Susan was qualified as a family lawyer in 1989.
Whilst practicing both in London and in Surrey, most of her time was spent advising clients in the office, and as an advocate in court. She ran a successful family law practice specialising in child and adult safeguarding.
Susan was also a member of the Family Law Association for over 15 years.
Whilst working for various family law practices in London and in Surrey area, Susan was actively involved in championing work around women and their children subject to Domestic Abuse. Susan was a member of a steering group for research conducted by Dr Lorraine Radford in 1996 and for 3 years was the Vice Chair of the Surrey Domestic Violence Strategic Policy Group.
Susan also developed and delivered the national training for Co-Ordinated Action for Domesic Abuse (CAADA), now SafeLives, for the first Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVA) role throughout England and Wales. She contributed to the development of the National Standards for Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence for Women’s Aid.
Susan left private practice in 2004 to set up and develop a consultancy focused training in health and social care law and practice She is passionate about legal literacy, helping non lawyers interpret the legal rules and apply them into practice. She is passionate that staff not only do things right in accordance with the law, but to do the right thing.
Since 2004 she has worked as an independent consultant/trainer, written policy and operating procedures. She is currently retained by a private London hospital as a safeguarding subject matter expert. She has also designed, developed and delivered training courses incorporating knowledge and skills in England and Wales for a hundreds of clients to include local authorities, ICB’s, Trusts, Probation, Home Office and Charities. Her feedback is consistently outstanding.
Susan is specialised in developing and delivering training on the Mental Capacity Act 2005. In 2009 she designed and developed the qualification accredited by the Secretary of State, at Masters level 7, for Kingston University in Surrey for the Best Interest Assessors under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. She currently delivers this qualification at Teeside University in the North East.
More recently Susan conceptualised, developed and delivered both the Executive Leadership and Clinical Leadership in Safeguarding courses commissioned by NHS England. This work was recognized with an award at the HSJ Awards in 2020.
Susan is a dedicated, focused and passionate professional, with a firm value base.
