We are delighted to announce that Steven Baker OBE has been appointed as the new Chair of the Schools Wellbeing Partnership (SWP).
Please join us in giving Steven a very warm welcome to the role. We are pleased to be working closely with him and deeply appreciate the generosity with which he shares his time, expertise, and passion for improving outcomes for children and young people.
To help introduce Steven properly, we’ve pulled together this blog.
So, who is Steven Baker OBE?
Steven is the Chief Executive Officer of The People’s Learning Trust, which forms part of the Everton Football Club family and was created from the belief that education has the power to transform lives. He has led four schools to outstanding Ofsted judgements across a range of sectors, is a former Ofsted Inspector, and in 2019 was made a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching for his “significant and sustained” impact on education. His leadership has been recognised nationally, with schools under his guidance winning awards for their compassionate, trauma-informed approach, and being cited by the Department for Education as models of best practice in supporting student and staff mental health. Steven co-authored the critically acclaimed book A School Without Sanctions (Bloomsbury, 2020). He also sits on the Belonging in Education Research Network with the University of Oxford, and is a member of Advisory Boards for the Centre for Educational Leadership at Liverpool John Moores University and the think tank Learnus. He is also a Lead Judge for the Pearson National Teaching Awards in the SEND and Inclusive Practice category.
Steven’s impact extends beyond schools. He has worked with the Ministry of Justice to develop a culture of rehabilitation in youth and adult establishments, and he helped create the pioneering place-based change project Cradle to Career in Wirral, which has delivered outstanding results in tackling deprivation and improving outcomes across communities. The initiative is now being rolled out across all local authorities in the Liverpool City Region. A former United Nations war crimes investigator, he received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service as a member of the Remembering Srebrenica Northwest Board and was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to education and tackling hatred.
As a keynote speaker, Steven shares his expertise on behaviour, psychology, neuroscience, and leadership—helping educators and leaders better understand people in order to shape brighter futures for both students and staff. His work is inspired by Everton Football Club’s motto, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum—“Nothing but the best is good enough”—a philosophy that runs through the mission of The People’s Learning Trust. Under his leadership, the Trust is committed to creating compassionate, collaborative, and inclusive environments where ambition and care go hand in hand, ensuring that the transformative power of education reaches every child and every community.
You can read even more about Steven on The People’s Learning Trust’s website here.
"I have always had a strong commitment to wellbeing, and I believe now is a critical moment to ensure that mental health and wellbeing are recognised as strategic priorities across all education settings. Every child and young person deserves the opportunity to thrive in their learning environment, and achieving this requires both early intervention and a truly whole-school approach to improving wellbeing.
I am incredibly proud to take on the role of Chair of the Schools Wellbeing Partnership and to help shape our next phase of work. Together, we will focus on building school and workforce capacity to embed whole-school wellbeing, strengthening collaboration and shared learning across the sector, and influencing policy so that wellbeing is firmly embedded at a strategic level. Just as importantly, we will centre youth voice and lived experience throughout our work, while generating and sharing practical evidence to inform both practice and policy. I am excited about what we can achieve together to improve outcomes for children, young people, and school communities."
Steven Baker OBE
Chair of the Schools Wellbeing Partnership
We would like to end by once again saying a huge thank you to Steven for stepping into the role of Chair of the Schools Wellbeing Partnership. We are excited about the future and look forward to working together to continue supporting the wellbeing of children, young people, and school communities.