Having started my career in the antiques trade I went to university as a mature student and, since graduating, I have worked predominantly in local government, the health service and higher education. In 2012 I became freelance, particularly managing policy and service change with a focus on improving practice in diversity, equality, community engagement and partnership working.

My experience includes:
• Strategic and operational management at a senior level
• Leading evaluation and training to improve diversity, equality and engagement practice
• Project management of local, national and international programmes and reviews including community engagement and organisation development
• Service and policy review and restructuring
• Development and dissemination of good practice and learning

My recent projects and roles:
• (For Mutual Gain) Evaluating the Open Government Pioneers Programme, building the capacity of citizens and civil society to use transparency and accountability to progress the Sustainable Development Goals across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
• Project management to strengthen mental health services in integrated neighbourhood care models in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes, City and Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets for East London Foundation NHS Trust
• Refreshing Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Strategy for 2018-21, East London NHS Foundation Trust
• Councillor training and development for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Board member and chair of the Advisory Council of the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership, a collaborative partnership of all local schools to drive forward school improvement
• Trustee, Spitalfields Music, a charity which produces an annual music festival and runs a learning and participation programme of creative music projects in the local community
• Vice-chair, governing body of Stebon Primary School in Limehouse, LETTA Multi-academy Trust

My previous experience includes
• 2003-12: Corporate lead for a range of services including policy, strategy, performance, partnerships, equalities, cohesion, third sector support, Prevent and Overview and Scrutiny at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets including a period as Acting Assistant Chief Executive in 2008.
• 2010-11: Seconded to the Local Government Association (formerly IDeA) as the National Adviser for Equalities and Cohesion, promoting and encouraging good practice nationally and internationally. Shaping the business case for effective diversity, equality and cohesion practice I led a programme of work using the Equality Frameworks for Local Government, Social Housing and the Fire and Rescue Service to support all English councils and the wider public sector, including social housing providers, the NHS, fire and rescue services and the third sector.
• 1994-2002: Ward councillor in Tower Hamlets with a number of lead roles: Lead Member, Education and Youth (2001-02), Chair, Education and Youth Scrutiny Panel (1999-2001), Chair, Education Committee (1996-99).

My publications
• Neil Steward Associates Equality Hub: https://www.equality-and-diversity.co.uk/not-echo-chamber-making-critical-friend-tower-hamlets/407
• Equality and Diversity Forum: http://www.edf.org.uk/blog/michael-keating-on-making-rights-real/
• Knowing our communities: it doesn’t have to be that difficult, in Anne Kershen (ed.), London A Promised Land revisited, Ashgate, October 2015
• (Co-author) Making rights real: joining-up is the only way to do it, in Beyond 2015: shaping the future of equality, human rights and social justice: a collection of essays from the Equality and Diversity Forum and EDF Research Network, June 2015
http://www.edf.org.uk/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/EDF_Beyond_2015_PDF.pdf
• (Co-author) An East End tale, in Peter Marshall (ed.), The Tail: How Britain’s schools fail one child in five – and what can be done, Profile Books, February 2013
• (Co-author) Social cohesion in the local delivery context – understanding equality and the importance of local knowledge, in Peter Ratcliffe & Ines Newman (eds.), Promoting Social Cohesion: Implications for policy and frameworks for evaluation, Policy Press, June 2011
• (Co-author), Improving sexual orientation monitoring, Equality and Human Rights Commission, January 2011 http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/improving_sexual_orientation_monitoring_v6_22-12-10.pdf
• (Co-author) ‘You don’t get any training for this job’ – reflections on parliamentary representation in East London, Rising East, Vol. 4, no. 3, 2001
• (Co-author) ‘The Price of ‘democratising democracy’ – Marginalizing the Representative?’, UEL Social Politics Paper no. 18, March 2001
• The History of Spitalfields and its Communities: Lessons from the Immigrant Experience, UEL Social Politics Paper no. 8, March 1999