Practice Consultancy & Development

The Practice Consultancy Unit was established in 1998 to build on and develop the work already undertaken by some of CASPD staff. Since then the unit has been busy with public sector development work, contributing to policy development and service development. Individuals, particularly senior practitioners and managers, are mentored and teams are supported and developed. The approach of the unit is collaborative and reflective in practice, with strong links to NHS services and coalface work. The skills and experience of the staff are rooted in three main strands of activity: research (evaluative and action), training (formal), and development (personal and process).

Practice Consultancy comprises a small group of expert and highly experienced public sector practitioners and academics, whose research, consultancy and training skills are applied to practice in terms of policy development, policy implementation and practice support in the public and voluntary sector. The unit's staff have professional and research qualifications, with consultancty and training experience. The work of the team has been presented at international conferences, as well as national, and dissemination through publication is also a feature of their profile.

The Practice Consultancy area is led by the Practice Consultancy Director, Dr Margie Callanan. Professor Hilary Brown is Senior Consultant in Adult Protection and Social Care. Dr Alex Hassett is the Senior Consultant on the CAMHS project. Dr Hester O Connor is the Development Programmes Consultant currently working alongside Dr Adrian Whittington who is the CBT Programme Director and the newest edition to the team (previously heading up the Statement of Equivalence Programme). Dr Louise Goodbody also works with the team part-time.

The team is supported by Claire Fullalove, Cassy Shillinglaw and Liz Marchant in administration and Sophie Chatfield is the Research Assistant.

This unit currently offers a range of services including expert and process consultancy on the development of services in mental health, primary care and learning disabilities. Significant components of our work focussed on the protection of vulnerable adults and the support and development of staff (individual and teams) in the public and voluntary sector. 

It also offers facilitation of team working at management and clinical levels, solution focused work in overcoming problem in policy implementation, professional and organisational mentoring and supervision. Work takes place with individuals, groups and organisations within the public sector and in social care agencies across the voluntary and independent sector including:

Supervision

Mentoring

Groups & Teams

Organisations

Networks

Team Development Program Employee Mentorship Scheme

CAMHS Training Needs