Valerie Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Valerie Georgina Howarth, Baroness Howarth of Breckland, (5 September 1940 – 23 March 2025) was a British social worker, first chief executive of Childline, child and adult welfare advocate and a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

Her illustrious career was almost de-railed, midway, in the aftermath of the death of a child on an 'At Risk register' in the statutory London authority where she had led the service, but she was exonerated in the subsequent inquiry, and was able later to diversify her contribution to numerous Third sector organisations and to public policy. Her discovery, through her work at Childline, of the suspected pervasiveness of child abuse, and specifically of child sexual abuse in society - and how it was then being fostered by prison life and burgeoning media - led her to call in 1990 for a Royal Commission to look into the sexual abuse of minors. It took another 25 years before a Public Inquiry, known as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, was set up by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, to look into the matter in England and Wales.

Background Valerie Howarth, the elder daughter of Sheffield steelworker, George and his wife Edith, was born early on during World War II. She had described her background as 'tough', On graduating, Valerie Howarth was hired by the charitable Family Welfare Association, FWA, to work with disorganised and poverty stricken families in Leicester, where violence was a common hallmark. The children's helpline phenomenon spread across the UK and was taken up in Commonwealth countries and in Europe. As a result, Howarth came into contact with myriad organisations, including the Faithful Foundation in an effort to prevent child abuse.

In relation to adult services, she was a campaigner to the last, and established the King’s Cross Homelessness Project, and played a pivotal role in the London Homelessness Forum. She championed for specialist housing for the elderly and was vice-chair of the National Care Standards Commission. She also served on the board of the Food Standards Agency.

Between 2016 and 2018 Howarth chaired the Safeguarding Committee of the Diocese of Norwich, her local see in Norfolk, where she had settled in a village and where she worshipped.

Personal life and death With two friends, in midlife, she acquired a cottage in Norfolk to which she and Barbara Lees would eventually retire. Howarth was a supporter of civil union and in 2006, she and Lees became civil partners. Barbara Lees died in 2021.

Honours Valerie Howarth was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for services to ChildLine On 25 June 2001, she was created a life peer with the title Baroness Howarth of Breckland, of Parson Cross in the County of South Yorkshire. In 2007, Baroness Howarth was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Open University in recognition of her decades long public service on behalf of children.