After an early career in outdoor education, David worked for a childcare charity supporting the development of the first National Childcare Strategy in England and Wales from 1998 and then as an independent researcher and consultant managing and delivering a wide range of research and consultancy projects.
David’s specialism is in early childhood and has researched extensively in this field as well as writing reports such as the 2003 ‘Flying Start’ report for Welsh Government. He also has experience in a number of other fields, particularly health and social care where he has contributed research to inform national policy development.
In 2009 David was seconded to work within Welsh Government to coordinate the development of a cross-sector Children & Young People’s Workforce Strategy. More recently he was appointed by to the Task & Finish Group reviewing early childcare education and care regulation and inspection and co-authored the ‘Graham Report’ which was submitted to Welsh Ministers in July 2014.
He is an associate consultant for Care Council for Wales, Family & Childcare Trust and National Children’s Bureau. David has lectured in social policy at Bangor University and Coleg Llandrillo Menai teaching a range of modules including Child Poverty, Comparative Health & Welfare, Children’s Rights, Multi-Agency Working and Research Methods.
In 2011, David was awarded an Anniversary Scholarship by Bangor University and has completed doctoral research examining why parents make choices between informal and formal childcare and why this is important for policy making.
