I am a systemic organisational consultant, academic and author. Some of the threads that bind these activities together are a passion for creating learning and a belief in excellence in the delivery of services. Following an early career in practice and then management I have now accrued more than two decades of experience providing consultancy support to a range of children’s services including; social care, youth justice services, education, youth services and the third sector.
As a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire I assisted in developing a Professional Doctorate in Systemic Practice and designed a systemic module for a Social Work Masters programme. I completed my Professional Doctorate in Systemic Practice The Art of Organisational Development in 2013. This included reflexive accounts of my development work with services and their management teams. I also explored intuition and the tacit dimensions of knowing. My published work includes co-authoring legal textbooks, discourses on social policy and co-editing an academic text book on systemic inquiry.
An area of specialist knowledge is safeguarding older children and developing services to reduce the risks they may pose to others. I have applied my academic learning to develop a systemic approach to case reviews and a linked learning strategy for a children’s safeguarding board. This was completed whilst undertaking case reviews including an extended thematic review.
I have worked with over 50 services on service improvement before or after inspections. This has included social care inspections, youth offending team inspections and local authority services related to school improvement. My MSc was a systemically focussed account of the impact of inspection on the management of a service.
My experience of strategic planning has included assisting senior leadership groups with strategic planning. I have also assisted a range of statutory boards to review their function and strategic role. An analysis of the drivers for youth offending in two London authorities which I undertook reported to a Home Officer Minister. I assisted a national charity and a government department with developing and writing national guidance around positive activities for young people.
alex@systemicpractice.com