Dame Jane Roberts was the leader of Camden Council from 2000 to 2005, and served for 16 years in all as a Camden councillor. She was chair of the Councillors Commission (2007–09) and was awarded a DBE for services to local government in 2004.

She is an associate fellow at Warwick Business School and has undertaken work for the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and the Local Government Leadership Centre.

Jane is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, and is now director of quality and performance for Islington Primary Care Trust. She has published a number of academic papers in paediatrics, psychiatry and child psychiatry and was co-editor and contributor to The Politics of Attachment (Free Association Books 1996).

She is director of the New Local Government Network, chair of the charity Parenting UK and a non-executive board member of Ofsted.