Rachael Dodgson

Rachael has worked in social care for over 35 years. She is a qualified social worker and has worked in a wide range of roles in the public, voluntary and for-profit sectors. She began her career aged 17, as a kitchen assistant in an older people’s care home before becoming a support worker with people with learning disabilities. She has also worked as a Registered Manager and Operations Director in services for adults with learning disabilities or autism.

She worked for Birmingham People First (the self-advocacy organization of people with learning disabilities) for 2 years, and then spent 13 years working for the social care regulator in several different posts. She began her time there as an inspector, and then User Involvement Manager where she led the first pilots of CQC involving people with lived experience in their inspections. Her final 3 years at CQC were spent as Head of Adult Social Care Policy leading on strategy, regulatory frameworks and policy, including the delivery of the ratings methodology for social care that was rolled out in 2015. She joined Dimensions as Managing Director in 2019 and became CEO in 2022.

Dimension is a large organization, supporting over 2,500 people across England and Wales, employer of 7,000 colleagues, working with 72 different local authorities.

Rachael is passionate about ensuring people have choice and control over their lives and delivering high quality support. She is strongly committed to engagement with the people Dimensions supports and their families.

Rachael is a strong advocate for both those who draw upon and work in social care. Dimensions has long campaigned for social care pay to be matched to NHS band 3 as a minimum and secured 88,000 signatures on a petition which was handed into Downing Street last year.

Every year Rachael spends a week as a support worker to ensure she remains grounded in the reality of what it means to be a support worker and all that the role entails.

Rachael was a Trustee for Keyring for 6 years and is a full member of the Dimensions UK Board as well as being the CEO.

As a potential Director of NCF Rachael would seek to support key areas of policy and practice, which she sees as more important now than ever given the change in Government and forthcoming legislation and policy around issues such as the Fair Pay Agreement, the Employment Rights Bill and the National Care Service.

Rachael is driven by her values of integrity, inclusion and social justice and is very aligned to the purpose of NCF.