Tom Pollard Email & Phone Number

Drawing on twelve years of experience - working in Parliament, the charity sector, the civil service, think tanks and frontline services - I work with organisations focused on mental health, social security, inequality and other progressive social causes to help them develop original and compelling policy and research, and influence for change at the highest levels. I have a uniquely varied and rounded view of policy development and service delivery, having worked in and witnessed so many different aspects of politics and public policy. I can help organisations to understand why things aren't working for the people they represent, what changes would make a meaningful difference, and what it would take to achieve these. I am particularly interested and experienced in situations where entrenched perspectives and practice are blocking progress, with a strong track record of challenging such orthodoxies through insightful analysis, thought-provoking proposals, and persuasive advocacy and influencing.My work in the last few years has included:-Collaborating with the New Economics Foundation on a proposal to introduce a Minimum Income Guarantee-Supporting Black Thrive Lambeth to influence for better employment support for Black mental health service -Producing a report with New Local about transforming employment support for people facing complex disadvantage-Writing for Demos about my time on secondment at DWP and the institutional barriers to reform I witnessed there-Providing training for a range of disability and poverty charities about how to better influence DWP

Listed skills include Charities, Political Campaigns, Stakeholder Engagement, Volunteer Management, and 33 others.