Paul is a qualified accountant and has worked in both the private and public sectors, and for 10 years was the contracts manager for Devon SSD. During this time he co-authored, for the now called LGA, a number of best practice guides for commissioners, including one on residential care for children and one on fostering, both of which have informed the more recent updated published guidance for these services.

Having worked for two major IFA’s in the areas of contracting and recruitment, Paul set up the web based Simply Fostering to help recruit needed foster carers. Simply Fostering now attracts many hundreds of visitors each week and sends out 250 prospective applications for new foster care recruits a week to fostering agencies.

Paul currently helps organise the National Commissioning Training Conference for both adults and children’s social care, an event that has been successfully been running for 17 years.