Sarah Spencer is Deputy Director at COMPAS. Her particular interest is in migrant integration and equality issues and in the policy making process. She is Chair of the Equality and Diversity Forum, the network of equality and human rights organisations, and a Visiting Professor at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.
Sarah was Deputy Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, where she oversaw its work in the public sector, and is a former General Secretary of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties). Sarah was also a programme director at the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr).
Sarah is currently serving on the advisory group to the Government Equality Office (GEO) on the forthcoming Equality Bill. She was formerly a member of the Communities and Local Government Taskgroup on Gypsies and Travellers; the Cabinet Office reference group on the equality review; the Home Office Taskforce on the Human Rights Act and the DTI Taskforce on the Commission on Equality and Human Rights. She currently sits on advisory committees for a number of non governmental bodies, including the British Institute of Human Rights, and is an advisor to the Atlantic Philanthropies in Dublin. In 2007, Sarah Spencer was awarded a CBE for services to equal opportunities and human rights.
Selected Publications
The Migration Debate, Policy Press, forthcoming 2010
‘Citizenship, the UK experience’, Canadian Diversité, Vol 6:4, Autumn 2008
‘Equality and Human Rights Commission: A decade in the making’, The Political Quarterly, Vol. 79, No 1, January-March 2008 Link to Journal
Equality and Diversity in Jobs and Services: City policies for migrants in Europe, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2008
Migrants’ Lives beyond the work place: the experiences of East and Central Europeans in the UK, co-author, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007 Click here for the full report
Social integration of migrants in Europe, a literature review, co-authored, OECD, 2007. Click here for more details.
‘Immigration’ in Seldon, A, Blair’s Britain 1997-2007, Cambridge University Press, 2007 Click here for the chapter