Andrew’s career in health and social care began in the mid 1980’s when he moved to the then West Germany to establish and run an independent sector ‘drop in’ centre for homeless young people. Since returning to the UK in 1990 he has worked in a range of statutory Health and Social Care environments including both community and inpatient facilities as both a practitioner and a manager.
After completing his social work training in 1995 he went on to complete his ASW training whilst working within Tameside’s joint Mental Health Services. In 1998 he moved to work at Ashworth High Secure Hospital, initially as a Senior Social Worker within the Personality Disorder Service before moving in 2000 to work exclusively within Ashworth’s Women’s Service. As the Clinical Manager of the Women’s Service he was closely involved in the re-provision of care away from High Secure Services and the closure of the Women’s Service at Ashworth. Andrew then joined NIMHE North West as the Service Improvement Lead for the region with specific responsibility for the Access, Booking and Choice agenda as well as being the NIMHE NW’s Substance Misuse Lead and the Client Manager for two mental health provider trusts.
During his time at NIMHE Andrew also benefited from a range of training opportunities including a joint Ashridge Consulting and the Modernisation Agency’s “Developing Consultancy Skills Programme” and the Juran Institute’s Six Sigma Green Belt Programme.
Andrew joined Mental Health Strategies in the spring of 2005 and since then has led a wide range of projects including the following:
• A Statutory Public Consultation regarding a mental health trust’s reconfiguration of services
• Advice to a Strategic Health Authority on the future provision of learning disability services by PCTs
• An ‘out of sector and out of area’ Learning Disabilities Census for an SHA
• The external independent evaluation of a mental health trust’s community based services to assess its performance (as the service model deviated from the Mental Health Policy Implementation Guidance)
• The development of a joint workforce strategy for a local health and social care economy
• Options appraisal and development of an implementation plan for re-configuring community based, multi agency, substance misuse services for a locality’s Drug Action Team
• The development of a market analysis, strategy, service model and business plan for an independent healthcare provider wishing to enter a new service sector.
Andrew is married with two teenage children; he lives in Stalybridge and likes all things ‘Mod’. With financial assistance from MHS he is also currently working towards his MBA.
