Richard is the Executive Director of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust and an Independent Consultant in the fields of Child Care, Education and Mental Health across the voluntary, statutory and private sectors, as well as in Commercial Business. He is a Fellow of the Dartington Social Policy Group at Warren House and of the Portuguese Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists.

He has a long association with Therapeutic Communities, having worked at the Mulberry Bush for well over 20 years, where from 1991 to 2001 he was its Director, and at the Peper Harow Foundation from 2001 to 2005, where he was Director, Children and Young People. He was a Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Work at Reading University (1986 – 1991) and continues to teach on such professional training courses here and abroad.

He qualified as a Social Worker with an MSc from Oxford University in 1983 and in 2005 completed the MA in Organisational Consulting at Ashridge Business School.

On several occasions he has been the Chair of the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities and remains the Chair of the Care Leavers’ Foundation.