The Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 6 September 2016 | |
| Director of theNumber 10 Policy Unit | |
| In office 21 May 2015 – 13 July 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Jo Johnson |
| Succeeded by | John Godfrey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hilary Camilla Cavendish (1968-08-20)20 August 1968 (age 57) |
| Party | Non-affiliated(since December 2016) Conservative(formerly) |
| Spouse | Huw van Steenis |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Richard Cavendish J.M. Cavendish |
| Alma mater | Brasenose College, Oxford (PPE) Harvard University (MPA) |
Hilary Camilla Cavendish, Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice (born 20 August 1968) is a Britishjournalist, contributing editor and columnist atThe Financial Times, senior fellow at Harvard University[1][2] and former director of policy forPrime MinisterDavid Cameron. Cavendish became aConservative Member of theHouse of Lords inCameron's resignation honours, but resigned the party whip in December 2016 to sit as a non-affiliated peer.[3]
Cavendish was educated atPutney High School and graduated fromBrasenose College, Oxford[4] in 1989 with a first-class degree inphilosophy, politics and economics. At university, she was a contemporary ofDavid Cameron,[5]Andrew Feldman,Guy Spier andAmanda Pullinger andBill O'Chee. She was aKennedy Scholar for two years at theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government atHarvard University, gaining the degree ofMaster of Public Administration (MPA).
From 2002 until 2012 she worked atThe Times, where she wasassociate editor,columnist and in 2010chief leader writer.[6]
She then moved toThe Sunday Times from 2012 to May 2015. She has worked as aMcKinsey management consultant, an aid worker[citation needed], and as an aide to the CEO ofPearson plc.[7]
She helped to found the lobby groupLondon First, and was the first CEO of the not-for-profit trust South Bank Employers' Group, which masterminded the regeneration of the South Bank of the Thames in the late 1990s.[8][9]
From May 2015 to July 2016, Cavendish was head of the prime minister'spolicy unit at No10 Downing Street in succession toJo Johnson.[5][10] Amongst initiatives, Cavendish is credited with persuading the prime Minister and his chancellor about the benefits of a sugar tax; she said that the "link between sugary drinks and obesity are clear and stark".[11] The Soft Drinks Industry Levy came into force in April 2018.[12][1]
HarperCollins published Cavendish's first book,Extra Time, in May 2019.[13]
Cavendish wasHarold Wincott Senior Financial Journalist of the Year 2012.[14]
She was awarded the 2008Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism[15] and in 2009 the "Campaigning Journalist of the Year" at theBritish Press Awards. About her prize for Campaigning Journalist of the Year, the judges said: "A good newspaper campaign should be about an issue of serious injustice and strong public interest. A great one will be unexpected, one in which the outcome is not a done deal and which will in the end effect serious change. This campaign does that."[16][non-primary source needed]
Cavendish won the awards for her articles inThe Times about the child protection injustices which she claimed resulted from theChildren Act 1989 and the practices of family courts dealing with child protection issues. The campaign convinced theSecretary of State for JusticeJack Straw to introduce legislation which opened the family courts to the media in 2009.[17]
She was reckoned by theHealth Service Journal to be the 85th-most influential person in the English NHS in 2015.[18]
Cavendish was ranked the fifth-most influential woman in the UK in theBBC Radio 4Woman’s Hour 2015 Power List.[19]
Cavendish became a trustee of the think-tankPolicy Exchange in 2002 and was a trustee of the Thames Festival Trust between 2000 and 2007.[20]On 3 June 2013, she was appointed as a board member for theCare Quality Commission.[21]
In 2013,Jeremy Hunt,Secretary of State for Health, asked Camilla Cavendish to lead "An Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and Support Workers in the NHS and social care settings". The Cavendish Review[22] was published in July 2013. Among the recommendations were “Common training standards across health and social care", and a new ‘Certificate of Fundamental Care’, written in language that is meaningful to patients and the public. For the first time, this would link healthcare assistant training to nurse training.[23] In 2013, Cavendish also became a trustee of the Foundation Years Trust chaired byFrank Field MP.[24]
She was nominated for alife peerage as part ofDavid Cameron'sResignation Honours and was createdBaroness Cavendish of Little Venice, ofMells in theCounty of Somerset, on 6 September 2016.[25][26] After gaining an unidentified post that required her to sever any party links, she resigned the Conservative whip in December 2016 to sit in theHouse of Lords as a non-affiliated peer.[3] She became a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4'sToday programme in 2017.
Cavendish was appointed chair of Frontline in 2017.[27]
In 2018, she was appointed senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government,Harvard Kennedy School.[1][2]
In 2020, Cavendish was called back into government as an adviser to the Department of Health, and led an internal review of the future of social care and health reform.[28]
Cavendish is married to the financierHuw van Steenis, and they have three children.[29]
Her father was historianRichard Cavendish.[30]
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