Our tutors are experienced professionals who are acknowledged as experts within their fields, hand picked not only for their expertise but also for their delivery and ability to engage. They are trained in academic, expert advisory and practical backgrounds including Home Office Advisors within the crime and disorder arena.
Many of our tutors have full-time positions within the community safety and ASB sector, which ensures the content of our BTEC training is contemporary, relevant and based on real-life practice and experience.
Our tutors are passionate about effectively resolving community safety and ASB issues and sharing those skills to enable practitioners to deliver an effective and collaborative service.
Our training is a mixture of classroom-based learning and independent research and study. With no more than 15 per class students can effectively contribute and participate in each session. The classroom-based learning delivers theory and practice which can be applied in the workplace but also enables students to share good practice, develop networks with other practitioners and to engage with their tutor.
Neill Courtney
Neill is a highly experienced ASB practitioner with experience in socialhousing, local authority community safety and policing. He is currently the Community Safety and CCTV Team Leader for Trafford Council in Greater Manchester and has been employed by Trafford since 2019. Neill has a wealth of experience in obtaining injunctions, criminal behaviour orders and closure orders, and is particularly experienced with addressing complex cuckooing cases.
He has also served as Trafford Council’s Violence Reduction coordinator where he worked to tackle knife crime, county lines offending and child criminal exploitation. In this role Neill implemented numerous strategies to reduce knife crime and violence in Trafford.
Neill is also a former Police Officer who worked in the challenging communities of Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
Neill is also a trained MARAC chair, has completed the BTEC Level 5 through CSPT and has chaired a number of community trigger reviews in Trafford.
Neill has an energetic, interactive and engaging training style and challenges students to improve their knowledge.
Serena Simon
Serena has over 20 years’ experience working in the field of community development, empowerment and victim support. A qualified Psychologist, she utilised her skills to set up the first formal Peer support scheme for victims involved in a civil action (Newham). She has delivered training around victim/witness support as part of the Neighbourhood Crime and Justice agenda.
She was also consulted by the Ministry of Justice around the development of the risk assessment matrix (housing) to determine a victim’s vulnerability. Serena currently leads an anti-social behaviour case management team and is part of the management team of an integrated gangs unit for Westminster City Council.
Graham Littlewood
Graham Littlewood studied an LLB Law degree before completing the Bar Vocation Course and being called to the Bar. He spent two years working on the North West circuit as a Solicitor’s Agent where he appeared before District Judges on behalf of private landlords and mortgage companies. In 2013 Graham began a career in ASB in social housing. Graham has particular expertise in In-House litigation, ASB case management and tenancy fraud investigations
Andy Williams
Andy has over 20 years of operational and senior management experience in Private, Public and Voluntary sectors leading multi-disciplinary project teams and technical experts. As a senior community safety manager, he has extensive experience in policy and strategy development, leading and working in collaborative partnerships throughout Cheshire, regionally and nationally on behalf of both Local Authority and the Police Service.
A former director of the National Community Safety Network/Institute of Community Safety and board member of the Northwest community Safety Forum. Andy is currently a Director of Williams Training and Consultancy Ltd.
Dave Bethom
Dave is a former police officer with Merseyside Police obtaining an all-round experience of crime and ASB. .Prior to retiring in 2013, for his last 8 years, he was seconded to Liverpool City Councils ASB Unit. During this time he obtained extensive knowledge in relation to the ASB Tools and Powers; the role of Community Safety Partnerships; multi-agency working and information sharing.
His work in relation to Gang Injunctions brought him to the attention of the Home Office and upon leaving the police he became a Peer Reviewer under the Ending Gang and Youth Violence initiative. He was also asked to write a practical guide to obtain Gang Injunctions which was published by the Home Office in 2016. He has also submitted a number of report to the Home Affairs Select Committee in relation to Gangs and ASB.
Dave is an independent assessor for the BTEC 3 and 5 student assignments.
Sean Richards
Sean is a Community Safety Manager for a local housing social housing provider. He has 10 years of experience of dealing with ASB in social housing and worked for the police for 5 years before that dealing with ASB. Sean has experience in case management, case law, use of the tools & powers as well as Tenancy Fraud.
Tess Ash
Tess has over 25 years of experience in the social housing sector. She has managed a wide range of ASB casework and has substantial experience in legal action and strategic planning at citywide level. Tess has worked closely with the Home Office, DCLG and other Government Departments for many years, as well as collaborative work with RESOLVE and Housemark and as a nationally recognised ASB consultant working for CIH. Tess most recently lead on the management and strategic development of Neighbourhood Safety Services within Bolton, ensuring successful policy implementation and service delivery in the areas of prevention, intervention, enforcement , support and reassurance.
Caroline Lumsdon
Caroline is a skilled and experienced practitioner who has worked within Social Housing for over 10 years, specialising in anti-social behaviour.
During this time, she has managed multi- disciplinary teams of Anti-Social Behaviour Officers, Positive Engagement Officers and Retirement Living Co-Ordinators across a wide geographical area. She has been a lead person on projects throughout the Stockport Borough including being the lead officer for Social Housing on a new initiative within the Borough for Placed Based Integration.
Caroline has vast experience in case management, legal cases, coaching and mentoring staff, working collaboratively with partners, policy and procedure review
