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About me

I am a policy advisor and writer, with over two decades experience working in local government and the public and voluntary sectors. I also contribute to public discussions on everything from welfare and social care to housing and community. I have written for publications including the Guardian, Independent, Huffington Post, International Business Times, The MJ , Community Care and spiked. I have occasionally featured as a commentator on TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC1’s Sunday Morning Live, and Ireland’s Newstalk. I am contributing co-editor of The Future of Community (Pluto, 2008) and a contributor to The Future of the Welfare State (Axess, 2017).

I have been working in policy and engagement roles since the latter half of the 1990s. These have predominantly been in local government, particularly children’s services, adult social care and in the health service. After a period working for local authorities in Essex and Kent, I took on a variety of positions across London. My first policy role was in Hackney (2003-08). I then managed Haringey’s adult services policy team (2008-11), and set up and managed the borough’s Neighbourhoods Connect project (2011-13).

I was commissioned to write Haringey Council’s response to the government’s Caring for our Future consultation (2013), and appointed Citizen Engagement Lead for Southwark and Lambeth Integrated Care (2014-16). I was commissioned by Barking, Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge Transforming Care Partnership to write their Tri-Borough Transforming Care Plan (2016). I became Policy and Inspection Consultant for children’s services in Haringey (2016-17) and Policy Consultant for Adult Services in Havering (2018-19). After a period homeschooling my son, I was appointed Interim Policy Lead for children’s services in Lambeth (2021).