Collaborating Across the Public, Private and Civil Society Sectors to Deliver the Government Missions
Author WIG Date 19 Aug 2025
A recording of the WIG Collaborating Across the Public, Private and Civil Society Sectors to Deliver the Government Missions Panel.
Watch this cross-sector panel discussion featuring Becky Morrison, Director, Civil Society and Youth, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Thomas Lawson, Chief Executive, Turn2us, and James Rowlands, Senior Manager - Policy and Public Affairs, Nationwide Building Society.
Closed captions and transcripts are available.
Please note the Q&A is not included in this recording.
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Event Speakers
Becky Morrison has been Director for Civil Society and Youth at DCMS since 2020. She leads a team with responsibility for government policy on civil society - including funding streams, and legal and regulatory framework - as well as volunteering, tackling loneliness and out of school youth services. Prior to this role she worked at HM Treasury and DWP, on financial services and pensions policy, and before that held a range of roles in the public sector including at The Electoral Commission, the BBC and Transport for London
Thomas Lawson has worked in the social sector since the early 90s in international development at UNICEF, HIV at Terrence Higgins Trust and NAM (the charity behind aidsmap.com), criminal justice at Prisoners Abroad and in youth work at the award-winning Leap Confronting Conflict.
Recently he has been challenging the sector to address the barriers to success in the sector for people from Black, Asian and other minoritised ethnic communities. Tom has served on the boards of the charities: Centre for Youth Impact, Heart ‘n Soul and the National Peace Council. Until summer 2023, Tom was non-executive Chair of his family’s retail firm, Lawsons, and is the Chair for Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd, which is Turn2us’s wholly owned subsidiary care home business.
Thomas joined Turn2us as Chief Executive in March 2019. He became a member of the Elizabeth Finn Homes board in April 2019, before being appointed as its Chair in August 2021. Thomas is interested in how the social sector can work with, and challenge, state bodies and companies to create an inclusive society in which everyone can thrive. He is passionate about the role that people with lived expertise can play in the future of the leadership of the social sector and in addressing the complex problems we face.
James Rowlands is Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Nationwide Building Society, where he leads on external engagement on issues including housing, sustainability and social impact. Prior to joining Nationwide, he worked for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors supporting their policy development and external engagement in the UK, Hong Kong and India and as a researcher for the Crossbench group in the House of Lords. James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Public Affairs Group and ESG Expert Panel and Chair of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Excellence (CaCHE) Knowledge Exchange Hub. He is also a trustee of the Industry and Parliament Trust and chair of the IPT’s Executive Committee.