Vicky Hopwood is a Principal Consultant. She holds a PhD from the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester where she spent over 10 years researching educational issues such as inclusion, SEN and use of support staff in classrooms. Vicky joined the company in January 2002 from the former Employment Service Research and Development Division where she was responsible for the evaluation of various government Welfare to Work programmes. Vicky specialises in qualitative research although she has a wide range of research experience involving qualitative and quantitative research techniques across a range of policy areas. Her particular areas of expertise include education, disability, social inclusion and employment.
Since starting at York Consulting, Vicky has been working on a number of areas relating to education, ECM, workforce reform and social policy. Recent large-scale, high profile assignments projects include: an Evaluation of the New Relationship with Schools; Evaluation of Targeted Youth Support; Evaluation of Family Pathfinders all for central government. Vicky is leading a range of assignments for other agencies including the TDA (e.g. Perceptions of Apprenticeships and Recruitment of Men into Primary School Teaching); private sector clients and charitable organisations.
Previously, Vicky held a number of posts in a range of academic departments at Manchester University. Her research expertise related to both government and non-government programmes covering teaching and learning, teacher training, education, language development; SEN, Additional Support Provision and inclusion. Projects involved working with LEAs, education departments and services, and schools.