John is co-Director of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit in the Glasgow School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. He is primarily concerned to inform the work of practitioners and campaigners beyond the academy who seek to tackle poverty in Scotland. He was co-editor of Poverty in Scotland 2021: Towards a 2030 Without Poverty? (CPAG) and writes a column in the Scottish Anti Poverty Review (Poverty Alliance’s quarterly journal). He has published many reports, briefings papers and addressed a wide range of Third sector and local government events on issues pertaining to the eradication and amelioration of poverty in Scotland. He sits on the group of National Partners offering advice and support to local authorities and local health boards in relation to the preparation of their Local Child Poverty Action Reports. He is an external member of the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Programme Board and Education Scotland’s Scottish Attainment Challenge Programme Board.
John is a graduate of the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, has worked at the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh, and has examined at the Universities of Stirling, Highlands and Islands and Queen Margaret.