Sarah Newton

Sarah Newton

I have lived and worked in the Coventry and Warwickshire area since moving here as a student in 1979 to study geography. For all of my working life I have been employed in youth, children and family work for voluntary and statutory organisations as both a face to face worker and manager.

Initially I worked for a newly established sports charity, The Coventry & Warwickshire Awards Trust, alongside athlete David Moorcroft, where I managed the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme focusing work with disadvantaged young people in Coventry. I later became the Trust manager operating from the newly built Centre AT7 in Bell Green.

Having completed a masters degree and professional qualification in youth and community work, I moved to Coventry City Council where I stayed for 21 years. During this time I was responsible for developing and managing programmes to support vulnerable children and their families across a number of different service areas, including the Youth Offending Services, Youth Service and Children’s Services. At the Youth Offending Service I was responsible for developing the first Family Intervention Project in Coventry, working with some of the most disaffected/ vulnerable families. During my latter years with the Council I was a manager for Children and Families First Service supporting families at risk of entering social care. During this time I also had strategic lead for school attendance for the City Council. 

Throughout my career I have seen education as key to supporting children and their wider family to improve their opportunities and outcomes. I have extensive experience of working with both primary and secondary schools in Coventry to ensure that young people can access the education available to them. I believe creativity is needed to enable young people disaffected from education to re-engage and used alternative approaches and extra curricular activities to support this process.

Since taking early retirement in 2017, I have become a Justice of the Peace for the Family Bench in the Coventry and Warwickshire area and have been involved in a number of volunteer activities.

I enjoy keeping active and I am a keen open water swimmer.