Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949)
/ref> was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the

National Union of Public Employees The National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) was a British trade union which existed between 1908 and 1993. It represented public sector workers in local government, the Health Service, universities, and water authorities. History The union w ...

. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sector and the field of training and education.

History

The youngest of three sisters from a close and happy though often poor working-class Jewish family and a graduate in English of the

University of Wales, Lampeter University of Wales, Lampeter ( cy, Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan) was a university in Lampeter, Wales. Founded in 1822, and incorporated by royal charter in 1828, it was the oldest Academic degree, degree awarding institution in Wale ...

, Slipman went on to take a postgraduate course at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, from where she was elected NUS vice president in 1974, and a PGCE at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. A member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

, she was elected President of the NUS on the

Broad Left The Broad Left was a political faction within the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom (NUS) during the 1970s. It consisted of a working relationship between the Labour Party, the Liberal Party, Plaid Cymru, the Communist Party of ...

ticket. She subsequently served as a member of the executive committee of the Communist Party before joining the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

as a founder member in 1981. Supported by

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party (UK), Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 t ...

, Slipman stood for the SDP in the working-class constituencies of

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

in 1983 and Hayes & Harlington in 1987, coming third on both occasions. In the late 1970s Slipman served as an executive member of the

National Council for Civil Liberties Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes hu ...

. Between 1986 and 1995 she was Director of the National Council for One Parent Families which she rallied in support of the Conservative Government's

Child Support Agency The Child Support Agency (CSA) was a delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions (Child Maintenance Group) in Great Britain and the former Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland. Launched on 5 April 1993, the CSA was to ...

. Slipman went on to run the London TEC Council (the co-ordinating organisation for the

Training and Enterprise Council Training and enterprise councils (TECs) were local bodies established in England and Wales in the early 1990s to administer publicly funded training programmes, replacing the former Manpower Services Commission. The first group of 19 TECs were lau ...

s in London. From 1992 she was a member of the Working Group on Women's Issues to the

Secretary of State for Employment The Secretary of State for Employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995 it was merged with Secretary of State for Education to make the Secretary of State for Education and Employment. In 2001 the employment functions w ...

. She has also written a number of books aimed at improving the situation of women, and single parents, in the workplace. In 1994 Slipman received an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

Doctor of Arts The Doctor of Arts (D.A.; occasionally D.Arts or Art.D. from the Latin ''artium doctor'') is a discipline-based terminal doctoral degree that was originally conceived and designed to be an alternative to the traditional research-based Doctor of ...

from

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

. She was awarded an OBE in the

1994 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1994 were appointments by most of the sixteen Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other c ...

. In 1998, Slipman became Director of Environmental and Social Responsibility for the National Lottery operators,

Camelot Group The Camelot Group is the operator of the UK National Lottery whose current franchise period started in 2009 and runs until February 2024. It has also operated the Illinois State Lottery in the state of Illinois in the United States since 2018 ...

, where she stayed until 2003. She then moved to become Chairman of the UK's

Financial Ombudsman Service The Financial Ombudsman Service is an ombudsman in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2000, and given statutory powers in 2001 by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, to help settle disputes between consumers and UK-based bus ...

. In 2005 she became a director of the Foundation Trust Network, working with foundation hospitals within the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

References

List of NUS presidents

Sue Slipman appointed chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service
2003.
Appointed director of Foundation Trust Network
- PDF link {{DEFAULTSORT:Slipman, Sue Alumni of the University of Wales, Lampeter Presidents of the National Union of Students (United Kingdom) Communist Party of Great Britain members Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Living people Jewish British politicians 1949 births National Council for Civil Liberties people Alumni of the University of Leeds People associated with Oxford Brookes University