Speaker Biographies

David Brown – Executive Director Children’s Services, Walsall MBCDavid began his teaching career as a Lecturer in Economics and Sociology in Birmingham and London having gained his MA in Economics at Cambridge University in the early 1980s. He soon moved to work in city comprehensive schools following his passion for Humanities teaching and then David became Headteacher of Hamstead Hall School in Handsworth in 1998. Working with a committed team of staff they built a very successful school which in 2003 was the top mixed specialist school for value added in England and one of the highest achieving schools for African-Caribbean students. David was then asked to intervene in another struggling school in addition to Hamstead Hall where he remained until he became the first Executive Head to move into the newly formed Director of Children’s Service’s role in 2005. Walsall is now regarded as a good children’s services authority with excellent partnership leadership and strong work in social care. As part of the partnership Walsall became the fastest improving local authority for primary results in 2008 since the intervention in Walsall in 2001.David has written on school leadership and has just published a chapter of a book on integrated working and leadership in the public sector. He is currently supporting two other local authorities and retains a strong belief in developing system leadership.

Professor Sir Geoff HamptonProfessor Sir Geoff began his career in education at the Pensnett School, Dudley, having trained as a teacher at King Alfred's College, Winchester. He gained a BEd at the University of Southampton, and an MEd from the University of Birmingham. Southampton University awarded him an honorary doctorate for education in 2003. In 1998 he received a Knighthood in recognition of his services to education. He was the outright winner of the KPMG National Awards for Work in the Public Sector in 2004; this was followed by KPMG selecting him as their inaugural Chair of Education Leadership. Prior to joining the University Executive, Professor Sir Geoff was Dean of the University's successful School of Education based at the Walsall Campus. Before coming to the University, Professor Sir Geoff already had considerable experience throughout the whole education sector - as a teacher, deputy head teacher, headteacher, adult education lecturer and visiting university lecturer. 

Speaker Biographies

Tom RahillyTom Rahilly is Head of delivery at the Child Poverty Unit - the joint DCSF, DWP and HM Treasury unit responsible for the government's target to eradicate child poverty by 2020. He is responsible for the unit's work to support local authorities and their delivery partners in their work to tackle child poverty, including: support for Local Area Agreements and work with the Government Offices; the Government's programme of child poverty pilots which are developing and testing new approaches to tackling child poverty; and developing information on effective practice. He is also responsible for the management of the child poverty Bill which will put the government's commitment on a statutory basis, creating the legal framework for the eradication of child poverty by 2020.

Norma Baldwin – Professor Emiritus, Norma Baldwin is Professor of Child Care and Protection (emerita) at theUniversity of Dundee and Honorary Professor at the University of Warwick. She is based in the Social Dimensions of Health Institute(Universities of Dundee and St. Andrews). She is Chair of the Trustees of Circle, [formerly FSU Scotland] a charity supporting some of the most marginalised families in Scotland. Her research interests are in the links between disadvantage and harm to children and in population wide and individualised assessments of need and risk. She has been involved in policy and practice developments in Scotland and England concerned with the promotion of family support and preventive services and community safety. Her work is committed to partnership models, working across disciplines and services, with families and local groups, to draw on the resources within communities. She has been engaged in research with local and national government and voluntary organisations in England and Scotland, working to develop the conditions in which children and families can thrive and risks of harm can be reduced. After training as a probation officer she worked in probation in Manchester and Salford before moving into social services in Warwickshire, then to Warwick and Dundee Universities. Recent publications include: Baldwin N (forthcoming: 2009) Laying the foundations for health in childhood, in (eds) Bywaters P. McLeod E. Napier L . Social Work and Global Health Inequalities. Bristol Policy Press.Taylor J. Baldwin N. Spencer N ( 2008)

Speaker Biographies

Professor Caroline Victoria GippsVice-Chancellor, University of WolverhamptonCaroline Gipps trained as a primary school teacher and psychometrician before entering a career in research. She worked at the National Children’s Bureau, the National Foundation for Educational Research and at the University of British Columbia, Canada before joining the Institute of Education, University of London (IoE). As a researcher, Professor of Education and then Dean of Research, Caroline spent 19 years at the IoE. She moved to Kingston University in 1999. As Deputy Vice-Chancellor she had responsibility for the strategic management of the academic profile of the University, links with St George’s Hospital Medical School and the developing three-way strategic alliance including Royal Holloway University of London. She moved to be Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton in 2005.

Richard Wilkinson, Professor EmiritusTrained first in economic history and then in epidemiology, Richard Wilkinson worked briefly in the National Health Service before taking up a research career working on health inequalities and the social determinants of health. He is now Emeritus Professor of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and honorary professor at University College London and at the University of York.

Working in the field for over 30 years, Richard has played a formative role in research and public awareness of health inequalities and the social determinants of health. Since persuading the UK Secretary of State to set up the working party which produced the Black Report on Health Inequalities published in 1980, he has pioneered research on the health and social effects of income inequality.  His most recent book is The Impact of Inequality: how to make sick societies healthier (Routledge 2005).

Speaker Biographies

Claire Maund

Claire describes herself as a “single Mum with three ‘wicked’ kids”. She currently works as a chef at Sure Start Darlaston. In her own words, her involvement with Sure Start began as a reluctant service user. In other establishments she would have been dismissed as “hard to reach” but SureS tart staff were persistent in securing her engagement. Subsequently, she has completed a course in photography and achieved level 2 Food Hygiene and NVQ level 3 Child Care and is currently undertaking a course in Basic Counselling Skills. She ranks her main interest now as being a parent to her three children. Of her own admission that would not always have been the case.Claire speaks about child poverty from the perspective of personal experience supplemented by what she has learned from the other Sure Start parents she now befriends. She says, “if we are serious about reducing child poverty we must first support parents who, in the past, we have failed to reach”.

Jan PageJan is an independent Education Consultant who was Head Teacher of a primary school in a deprived ward in Dudley Local authority, in the Black Country for seven years; her school became renowned for its work with the “You Can Do It” programme and community engagement. She currently works with the National College of School Leadership in the West Midlands as a Leadership Network Regional Leader.Jan is an accredited NCSL coach working with senior leaders on the NPQH programme. She specialises in leadership training and development at middle and senior management level and this work is now part of NCSL development work around Leadership Hubs.Jan is passionate about collaborative working and leadership development. She has been instrumental in developing a model of Partnered Learning Walks bringing together schools and partners in multi-agency working. She works for the TDA programme delivery team in the West Midlands, with the Black Country Challenge within HTi and with the Black Country Children’s Services Improvement Partnership.