Mark Willis

I am a qualified social worker with over 20 years experience working with children and families in a variety of settings. I have worked as an Independent Social Work Consultant for the past eight years. I have significant experience undertaking assessments where children may be at risk of significant harm. Since 2004 I have been co-Director of WillisPalmer, an independent agency providing expert social work services to the statutory and independent sector. I am regularly commissioned by local authorities (nationwide), solicitors, Children’s Guardians and voluntary agencies to undertake independent risk assessments (including those featuring sexual abuse and domestic violence) and other specialist child protection assessments for which I have undertaken significant post-qualifying training.

I have previously managed local authority Children and Families teams and thus have experience in a supervisory capacity. I have experience of developing and delivering child protection training programmes to various professionals, including social workers, foster carers, police officers and teachers. I have developed and taught on academically accredited programmes on the assessment of adults and children/young people who sexually abuse. I also deliver training for social workers and foster carers on a variety of child care and child protection subjects including risk assessment/management, attachment and socio-legal perspectives in social work with children and families. I act as a Child Protection Consultant for a number of voluntary agencies working with children. I was an approved contractor for CAFCASS (Children’s Guardian) for five years having initially been appointed to the Kent and Medway Panel of Guardians ad Litem and Reporting Officers in September 2000.