Director: Andy Perkins

[Twitter: @AndyPerkins1970]

Andy has over 20 years’ experience in the health and social care sector and is an expert in the evaluation of health and social care services. As Director of Figure 8 Consultancy, Andy has project managed over 80 contracts since 2007 for a range of clients including health, social care and criminal justice providers (ranging in value from £3K to £237K and timescales from one month to four years). He has been responsible for a diverse range of research and evaluation projects including needs assessments, scoping exercises, process evaluations, and feasibility studies. Andy is one of the authors of the 2010 Scottish Government report “Research for Recovery: A Review of the Drugs Evidence Base”[1]. Andy is an experienced interviewer and is used to seeking the views of a broad range of stakeholders from civil servants, to senior managers within Local Authorities, to service providers, to service users. As a practitioner, Andy spent 10 years managing residential and in-prison treatment programmes; including residential services for men, women and children, and in-prison services for young offenders. He was Programme Manager for a 72-bed unit in HMYOI Portland, which was run as a dedicated Therapeutic Community programme – the only one of its kind for Young Offenders in Europe. He is also an experienced Charity Trustee having spent a total of 11 years as a Trustee of two different charities. Andy is currently Secretary of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group and also sits on the board of the Perth Addition Support Group charity.

[1] Best, D., Rome, A., Hanning, K., White, W., Gossop, M., Taylor, A., Perkins, A. (2010) Research for Recovery: A review of the drugs evidence base. Scottish Government. Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/02095502/1

Staff Members and Associates

Kevin Gardiner

Research Assistant
Kevin has 5 years’ experience of working within the Social Care Sector, in both a paid and voluntary capacity. In this time Kevin has gained experience with the Samaritans, Tayside Council on Alcohol, and Cair Scotland within the Needle Exchange Service. He graduated from Abertay University with a 1st Class Honours degree in BSc Behavioural Science which incorporates the disciplines of psychology and sociology. Upon completing his undergraduate degree Kevin developed his research skills further by undertaking a Masters by Research degree at Abertay University, exploring the value of attending a Peer-led recovery group for individuals on the road to recovery from alcohol and other drug problems.
Allan Johnston

Associate Consultant
Allan has over 30 years’ experience, in working within the alcohol and drug sector, including service delivery to both disadvantaged and disaffected young people and also to those experiencing homelessness and addiction issues. In addition Allan has almost 20 years’ experience in academic research and training provision. Allan has worked previously as Business Development Manager for STRADA and has led on several local and national research projects relating to substance misuse service design and delivery. Allan is the owner and Director of his own Training and Consultancy company (Advantage Training Consultancy).
http://www.advantagetrainingconsultancy.com/
Simon Little

Associate Consultant
Simon has been Director of Kinbank social research consultancy since 2005. He is currently also a Non Executive Board Member of NHS Fife, a Non Executive Board Member of The Scottish Housing Regulator, a Joint Improvement Team (JIT) Action Group Member and a General Member of The Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland.
Simon has extensive experience in social housing, community care and community regeneration. Before establishing Kinbank he was Social Justice Manager for Communities Scotland (Grampian). He spent nine years developing and managing a range of support and advice services for Shelter. His career began working with tenants groups in Whitfield, Dundee, before he joined The City’s Housing Division, undertaking a variety of roles including strategic planning. He holds a Diploma in Housing from Glasgow University.
Simon has designed / delivered a wide range of innovative services in housing, homelessness, community care and social enterprise. He bring this broad experience to bear through Kinbank and associate work with a range of other companies, including Figure 8.
http://www.kinbank.org
Trevor McCarthy

Associate Consultant
Trevor works as an independent consultant, trainer and writer. In this capacity he has undertaken a wide range of projects, independently and in collaboration with other reputable professionals. These have included research work, needs analyses and evaluations; consultancy reports and interim management. He is an associate member of Alcohol Research UK; BASW Special Interest Group on alcohol and drugs; New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group and holds HCPC registration.
He has managed both voluntary sector and NHS community alcohol and drug treatment services. His broad experience on strategic bodies includes a range of Charity Trusteeships and service on two NICE alcohol working groups: prevention and specialist treatment. He also worked on developing the suite of implementation guidance for the first national alcohol strategy.
Trevor’s extensive voluntary work career ranges from befriending people in crisis to service in elected office as a trustee, in leadership roles, in mentoring and external supervision.
He is probably best known as a trainer and conference speaker delivering original, bespoke presentations to a variety of audiences.
David McCue

Associate Consultant
David McCue (Associate Consultant, Figure 8) has 23 years’ experience in the criminal justice and substance misuse field and has worked as an independent consultant (PSMR Ltd) for over 6 years. As joint lead of the Melting the Iceberg Independent Enquiry, David provided innovative ‘circle of care’ and ‘whole population’ approaches to support the recovery agenda in Scotland. He is an experienced interviewer and regularly interviews and conducts focus groups with a broad range of professionals, service users and families as part of Figure 8’s ongoing research programme. David also has experience of managing a range of residential, community and prison services for people with and affected by alcohol and drugs, and is a former Trustee of SMART Recovery.
http://psmrltd.co.uk/

About Us

Director: Andy Perkins

Staff Members and Associates

Kevin Gardiner

Research Assistant

Allan Johnston

Associate Consultant

Simon Little

Associate Consultant

Trevor McCarthy

Associate Consultant

David McCue

Associate Consultant

Academic Partnerships