Our Teams

Our Teams

  • About
  • Our Teams

Meet the East Midlands Councils team.

Stuart Young

Executive Director

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Stuart is the chief officer at East Midlands Councils and responsible for oversight and management across the organisation. With overall responsibility for EMC’s budget, employees and work programme, the Executive Director is ultimately accountable for ensuring EMC meets its commitments for the delivery of services and wider advisory support offered by the organisation.

Acting as its principal advisor, and directly accountable to EMC Executive Board, Stuart works with councillors and chief officers across the region, the business and voluntary/community sector as well as taking a lead in ensuring effective partnership with government departments and other national/regional organisations.

Policy and Infrastructure Team

Andrew Pritchard

Director of Policy & Infrastructure

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Andrew is responsible for EMC’s work on infrastructure, growth and transport – including the Rail Collaboration Agreement with the DfT. Andrew is the principal advisor to Transport for the East Midlands (TfEM) chaired by the Mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby. Andrew is also the professional lead for the EMCs Low-Cost CPD programme for planners. In addition, he provides policy support to Midlands Connect, the sub-national transport body for the Midlands, and to the All Party Parliamentary Group for the East Midlands.

Kyle Butterworth

Head of Rail Improvement

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Kyle leads on the region's interface with the Department for Transport at a senior level, enabling regional input into rail operational developments in the East Midlands. Kyle also facilitates wider rail industry engagement across the region to partner with Midlands Connect on long-term strategic plans; supports East Midlands LTAs directly with their rail ambitions; inputs to the regional rail construction programmes through DfT Infrastructure teams and Network Rail; and finally listens to focused stakeholder groups such as Railfuture and Rail Forum.

HR, Learning & Development and Councillor Development Team

Sam Maher

Director of HR, Learning and Development
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Sam’s role is to develop and implement the strategic direction, management and delivery of services to councils on HR, Learning and Development and Councillor Development. She ensures that the interests of councils in the region are represented in the development of national initiatives. Sam supports and advises the Regional Employers’ Board and is the Regional Secretary of the Employers’ Side of the Regional Joint Council, working to promote positive relations with trade unions across the East Midlands.

Lisa Butterfill

HR, Learning and
Development Manager

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Lisa leads on Learning and Development, organisational development and Councillor Development - identifying future HR and Learning and Development issues relevant to local government and developing and delivering relevant programmes, projects, training, and initiatives to meet these needs.

Suzanne Boultby

HR, Learning and
Development Manager
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Suzanne leads on HR and employment issues. She identifies future HR and Learning and Development issues relevant to local government and developing and delivering relevant programmes, projects, training, and initiatives to meet these needs.

Migration Team

Brein Fisher

Head of Migration Programmes
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Brein heads the Strategic Migration Partnership for the East Midlands, which delivers several Home Office migratory schemes and additional schemes such as No Recourse to Public Funds.

Maria Brambles

Resettlement Manager
and Hong Kong BN(O) Programme Lead

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Maria manages the Resettlement Team at the SMP and is responsible for the delivery of all resettlement programmes funded by the Home Office and MHCLG. This includes Afghan Resettlement, UK Resettlement Scheme, Community Sponsorship, Communities for Afghans, Hong Kong BNO and Ukraine Visa schemes.

Maria is also the regional lead for the Hong Kong BNO Welcome Programme in the East Midlands.

 

Matthew Clarke

Asylum Manager
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Matt manages the Regional Asylum Team at East Midlands Councils. Leading on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) strategy and policy for EMSMP and working closely with local authorities.

Matt coordinates the region’s responses to UASC including the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) on behalf of the Home Office, and oversees both Adult Asylum and UASC policy and operational developments across the East Midlands in partnership with key stakeholders at the national, regional and local levels.

Stuart Turner

UASC Programme
Manager

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Stuart is the Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) Programme Officer at East Midlands Councils and is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of the regional UASC programme as part of the wider work of the East Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership (EM SMP).
The regional UASC programme aims to enhance the already strong working relationships between East Midlands authorities in the delivery of services to UASC to address the pressures on East Midlands authorities arising from an increased number of UASC being transferred to the region and to further improve outcomes for the UASC and former UASC care leavers who are cared for by East Midlands authorities.

Noel Oxford

Resettlement
Policy Officer
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Noel supports and coordinates local authorities in the implementation of the humanitarian response to the conflict in Ukraine, providing an interface between local and national government to address challenges, develop policy, and ensure feedback and information are shared between stakeholders. He is also supporting local authorities with mobilising the Community Sponsorship and Communities for Afghans initiatives, and leads on strategic coordination of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision across the region

Richard Herrick

Asylum
Policy Officer

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Richard is responsible for the strategic and operational delivery of asylum dispersal within the East Midlands.
Richard chairs a variety of strategic multi-agency groups relating to asylum dispersal including local and regional Multi-Agency Forums (MAFs) along with responding the queries and questions relating to asylum from a variety of public, private and voluntary sector partners, influencing and developing policy change to benefit asylum seekers in the community.

Camila David

Resettlement
Policy Officer
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Camila serves as the main point of contact to assist local authorities with the delivery and matching process for the Afghan Relocations Assistance Policy (ARAP), Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), and UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS).

Camila supports engagement between local authorities with regional and national stakeholders as well as key partners to identify and address challenges related to Resettlement Schemes, ensuring that information and solutions are shared across local authorities.

Isobel Westbury

Programme and Policy Officer

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Isobel supports the coordination and delivery of regional projects and programme evaluation, providing operational support to the Strategic Migration Team. This includes data collection, analysis and assistance with project development work relating to asylum and refugee resettlement in the East Midlands.

Sarika Kohli

Immigration
Solicitor
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Sarika's role is to provide legal Advice on strategic immigration matters to the SMP, with specific knowledge and experience on matters affecting the function of Children’s Services.

Business Support Team

Lisa Bushell

Business Support
Manager & Events Lead
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Lisa supports the administration needs of East Midlands Councils, managing the Business Support Team and coordinating EMCs various CPD Programmes.
Lisa is also responsible for dealing with all aspects of finance including purchase orders, invoicing and dealing with queries.

Lisa Hopkins

Business Support
Officer

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Lisa supports EMC’s Executive Director, as well as facilitating the EMC Management Group, Executive Board and Full EMC meeting, overseeing the annual nomination process and Expressions of Interest to Boards.

Mila Pereira

Business Support
Officer
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Mila supports local authority members with their HR and learning and development needs, providing information requests to authorities & assistance with keeping them up to date.
Mila also supports the Director of Policy & Infrastructure.

Anna Anderson

Business Support
Officer

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Anna supports the Migration team, facilitating events and coordinating training as well as liaising and developing effective working relationships with local authorities, partners, and key stakeholders.

Communications and Marketing

Rachael Pengelly

Communications and
Marketing Manager
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Rachael is responsible for leading on all of East Midlands Councils' communications and engagement activity, raising our local and national profile across our core responsibilities and promoting our services to member councils and partners.
Rachael oversees the EMC website and social media channels.

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