Impact Training

Our associate trainers

We have a team of associate trainers who are based all over the country. All are experienced and professional both in training skills AND in working in health and social care.

The trainers are listed below alphabetically by surname.

 

Karen Abrams

Sue Andel

Sue is a registered Social Worker and has worked in a wide variety of social care settings including children and  adults , and as a social worker, manager, approved social worker and trainer.  Sue's qualifications include a MA in Government and Social Policy, Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies, and a Further Adult Education Teaching Certificate.  Sue's special interests are mental health, safeguarding vulnerable adults and team building.  Sue particularly enjoys working closely with groups of staff to see a more cohesive approach to working with service users.

 

 

Robin Armstrong

Robin is a Registered Mental Health Nurse and has twenty years' experience working in the NHS and local authorities. Ten years were spent in clinical practice, particularly in forensic psychiatry and ten years spent in a variety of Managerial/Director roles. For the last five years, he has been self employed. He works partly as a trainer and his speciality areas are Mental Capacity, Safeguarding Adults, Deprivation of Liberty and Mental Health. He is also a partner in a successful Domiciliary Care Agency which helps him to ensure that his training content reflects the reality of social care today.

 

Sheila Cardow

Sheila is a qualified counsellor; she has been working in private practice in the St Albans area since 2000. As a Person-centred therapist Sheila provides generic counselling for individuals and couples, her specialist area is working with adult survivors of childhood abuse. This includes providing support for partners of survivors. She also provides clinical supervision for other therapists. Currently she also teaches on degree programmes in counsellor training and in 2009 completed a PGCE with the University of Westminster. Sheila has extensive experience as a practitioner and senior manager in the non-statutory sector providing services for substance misusers and those with dual diagnosis. Another area of interest for her is the role of the Person-centred approach within organisations.

 

Robert Corteen

Robert practiced as a Psychiatric Nurse from 1980 until 2006, although had a spell of 11 years when he worked as a Solicitor. His career has provided excellent experience of both the public and private sectors giving Robert expertise in both the healthcare and business sectors. Currently a freelance trainer and consultant, Robert maintains active involvement in clinical practice. His special interests include mental health and substance abuse as well as all aspects of health and social care law, and he delivers training on a wide variety of subjects. Robert’s qualifications include B.A. (Hons) in Politics, RMN, MSc (Dual Diagnosis), ENB 998 and D32 and D33

Paul Craven

Before joining Impact, Paul worked in the education sector for 20 years, pushing the boundaries in areas around learning disabilities, mental health, community education, and diversity. Having started off running creative music and drama workshops for people with disabilities, he wound up running the Supported Learning Department in a top London College for 6 years, with a team of 35 staff - so is well aware of the issues that staff, teams and managers face in working closely with people from vulnerable sectors of the community. His qualifications include a certificate in Business Management in Education from the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, and a Cert. Ed. with a specialism in Learning Difficulties. As a freelance trainer, consultant and project manager, Paul has worked with organisations as diverse as  MIND, Mencap and the Maudsley Hospital , right through to the Almeida Theatre, the London Sinfonietta Orchestra and the South Bank Centre, giving advice, running creative projects, and training staff groups and managers.

 

 

Libby Lawrence

Libby is a psychology graduate and qualified lecturer / trainer. She predominantly works in the health and social care sector although she also delivers some commercial training and business psychology programmes. On her return to the UK from a spell in the US, she had a successful career in sales and then sales management and training. After the birth of her second child Libby returned to the health and social care sector as a freelance trainer. She has done a substantial amount of work with Age UK (formerly Age Concern Training) delivering training across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Libby began working with Impact because she shares our passion for training and one of her key strengths is being able to communicate complex concepts in simple, jargon free terms. She now successfully delivers a wide range of courses for us.

 

Gwennie Oakley

Gwennie is a registered Occupational Therapist with over 20 years clinical and managerial experience, working in mental health services. She currently works as a manager in the NHS, leading on Day Services and Memory Services within the specialism of Older People's Mental Health. She also continues to practice clinically and is well aware of the challenges faced by clinicians and managers within healthcare settings. Gwennie's special clinical interests are in group work, problem solving, promoting and enabling independence, memory assessment, client involvement in care planning, promoting well-being and supporting decision making. She has a strong commitment to supporting staff development through supervision, appraisal and continued professional development. She has also lead several service developments and has a keen interest in change management. Gwennie brings a practical approach to training with a strong emphasis on active learning.

 

Karen Patterson

As well as working as an associate trainer for Impact, Karen is also the manager of a Health and Social Care NVQ centre. Karen has many years of experience of working within the learning disability and mental health fields working in various settings including voluntary, private and statutory. Karen uses this experience to bring real examples to her training courses. Karen has worked as a trainer within health and social care for over 10 years and still assesses learners at NVQ levels 2, 3 and 4 to helps her keep up to date with current practices and trends. Karen has a MA in Mental Health and a BA Hons in Learning Disabilities.

 

Peter Simpson

Peter enjoys working with people from many different staff groups and particularly values working with people who directly work with and support vulnerable people. He is a Registered Mental Health Nurse and Qualified Teacher with extensive experience of teaching and training in the mental health and social care field. Peter taught for four years at Oxford Brookes University on pre-registration Mental Health, Learning Disability and Social Work professional programmes and was a Senior Nurse with the Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust. Peter has recent clinical experience in the supported housing sector in a direct-access hostel for homeless people in Oxford.

 

 

Joan Thomas

Joan has worked in the supported housing & social care sectors for over 20 years & has worked with a wide variety of client groups such as learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, drugs & alcohol, mental health, HIV & Aids, offenders, young care leavers, teenage mothers, domestic violence & the elderly. She has held several senior management positions in both statutory and non statutory organisations. Since the beginning of 2003, Joan has been working as a freelance consultant & trainer in the social care & supported housing sectors.

 

Ross Hoar

Ross has worked in social care settings for thirty years. Across a broad range of client groups. Such as adults and children with learning disabilities and complex needs. As a snr with the family intervention project Ross takes a whole family approach to his work. For the last eleven years he has managed residential projects and worked with Offenders. And people with addictive lifestyles such as substance misuse He has a particular interest in support for the Prisoners' families.

Ross has a clinical practice degree in substance misuse and mental health.

He is currently training as a Gestalt counsellor.