Natasha Singarayer
Care sector executive who championed the living wage
NATASHA SINGARAYER, who has died of cancer aged 49, was a leading figure in the care sector and, as chief operating officer, then chief executive of the Abbeyfield Society, one of the country’s top 10 care providers, championed the concept of a living wage for care staff; in 2014 she was successful in her application for the society to be supported by The Daily Telegraph’s Christmas Charity Appeal.
Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 26 1968, she grew up in the southern counties of England before attending St Michael’s Convent Grammar School for Girls in Finchley, then reading Biochemistry at King’s College, London. She converted to Law and after two years training with Anthony Collins Solicitors, where she met her husband, Justin Alford, she became an insolvency specialist, eventually joining Clifford Chance. She moved to the Washington Dc-based Crowell and Moring and, via a secondment, joined the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche. In 2005 she was appointed Head of UK Legal at the pharmaceutical company Bristol-myers Squibb, moving to live in Hampstead.
Committed to volunteering from childhood, she took a short career break in 2008 before joining Abbeyfield in 2009 as its General Counsel and Company Secretary.
Appalled by the plight of care workers struggling on the National Minimum Wage she worked with the Living Wage Foundation to promote its independently-calculated benchmark wage based on what employees and their families need to live, and took the campaign to Parliament. In 2015 she said: “We employ exceptional people who go the extra mile for our residents, and paying the Living Wage makes them feel valued.”
While many care home managers and owners objected, she demonstrated that the living wage did not have to cost anything because staff turnover and sickness levels came down. When the Government launched its own “National Living Wage”, however, she considered their adoption of the term to be disingenuous.
Natasha Singarayer cared deeply about improving the quality of life for older people. She spearheaded Abbeyfield’s “Golden Moments” project, which organises events, activities and initiatives that forge connections between care home residents and local communities. She also led the “Making Time” campaign, designed to empower carers and volunteers to spend more time with residents.
Natasha Singarayer was plain-speaking, elegant, and stylish, and delegates at the annual Abbeyfield Conferences adored her. In November 2016 she coordinated a reception hosted by the Prince of Wales at St James’s Palace, to mark the charity’s 60th anniversary.
She served on the board of Care England and latterly the board of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. Having already received an MBA from Imperial College London, at the time of her death she had been accepted onto a doctoral studies programme at King’s College London.
She was a leading light in her local community in Hampstead. In addition to leading singing at the family Mass at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, she was deeply inspired by her faith and initiated many parish events, including a black-tie dinner for 200 people for Aid to the Church in Need in Syria and an annual soup lunch for the Comboni Missionary Sisters’ nursery school in Bethany. She also assisted in marriage preparation, launched a children’s Bible story film club and planned the parish priest’s 40th ordination anniversary lunch for 150 people – bringing her charisma, charm and sense of fun to it all.
A governor at St Margaret’s School, Bushey, she was also involved in the work of the Charity Committee of St Anthony’s School, Hampstead, which her sons attended.
She is survived by her husband, Justin, and by their three sons and a daughter.