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About Us

Established for over 18 years

Our Services

WillisPalmer was established in 2004 by two qualified and experienced social workers, Mark Willis and Andre Palmer.  We started small and over the past 19 years have grown to become the largest provider of independent social work and psychology services in the UK.

With over 300 experts fully recruited we are able to respond to tight deadlines and provide you with a suitably experienced individual or team to meet your needs.

We provide independent assessments, expert reports, therapeutic interventions, family support services, advice and consultancy and multi-disciplinary interventions to keep families together where possible.

WillisPalmer runs an exceptional Child Abuse Litigation Service when a claim is being made against an organisation in respect of potential negligence and the way a child care case was handled. We can assist claimant and defendant solicitors by providing preliminary reports, chronology, file preparation and full expert reports.

We deliver training courses for professionals working with children and families and can provide bespoke courses for organisations.

Our Vision and Mission

Vision: To be the trusted independent experts working together to achieve the best outcome for children and their families.

Realising our vision:  Innovating, sharing, supporting.

  • We will leverage our independence and flexibility to assist our clients who continually strive to improve the welfare services provided to vulnerable children in their care. 
  • We will share our existing knowledge and provide opportunities for our professionals to upskill via continuous professional development.
  • We recognise that our experts make a valuable contribution to services for children and families everyday and encourage them to share their personal knowledge and expertise with our community. Through the delivery of papers, conferences, and our broad range of training courses, we aim to become the trusted knowledge resource for our industry. 
  • We are agile, responsive and, crucially, understanding of children and family welfare services. This unique ‘insider’ view enables us to work with local authorities, children’s homes, schools and the legal profession to provide a comprehensive, cohesive and timely service. This approach ensures that the work we do is beneficial to all.

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide an experienced and trusted team to collaborate with those already working with children and families who need further support. Our team of experts include social workers, psychologists, therapists and family support professionals, meaning we can provide the skills required to work towards the best possible outcomes for children and their families.

By collaborating with organisations that work with children, we add additional resource and expertise which helps to achieve the best possible outcome, whilst also streamlining processes, reducing workloads, timings and costs.

Alongside this work, we also provide support to the professionals within our industry, advising them on their current needs and providing training to aid their professional development and career enhancement.

Our Experts

We operate a safe recruitment process ensuring all of our experts have appropriate qualifications, professional indemnity insurance, Social Work England registration and references. We also ask for a copy of a report to ensure all of our experts have excellent written skills. Every contractor who works for WillisPalmer has been interviewed by one of our Executive Team. The average post-qualification experience of our professionals is 20 years.

"I was very pleased with the service received and would definitely use WillisPalmer again. They were very prompt in responding, offering a consultant and dealing with any issues along the way."

Local Authority

"Very qood qualityclear and very comprehensive report. It was helpful to have the detailed Appendix. The report also addressed all pertinent issues and provided well-reasoned opinions and explanations for the conclusions arrived at within the report."

Solicitor - Local Authority

Why choose WillisPalmer?

Over the past 19 years our work has been evaluated by both the University of Oxford and Essex University and in 2012 we were awarded the Investors in People award.

University of Oxford report

ECBA research by Essex University

We are regularly commissioned by over 40 local authorities in the UK and have been awarded numerous contracts for assessment services, training and mentoring programmes and a range of quality assurance and auditing functions.

"Well led and managed company with strong values and ethos which underpin the quality and style of its work and business relationships. A good reputation and organisational culture that puts quality of care and professional support at the heart of company performance."

Investors In People

Working Together For Children

Make an enquiry

A multi-disciplinary organisation providing independent, high quality social work, psychological, psychiatric, therapeutic and family support services. Contact us with your requirements and speak to a member of our team who will help you today.
Make an Enquiry

Knowledge & Resources

Keep abreast of the latest news in the children's services sector.

A look back at 2022 with WillisPalmer's Head of Practice, Lucy Hopkins…

09/12/2022

2022 saw people trying to get back to some degree of normality following the Covid-19 lockdowns, restrictions and school closures that we had faced for the previous two years. However, the impact of Covid-19 continued and many services experienced, and continue to experience, backlogs and difficulties, including those services relating to children and families.

Social worker [...]
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John Lewis Christmas advert highlights important messages regarding foster care and looked after children

09/12/2022

Every year people are excited to see what the theme of the John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert will be. This year's advert reminded our Head of Practice, Lucy Hopkins, of all the times she arrived at the homes of foster carers with children or young people who were anxious, scared, worried and hungry, having just [...]

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The WillisPalmer Christmas Tree Decorating Competition 2022

09/12/2022
Who Wins..? You Decide!

We have two Christmas trees at the WillisPalmer office and this year the staff upstairs are going to compete with the staff downstairs to see who has the best decorated tree... and we want YOU to decide on the winner!

Tree 1 - Downstairs 

Tree [...]

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A Mackman Group collaboration - market research by Mackman Research | website design by Mackman

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