John began his career with ten years working in therapeutic communities, where he learned the powerful influence of the dynamics of groups on the well-being and effectiveness of people working together.  He went on to train and manage social workers, chairing a national social work organisation - GAPS - and leading innovation in integrating the efforts of health and social care - as services, and in commissioning. John went on to commission and then manage health services, working for 6 years as a Trust Executive Director with responsibilities for operations and strategic organisational change. In those years, he designed and facilitated innovative learning and development programmes at local, regional and national levels for practitioners, leaders and managers, especially in mental health services.

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In 2006, John began to work independently.  He has designed and facilitated programmes to develop organisational, service, commissioning and partnership strategy, clinical and service design and implementation. He has offered support to senior management, clinical/practitioner and inter-organisational teams.  A core and very satisfying part of his work is offering individual consultancy, mentoring and support to managers, practitioners and clinicians, academics and researchers. John has also taught on the doctoral clinical psychology programme at a UK university since 2019.

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John has lectured and offered workshops in the UK, the USA and Europe. In 2011, he co-authored, with Penelope Campling,  'Intelligent Kindness: reforming the culture of healthcare', which attracted wide interest and pleasing enthusiasm amongst practitioners, managers, academics and policy makers internationally. In 2015 Penny and John were surprised and delighted to be elected Honorary Fellows of the Royal College of General Practice, in recognition of their work to understand and improve the culture of the NHS.  The second edition of the book Intelligent Kindness: Rehabilitating the Welfare State was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020, with Chris Maloney as a co-author. We have a blog, intelligent kindness.blog  that may be of interest to you.

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John does a significant amount of work alone, sometimes working in partnership alongside leaders or facilitators inside client organisations, or working to support practitioners, clinicians and leaders, individually or in teams. Where helpful, he can bring a range of highly experienced associates in to co-work on projects. 

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