‘My Birkbeck studies gave me the confidence to focus my career on helping others’
A community champion credits her Birkbeck studies for giving her time to dedicate to volunteering, which led to her being awarded an OBE.
Janet Grauberg OBE (MSc Management Consultancy and Organisational Change, 2017) has spent her career in children and young people’s services, advocating for change and best practice in children’s social policy.
After working as a civil servant in the Department of Education, Janet stepped into frontline politics and was elected as a Lib Dem councillor for Camden from 2006 until 2010.
As the Lead Member for Children’s Services at Camden Council, she was instrumental in starting a review of youth services and driving through a school building programme. She has since held senior strategy roles in children’s charities Barnado’s and St Christopher’s Fellowship.
After being made redundant, Janet suddenly had the time to go back to education.
She said: “I knew I wanted to do something about how innovation spreads in children’s social care. I was really conscious that there were no processes for how organisations could learn from one another.
“I looked at three courses that enabled me to do that. One was at the Open University, but that was going to take four years, and I also looked at the London School of Economics, which was going to cost £20,000.
“Then there was this programme at Birkbeck, which was more cost-effective and would allow to me learn about organisations and organisational change. It has an excellent reputation and would fit around working at the same time.”
Janet said that the programme from People, Work and Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck’s Business School was truly transformational for her, as it allowed her to make the move into freelancing as a management consultant in the field of children’s social care.
She said: “The MSc gave me the tools to think about what it means to be a management consultant and how that works, as well as the theoretical grounding in organisational change. It gave me the knowledge, confidence and tools that I can use as a freelance management consultant.
“This meant that I could be more flexible and it gave me more time to work in politics and in my local community.”
Janet continues to devote herself to improving the lives of children and young people, as well as to other local projects, by volunteering in her community in West Hampstead.
Until December 2024, Janet was vice chair of governors at H3 Federation, which oversees three local schools, including a school that focuses on children with social, emotional and mental health needs.
At the start of the pandemic, Janet helped to set up the West Hampstead Community Food Hub, which provides 120 bags of food to families every week, after recognising that people could no longer access a regular community lunch.
As well as continuing to actively campaign for the Lib Dems, she volunteers regularly at the Sidings Community Centre and is chair of West Hampstead Amenity and Transport, a pressure group concentrating on issues relating to transport, amenities, developments and cleanliness.
On why she has such a passion for volunteering, Janet said: “Lots of us want to make the world a better place and we might do that through our work or through thinking about our local community. I have chosen to put my energies into making the community where I live a better place.
“I want to strengthen the community and look out for others. That’s the bit of the world I feel that I can have an impact on.
“I am particularly proud of the food hub, because it activated a group of people in the community who hadn’t volunteered before.”
Janet was recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours and was awarded an OBE for services to the community in North London and to Education.
Janet said: “It was a complete surprise. I decided that it wasn’t just for me but for all the volunteers I have worked with over the last 20 years and that it recognises the role of volunteering.
“It has been strangely validating. I could have chosen to carry on up the career ladder but I decided to take a sideways move into the voluntary sector and volunteering in my community, so it’s nice to be rewarded for that.”