CWDC Board members
Meet the Board...
Michael Leadbetter – Chair, CWDC
Michael was previously Director of Social Services in Tameside and Essex for 17 years. He now runs Leadbetter Limited, offering consultancy and interim management in the field of social care and health services.
He was President of The Association of Directors of Social Services 2002-03. Michael has an M.A. from Manchester University majoring in psychotherapy and neurolinguistic programming.
He played rugby for Lancashire, Northwest Counties and England
Jane Haywood – Chief Executive, CWDC
Jane has substantial experience in the children and youth field with a particular interest in learning disability, volunteering, play and youth work.
She has been an active volunteer since 1970 and is the joint organiser of a small voluntary organisation that provides a residential summer camp for children aged 9 – 12 in Kirklees.
Jane is also a school governor at a comprehensive school and has an MA in post-16 Education and Training. She was awarded an MBE for her work with young people in 2005
Dorit Braun
Dorit is currently Chief Executive of Parentline Plus, a national charity that reaches 500,000 parents and carers a year. She began her career working with teachers and families, developing training and running projects that helped vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people and their families.
She worked for Northamptonshire Health Authority before becoming Chief Executive of the National Stepfamily Association. This merged with Parentline UK and Parent Network to form Parentline Plus in 1999.
Dorit is also Chair of the Hibiscus / Female Prisoners Welfare Project and on the DCSF Stakeholder Board for the implementation of the ECM Change Programme. She was awarded an OBE in 2000 for services to parenting.
Howard Cooper
Howard is Director of Children’s Services at Wirral Local Authority. Howard has a strong background in education and served as head teacher of an 11 to 18 school before moving to Liverpool City Council as Assistant Executive Director for School Effectiveness.
In 2002, Howard was appointed to Wirral as Director of Education and Cultural Services, and since 2006 as Director of Children’s Services. He chairs the Local Safeguarding Children Board and the Youth Justice Board and has had regional involvement in the Child Health Programme and in MAPPA.
He has had very significant involvement in the introduction and development of learning mentors in Merseyside and in the work of the Connexions service. Howard is a national council member of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and chairs its Policy Committee for Workforce Development.
Jane Held
Jane has 29 years of experience in social work. For 15 years she worked directly with looked-after children in a variety of settings, managing a range of children’s residential foster and adoption services.
She continued to specialise in children’s services and held a number of senior management posts most recently as Director of Social Services in the London Borough of Camden. During that period she was chair of the ADSS Children and Family Committee.
She now runs her own consultancy and has worked on a range of projects relating to Every Child Matters and other key parts of children’s policy. She is also a member of an LGA led and DCFS sponsored programme team looking at what works in narrowing the gap between vulnerable children and all children.
Nigel Pursey – Chair of Audit Committee
Nigel has spent his career in local government, beginning at Cheshire County Council, working for the Mid Glamorgan and Wiltshire County Councils before becoming County Treasurer at Shropshire County Council in 1992.
In 1997 he became Chief Executive of Shropshire and then moved to Staffordshire County Council as Chief Executive in 2003 where he was responsible for over 30,000 employees and a revenue budget of almost £1 billion.
He took early retirement in October 2007, and is now pursuing a mixture of interim management, consultancy and Board roles.
He has taken a strong interest in the development of services for young people, and while Staffordshire’s Chief Executive he also chaired the Youth Offending Service management board. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
Jon Richards
Jon is Senior National Officer in UNISON’s Education Services Group. UNISON is the largest education union in the UK with over 300,000 members working in children’s services, schools, LEAs, FE and Sixth Form Colleges, universities and Connexions / careers settings. Jon leads for UNISON on Children’s Workforce Policy and extended services.
He sits on the boards of the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC), the Council for Awards in Children’s Care and Education (CACHE) and Youth Reach (local community provider of emergency night stops, counselling, information and support services for young people in Greenwich and Lewisham).
He previously worked in UNISON’s Health Section and was one of the lead negotiators for the NHS pay system 'Agenda for Change'. Before UNISON he worked for the British Association of Occupational Therapists and the London Borough of Camden's HIV unit.
Jonathan Vickers
Jonathan has spent much of his career in the oil and chemicals industries, working for Royal Dutch Shell to 1991, and then for Burmah Castrol to 2001.
Since then he has undertaken a broad range of Non Executive roles, with organisations such as NHS South West Strategic Health Authority, the Fire Service College, Government Office for the South West, and Connexions.
He has also been a school governor for a number of years.