Marion has worked for the Audit Commission since 2000. Her work in the Commission has been varied, including membership of the Commission’s national knowledge network on partnerships where she contributed to the development of partnership improvement tools, Regional Improvement Lead and Regional Service Lead for community safety. She has led a number of inspections, including Community Safety and Corporate Performance Assessments. She has a wide range of experience, including anti poverty strategies, partnership working, community engagement, equalities and diversity and community cohesion. She was appointed as a Comprehensive Area Assessment Lead in April 2008.
Previously, Marion worked for Newcastle City Council as a Priority Area Team Leader, working mainly in the west end of the city. In 1996 she became the council’s Community Safety Manager and was seconded to NACRO to manage the Newcastle Safer Cities project. She worked with a range of statutory, voluntary and private sector partners to produce Newcastle’s first Crime and Disorder Audit and co- authored Newcastle’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy which was published in 1999.
When the funding for the Safer Cities Project ended, Marion worked with partners to establish the Safer Newcastle Partnership; an independent, multi agency community safety partnership, which secured charitable status and received funding from the national lottery.
Marion is a qualified teacher. She taught in London secondary schools before returning to the north east in 1979 to set up and run a family business. She then worked in the voluntary sector as an employment development worker with the Tyneside Women’s Employment Project.
She has been a member of a number of voluntary management committees, including Newcastle Women’s Aid, and was a school governor for ten years.
Marion is married, has three children and lives in Newcastle. She enjoys keeping fit, particularly cycling, going to the cinema and reading.
