Susan Daniels has been Chief Executive of the National Deaf Children's Society since 1992, and has seen the charity grow from an income of £1 million in 1992 to over £24 million in 2018/19. Before joining the National Deaf Children's Society, Susan was Head of Education, Employment and Training and then Head of Policy and Research at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, (now Action on Hearing Loss). In 2006, she was awarded an OBE for services to deaf children and their families.
Susan was a Commissioner of the Disability Rights Commission from 2003 until its merger with the Commission for Equality and Human Rights at the end of September 2007. Until November 2010 she was Chair of the UK Council on Deafness, the umbrella body for all organisations working in the field of deafness, which provides information, advice and support to member organisations and represents the views of the sector to government and policy makers.
Susan is currently Chair of the NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme Quality Assurance Advisory Group, which monitors the delivery of the programme across hospitals in England.
Susan is Chair of Groundbreakers, an informal networking group for women leaders in the voluntary sector, which includes Chief Executives from organisations which range in profile from large national and international to smaller local and community based.
Susan is also a member of the BBC Appeals Advisory Committee which is responsible for all policy matters relating to all BBC related charity appeals, the overview of specific fund-raising projects such as Children in Need, Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day etc. and the allocation of broadcasting time for individual charity appeals on BBC channels. Susan looks forward to joining the Disabled Students Commission and being able to draw on her understanding of the needs and aspirations of disabled students and her experience of developing policy and improving practice in this field. She hopes to be able to positively impact on disabled students’ experience of accessing and progressing through higher education and tackling the attainment gap between disabled and non-disabled students.
