Graham Willetts

Graham has been working as an Independent Consultant in Social Care to the statutory and voluntary sectors for the best part of three years, primarily in investigative and developmental roles. He is also one of the original volunteer Local Evaluators recruited to the highly successful and award-winning Dorset POPP programme under the management of the OPP.

Graham’s previous career in social care extends over 30 years, divided equally between practice, management, policy and planning responsibilities when employed by Birmingham City Council, and more latterly as the national Social Services Consultant for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). He has a particular interest in sensory and age-related disability, service user involvement and personalisation/independent living, and has led or participated in many interesting projects of national significance in relation to those themes. He is in particular proud of his work with and for the Department of Health in the development and monitoring of the 2001 Social Care Section 7 Guidance for work with Deafblind People. He was an expert advisor to the Age Concern/RNIB/RNID handbook for professional carers ‘Hearing and Sight Loss’ (2004).

Graham trained as a social worker in the 1970’s and has a post-graduate diploma in social work with people with disabilities. He has first and further degrees and awards from 5 institutes of higher education, including a M.Soc.Sci. in Social Services Management from Birmingham University.