Fair Work Scotland Conference

Ruth Dukes is Professor of Labour Law in the School of Law and Principal Investigator on the research project The Rule of Law at Work: Employment Law Enforcement and Compliance, funded by the European Research Council. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an emeritus member of the Young Academy of Scotland. Since 2024, she is Vice President of the Institute of Employment Rights. Professor Dukes is the author of many works on labour and employment law, labour history and the sociology of law including The Labour Constitution: the Enduring Idea of Labour Law (Oxford University Press 2014) and, with Wolfgang Streeck, Democracy at Work: Contract, Status and Post-Industrial Justice (Polity 2023).

Anna Ritchie Allan is Executive Director of Close the Gap, Scotland’s policy advocacy organisation working on women’s labour market participation. She participates in a range of strategic working groups related to women and work and is Co-chair of the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls. She has significant governance experience as a trustee in the third sector, and her background is in research, labour rights, and violence against women.

Fiona is Chief People Officer for NHS Scotland, hosted in Scottish Government’s Directorate of Health and Social care, working to build strong links between Government, NHS Boards and the wider system to ensure our people priorities are aligned and our resources used to best effect.  Prior to taking up this role in May 2023, Fiona was Director of People & Culture at NHS Highland, driving the leadership, governance and culture transformation following the Sturrock report.  She joined the NHS after 20 years working in a range of people, change and leadership roles in the Financial Services and Pharmaceutical R&D sectors, and is passionate about compassionate leadership, encouraging challenge, valuing difference,  promoting kindness and respect and putting people not processes first.  Fiona is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and has a degree in HR from the University of Stirling.

Caroline has been the Workforce Lead for Scottish Care since April 2019 and my role is to promote and support the social care workforce.  This involves ensuring they have appropriate access to learning and development opportunities and that their voice is being heard by key social care stakeholders making policy decisions that impact on the sector.  Workforce Matters is a Scottish Government funded project that facilitates workforce groups and events aimed at supporting the upskilling, professionalisation and registration of the social care workforce.

In Caroline’s previous role she was a Registered Manager for an independent care at home organisation in Glasgow.  As a manager, Caroline was very familiar with the ongoing regulation of social services including workforce registration, qualifications and continuing professional development.

Katherine joined Scottish Autism as Director of People and Culture in 2020. She has over 20 years of strategic leadership experience in social care, the voluntary sector, social enterprise, consultancy and voluntary board roles.  Drawing from this range of experience she has developed expertise in leading and helping to shape people strategies and cultures, national workforce matters, collaborative working, anti-discriminatory practice, community development and organisational change with a focus on values.

Katherine is committed to empowering people and communities, and to active inclusion. Although she has worked with and in organisations providing support to autistic people for many years, Scottish Autism has been a learning ground for her in terms of establishing best practice in participation and inclusion of autistic people.  Mirroring the inclusive ethos of service delivery in the way that Scottish Autism welcomes and works with autistic people as colleagues, and supports the amplification of neurodivergent employee voice, ensures that the authenticity of our mission runs through all of our work.

Ruth Dukes is Professor of Labour Law in the School of Law and Principal Investigator on the research project The Rule of Law at Work: Employment Law Enforcement and Compliance, funded by the European Research Council. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an emeritus member of the Young Academy of Scotland. Since 2024, she is Vice President of the Institute of Employment Rights. Professor Dukes is the author of many works on labour and employment law, labour history and the sociology of law including The Labour Constitution: the Enduring Idea of Labour Law (Oxford University Press 2014) and, with Wolfgang Streeck, Democracy at Work: Contract, Status and Post-Industrial Justice (Polity 2023).