Associates

Tim Barnes - Change Project Facilitator

Tim is an educational researcher and consultant with a wealth of practical experience and a variety of perspectives.  He is principal of educational consultancy, Thinking for a Living, specialising in three broad areas: consultancy about disaffection, work on social inclusion, and learning and learning policy.  

Nicky is a solicitor with more than 20 year’s experience in family and childcare cases. She is a member of the Law Society Child Care Panel and for five years was head of the child care department of a Sheffield law firm. Since 2000 she has been a sole practitioner, dividing her time between agency advocacy and representing local authorities, parents, extended family members and children in Children Act and Adoption and Children Act applications. She also teaches at university and trains solicitors, social workers and voluntary sector workers.

Steve Flood is a freelance writer and editor who specialises in the field of children’s services. After working in a variety of policy posts for the Department of Health, he worked at the children’s mental health charity YoungMinds from 1993 until 2003, where he was editor of YoungMinds Magazine for more than eight years. Steve has worked on a succession of research in practice projects since early 2003. He edits the monthly Research and Policy Update, and writes its policy sections.

Liz moved to Wiltshire to take up a post which plays a key role in the implementation of the Change for Children agenda. Prior to that she was Head of Policy in Barnardo’s Policy and Research Unit for eight years.
In her early career Liz held a number of joint funded posts and worked in the local voluntary sector before embarking on a career in policy and strategic management.
Her work has spanned most aspects of children’s services and she has experience of partnership working in many different contexts.

After working for some time in the private sector, Rhiannon spent eight years as an internal management consultant for the Metropolitan Police, leading organisational development projects, planning and managing change initiatives and delivering team-based training. She then became County Manager for Performance Management at Hampshire Social Services (and research in practice Link Officer). Rhiannon currently leads research in practice's work for the C4EO (Centre of Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services) – www.c4eo.org.uk. Previous major projects have included:

• Leading work on how organisations can support the development of evidence-informed practice (which has culminated in the Firm Foundations Handbook)
• co-authoring the Leading Evidence-Informed Practice Handbook 
• developing materials for the TeamWise Handbook
• co-facilitating the work of the Wales College

Jeanette has been with research in practice since July 2005, initially as the Development Officer (Health).  In this role she was responsible for developing and managing the research in practice Learning Events Programme and providing Regional Lead support for the North West partner agencies.  Since April 2007 she has worked as an Associate, leading on the Change Project Under The Influence? Young People, alcohol and offending, and facilitating Learning Events.

Prior to joining research in practice she worked at NHS Direct Sheffield in the field of health information.  She has a background in mental health work with positions at the national helpline SANELINE and in a specialist team for street homeless people in London.  In addition to RiP work, Jeanette is studying for a History BA, and volunteers as a local history tour guide.

Ian began his career as a specialist Drama teacher in Plymouth where he started to explore the learning possibilities of letting children use audio and video to "tell a story". In his spare time he began to offer freelance radio contributions to the BBC and before long was offered a job as the presenter of the old Radio Four regional breakfast programme Morning Sou'West. He then worked in a number of roles at the BBC eventually becoming a senior producer. Several years ago Ian decided to go freelance and has built a small business developing audio and video learning materials. He finds his work for research in practice particularly fulfilling because with "Every Child Matters" in mind he believes that he is now able to bring the two strands of his career, education and broadcasting, together. He has twice received nominations in the Sony Radio Awards and won gold for producing "Shout it Out" a radio play about adult illiteracy and bronze for a themed series about domestic violence.

Work for research in practice has included audio and video content for:

Fostering Voices
Firm Foundations
Teamwise
Children First – Disabled Children and Their Families Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood
Child Protection – Everybody’s Business
On New Ground: Supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people.

Jo Poke - Admin Support

After graduating as a librarian, I worked for 15 years in a variety of library and information provision roles in a wide range of environments including central government, the private sector and professional bodies. I spent the longest time involved with the latter, namely working for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

In April 1999 my husband and I spent a holiday in Devon. We fell in love with the county and within three months we had moved to Chudleigh! I took a career break and spent the next few years running a small bed and breakfast enterprise combined with some work for the National Trust and some freelance writing for the Department of Health library. I joined research in practice in 2002 as a clerical assistant, moving to the role of administrator at research in practice for adults in 2006.

Following my husband’s recent early retirement, I have returned once again to freelance work. I now undertake a variety of ad hoc administrative and library related assignments for research in practice, as well as for other Dartington departments and the Department of Health.

When not working, I spend as much time as possible gardening, cooking and entertaining. Exploring and discovering the delights of Brittany is developing as a new hobby and source of enjoyment. Given what happened when my husband and I discovered Devon, who knows what adventures the future might bring!     

John worked as practitioner, trainer and head of child care policy for Devon Social Services from 1973 when he joined the Directorate. More recently he has worked on two projects at the Dartington Social Research Unit, one of which was concerned with building more effective bridges between child care practice and research. He has recently returned to practice as a post adoption support worker for Families for Children, a voluntary adoption agency based in Exeter, but maintains his interest in childcare research by having responsibility for the research element of the monthly Research & Policy Updates on the research in practice website.

Mary works as an independent consultant, researcher, writer and trainer for a range of statutory and non-governmental organisations concerned with children and families and social care. She has written widely on child care law and practice issues. She worked for fourteen years as legal adviser and then co-director of a national NGO, enabling families to have a voice in decisions made by social services departments and the courts about their children. She is an associate of the National Children's Bureau and Young Minds and a founder member of RTB Associates.

Catherine Shaw joined NCB’s research department in 2001 as principal research officer with responsibility for developing NCB’s evaluation programme. She currently manages a team of specialists who undertake independent evaluation of projects and services within NCB and for external organisations. Catherine is also involved in training, consultancy and developing materials to support people in the evaluation of their own projects or services.