Give your Career a New Direction

Caring

Inspiring

Empowering

Our Governance

New Directions was formed in January 2007 and is wholly owned by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council. The organisation is governed by a Board of Directors with strong backgrounds in social care, health, local authority, and business.

The role of the New Directions’ board is to contribute and drive the strategic direction of the organisation, ensuring the company remains financially sustainable, whilst meeting the needs of the people and families its supports, providing high-quality services.


GENDER PAY GAP REPORT – 2025

 

On 1 April 2017 the Government introduced the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Information) Regulations 2017. This requires New Directions to calculate gender pay data, based on our workforce on 5 April each year.

 

We are a leading provider of adult social care services within the borough of Sefton. Our aim is to provide the highest quality of care and support for adults of all ages who have learning or physical disabilities, mental health support needs and older people. We promote independent living, encouraging and supporting individuals to fulfil their aspirations.

 

We aspire to become the Employer of Choice, attracting and retaining the best talent from the local labour market wherever possible. We are committed to ensuring equality and fairness in pay for all our workforce.

 

On 5 April 2025 our workforce of 380 staff was predominately female (84.73%). This is not untypical of the social care sector.

 

GENDER MEAN AND MEDIAN PAY GAP

 

Mean

Median

9.11%

6.05%

 

Our gender pay gap is 9.11%. This means that the average hourly rate for male employees is 9.11% higher than female employees. This gap has decreased by 0.71% since 2024.

 

Our median gender pay gap is 6.05%, this gap has decreased by 1.5% since 2024.

 

PAY QUARTILES

 

The following graph shows the gender distribution across four equally sized quartile pay bands.

 


MEAN AND MEDIAN BONUS PAY GAP

 

New Directions does not pay employees a bonus.

 

 

DECLARATION

 

I confirm that our data has been calculated according to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017

Mark Fox

Managing Director

 

 


See Our Governance Chart
Annual Report 2023
New Directions Benefits

Our Board Directors

Portrait of Dil Daly

Dil Daly

Chair
Portrait of Judy Hardman

Councillor Judy Hardman

Non-Executive Director
Portrait of Glen Williams

Glen Williams

Union Observer (Non-Voting Capacity)
Portrait of John Graham

John Graham

Non-Executive Director

Councillor Dave Neary

Non-Executive Director

Paul Cummins

Non-Executive Director

Our Senior Leadership Team

Portrait of Mark Fox

Mark Fox

Managing Director
Portrait of Andrea Woods

Andrea Woods

Head of Operations
Portrait of Adam Drury

Adam Drury

Head of HR
Portrait of David Lill

David Lill

Finance Manager
Portrait of Paul Sheron

Paul Sheron

Head of Learning and Development

Our Executive Senior Leadership Team

Portrait of Mark Fox

Mark Fox

Managing Director
Portrait of Andrea Woods

Andrea Woods

Head of Operations
Portrait of Adam Drury

Adam Drury

Head of HR
Portrait of David Lill

David Lill

Finance Manager
Portrait of Paul Sheron

Paul Sheron

Head of Learning and Development
Portrait of Dil Daly

Neil Daly

(Who calls himself Dil)

Dil was born in Liverpool in 1961. He went to the Bluecoat School in Liverpool and then attended Universities in Liverpool and Sheffield where he gained an honours degree in Zoology and the Post Graduate Certificate in Education. He has also been awarded a masters level qualification in Strategic Management.

Dil has lived and worked in Aylesbury, Sheffield and London before returning to the North-West 20 years ago. He has worked in the private, public and the third sector. For the majority of his career, Dil has been the CEO of charitable organisations working with older people in London and Merseyside. Dil has also been the CEO or Chair of a number of social enterprises including a national social enterprise called advant~age, which helped charities to trade in commercial products and financial services. Latterly Dil has become the Lay Member for Public & Patient Engagement for Southport & Formby CCG.

Dil is passionate about innovation in health and social care, and ensuring that users of services are central to all aspects of service design and implementation.

Dil lives in Southport with his wife, daughter and a Wheaten Terrier called Roy. His leisure interests are watching Liverpool FC, listening to music (in particular attending as many live gigs as possible) and role-playing.

Portrait of Judy Hardman

Councillor Judy Hardman

Cllr Judy Hardman was elected in May 2022 as a Sefton Labour Party councillor to represent Sudell Ward. She is also a parish councillor representing Sefton and Lunt. As a Councillor, Judy’s responsibilities include sitting as a member of the Licensing Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services, and she has recently taken up the role of observer on the Board of Sefton CVS. 

Judy is a registered social worker and during her working life has worked with adults and children. She began her career in Liverpool Catholic Social Services where she was a research assistant on a project for people with learning disabilities, and she has maintained an interest in learning disability and in evaluation of services. Judy was an Assistant Director with Action for Children, a national charity, between 2000 and 2010 and during this period developed an understanding of delivering commissioned services and reporting to different Boards.

Since 2010 Judy has worked independently in a range of roles, which have predominantly involved carrying out service reviews, audits and training for different local authorities. She is an accredited Safeguarding Peer Reviewer with the Local Government Association. Her particular passion is helping social workers and managers demonstrate and measure quality outcomes. Judy hopes to use her interest in evaluation and quality to support the work of New Directions.

Portrait of Glen Williams

Glen Williams

I am Glen Williams and have been the Branch Secretary for Sefton UNISON for 15 years and active for over 30 years currently holding various senior regional and national positions within UNISON.

My background is in social work and I am still a qualified and registered practitioner in the out of hours social work service. For several years I lectured social work law and practice whilst also gaining a PhD in that particular field. I started working for Sefton Council in 1987 and believe I have a detailed understanding of local government, Council services and the area of social care. 
 
As an experienced trade union official and an observer to the New Directions Board, I try to bring challenges and the perspectives of the workforce as well as seeking to ensure the ongoing viability of a transparent and successful Council owned company. I have lived in Sefton all my life and believe I know what our residents expect of social care services so am also able to bring a local knowledge to the Board. I am also an active Member of the Labour Party and hold local positions within Sefton Labour Party.
 
I am an extremely keen sport enthusiast with running, swimming, cycling and playing squash being amongst my daily exercise (not all on the same day!).
Portrait of John Graham

John Graham

John has almost 30 years of NHS experience having worked for a variety of organisations – and is currently the Chief Finance Officer – at Tameside and Glossop IC NHS FT & Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Deputy Chief Executive – of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

John Paul is married to Tricia they have three grown-up children.

John is Chair of Lydiate Learning Trust and has been involved in school governing bodies for some 25 years and is an ardent Liverpool Football Club fan.

Dave_N

Councillor Dave Neary

I am a Labour councillor for Norwood ward in Southport and a Social Policy lecturer at Liverpool Hope University where I specialise in health and social care policy. This ranges from global health through health and social care history, policy and practice to local interventions to address health inequalities. I’ve worked on numerous national and European research projects concerned with active ageing, inequities and social policy interventions. 

Portrait of Mark Fox

Mark Fox

I joined New Directions in 2018. Before that, I served as the Head of Service for Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council. During my tenure, I led major Adult Social Care change and transformation programmes aimed at redesigning services to enhance outcomes for the local community. Additionally, I engaged with staff teams to explore alternative delivery models.

My professional journey is guided by a strong belief in value-based leadership. I take pride in working for an organisation that shares these values, which have been designed and developed by the workforce.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family and participating in activities such as football, tennis, golf, and walking.

Mark has a postgraduate diploma in Business, a postgraduate diploma in Health and Social Care Management (with distinction), and an Institute of Directors Certificate in Company Direction.

Contacts:
mark.fox@ndirections.co.uk
Managing Director
Address:
New Directions, 3rd Floor, Burlington House, Crosby Road North, Waterloo L22 0PJ
Telephone : 0151 705 0300
www.ndirections.co.uk

Portrait of Andrea Woods

Andrea Woods

The most important thing to know about me is that I am the mother of two very special girls. We live in Sefton and we are very proud to belong to such a close-knit and supportive community.


I believe people should all be afforded opportunities to lead lives worth living. This philosophy has guided my practice since I joined New Directions in 1986 as a Care Assistant. I progressed into my current position as Head of Operations through lots of hard work and the successful completion of various in-house vocational qualifications. The support of a range of colleagues across different teams was critical to this progression. I have worked with many, many wonderful people, through hard challenging times and equally through good times. Some of my most enjoyable moments have been at parties and celebrations with the people we support. Along the way, I also acted as UNISON Branch officer for New Directions, which afforded me opportunities to develop my understanding of the challenges staff face working in social care, and equally, provided me with a skills-set to strengthen New Directions commitment to being an employer of choice.


My goal going forward is to ensure that New Directions functions as a social care provider of choice in Sefton, leading on innovative best practice to support the most vulnerable in our community. I am passionately committed to supporting New Directions staff. I am very proud of the work they do, and the general contribution we all make to the wider community of Sefton.
Every decision I make, in my work or in my personal life, is based upon an agenda to promote social justice and community solidarity locally, nationally, and internationally.
Looking to the future, I am confident that New Directions will continue to act as the catalyst for all that is good and positive about social care provision in Sefton.

Portrait of Adam Drury

Adam Drury

I have worked in adult social care for over 20 years. My background is in Human Resources and in 2008 I was outsourced from Sefton MBC to a private company called Arvato. During my time with Arvato I registered for an in-house management development programme and gained a range of new skills in a variety of areas to enable me to progress my career. This involved extensive training in project management, general business and mentoring by various senior managers across the Company. The transition from working in the public sector to the private sector was challenging, however it was a real ‘eye-opener’ in terms of how commercial companies operate. I changed job roles during this time and moved into project management. This was a very interesting job role and I was able to work on several exciting world-wide projects, travel to different places and meet new people. This exposure helped me to gain a wider understanding of the daily operations of a multi-national organisation. I was very grateful for the opportunities provided by Arvato and I was able to complete a master’s degree in Human Resource Management in 2014. 

I joined New Directions in November 2016 and I was fortunate that I had some pre-established relationships from my time in Sefton MBC. This enabled me to hit the ground running as I already had a good understanding of the services provided and the challenges we faced. When appointed as the HR Manager for New Directions, I worked very closely with the Operations Team to gain more in-depth knowledge of the services we provide. In March 2021 I applied for a post as Operations Manager and I was delighted to be appointed. The reason I changed job roles, apart from a new challenge, was that I felt I could have a bigger influence on the Company in this team and that I could potentially enhance our services for the better. In the limited time I was in Operations I feel as though I achieved aspects of this and was heavily involved with the ‘recovery’ of several key services. The relationships I established during this time remain strong and I will sincerely miss most aspects of the job. 

I have recently been appointed as Interim Head of HR and given my time in Operations; I believe I am well-placed to implement the Company’s strategic objectives. With my understanding of Operations, plus my extensive HR experience I aim to deliver a responsive and customer-focussed HR service to all in New Directions. I will be working closely with all services to ensure HR solutions implemented meet our immediate and future requirements.

To say I love the work we do in New Directions would be an understatement. To have the ability to enrich someone’s daily life is not something you can put a price on. I am passionate about our company, our values and the people we support.

No one could have predicted what has happened across the world in the previous two years and I am immensely proud of the way we have responded to the pandemic. Hopefully, brighter days are ahead as lockdown restrictions have subsided and we can return to some form of normality.

On a personal note, I am a passionate Liverpool FC supporter and enjoy playing and watching various sports. I also participate in a range of outdoor activities, but with these limited during lockdown I turned my hand to gardening. I find this a very therapeutic activity that enables me to switch off from the outside world. I also appreciate the reward of the hard work later in the year when the flowers, vegetables and fruits make all the physical work of gardening worthwhile. Sharing the fruit and veg amongst family and friends has whet the appetite for some of them to start gardening.

Portrait of David Lill

David Lill

I am a Management Account (ACMA) with twenty-plus years of qualified experience working in a variety of commercial and not-for-profit organisations. I joined Sefton New Directions after spending three years heading up the finance function of the Brothers of Charity Services in Lancashire, another provider of essential Adult Care Services operating for the benefit of the residents in Chorley and beyond.

Previously I have worked with Knowsley MBC within its Sure Start Programme (aimed at improving the well-being of children aged four and under and their families) and, for six years with Liverpool Vision Ltd, the City’s Urban Regeneration Company, tasked with leading the City’s physical transformation in the new millennium. I worked there at a time of unprecedented progress – a period which saw the huge Capital of Culture programme in 2008 and the funding and opening of the Arena and Conference Centre among many notable successes.

Other positions included commercial roles working within the Chemicals industry in Runcorn and almost ten years as Financial Controller with the largest independent Reprographics companies in the country.

I aim to bring the combination of expertise and experiences gained to help New Directions become the provider of choice within Sefton.

As a resident of Sefton, and after hearing of the excellent reputation and seeing the good work undertaken, I jumped at the opportunity to work with the talented Senior Management Team leading finance here at New Directions.

I join (December 2022) at a time of unprecedented challenges with the need to match excellent care and the support of some of our most vulnerable adults with budget constraints caused by pressures on our main funding partner (Sefton MBC) and rising staff and other costs caused by inflation.

However, against this challenging backdrop, I believe in the organisation’s core values: – People Focused, Big Hearted, Count on Us, Together as One and its desire to become the provider of choice and will work tirelessly to ensure the continued success of the organisation.

I lead a small but dedicated and experienced Finance Team but, just as importantly, want to be a visible member of the whole organisation, partnering with colleagues to help maximise funding and offering advice and expertise as required.

Away from work, I am a family man, with one teenage son and whilst I enjoy travelling, I can often be found on a Sunday morning cycling the paths and tracks of our borough and beyond. That, of course, assumes no home game and as a season ticket holder at Anfield (following in the steps of my father and grandfather who were born and raised in Bootle and were passionate football supporters since pre-war times) attend all home games of Liverpool FC.

expand the role of the organisation.

Portrait of Paul Sheron

Paul Sheron

My employment background is working within learning & development across three different learning providers. Initially employed as an IT Tutor, completing a Certificate of Education enabled me to develop my skill set in this field to focus on the principals of learning and applying them to practice. My principles to learning include:

  • Put learning at the forefront of everything that you do.
  • Embrace a top-down approach to learning.
  • Ensure that learning supports business objectives.
  • Provide learning in innovative way.
  • Make learning a valuable experience.

For the last twenty years I have worked for a leading training provider linked to numerous health and social care providers. Throughout that time, I have held several positions including quality control, curriculum & compliance manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead. Skilled in operations management, coaching and mentoring. I am passionate about learning and strive to ensure the quality of training and development delivered to those who work in the adult care sector is exemplary.

I aim to bring my skills and expertise in the learning & development field to enable New Directions to fulfil their vision to be a learning organisation. Also, to complement the existing four core values and embed learning as the fifth value.

Outside of work I follow an active lifestyle. I enjoy running, and strive to get out a couple of times a week. I find that this is a positive way to clear my mind after a long day. I am married with two teenage children, and a Shih-Tzu dog. I recently hung up my football coaching boots after coaching my son’s team for 11 years. My weekends are now spent on the sports pitches of the North West watching my daughter play rugby and son football in a parent capacity.

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Portrait of Paul Cummins

Paul Cummins

Cllr Paul Cummins has been Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care for the past eight years. He has represented Church Ward (Waterloo and Seaforth) as a local Labour Party Councillor between 1992 and 2003, and from 2006 until present. In the Municipal year 2011/12 he was honoured to be the Mayor of Sefton.

Paul holds a number of positions for Sefton in addition to his Cabinet role. He is Sefton’s Mental Health Champion and Older Person’s Champion. He is a member of the Health and Wellbeing Board, Co-Chair of the Transforming Care Partnership Board for people with Learning Disabilities, Deputy Chair of the Corporate Parenting Board, Chair of the Special Education Needs and Disabilities Continuous Improvement Board, Chair of the Adults Forum, Chair of the Dementia and Carers Strategy Groups, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Health and Social Care Portfolio Holders Group, and a member of the Sefton Coastal Partnership Board. In addition, he is a Local Authority appointed School Governor at St Edmund and St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School, and Rimrose Hope Church of England Primary School, where he has been Chair of Governors over many years.

Away from Sefton Council, Paul is a Non-Executive Director at Primary Care 24 (Merseyside), and a Trustee/Director at Sefton Council for Voluntary Service, Waterloo Community Association and Waterloo Town Team. Paul had an extensive career in teaching, social care and community safety and is now retired from full-time employment, having been a Senior Manager in the voluntary sector and local government, having worked for Nugent, National MIND, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Sefton Carers Centre in addition to working for himself as a Consultant and Trainer, including working for Futurebuilders England. Paul was educated at St Mary’s College, Crosby, Liverpool John Moore’s University, Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Paul is married to Carol, who has worked extensively as a Manager in Adult Social Care, for many years for Sefton Council, and currently Halton Borough Council. They have three grown up children and nine grand children who keep them busy. Paul is an avid birdwatcher, lover of real ale, ardent Liverpool Football Club fan, and is active in his Church.

Paul acts as Sefton Council’s Shareholder Representative for Sefton New Directions, and is passionate about the delivery of high quality and personalised Adult Social Care. He believes that Sefton New Directions has a vital role to play in the delivery of Social Care, and has the potential to extend its portfolio of services and meet the needs of many more people, through innovation and initiative.

Portrait of John Kelly

Councillor John Joseph Kelly

John is a qualified social worker who has over thirty five years of experience of working in the front line of services twenty five of these at Director and Executive Director level in local authority social services and in the NHS. He has additional post graduate qualifications in mental health and prior to retirement was Executive Director of Operations for a large specialist mental health Trust in the North West of England. John believes that services should be developed and provided with the active involvement of service users, Carers and staff. He has been a board member of Sefton New Directions for four years.

Portrait of Liz Dowd

Councillor Liz Dowd

Cllr Liz Dowd has represented Ford Ward (Litherland) as a Sefton Labour Party Councillor since May 2018 and is Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Regeneration and Skills. Liz also holds a number of other positions on Sefton Council and is a member of the Audit and Governance Committee and the Public Engagement Panel.

Liz has also been involved with many voluntary organisations, including those providing support to vulnerable people.

For the past 25 years, Liz has worked at senior management level in the NHS and holds post graduate qualifications in health and public sector management.  She has expertise in commissioning services for children with complex needs and working across health and social care to integrate services and improve outcomes for service users. Liz believes this experience is particularly pertinent to her role as a Board  member of New Directions in both the delivery of existing services, and the future potential to expand the role of the organisation.