I am currently a freelance arts consultant specialising in arts and health, disability arts, youth participation and arts and sustainability.

My Fellowship aimed to research the use of various art-form practices in drugs education work with children and youth. At the time, my company Jack Drum Arts had been commissioned to create a touring play for primary schools and we could find little existing activity in the field. Our project worked closely with school nurses and was very successful and I wanted to place our work in an international context.

My Fellowship found both inspiring work and very poor examples. I went on to develop broader arts and health programmes and to embed youth arts work in my organisation, recognising that empowering youth was a key to developing personal and social responsibility.

In 2014 I was elected as an MEP for the north-west of England and served on the Committee for Culture and Education, being voted vice-chair. I was a link MEP for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and an MEP Mental Health Ambassador. Subsequent to the UK's withdrawal from the EU I worked for City of Sanctuary UK, managing a Covid-19 emergency response project for refugees and vulnerable people.