A teaching assistant, history teacher and senior leader, David led special educational needs and disability provision (SEND) in London schools for over 15 years. He was a member of the Department for Education's SEND Review steering group and an expert advisor to the Timpson Review on school exclusions. David has worked directly with over 700 school leadership teams across the UK to improve their SEND provision.
David is author of the SEND Review Guide, a national framework funded by the DfE. In 2018 he edited Great Expectations: Leading an Effective SEND Strategy in School, published by John Catt Educational. He was Director of SEND at the London Leadership Strategy and an advisor to the Mayor of London's education team. As part of his international work, David has supported the development of Inclusion policies in a number of countries including Ethiopia, Seychelles, Thailand and Malaysia. David is a member of the Education Policy Institute Advisory Board and a trustee of the KPMG Foundation, which seeks to bring about systemic change in business and society and unlock the potential of the most disadvantaged children in the UK.
David was awarded an OBE for Services to Special Education in the 2016 New Year's Honours list.