About the team

The Building Community Capacity team is:

Catherine Wilton - Social Capital Advisor and Project Lead, Think Local Act Personal Partnership

Catherine Wilton set up the Building Community Capacity project with Martin Routledge at the Department of Health in 2009. In November 2010, the project transferred to the PPF consortium (hosted by ADASS) and is now part of the Think Local Act Personal Partnership.

Catherine has over 15 years experience in the public sector. Before she joined the Department of Health in 2009, she was Head of Engagement and Communications, and before that Head of Patient Experience at Berkshire West PCT, responsible for complaints, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), community grants and patient and public involvement. She was also an elected member of Reading Council for eight years, and was responsible for various initiatives to reduce health inequalities, and was Cabinet member for Culture and Sport 2003-7.

Catherine is particularly interested in the impact of culture and sense of place on community networks and the role of local leadership and councillors in building social capital. Catherine does not have much spare time as she has two you daughters, but when she has the chance she likes reading, singing and music festivals.

Martin Routledge - Interim Programmes Manager, TLAP partnership

Martin has 25 years experience working within social care, health and higher education. He has worked in both the statutory and not-for-profit sectors, starting out as a community service volunteer in the early 1980s. In the late 1990s Martin moved on from managing an integrated health and social care service to lead the regional team funded by local authorities and PCTs to promote the development of supports for people with learning disabilities in the north-west. In this role Martin co-authored the original Department of Health guidance on person centred planning (with Helen Sanderson).

In 2002, Martin moved on to the post of North West Regional Advisor for Learning Disabilities in the newly formed Valuing People support team. He had the national lead for the development of person-centred planning and led race equality initiatives. He also had responsibility (working with Mencap and alongside director Simon Duffy) for the development of the In Control programme, promoting self-directed support in social care.

Martin led the Putting People First delivery team for the Department of Health as National Programmes Manager and is now Head of Operations at In Control. .He is seconded to the TLAP partnership as Interim Programmes Manager 2 days a week.

Key Partners

We are pleased to be delivering the Learning Network alongside In Control, the Stamford Forum, The Office for Public Management (OPM) and The Centre for Inclusive Futures. They are represented by:

Ritchard Brazil - Stamford Forum

Ritchard is a Change Manager/Consultant with 30 years experience in the NHS, the Kings Fund and local government. He is currently developing integrated children's services, neighbourhood renewal and community planning in Belfast and has been working in the London Borough of Lewisham since 2006 developing and supporting changes in day services for people with learning disabilities. He is a founding member of the Stamford Forum and particularly interested in co-production and collaborative advantage - bringing organisations, people and ideas together for mutual advantage.

Clive Miller - Office for Public Management (OPM)

Clive Miller is Principal for Social Care at OPM. He has worked with many innovative front line practitioners, senior managers, lead elected members and partnerships and has been involved in devolving power at the front line to children and their families, through budget holding by lead professionals and the use of family group conferencing, and to adults via personal budgets. He has also worked with commissioners, providers and central government to reshape both universal and targeted services to provide the new types of personalised support that citizens now require. Clive says, 'It is not services but rather what people do for themselves, supported or otherwise by services, that produces outcomes. The ultimate buzz is getting feedback from people who use services that this really works for them and from practitioners that this is what I really came into this type of work to do.'

David Towell - Centre for Inclusive Futures (CIF)David is Director at CIF, based in London.

Learning first from the experience of his disabled sister, David has a long track record in seeking to promote more inclusive communities in which disabled and older people are valued as equal citizens. He is best known as a leader of the King's Funds An Ordinary Life initiative which sought to transform the opportunities and support for people with learning disabilities, laying the foundations for the Valuing People White Paper.