Carl Suckling has worked in local government for over 28 years with the vast majority of that time working in a community development role. He has worked with some of the most deprived communities in the East of England, assisting residents living in those communities in developing skills and capacity to improve their quality of life. Carl has established a variety of partnerships to enable a strong interface between communities and organisations (including local authorities, health services and developers). He is a strong believer that everyone should be treated with the same level of respect, irrespective of their background and have an equality of opportunity to access quality services including those of arts and culture.