Amanda Askham

I'm a partner in our public sector consulting practice, where I lead the development of Grant Thornton's local government transformation and organisational design proposition. I bring nearly three decades of consulting and public sector leadership experience, including roles as interim chief executive of Cambridgeshire County Council, corporate director across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and, most recently, strategic director at Ealing Council. I work with chief executives, political leaders and senior officers to turn financial and strategic pressure into change that councils can actually deliver, with a particular focus on local government reorganisation, financial sustainability and organisational design. 

I joined Grant Thornton because local government is entering a period of profound change. Reorganisation, financial pressure and shifting national policy are system-wide problems, and they won't be solved one council at a time. I already knew the firm from the client side. When I led Peterborough City Council's financial recovery, at a point when it couldn't set a legally balanced budget, I commissioned Grant Thornton to support the programme. It delivered £18 million of savings in the first year, and the council avoided a section 114 notice. At Ealing I led the council's transformation approach, building the design, research, workforce and governance capability to make change stick in a challenging social and financial context. The improvement was recognised across the sector, through a Local Government Association peer challenge and silver for most improved council at the 2026 Local Government Chronicle Awards.  I also led the separation of shared leadership and services between Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council: untangling pay structures, finances, IT, workforce and service delivery while holding together two administrations with different political visions. It's the same work reorganisation now asks of councils, run in reverse. 

Good consultancy adds what councils can't easily build quickly on their own: extra capacity, specialist experience and, at Grant Thornton, thought leadership and relationships with government departments and sector bodies. Every council we work with should finish in a stronger position, with more capacity and confidence than when we started. 

My interest in public service started early, working with the South African government in the years after apartheid, and it has stayed with me ever since. I've given much of my time to education and the arts, chairing a multi-academy trust and helping found a Cambridge charity that opens up the creative arts to people who would otherwise miss out. I'm a policy fellow at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Science and Policy, which keeps me close to research and new policy thinking. Away from work, I spend time with family and friends and can often be found covered in ink in my print studio.