Andrew first came into contact with health and social care services when he undertook work experience at Calderstones which was a large long-stay hospital for people with learning disabilities. Following this experience and after leaving school he went on to work for Social Services and the NHS for 12 years in various roles culminating in him leading one of the first multi-disciplinary community mental health teams and reviewing services for people with Learning Disabilities for a new unitary authority.
During this time he also qualified as a Social Worker and was seconded to teach on both the Social Work and Nursing programmes specialising in community based interventions and care management.
Since leaving the statutory sector he has worked for both the not for profit and independent sectors at a senior level spending most of this time developing services for people with learning disabilities and complex needs, including mental health problems and behaviour that challenges services. This has included the operational multi-site management of both hospital and community based services.
Prior to setting up the ECHO Group, Andrew worked as Chief Executive Officer for Danshell and the Inmind Healthcare Group which operated services for people with mental ill-health and learning disabilities developing the Company to ensure there was a meaningful focus on person centred care whilst also achieving full compliance with the Care Quality Commission/Care Inspectorate across all of the Company’s sites.
Andrew is looking forward to working with the Service Users and teams across the ECHO group and continuing the focus on providing needs-led services ensuring people feel that they are at the centre of the care and support they are receiving.