Head of Adult Education, Gloucestershire County Council

Jim started as a teacher in secondary schools and from there graduated to work predominantly with adults in Regeneration and FE provision, mainly in the West Midlands, before taking up his current position. He has been head of service at Gloucestershire since 2002. At the time of his appointment the local authority had no previous experience of inspection, since then he has taken the service through two successful inspections and, as Gloucestershire mainly sub contracts its provision, this has provided additional challenges. 

An increasing proportion of learning opportunities across the county is now delivered through Community and Voluntary Sector organisations who all require varying degrees of support in order to improve the quality of their provision. Jim chairs a regional group of Local Authorities in the South West to develop a shared quality improvement process. In addition he represents the region on the LEAFEA national executive.