John Cawood Email and Phone Number

I work as an expert witness in care, rehabilitation, education, training and equipment in the field of visual impairment and other physical and mental disabilities

Education Officer and Manager, Additional Support for Learning, Dumfries and Galloway, with responsibility for all aspects of Special Needs provision for 60 primary schools and 10 secondary schools, and liaison with all other agencies, including the Scottish Government, health and social services. As a part of this role, I had to advise on specialist building alterations and adaptations to cover the range of physical disabilities which need to be provided for in compliance with Disability Discrimination and Equality legislation. I had statutory responsibility for the Region’s Accessibility Strategy for schools, for all pupils with disabilities, and strategic management of sensory impairment throughout Dumfries and Galloway (124 schools, 150 children). I was also responsible for the training and development of specialist staff supporting these schools.

After a brief period as the deputy manager of a residential and educational centre for children with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties, I was appointed to Langholm Academy, as Principal Teacher, managing curriculum development and additional support for all pupils with special educational needs within the Academy, together with the management of teaching staff and classroom assistants involved with these pupils. I was also Lead Teacher for Dumfries and Galloway, with responsibility for co-ordinating curriculum development for children with Special Educational Needs in all of the region’s schools.

Assistant Principal, RNIB Redhill College. The College also developed a long-term residential “care in the community” facility for multi-handicapped people, registered as a care home, subject to local authority inspection, during this period. Working with the Principal, my responsibilities included the development of this facility, together with the pastoral care and monitoring of both educational and care provision for 130 visually impaired students, many of whom had other disabilities including physical and medical disabilities, and social, emotional and learning difficulties. I was responsible for the overall management and development of the vocational curriculum, which involved acting as the operational manager for all Employment Service contracts, including Training for Work and Rehabilitation, as well as liaison with the Further Education Funding Council and local Social Services Departments.

Lecturer at a specialist College in Surrey providing residential courses in rehabilitation, daily living skills, further education and vocational training to young people and adults with visual impairment and a range of learning and physical disabilities. Duties included teaching literacy, numeracy and health education to severely visually impaired students (many of whom had additional disabilities), liaising with vocational awarding bodies to ensure the development of appropriate vocational training programmes, the provision of emergency nursing and medical cover, pastoral care and the development and delivery of an appropriate leisure activity programme. I left the College to return home to my home in Cumbria in April 1986, having obtained a post as head of curriculum at a college for young people with cerebral palsy. Here, in addition to teaching, my duties included liaison and integration of the education and care programmes, the development of staff training, and the individual monitoring of all students. For part of 1987, I also worked as Team Leader at a Barnardo’s Children’s Home for children with severe physical, learning and emotional difficulties.

Varied experience including work in Social Care at Sue Ryder Homes and St. Mary Abbott’s Hospital, London, teaching in a Primary School and working as a Nurse in Lancaster.