity; Stuart Lawrence – Educator, author, and activist who promotes equality, diversity, justice and inclusion in education and society and Andrea Simon – Director, End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition and co-Chair of the London VAWG Board.

Paula is a former senior civil servant who has led major policy and legislative reform for the public sector workforce and public body governance, and has a background in the voluntary sector and local government. Alongside her role at Redthread, she is also a trustee of New Horizon Youth Centre, a Judicial Appointments Commission panel chair and an Adjudicator and panel chair for Social Work England. She has been a school governor and federation chair, and a Non-Executive Director for a Children’s Social Services Trust and a University Hospital Trust.

Paula McDonald CBE said: “I’m delighted to be appointed as a member of the London policing board. As a board, we do not underestimate the challenge we are undertaking, but MOPAC has assembled a group of experts with the right talent, expertise and commitment to meet it. My focus will be to bring the experiences of working with vulnerable young people, and of workforce and governance reform, to the table. We all want an effective, responsive, fair and sensitive police service we can trust and have confidence in. I look forward to working with my LPB colleagues, MOPAC and the Commissioner in helping to achieve this for all Londoners.”

Baroness Dame Louise Casey said: The remit of the board will be in “helping drive the changes needed will be pivotal to delivering a police service that Londoners and officers who put themselves at risk in order to protect the rest of us can be proud of.”

As Chair of the Board of Trustees, Paula advocates for the issues that matter deeply to Redthread and champions those in many influencing spaces – especially in relation to the role of the Met in taking a trauma-informed, child-first approach to improve outcomes for the children and young people we work with.

She is committed to ensuring that the reform needed is carried out so that the Met becomes an effective and sensitive police service which earns the trust and confidences of all Londoners, and is so vital for the work that we do with young people.