In 2018, my wife and I decided to draw on our career experiences and to open our own leisure business. Turning an empty warehouse into a successful, award winning, climbing business – Clip ‘n Climb Bicester www.bicester.clipnclimb.co.uk The journey of opening and running a business has both utilised my existing skills and developed numerous others. When opening the business, a change of use was needed to change the use classification of the building from industrial to Sui Generis to allow a leisure facility and café to be installed, before we were able to design the internal layout, several inspections and reports were needed to ensure the building and location were suitable for the business. In this pre-opening phase, I demonstrated clear planning skills; planning both my time and the time of others. I gathered both first hand and secondary evidence to prepare reports for the Local Authority, climbing wall manufacturers and structural engineers. My clear spoken and written communication skills were vital in negotiating contracts and leases, and ensuring that all relevant legislation was met in working with: The Local Authority for both Planning Permission and Food Hygiene Accreditation; the Fire Service in ensuring we were public building compliant.

When I joined Thames Valley Police in 2008, this role was the front line of policing, involving the initial attendance at all 999 calls and less urgent, grade two calls for attendance. Along with incident response I under took initial crime investigation, witness and suspect interviewing, taking section 9 court compliant witness statements and case building. The role involved working with numerous partner agencies, schools, social services, HSE and the ambulance and fire service, other forces, to name a few. I committed to my personal development and training and became a Level 2 Public Order Officer, Acting Sergeant, Tutor Constable, Forward Intelligence Officer and Authorised Fire Arms Protection Officer.All my roles at Thame Valley Police required me to develop technical knowledge of operating systems, investigate cases and individuals through evidence gathering and statement taking, prepare case files for both magistrates and crown court cases and brief Gold Commanders (Super Intendants) on intelligence for public order Operations; as well as demonstrate a high level of integrity, honesty and confidentiality. It has also given me a very thorough understanding of acceptable forms of evidence, how to obtain these and how to interpret them.

I served a four-year term as school governor, at the infant school which my son attended. I volunteered for this role because I felt that I brought a wealth of health and safety and safeguarding knowledge to the team to support and develop the school in these areas. I was also a member of the finance committee, where I ensured that best practise policies were followed in spending public money. I was able to offer particular support during the Covid pandemic in 2020, where operating policies and risk assessments needed to be drafted and implemented at short notice with changing guidance and legislation. I was able to offer leadership and bring confidence to alter operations to new and unfamiliar ways to adhere to the latest guidance. Through my role in the police I am used to dealing with sensitive and confidential issues and served as support to the Designated Safeguard Lead, both in their decision making and in being able to emotionally off load when it came to safeguarding concerns. This role was rewarding but also required me to up skill myself in areas that I had little experience in. I am always keen to engage in personal development and enjoyed the opportunity to gain more knowledge in areas such as the School Governance Regulations 2013 and the Statutory Guidance for Schools.

For this role I had responsibility for operational staff recruitment and training, implementation of the leisure centres activity programme and line management, including appraisal of the centre Duty management team. As Health and Safety lead I was responsible for the centres risk assessment process and time table and adherence to the centres operational procedures and relevant legislation.I am proud to have been the site lead for the QUEST accreditation process; the leisure industry quality assurance award. Which Kidlington Sports Centre achieved ‘Very Good’. To achieve this, I:• Visited other leisure facilities, who had already achieved ‘Very Good’ to make observations, to then analyse and see where Kidlington Sports Centre were parallel or could improve to ensure we secured the desired accreditation.• Interviewed staff and customers to produce supporting documents.• Prepared both written and oral reports to present my evidence to secure the QUEST Award.This project was on top of my day to day role where I ensured:• The centres operating procedures met the standards set out by the HSE and the Institute of Sport and Recreation.• Customer details were dealt with in line with council policies.• All employment laws were met• Dealing with and preparing evidence for any loss and damage cases.