Thanks for visiting Maggie Atkinson Consulting Ltd. Maggie can support and help you to deliver impactful change, by adding capacity to your thinking, planning, decision making and actions. Maggie has a positive 42-year track record, starting out as a successful teacher and manager, then working as an inspector, trainer, adviser, schools and service improver. She went on to be a Director of Children's Services, one of the first in that vital role. In 2008-09 she was the first solo president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS.) She chaired government's National Children's Workforce Strategy Group in 2008-10. 

From 2010-2015 , Maggie was Children's Commissioner for England, enhancing this vital role's impact whilst steering reforms to the Office through the 2014 Children and Families Act. She strongly influenced opinions, local and national policy, and professionals' work with children and young people, focusing on the promotion and protection of their rights . She worked with Parliament, the media, academia, national and local government, other Commissioners across Europe and beyond, the United Nations and the EU's leadership bodies. By law her term ended in 2015 and she became a leadership and management consultant, both in her own right through her Company, and from mid-2015 to mid-2016 as a Director with iMPOWER Consulting Ltd.

Maggie is a valued Non-Executive Director, including as Chair of the pan-London arts and education charity A New Direction.  She is Wirral's, York's and Liverpool's Safeguarding Children Partnerships' Independent Scrutineer, and North Yorkshire's Partnership's Executive Chair and Independent Scrutineer. She is also a Michael Sieff Foundation Trustee.  She is an Adviser to the Children's Commissioner for Jersey, and to councils and partners looking to enhance cultural activities with children and young people. Maggie works with public services across agencies, and in the wider business world.  In all her work she helps clients to look at and then address "wicked issues" - often focused on how to meet rising demand with reducing resources, whilst sustaining healthy and productive partnerships. She provides both Test of Assurance reports on key roles, and Expert Witness reports for the Courts, where her work has supported successful outcomes. She is a skilled Technical Adviser and Subject Matter Expert to Consultancy specialists, recruiters, and those awarding contracts for high profile, sensitive work that serves the public or improves policy and practice. She is an Honorary Professor at Keele University, focusing on social justice and injustice, and on workforce issues across disciplines to help professionals breaks down silos to work, and learn, together.

Maggie focuses on leadership, planning, commissioning, delivery, monitoring, evaluation and review - and what needs to be done, by whom, to engineer positive change. She helps organisations to choose how to devise and deliver sustainable plans that lead to better ways of working. Her advice is always contextual, evidence based, tailored and practical. She is a respected strategic thinker and leader, an impressive speaker, trainer and author, and an astute analyst. She can furnish you with the assurance you need on your direction of travel, and advise on what you could improve.  A valued expert in her field, she will provide authoritative and useful advice. She would be delighted to explore ways of working together. Please use the form below.