Representing the rural villages East of Chorley on the County Council, Pat is a devoted Northern and Lancastrian deeply committed to improving services for vulnerable people. Her earliest visits to what is now her ward were on the back of her Grandfather's horse and cart selling vegetables to the farms in Belmont, Abbey Village and Edgworth but has enjoyed a lifetime of opportunities to speak for the North in the corridors of power.
Personal
Born in Bolton, grew up in Manchester till the Blitz and was evacuated to Bolton and later educated at Mount St Joseph Convent School there and at Manchester University, where she read English and History, did a PGCE (and later in the late 60s -with four small children – a BA (Econ) "for fun"), was Union President and Vice President of the NUS.
Her mother died in 1945 after a long illness and she undertook with her father the care of her younger brother and sister whilst still at school .In the Sixth Form she took part in a long running monthly Current Affairs programme on Children's Hour with Harry Ree, OSE hero and later Professor in York University. At the University she became engaged to Michael Harrison, the President of the Faculty of Technology Union who was killed in 1954 flying as a National Service pilot and recently worked along side the Armed Forces Memorial Trust to secure and publicise the building of the National Memorial at Alrewas opened by the Queen in 2008
Professional Experience
She taught in secondary schools in Bolton, Hayward School, English Martyrs and then her own former school Mount St Joseph .Whilst there she won an English Speaking Union Scholarship to the USA to teach and study in Syracuse University. After the birth of her children she returned to lecturing at Bolton Institute of Education, now the University of Bolton, teaching Government and later part time at John Rigby College in Orrel .The need to respond to the growing demands of her daughter Judith in the absence then of relevant care facilities forced her to give up full time teaching
She married Leo Case C.Eng,FRICS,FRICE,FRTPI, FIMunE in 1961who worked in Local Government and at the Housing Corporation .They had four children, Michael now an Accountant, Rachel who works for the NSPCC and Magdalen who is a Family Law Barrister in Manchester who between them have nine children but it was the very severe handicaps of their second child Judith as well as that early experience working to support her father which led her back into local government and pressure groups for disabled children . Leo died suddenly in 1994.
Political Activity
Her interest in politics was initially stimulated by her membership of the Catholic organisation, Young Christian Students and she was elected to Turton Urban District Council at 24, became Chair of the North West Area Young Conservatives and then Vice Chair of the National YC movement. She fought Harold Lever (unsuccessfully) in Cheetham, Manchester as the youngest Parliamentary Candidate in 1959.The birth of Judith put an end to consideration of fighting a parliamentary seat
Frustrated by the inadequate provision for children with learning disabilities, she and Leo became involved with their local Mencap but decided that only with changes in legislation and more relevant practices in local authorities would the provision improve. She won a seat on Chorley Borough Council in 1976, surprisingly on the retirement through illness of the leader became its Leader after 9 months, promptly lost her seat in a swing in 1978 but had meanwhile been elected to Lancashire County Council in 1977 and for the next four years was Chair of Further Education.
Control of the County Council passed to Labour in 1981. She was in turn opposition Spokesperson on Education and Social Services, Deputy and then Leader of the Conservative Group from 1983 to 1997 and LCC Chairman in 1985/6 and sat on the Association of County Councils' Education Committee for most of that period and gave evidence to 3 Parliamentary Select committees on Special Education .Losing her seat in 1997 she worked for Dame Denise Platt's Social Services Inspectorate as a Lay Assessor (Carer) for three years inspecting almost every authority in the North West , gaining significant experience in the workings of Social Services Departments .
She was a long serving member of the Lancashire Police Committee and moved onto the newly established Lancashire Police Authority till 1997
She regained her LCC seat in 2001 but had in '98 won a seat on the Chorley Council representing her local villages, became Deputy Leader in 2000 and when Chorley became Conservative control led, she served in the Cabinet with the Policy, Performance and Partnership portfolio which she resigned in 2009 in the expectation that the control of the County would change at the June election .In the county she chaired the Children and Young People O&S committee and was the party spokesperson in the shadow cabinet.
Regionally
She has served on the Central Lancashire Development Corporation (NewTown) as the LCC Conservative representative until its demise, was appointed by the Secretary of State to the North Western Regional Health Authority through the 80's to 1990 having being involved as a parent in the seminal work of the NW in the dissolution of their Hospitals for the "Mentally Handicapped" the term then used and the creation of the well documented policy of group homes which was then taken up by all RHAs, the Courts of Manchester University and Lancaster University , was Deputy Chair of Preston Polytechnic and saw it into incorporation. She co chaired with John Gunnel MP and later Graham Stringer, the then leader of Manchester City council the North of England Consortium established on an all authority and all party basis to lobby on behalf of the North on issues around the development of Stansted, the development of the Euro Tunnel and the need for better rail links to the NW , clerked in turn by Sir Roger Taylor and later Sir Howard Bernstein
Nationally
Having served on local Mental Health Tribunals from 1978, she was invited to sit on the Council on Tribunals which she did for 6 years, chairing the Education Appeals Sub committee which established the newly created Special Education Appeals on which at the time Councillors sat .With changes in the legislation around social security payments to people with disabilities which Mencap had lobbied powerfully to include adults and children with learning disabilities , the Disability Allowance and Attendance Allowance Board was created and Nick Scott the Minister for Disabled People invited her to serve on that which she did for 8 years and on the North West group of Disability Appeal Tribunals on which she served as a lay member until 2004. She chaired the GOLD project (Growing Old with Learning Difficulties) established by the Mental Health Association and is the LGA observer on the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (B AAF )
National Local Government
As the LGA was established, Pat served on the Social Services Executive from 1998 as a District councillor and then on the restructured Children and Young People Board from its creation to date and is also member of the Strategy and Finance Board of the LGA. For a number of years she served as an elected member of the Conservative Councillors' Association Executive as a representative of county councils but did not stand for re-election in the expectation of having less time available
Inspection Experience
She served as a lay Assessor for the Social Services Inspectorate between 1997 and 2001 and did 14 inspections in the North West as well as speaking about the role of lay assessors at national training days .She did 3 IDeA Peer Group Reviews in Basingstoke, Spelthorne and Barnsley
Business Experience
She was a co director of 2 family companies, managing a property portfolio and did so for 8 years after her husband's death in order to wind them up and distribute the value of the shares to the children
Local and Hobbies
She chaired the school attended by her daughter, Mayfield School, Chorley for 25 years and was a Foundation Governor of the local Catholic Primary, St Joseph's Anderton both of which she gave up when she became Cabinet Member for Schools and Children in June 2009. She chaired both the Chorley Lancashire Locals and the Chorley Locality Children's Trust Partnership again till she resigned to avoid a clash of interests in June 2009.She is a Trustee of the Rivington Heritage Trust: she is a member of the Chorley Local Partnership .Before the limitation of councillors on governing Bodies she was a Governor of St Michaels, Holy Cross and Albany High Schools in Chorley
She served on the Catholic Bishops Commission on Public Life for a number of years and was the first Woman Governor of Stonyhurst College.
Avid reader of crime, poetry and historical novels: good cook and of necessity, gardener of nearly five acres, enjoys decorating but most important of all besotted grandmother of eight little boys and one girl!