Maggie Atkinson

Ed.D, DCL(Honoris Causa), BA(Hons), PGCE

Non-Executive Director

Professor Maggie Atkinson is an experienced and respected management consultant specialising in co-constructing solutions with clients seeking service and organisational improvement, and planning for and implementing optimistic, successful change. Maggie has spent most of her career in services for children, young people and their families, in a wide range of settings. She started her career as a secondary teacher and middle manager in 2 very differing comprehensive schools. She went on to be a trainer, adviser, inspector and service improver in local and national settings, leading school improvement and SEN services from urban settings to shire counties.  She is experienced in setting up new things having been part of the founding team in the then-new Warrington LA. She was called on as a government commissioned intervention team member in Liverpool’s recovery from a poor Ofsted judgement in 1999, and went on to work in change leadership and management in Cheshire before becoming a strategic Director in Gateshead from 2003-2010, where she was the borough’s first Director of Children’s Services (DCS) forging new relationships across the public services on children’s behalf.

From 2010-15 Maggie was Children’s Commissioner for England, a vibrant but often challenging statutory role charged with promoting and protecting children’s rights. Since stepping down, she has developed her consultancy work, including with market leader iMPOWER Consulting Ltd. 

Maggie is an honorary professor in social policy and practice at Keele University, where she gained her Education Doctorate in 2008, and holds 2 honorary doctorates, from Keele and Northumbria. She is a successful Non-Executive Director or thought-leadership adviser in four very different campaigning and charity organisations.