Julie Barnes / independent practitioner

Julie Barnes is an independent practitioner with twenty five years experience of working in the public sector and social care. A graduate of Surrey University and the London School of Economics, she has worked in, and managed, research and performance review for Surrey and West Sussex Social Service Departments.

Between 1992 and 2002 she worked as an inspector for the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) in the Department of Health (DH), with specific responsibility for developing and implementing national standards and inspection methodologies across social care services for children, families and adult services.

Since then, she has worked as an independent consultant, undertaking research, evaluation, policy development and change management commissions for government departments, universities and other organisations in both England and Wales. She has recently worked for the National College of School Leadership and is currently leading work with the NHS in the East Midlands (Dementia Strategy); offering professional support to schools staff; and leading innovative work on strengths based approaches to safeguarding for children and adults.

Julie is a qualified personal Counsellor and Supervisor and runs her own private practice in Nottingham. She has been a volunteer counsellor at the Nottinghamshire Hospice working with people with terminal illness and bereavement and as a consultant advisor for VSO in Guyana, SA with children and families affected by HIV/Aids

She is a trained Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator offering appreciative consultancy to individuals, teams and organisations, particularly in the public sector. She is a key contributor to the developing Appreciative Inquiry Network in the UK and contributes to wider European and International AI networks. She is a Program Associate for the NTL Institute in the USA and recently guest edited (with Anne Radford) the international journal AI Practitioner for February 2009, on the theme of ‘Working Boldly with Appreciative Inquiry’.