Tim works for New Prospects Association in the North East of England and as an Associate with In Control Scotland. He is a qualified social worker and an activist with Citizen Network and has been involved in self-directed support since its early days, as a consultant with Paradigm.
Tim's background is in the advocacy movement, supporting people with learning disabilities, and he has trained hundreds of people across the UK and Australia in person-centred planning, support planning, self directed support and encouraging creative solutions.
Recently, Tim has focused on work with children, setting up the Support Planning Hub in Newcastle and currently leading work exploring self-directed support with looked-after children in Middlesbrough and Scotland. As well as being a (lapsed) social worker, Tim has been described by Jack Pearpoint as, “a remarkably gifted leader.”
In his work, Tim tries to bring to life a phrase from a great thinker, John O’Brien: “Listen deeply, search for capacities, seek connections, be open to yes.” in the belief that people, families and communities have their own unique solutions and that the role of services should be to create the time and space for those solutions to emerge.
Tim suffers from ‘Reorganisation and Transformation Fatigue’ a curious illness only found in Health and Social Care, for which the best cure he has discovered is a realisation – sung by Father John Misty; “I hate to say it, but each other is all we’ve got...”
Tim writes on subjects such as community, support and inclusion and publishes a sporadic blog Tales from Serviceland.
In 2013 Tim co-authored the book No Going Back documenting people’s experiences of life in Prudhoe Hospital and in 2014 Tim wrote Self-Directed Support and Early Intervention a report describing early work in Middlesbrough with Looked After Children.
