Andrea King
I have worked in children’s services for almost twenty years, starting in the voluntary sector, working for central government and providing leadership in Local Authorities, most recently as Assistant Director for Safeguarding and Prevention.
I am passionate about improving outcomes for those with little voice or power, who experience adversity, inequality or harm. I specialise in innovation and building sustainable improvement, by listening with care to the expertise and insight of local people. My approach is primarily restorative. I seek first to understand others, to understand their pressures, priorities, hopes and fears. I am often asked to facilitate difficult conversations using this approach.
I am a proud member of Windsor Baptist Church and I am reading Theology at Regents Park College (Oxford University), as an Independent Minister in Training.
In order to study I now work part-time. This includes for NHS England, providing leadership support to the most senior partnership leaders, to improve or re-design mental health services for children and young people in the South East and South West. I am an Associate for Research in Practice, which currently involves chairing a series of national conferences for the Department for Education and providing strategic management support for national pilot projects. I provide safeguarding consultancy in various parts of the country to partnership leaders, where leadership support is needed to improve safeguarding arrangements; or where learning is sought from complex, and often emotive, situations.