The six people shown at the top of this page are the core associates of Social Services Strategic Planning. One or more of us will appear on every project team we field. You can find out more about each of us by following the links. All our associates have a proven track record in their own right. They work alone or in project teams in configurations best suited to their special skills and your requirements.

Below are some of the organisations and people we have worked  with during the past two years. Sometimes they have contracted to us; sometimes we have contracted to them. In every case the primary criterion is to add capacity and value to the service we provide to you the client.

This allows us to respond flexibly and quickly to your needs. We can focus expertise on a particular task within a wider project. For example if part of a project requires the development of a business plan, a robust financial analysis, the identification of unit costs, the implications for staff recruitment and retention the development of a benchmarking tool, the negotiation of a package from a potential service partner we can mobilise the necessary skills where and when you need them..

Finnamore Management Consultants	Consultants in health management
Faversham Consultancy Group	Consultancy - Social Policy, Training and Development
Development Consultancy	Training and Development Consultancy; health service
Partnership at Work	Consultancy, Research and Writing; public and voluntary
Katherine Hughes Associates	Community networks and social housing specialists
KPMG	International Consultants and Auditors
Pi Associates	Management consultants and trainers
David Evans	Consultant, Social Care and Mental Health

Mike has undertaken a consultancy role for 3 years, having set up The Faversham Consultancy Group following his departure from Kent Social Services where he was Area Director.

He combines this with his role as Vice -Chair of a NHS Health Trust.

He undertakes assignments in both the public and voluntary sectors as well as SMEs. Work includes organisational design, management development, recruitment and selection, performance management, together with serious incident enquiries.

Best Value activities including quality assesment are part of his portfolio.

He is a Member of The Institute of Directors and has a masters degree in management.

Keith Fletcher

Key Skills

• Analysis of organisational and strategic problems.
• Promoting shared agendas and agreed solutions.
• Graphic and concise writing style.
• Facilitative and informal group leadership.
• Creating effective learning environments.

Special Knowledge

• Of professional and management issues in social care;
• Of working in a political command structure; Of best value;
• Of social inclusion/exclusion;
• Of the theory and practice of negotiation.

Other relevant matters

• Qualified social worker
• Formerly Deputy Chief Inspector, Social Services Inspectorate Wales.
• Chair Housing Association for people with learning disabilities.
• Chair, Community Development Project.
• School Governor.

Projects and Tasks

Reviews: anti-poverty strategy; residential services for children; services for drugs and alcohol misuse; residential care policy for adults; financial management of social services; voluntary adoption service.

Feasibility/development studies: comprehensive service for elderly people; integration of child protection within a Children's Services Plan; family conferences in child protection

Workshops and seminars: best value social services; negotiation; the implications of local government reorganisation; developing strategic responses to change, with public, voluntary and commercial sector bodies.

Books

• Negotiation for Health and Social Services Professionals (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
• Child Protection: a change of emphasis (Social Services Strategic Planning).
• Best Value Social Services (Social Services Strategic Planning).
• Best Value: a guide for the voluntary child care sector [with Mike Williams] (NCVCCO).

Articles

Numerous articles on best value, the internet and social care, negotiation and social services management including a regular column in Community Care magazine and entries in Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Work

Other work

Guidance on the Children and Young Persons Act 2001, Isle of Man [with Janet and Mike Williams]

• Keith's full CV

Andrew Scowcroft

Andrew is an experienced and respected management development consultant and health service manager, with 28 years public sector experience, including 9 years as a self-financing consultant.

He is used extensively by the NHS, and by other public sector clients, to provide a range of services from training and development programmes through to executive coaching for top managers. Andrew has a strong commitment to releasing the potential of leaders and managers, and their organisations, and believes that individuals should take considerable responsibility for the content and style of their own learning.

His clients include the National Assembly for Wales, Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, General Practices, the Independent Health Sector, Local Government and private individuals. In addition, Andrew is a senior Consultant with April Training Executive Ltd; a company that has designed and marketed a powerful business simulation used in the development of both business and people management skills.

Andrew holds a Diploma from the Institute of Health Services Management, BPS Level A and B certificates in Psychometric Testing, and is currently studying for an MA in Learning and Change in Organisations, University of West of England.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Andrew held the posts of Director of Consultancy for the NHS Staff College Wales, Head of Management Development, MCS, Welsh Health Common Services Authority, and Director of Welsh Health Development International, an overseas health consultancy operated from within the NHS. Between 1973 and 1988, he was a health service manager in the Nottingham, Derby, and Reading areas.

Professional Affiliations include:-

• Member of the Institute of Healthcare Management
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Fellow of the Institute of Supervision and Management
• Associate Member of the Institute of Management Consultants
• Member of the British Psychological Society Register of Psychometric Test Users

Janet Williams and Mike Williams

Janet's background is in social work with families and children. She worked for many years in the voluntary sector, including eight years as Assistant Director, Family Service Units. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Nottingham University. Mike has over 20 years experience as a management consultant, including 10 years working with not-for- profit organisations employing people with severe disabilities.

CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Undertaken jointly unless indicated otherwise by initials

• Updating complete Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations, adapted to the Isle of Man Children and Young Persons Act 2001, NISW/Isle of Man Government (current, with Keith Fletcher)
• Evaluation of the Family Support Grant Scheme, Family Policy Unit, Home Office, 2000/01. This contract has been extended for a further year to include a report to ministers and an evaluation of the impact of the first three years of the scheme.
• Updated Child Protection procedures in the light of Working Together to Safeguard Children 1999, Manchester City Council ACPC, 2000.
• Following successful completion of the main manual, wrote a "brief case version" for staff (MNW)
• Updated and revised Manchester Education Department's Child Protection Procedures, 2001 (MNW)
• Wrote Think Country Child! The Councillor's Guide to planning services for children and young people in rural areas, 2000 NCVCCO/The Countryside Agency (JDW)
• Researched and wrote Best Value Children's Services for the National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations, 2000 (MNW, with Keith Fletcher)
• Researched and wrote the guide Rural Health Matters! for the Countryside Agency. This is aimed at Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts (MNW, current)
• Wrote Meeting the Needs of Country Children, based on a series of regional seminars on planning services for children in rural areas to increase awareness amongst policy makers and planners and improve collaboration between the statutory and voluntary sectors, NCVCCO, 1998/99 (JDW)
• Sure Start adviser, 1999 - present (JDW)
• Evaluation of a contact service for children and parents in public law cases, Royal Holloway, University of London/NCH (JDW, current)
• Evaluative study of the North Worcestershire Family Support Project (in collaboration with Prof. Jane Tunstill), Hereford and Worcester SSD, 1997/98
• Collated material for, and edited, the London Borough of Enfield's first children's services plan (MNW)
• Wrote Means, Motive and Opportunity: Developing Practice through Training in the Voluntary Child Care Sector, NCVCCO, 1996 (JDW) October, 2001

Alan Coote B.A., P.G.C.E., M.Ed.

Alan is a founding member and Partner of Pi Associates. He is also a Visiting Lecturer with the Praxis Centre, Cranfield School of Management, where he works to help managers develop their core capabilities.

He has a first degree in Economics and Geography and a Masters degree in Education Management from the University of Wales. He is also a qualified teacher. His early career was spent as a teacher and, later, as a teacher trainer. This was followed by a three year period as a senior administrator in Higher Education. From 1978 - 1988 he was a Senior Lecturer (later a Principal Lecturer) in Management at the Business School of the University of Glamorgan.

He was a Tutor and Tutor Counsellor for the Open University Business School from 1990 - 1995. He has designed and delivered many organisation, team and leadership development programmes for social care organisations in Wales and England. He has presented papers and run management courses and seminars in many parts of the United Kingdom as well as in France, Morocco, Italy, Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ireland.

He has published over twenty articles on management subjects in refereed journals and is the co-author of four books on management subjects. He has also been a co-editor of three others. He is co-author of:

• In Pursuit of Quality - 1991. Covers initiatives and strategies for building and sustaining quality cultures in organisations. Published by MHNA Publications.
• Management's OK - 1992. A management development handbook for middle and senior managers. Published by Winslow Press.
• Negotiation's OK - 1993. A manual for effective negotiation. Published by MHNA Publications.
• Reaching Agreement - 1994. A manual on negotiation skills for careers staff recently 'privatised'. Published in conjunction with Mid Glamorgan Careers Service.

© SSSP Ltd., September 2003