My work sits at the intersection of evidence, public services, and the people who’s lives are shaped by policy decisions.
Bad policy is rarely the work of bad people. It is usually the result of systems that make good decisions difficult.
I spent 15 years working inside local government, progressing from operational services into senior leadership. I worked across revenues, benefits, customer services, welfare, and public-service transformation, helping to interpret national policy and make it function locally.
It becomes a council tax bill, a benefit decision, a service someone can or cannot access, a letter through the door, or a conversation with somebody who does not understand why the system has treated them as it has.
Councils are expected to solve some of society’s most difficult problems, often with limited resources, fragmented responsibilities, outdated systems, and policies designed somewhere else.
Started working in Local Government
Senior leadership roles across public services
Master of Public Administration
University of York
Worked on major national research programmes
Founded Better Policy
Policy is rarely an inevitable or purely technical response to a problem. Every decision reflects choices about priorities, resources, responsibility, risk, and human behaviour. Those assumptions influence who benefits, who carries the burden, and should always be visible, questioned, and open to challenge.
Policy is rarely an inevitable or purely technical response to a problem. Every decision reflects choices about priorities, resources, responsibility, risk, and human behaviour. Those assumptions influence who benefits, who carries the burden, and should always be visible, questioned, and open to challenge.
People are not variables in a policy model. They have different lives, responsibilities, and barriers that shape how they experience systems. Good policy listens to the people who deliver it and those affected by it, treating lived experience as an essential part of better decision-making.
A policy succeeds only when people understand it, organisations can deliver it, and systems are able to support it. Implementation, communication, funding, and public response should be considered from the beginning, because the gap between intention and reality is one of the clearest measures of success.
Equal treatment can reinforce inequality when people begin from different positions. Fair policy considers need, barriers, resources, and the likely distribution of benefits and harm. Equality should shape decisions from the outset, not simply describe their consequences after they have been made.
Local decision-making can encourage innovation and responsiveness, but without adequate funding or clear national standards it can also create postcode lotteries and unequal outcomes. The right level for a decision depends on the problem, the evidence, and the rights that need protecting.
Policies, funding models, eligibility rules, and public institutions are the result of human choices, not fixed laws of nature. If they no longer serve people well, they can be changed. Better policy requires evidence, practical realism, and the imagination to believe a better system is possible.
I have more than 20 years’ experience working across local government, social policy, public services, research, and consultancy.
Before establishing Better Policy, I spent 15 years in local government, including senior roles across revenues and benefits, customer services, welfare, transformation, and service delivery. This gave me a detailed understanding of how legislation, finance, political decisions, administrative systems, and public behaviour interact in practice.
I have since worked with local authorities, national charities, think tanks, public bodies, and mission-led organisations. My work has included national research into unclaimed benefits and financial insecurity, council tax and debt, social-security policy, local welfare, regional inequality, service evaluation, policy design, and public-service reform.
Organisations I have worked with or contributed to projects for include the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, IPPR, Citizens Advice, the Nuffield Foundation, Policy in Practice, and councils across the UK.
Today, my work includes:
I also work as Policy Director with Visionary Network, supporting local authorities with policy design, research, consultation, and reform.
Over two decades of experience shaping, evaluating and explaining public policy.
Years working in policy and public services
Years in local government
Master of Public Administration
Research programmes and evaluations
Projects with councils, think tanks and public bodies
Followers engaging with policy content
Making local taxation fairer, more transparent and fit for the future.
Designing systems that support dignity, security and opportunity.
Understanding place-based disadvantages and building fairer opportunities.
Challenging bias in policy design, implementation and execution.
I work with organisations that want to understand a difficult problem, make a better decision, or challenge a system that is no longer working.
You may have a clearly defined commission, an early idea, a policy that needs evaluating, or simply a strong sense that the current approach is producing the wrong results.
That is enough to begin a conversation.