Paul Hewitt

Paul Hewitt qualified as a social worker at Oxford University in 1989. Prior to that he worked unqualified for 4 years in residential care firstly with adolescents, and subsequently with adults recovering from mental illness.

Since qualification, Paul has worked in statutory child care as a social worker, front line manager and currently as the Service Manager for Child Protection & Reviewing in a West London Borough. During the last 13 years, he has completed further training. He has obtained an advanced award in social work practice, diplomas in care, policy and management and child protection. He is also a qualified Practice Teacher and is approved as an Assessor for the Post Qualifying framework in the Greater London Area.

As a social work practitioner and manager, Paul presented assessments & care plans to court about complex child care issues. Many of these involved the parenting capacity of individuals assessed to be experiencing mental illness.

In his current role, Paul chairs child protection case conferences, statutory reviews for children in public care and has chaired a number of sub-committees for the area child protection committee. With other colleagues he has delivered interagency training in child protection, risk assessments and joint referral protocols.

In recent months, Paul has been working on the audit of services required by the Laming report and the implementation of joint protocols to promote better integrated services with colleagues in adult mental health based in the primary care trust. Alongside this developmental work, Paul continues to have operational responsibility for a referral & assessment team, family support team and a central reviewing team.