Greater Glasgow Area
Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland. Disclosure Scotland is a national governmental organisation that provides criminal record disclosures for general employment purposes and also higher level disclosures for sensitive roles. It operates the PVG Scheme which ensures that those working with children or adults in sensitive roles are continuously monitored. It operates the National Barring Service that investigates and decides where a person requires to be legally barred from seeking or doing such work. There are more than one million Scots in the PVG Scheme. Disclosure Scotland also has full policy advice responsibility for Scotland's Disclosure legislation and incorporates the Scottish Goverment policy team responsible for advising Scottish Ministers and supporting legislative change. Disclosure Scotland has a budget of around £30 million and staffing of around 450 colleagues. I am accountable to Scottish Ministers and Parliament for the governance of Disclosure Scotland and the operation of Scotland's disclosure system and PVG barring service. Please note I generally only connect with people I have met in person or who have a close professional connection so please don't be offended if I don't connect.
Responsible for PVG Barring in Scotland. Lead policy official for Scotland’s disclosure system. Responsible for multi-million pound budgets. Policy architect of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Senior Responsible Officer for its successful delivery through Parliament.
Senior Responsible Officer and architect of a radical risk based and proportionate inspection system delivered across all 32 local councils in Scotland. Led and authored the 2009 government thematic review of management of dangerous offenders, leading to major practice changes across the country.
Devised and delivered Scotland’s first systematic inspection programme for Criminal Justice Social Work. Carried out major incident reviews for Scottish Government Ministers. Led government social work policy on prison release, offender risk assessment and sex offender assessment.
Responsible for delivering all operational aspects of the brand new RMA, delivered all requirements for this new public body on time, on budget and to high levels of stakeholder and Ministerial satisfaction. Published the Standards and Guidelines for Risk Assessment for dangerous offenders in Scotland and innovative new resources such as the RATED directory that allowed practitioners to choose the best risk assessment methods for different categories of offending and offenders.
I was lead professional adviser in the government's Community Justice Division in the areas of prison throughcare and offender risk assessment. Together with colleagues Jo Knox, Irene Scullion and the late John Waterhouse I designed and led a ground breaking programme of inspections of the criminal justice social work services provided by Scottish local authorities (in Scotland all probation services are provided by social work departments). I also carried out and published an investigation into the management of a high risk offender in North Lanarkshire and reported to the then Minister for Justice, Cathy Jamieson MSP. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/14154551/45564 I oversaw the initial policy work to introduce validated risk assessment tools into Scotland, particularly championing the LSCMI instrument which has since been rolled out across Scottish services and the Risk Matrix 2000 for assessing sexual offenders. Working with colleagues in government and influencing wider stakeholders to help progress this very important safeguarding area.