Staff

Professor Hilary Brown has a background in learning disability services with a particular focus on issues of abuse and disability rights. She is a qualified teacher: a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development and has a Masters in Health Education from the University of London and a PhD in social work from the University of Kent. She trained in consultancy and organisational development at the Tavistock Institute and is currently undertaking advanced training in Cognitive Analytic Therapy and working towards accreditation as a psychotherapist with the UKCP.

During the late 80’s and early 90’s she was employed by South East Thames Regional Health Authority as part of the team responsible for supporting the transition from institutions to community based models of care and designed innovative training materials including the Lifestyles and Bringing People Back Home packages published by Pavilion Publishing. During this time she also worked for the FPA to develop training on sexuality for people working in learning disability services and became alert to issues of sexual abuse and abusing which later became the focus of her research, eventually collaborating with Ann Craft as Chair of NAPSAC (now Ann Craft Trust) to campaign for safer services. From 1989-1996 she was based at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent where she was a Senior Lecturer, conducting (with Vicky Turk and June Stein) influential research into the sexual abuse of people with learning disabilities and into the implementation of generic adult protection policies to guide practitioners dealing with all types of abuse of vulnerable adults. In 1996 she moved to the Open University as Professor of Social Care. 

She joined Salomons as a consultant in adult protection and social care in January 1999. In that capacity she contributed to the first national guidance on abuse of vulnerable adults "No secrets" Department of Health 2000) and the equivalent Welsh Office document "In safe hands". She continues to work with the Council of Europe on the prevention of abuse of disabled children and adults and on violence against all vulnerable citizens and has contributed more broadly to their disability rights programme. Her published work includes research papers and training materials on a wide range of social care issues and until 2004 she was a founder co-editor of the Journal of Adult Protection.

She currently manages a programme of policy and staff development in relation to abuse of vulnerable adults and provides ongoing supervision and mentoring to staff in a range of social care and mental health roles. Her consultancies have included the ADSS, various Social Services Departments, (for whom she conducts serious case reviews and inquiries and contributes to staff training), the National Care Standards Commission (now SCIE), the National Patient Safety Agency and the Public Guardianship Office, (for whom she produced guidance on financial abuse and on its new role in relation to the 2005 Mental Capacity Act). For the Joseph Rowntree Foundation she facilitated work on the sexual rights of disabled people and has worked for SCOPE to develop policy around these issues.

In 2006 she produced a review on abuse of disabled people for the National Disability Authority of Ireland, to inform their policy development. With Sophie Burns and Margaret Flynn she produced a study of the needs of people with learning disabilities who are dying for the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities and with David Thompson she has produced Response-ability, to guide staff working with men with learning disabilities who are at risk of sexually offending.

In 2008 she qualified as a Psychotherapist after completing 7 years training in Cognitive Analytical Therapy. She is currently working on updates to "No Secrets", the safeguarding adults bill, serious case reviews for Kent, work on the Oxleas Employee Assistance Scheme and supervision sessions for Connexions Personal Advisers. She recently published on the subject of professional boundaries and her current interests include work to do with the Mental Capacity Act, the Independent Barring Authority and the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID).