Scottish Advisory Panel on Offender Rehabilitation: annual report 2018-2020

Appendix B - Biographical Information

Professor Elizabeth Gilchrist

Before becoming Professor of Psychological Therapies at the University of Edinburgh she was Professor of Psychology at the University of Worcester and prior to that Professor of Forensic Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is also the Chair of the Division of Forensic Psychology-Scotland a committee of the British Psychological Society. She is recognised by the BPS as a specialist forensic risk assessor and is an accredited trainer in risk assessment in spousal abuse.

A leader in the forensic psychology and criminology field, Professor Gilchrist served 8 years on the Parole Board for England and Wales and 7 years on the Parole Board for Scotland. She has published extensively on the assessment, planning and evaluation of rehabilitative interventions and is currently working with a range of colleagues to develop innovative interventions for those involved in offending and substance use.

An expert on risk assessment tools for domestic abuse, sexual offending and violent offending, she was a member of the Research Advisory Group for the Risk Management Authority (RMA). She has operated internationally as an advisor on implementation and review of offending behaviour programmes and interventions for the Council of Europe and for the Department of Corrections in New Zealand. She presents regularly at international conferences and offers expert input in court, including child protection in criminal cases, including appearing in relation to charges of murder at the High Court.

Dr Trish McCulloch

Reader in Criminal Justice Social Work, and current Vice Chair of SAPOR. She is the Social Work Lead in the School of Education & Social Work at University of Dundee. Dr McCulloch joined the University in 2003, having previously worked as a social worker within youth and adult justice settings. Her teaching and research activity straddles community justice and professional learning and is grounded in ideas of voice, co-production and social change. Current research and knowledge exchange projects include an exploration of 'user' experiences of justice; designing socially just institutions for 18-25 years olds; a study of gender in criminal justice social work, and a five year longitudinal study of the experiences of newly qualified social workers in Scotland.

Dr McCulloch is an active member of various national and international criminal justice and social work forums.

Yvonne Robson

Yvonne Robson’s career in Criminal Justice Social Work (CJSW) spans over 30 years. She held middle and senior management posts in local authorities and the Probation Service for over 20 years. Ms Robson recently retired from her role as JSW national lead for the Association of Directors of Social Work (now Social Work Scotland), where she provided professional advice to the Scottish Government, SPS, the RMA, Convention Of Scottish Local Authorities, local authority and third sector colleagues on all aspects of risk assessment, risk management and rehabilitation. This includes Specific Incident Reports, Community Payback Orders and the report from the Commission on Women Offenders. Since retiring, Ms Robson has been involved with a national mentoring service for women in the Criminal Justice System, women remanded or servicing a short prison sentence and women on Community Payback Orders who are at risk of breach. Ms Robson has developed skills and knowledge of such women, the considerable barriers they face and remarkable resilience and achievements they make with the right supports and services. Ms Robson stands down from the Panel in the summer of 2020.

Beth Weaver

Dr Beth Weaver is Senior Lecturer, Director of Knowledge Exchange and Impact and Research Lead in Criminal and Social Justice the Department of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde. She specialises in Criminology, Sociology and Criminal Justice Social Work. She is also an Associate Director to the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and a research consultant to the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice.

Dr Weaver is actively engaged in a number of research networks, projects and knowledge exchange activities. She has specific interests in critical criminology, desistance, gender and criminal justice, the sociology and experiences of punishment, user involvement and co-production, along with the use of through-the-prison-gate social cooperative structures of employment. All of her research has an applied focus on penal reform.

Monica Wilson (member until 31 July 2018)

Professor Monica Wilson was joint co-ordinator, then director, of CHANGE (men learning to end their violence to women) Limited from 1989- 2000. This was the first criminal justice based men’s programme in Europe. Prior to this Professor Wilson worked in social research, and in higher and health education.

From 2002 -2005, Professor Wilson was Chair of RESPECT, the National Association for Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programmes and Associated Support Services. She has also sat on the National Domestic Abuse Training Strategy Steering Group, which was charged with implementing the training strand of the Scottish Executive’s National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse (2000).

From 2004 – 2009, Professor Wilson was part of the team which worked to develop the Caledonian System Programme for submission for accreditation by SAPOP. The Caledonian System Programme gained accredited status for the men’s programme in February 2009. Professor Wilson was then employed as a Professional Advisor in the Scottish Government’s Effective Practice Unit to project manage the roll out of the Caledonian System Programme in twelve local authority areas. The Caledonian team’s work was acknowledged with a Butler Trust award in 2009-10.

Professor Erica Bowen

Professor Erica Bowen is a HCPC Registered Forensic Psychologist, and BPS Chartered Psychologists and Associate Fellow. She has a PhD (Birmingham 2004) and Masters in Criminological Psychology for which she evaluated a probation-based domestic violence perpetrator programme.

She has practice experience of conducting risk assessment within open prisons and family court contexts. In 2008, she won a competitive tender from the RMA to design and deliver multi-agency training on the legislative and practice context of the Order for Lifelong Restriction.

Since 2004, Professor Bowen has engaged in research and consultancy concerning ‘What works’ in the rehabilitation of domestic violence perpetrators, publishing the first book on the topic located in a British context (The rehabilitation of partner-violent men) in 2011.

In her varying professional roles, Professor Bowen has had considerable experience of working in partnership, in the context of course development, research project development and implementation, and the development and implementation of training and intervention programmes. In addition she has experience of providing written and verbal feedback in academic and practice contexts to a range of recipients, including adults in custody, adults being assessed within family court proceedings, and fellow academics at all levels.

Michele Gilluley

Michele Gilluley is a Consultant Forensic Psychologist who has worked for over 20 years in a range of forensic settings. Since 2002, she has been Departmental Head of Psychology, initially in the prison service and subsequently in a secure hospital.

She has been a senior academic contributing to forensic postgraduate courses since 2013 and is currently Co-Programme Lead for the MSc Forensic Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. In 2019 Ms Gilluley was appointed to the Board of the RMA. She has contributed internationally on a range of projects with the Council of Europe related to providing expert advice and training on risk assessment and management processes and the development of therapeutic interventions to assist in reducing offending behaviour and risk of harm to self and others in prisons and secure hospitals.

Ms Gilluley played a key role in the establishment of the Division of Forensic Psychology (Scotland) in 2006 and remains involved having been Chair of the committee (2013 – 2016).

Ms Gilluley graduated with B.A in Social Sciences, with Honors in Behavioral Science (University of Paisley); MPhil. In Psychology (Glasgow University), MSc. in Forensic Psychology (Glasgow Caledonian University), PG. Cert in Forensic Medical Science (Glasgow University) and is a Consultant Psychologist, HCPC Registered Forensic and BPS Chartered Psychologist, and Associate Fellow of the British Psychology Society.

Mark McSherry

Having initially studied at Glasgow University, Mark began his career working with community education and the residential care sector. Mark began his work in Criminal Justice in alternative to custody projects, initially with young people. He worked in youth justice and with care organisations such as Alzheimer Scotland before joining SACRO in 1997.

Mark studied social work which included placements with Glasgow Women’s Reproductive Health Services, children and families’ social work and a counselling service for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Mark developed programmes on Domestic Abuse and support services to woman and children across the Forth Valley as well as programmes for those convicted of sexual offending and for young people on Probation. He held posts at Glasgow Community Safety Services providing restorative programmes with young people and Renfrewshire Council prior to becoming Head of the Scottish Government’s Effective Practice Unit in 2007. This role incorporated policy responsibility for risk assessment and risk management, accredited interventions National Standards and workforce development.

Mark first joined the RMA in 2010 as Head of Development and since then has led their development, training and research programmes, as well as delivery functions relating to OLR’s, including approval of Risk Management Plans, review of Annual Implementation Reports and the accreditation of assessors. Mark became Chief Executive of the RMA in 2019.