Position:

Director

Qualifications:

BSc (Hons) Sociology and Social Administration

Ph.D.

Oxford Scenarios Programme (2008)

Member :Social Research Association and Society of Education Consultants

Career History:

Skills and Experience:

Max has been has been working in consultancy since February 2001. He has diverse and extensive experience of strategic planning, partnership-working, research and project development across a wide range of activities, with a particular focus on children and young people’s services.

His particular skills include:

• Project leadership and development
• Partnership working
• Research and analysis
• Interim management
• Evaluation

For two years until June 2008, Max was interim Head of Business and Strategy in the Children and Young People’s Service in the London Borough of Newham. This was a second tier post reporting to the Executive Director for Children and Young People where his responsibilities include policy, planning, performance and information systems development. He led on the review of the Children and Young People’s plan, the Annual Performance Assessment, the children’s trust arrangements and the related commissioning developments. He is continuing to provide interim support in Newham as a strategic policy advisor in a new council-wide policy and performance service.

Since becoming a consultant in 2001, his work has included the following projects:

Strategic reviews and research

• Children and Young People’s Plan for London Borough of Newham
• Children’s Services Floor Target Action Plan for the City of Nottingham
• Community regeneration plans for Leeds Initiative / Leeds City Council
• Neighbourhood Renewal strategy for Northamptonshire County Council
• Review of community involvement in Wolverhampton for the city’s Strategic Partnership
• Review of 14-16 vocational education for South London Learning Partnership
• Development of a Toolkit for local education authorities on race equality in employment, published by the National Employers Organisation for School Teachers
• Strategic planning for London Borough of Islington Children’s Centres
• Strategic reviews of 16-19 education in the London Boroughs of Croydon, Southwark and Bromley
• Review of Adult basic skills and ESOL for the CrossRiver Learning Partnership, which covers the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley and Newham
• Strategic reviews of the future need for secondary school places and for primary school places for Thurrock Borough Council
• Assessment of evidence for a young adult’s education maintenance allowance for the Foyer Federation
• Development of an Adult Learning Plan for the London Borough of Bexley

Interim and project management

• Interim Head of Business and Strategy, Children and Young People’s Service, London Borough of Newham
• Contract migration for Learndirect Hubs to direct funding by the London East LSC
• Project management for the London Borough of Barnet’s Early Years service
• Interim co-ordinator, CrossRiver Learning Partnership
• Member of the interim management team for the London Borough of Haringey’s Education department provided by Capita plc Strategic Education Services

Evaluation

• Evaluation of the Bassetlaw Sure Start programme
• Evaluation of the Greenwich Community Learning Champions project
• Evaluation of the Lambeth College 14-16 Flexibility Project
• Evaluation of the London Language and Literacy Unit’s Good Practice in Basic Skills project
• Evaluation of the Mansfield SRB3 programme

Until February 2001, Max was Assistant Director for Lifelong Learning and Partnerships in Newham’s Education Department, where he had gained more than 10 years experience of working with local communities to develop both major projects and overall programmes. He had previously held a number of other senior management roles in Newham’s Education department since first joining them in 1989 and had been a member of the directorate management team there since 1993.

Before joining Newham, Max had lectured in social policy at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, as well as working on local projects in response to unemployment with the local authorities in both Wolverhampton and Dudley.